Thursday 31 May 2007

Thursday 31st May

Today is a big Buddhist feast, so everyone is on holiday. We spent the morning with the babies, toddlers and kindergarten kids, just playing with them and giving them lots of love and attention.

The bus picked us up from the Center at 1.40 p.m. and when we arrived at the Orphanage the children were lined up waiting for us. The clambered onto the bus and a very excited group of children set off for Pattaya Park. When we got to the ticket office they all waited very patiently for their tickets and bowed and thanked as they were handed their ticket. Once inside we found seats under an umbrella and all our pupils plus their assigned child went into the water or straight up the steps to go down the slides. They did not stop for an instant, but came out immediately when told to come and get a drink. I think they were expecting water, so were thrilled when they had the choice of Pepsi or 7up. It was worth the strange looks in the shop and dragging 38 cans back to them just to see their happy faces (our pupils were pleased too!) As soon as the drink was finished it was straight back into the water for most of them and up and down the slides again, although a few of them went into the swimming pool proper for a short time to teach some of the little ones how to swim. Some of the children were only 5 or 6 so had not had much opportunity to learn to swim.

After a shower and supper (sauted potatoes instead of rice - we were all beside ourselves with excitement!), we got taxis to Royal Garden shopping mall for the pupils to do their last minute shopping spree. They were much more comfortable this time as they knew the lay out and the shops and also they went round in a large group and took confidence from that.

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