this is such a wonderful day =)

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Day 6 - 15th Oct 05

was woken up by roosters at 5am!!! some of them was also gettin up preparing to go to the morning market. urgh!! can't go cos got breakfast duty... i went back to sleep and woke up at about 6. when everybody woke up we kept the mosquito nets and help those who went to the market to bring their luggage up. after that we went for breakfast. gai on the tv to watch den me n qp join her. but when she left mr tan scold us say cannot watch tv, say spoil the purpose of coming her or wuteva.. blahz.. then there was this cute boy who came the earliest. we took photo with him.

gradually the children started filing in and the marketing team also came back. oh yea, the marketing team went marketing to prepare lunch for the kids.. n meishan also brought a new basket plus 2 chairs. hehe... aoy played some games with them to warm them up like the 'motorcycle bang bang' and the 'smile' song... there were about 160 children when we expected 80. the small hall was full manz.. so while they prepared lunch (joanne, jennifer & mrs hong), we kept them entertained by dancing and teaching them english about singapore. got 1 qn they ask say guess how many hong nam there are in singapore.. i myself oso dunno.. lolx.. oh yea, we also played blow up the balloon game and blow it as big as possible. i was in the latter. all my life i've never been able to blow a balloon, but dunno why today i suddenly full of air blow a very big balloon.. wahaha.. yeah!! my virgin balloon.. lolx.. marcus couldn't blow at all.. so i gave him mine and blow his then accidentally go burst my balloon.. boohoo!! sobz.. it was actually impromptu cos there was not enough balloon sculptures so we had to make more and they entertain them by dancing.

after that we had to split up into 4 groups.. each group had to take about 40 ppl each to play games in the school field.at the bball court, shi ying suggested we sing a birthday song for steph. not yet her bday la, but big crowd so would be fun. i paired with karen to play captain's ball with half my kids cos we split into 2 grps. eve, marcus n steph took the other group. when the older ones began to get bored we changed to the tiger oxen game. played 2 rounds of it then became lao ying zhua xiao ji. i was the eagle and had a chao hard time catching them. pant pant. dehydrated!!!! all of us nv bring water. scorchin sun.. so we rested under the coolin shade of the trees before we trekked back to the house where icy cold water awaited us.

we served lunch to the kids. there were sitting in small circles. when 1 of them haven't got the food they all waited patiently. e were last to eat but the food was delicious. but some of them threw away their food and said they eat very little only, maybe its because they are not used to the big portion. after luncg some of them stayed back, so we played wit them and did balloon sculptures as some of them lost theirs in the school field. it was delightful to see the smiles on their innocent faces. however after a while i became tired and went upstairs to rest while they continued playing.

the room was sooo hot!! urgh.. at about 3 we got up to go visit the villages. those kids who are being sponsored. there were mosquitos everywhere, but the stray dogs were very tamed. the condition of their houses was like oh my god.. i'm sure i can never survive living there.we also went to see bichoi n jom's house. they live very close to each other. even saw jon's nude baby picts. lolx. jom's living condition is alot better than bichoi one. and the '8' gang decided to sponsore bichoi. its like everytime they come to out house play its so far a walk from theirs, and they come everyday, with smiles on their faces.. but when we went to their home its like what!? honestly i didn't expect to visit their home, and where we went there they are not thir natural selves anymore. it was pretty depressing to see someone we know and love live under sucj conditions

total we went to 3 villages. even met the girl we saw in the video. her grandmother was taking care of her and sibling alone for their parents have passed away. it was very touching to hear their story and most of my teammates started shedding tears.we also went to the house of the little girl who helped the 2nd grp paint the school everyday . when we went into their abode we say papers posted on the wals with their names written on it. it was very heartwrenching and touching. as they began sheddin tears of pity and sadness, all the mixed feelings... we wrote notes of encouragement tn the papers. she and her grandmother earn only 20 baht a day selling the little fishes they catch. its not even $1 and we can spend $5 on a single meal. its so upsetting to see all these.

it was getting dark and mr tan was shooin us back to the vans to go the next village. when we arrived it was only 1 shed in the middle of nowhere. there was no light at all and it was also another little girl who worked with grp 2 painting th school walking there everyday rain or shin. further than all the rest. it was a complete family this time though, the others belonged to broken families. theit only problem is poverty. the were cooking dinner and the father offered us their only dish. they didn't have enough for themseles yet they are still so generous. it really made my heart go out to all of them.

when we went back to the house, everyone was hugging and tearing. today taught me a lesson not to take things for granted, be it money, family or friends. i felt extremely fortunate. we were discussing whether to pool money to sponsor a kid or collect donations in the school to help csp like setting up a stall or a booth, but it made me think what would really happen when we step back into our society again, the rat race that didn't exist here in buriram. but one things for sure, you have to see it and experience it to be able to feel it.

~Audrey~

1:08 AM