Yesterday was a complete failure for blog writing. I spent absolutely ages doing a really long entry about what I had been up to only for the internet to crash as i clicked 'save'. I was so distraught I had to leave the internet cafe. So here I am again, another day, another attempt.....
Monday morning was back to the orphanage and back to our digging project. It ws so hot that minimal work was done, but with the help of 2 other new girls, we managed to pretty much finish it off. The longer I stay at the orphanage, the more i realise that the jobs the volunteers are given aren't necessarily the jobs that should be given priority. After having a better look around I realised that the boys bedrrom doesn't have proper windows, so when it rains they leak. There doesn't appear to be any form of mosquito protection. Some of the little ones have got such bad bites, not helped by their natural reaction to scratch them. So instead of giving us jobs which should be more important, they focus on the 'cosmetic' side of things. The border could have waited to be dug out, the ceiling could have waited to be painted, the wall, which 2 volunteers built a couple of weeks ago, could have waited to be pulled down again. It's just a bit infuriating, because we are all there and willing to do any job that we know will make a difference to the childrens quality of living, but it just seems as though they are trying to find any litlle random tasks for us to do, just to keep us going to the orphanage. So, after 2 weeks there I have decided to have a change. I spoke to my co-ordinator today and hopefully I'm moving onto the Community Project, which helps people in the local community around where we are staying. At the moment the biggest project is helping to re-build someones house. I am hoping that a chasnge of project and feeling as though i'm doing something to actually help will motivate me a bit more!
Tuesday morning I decided to spend some time woth the little ones and do some colouring in. Although it was a lot more difficult then it sounds. Just to add to the fact that i can't colour in between the lines very well, not being able to speak Thai makes it very difficult to communicate with the kids. Apart from smiling and putting my thumbs up, there was not a lot else i could do. And sometimes the little ones just aren't in the mood to hand around with someone who cant understand what they want. So Tuesday afternoon i went back to grouting the tiles!
As a bit of a change on Wednesday, I decided to go to Thai Boxing training, which is another scheme the project offers. I had been talking to some of the guys that go, so me and a few other girls decided to go along to see what it was like. The day began with being picked up at 5:40am and taken to the Boxing Gym (what looked like an open sided shed, with a boxing ring and punch bags) where we donned our trainers and went for a jog. This jog lasted longer than I care to remember and by the end I was beetroot red (spinning class style) sweating profusely and feeling slightly sick.(aka looking extremely beautiful) I also didn't have appropriate running footware, so I now have more blisters on my feet than i have ever had in my life! (3 on one foot, 4 on the other) Luckily I live in my flip flops, so I can ignore them. Once back at the gym and returning to a normal colour one of the Coaches taught me how to kick "Thai Style". I also had a go in the ring with the coach practicing punches. As I have never punched anyone in my life (apart from Chris and Mike in our younger scraping days. Sorry boys) I was absolutely rubbish, but i gave it my best shot! Despite my complete aversion to violence or any form of conflict, I actually really enjoyed myself and the adrenalin kept me awake for the whole day, even after such an early start. We all had a much needed trip to the Pool in Sing Buri Wednesday afternoon and still, two days later my legs and stomach muscles are still aching, but it was all worth it!
Yeterday I had another day out at the orphanage to visit an Aids and HIV clinic with some of the other volunteers. After an hours taxi ride we arrived at the clinic, which is kind of like a little community for those who have been diagnosed with Aids or HIV. There are little houses and different wards set amongst green hills and Temples. A beautiful, calm but very sad place. When we first got there we went into "The Life Museum"- ironically named as it is full of dead bodies. People who have died there donated their bodies to show the effects of the disease. It was quite shocking and unexpected to walk into a room and just see dead, decayed bodies hanging there next to a little plaque which gave their name, age when they died and how they contracted the disease, most of them not even in galss cabinets. It appeared that the main reason people contracted the diesease was through the sex trade. The bodies of 'lady boys' hung with still perfect breast implants, while the rest of them was just a sack of skin and bones in the shape of a human.
We then moved on to a ward which left me completely speechless. The people in there were so ill and frail - some have only days left to live. Yet the majority still manage to smile a greet you as you walk past. It was hard because I wanted to speak to them and give them a little bit more than a smile and a wave, but again the language barrier prevented it. I had to have a moment by myself and a little cry after coming out of there. In a way I felt bad for being upset. These people have been through so much, but still they manage to smile. I just walked through their ward and burst into tears.
We were told that once diagnosed many suffers will generally do one of three things; Commit suicide, try and infect as many people as possible (something I don't understand) or their families disown them, so they come to a centre like that one.
Visiting a place like that, although very upsetting, puts things into perspective. It made me feel so lucky to have a family who I know would never disown me and will love me no matter what disease I'd have. I felt grateful to be healthy and be able to do things like go beetroot red after a jog or kick a punchbag. It also makes you think about the thiongs that you moan about and how completely insignificant they are the majority of the time. Why does it matter that I have a bit of a jelly belly, or I have celulite on my thighs? Why ask "does my bum look big in this?" and constantly worry what people think? It doesn't matter, life's too short. You also realise the importance of living life to the full, no matter how cheesy and cliched it sounds, is so important. I just hope i rememeber all these things now.....
I went back to the orphanage today, and actually had a much better day. We did the usual grouting, tiling thing this morning, but this afternoon we had a sports afternoon. The whole orphanage came out to play and watch and we did Volunteers versus Children vollyball - We got thrashed and turns out i cant play vollyball to save my life! And 5-a-side volunteers versus children football. After which i decided to go and wash my hands, slipped and fell over. I ended up completely covered in i dont know what (and i don't wish to know) and grazes on my knees, elbows and fingers. Looking back now it must of looked like a comedy sketch, made better by the fact that i got up and slipped and fell again! Oh dear, Me and my clumsiness, i knew it wouldn't be too long before I hurt myself. At least no one was around to see it and i didn't hurt myself that badly, just felt more like a complete and utter wally!
Gemma (my partner in crime) left yesterday morning to go to Bangkok to meet her boyfriend for a few days. I was sad to see her do because we got on really well and ended up doing everything together. I'm going down to Bangkok this weekend though to see her for a night out before she goes home. Quite a few people are leveing The Twin House this weekend and are going to be in Bangkok on Saturday night too, so it should be really fun. It'll be nice to have a weekend away, have a hot shower and some air conditioning! Extreme excitement!
I'm off to get ready for the friday night party now. Not that getting ready here takes that long. Shower, dress, bucket load of insect repellant, Done (Pops, you wouldn't believe I was the same person ;-) ) x x x x
