Baan Dada Orphanage

How many kids can you fit in a ute?

25 plus 2 volunteers at my last count!

We took a public bus 7 1/2 hours from Bangkok into the jungle...and we are now amongst some of the most beautiful land I've seen. Its soo soo green (even compared to NZ) and there are massive mountains and big gullys and rivers flowing, incredible.

We arrived in Sangklaburi and 'Dada' (Ricardo Zolenta) picked us up in the truck already filled with kids. We took a short drive to the orphanage. It is offroad - so that was fun, the kids were bouncing around everywhere!

When we arrived there were 4 other volunteers here, now there are 9 others! The other volunteers are so great, all from different backgrounds and all with both different and similar views to each other. Some of the conversations I have had have been great! We eat 3 vegan meals a day, which consist of tofu (much better tofu than the stuff at home) veges and rice. That is for breakfast as well. Sometimes we get spoilt and get chips and tomato sauce! Yumm! We've been eating plenty of fruit as well, because the fruit here is fantastic - dragonfruit, snakefruit and rambuttan. They may look a little weird from the outside but if you come to Thailand you must try them all!! In the evenings us volunteers have been having 'Uno, toast and tea' parties, heaps of fun!

One of the volunteers Anthony, who was here when we arrived, taught Dionne and I some simple yoga. Well, supposedly simple but I still almost blacked out on the first day! I've been really enjoying it, Anthony isn't an actual teacher but he knows a lot and I think we learnt a lot from him. He'll be happy to know we are still doing yoga almost every morning :)

The kids are great - they have so much independence and so much love to give. Most go to school - the ones who have Thai papers. The others and the young ones stay home during the day. We have been teaching basic ABC's 123's and colours in the evenings with the girls which is fun but hard work, they have so much energy! The philosophy the orphanage follows is Neo -Humanism. I found a book in our volunteer house about it and this is a quote which I think sums it up very nicely:

Neo-Humanist education

"We want the children to feel a full and unconditional acceptance of themselves as unique and precious beings, responsible for their own lives and dedicated to the welfare of all. Values we are projecting include non-violence, compassion, freedom, dignity, justice, tolerance, reciprocal respect, friendship, faith in oneself and love for nature. Looking at all creation we see it as a complete and harmonious system where the sky, the clouds, the earth, the plants and the animals all help each other.

Every being exists for and depends on the good of other beings. We are all part of this united earth so no one should harm others. These values are reinforced by daily habits such as the vegetarian diet. sentient songs and stories, daily care of plants and animals, and by learning about people from different backgrounds and races."

I think this is fantastic! I'm glad I found this place, I'm glad there is places like this. I've already decided I have to come back (yes, I've already been planning my next trip to Thailand..)

Pillokkhi Village Fish breeding project

Baan Dada has been working on fishing nets for one of the nearby villages, where some of the children are from. Some people have asked me where I stand on this; I guess I know that every time I have a meal I have the choice to eat meat or not. These people do not have that luxury. For them to survive they need to have a sustainable business and this is the best way for them.

Anyway, we spent a long long time setting up these nets. Then we spent 12 hours on a raft down a river to get to the village. The raft consisted of blue barrels and long poles.....it was great! I actually had a really awesome time even though we got rained on about 4 times and had little food and no toilet. A lot of the things I have done here, I know would have annoyed me at home. Like sitting in a monsoon on a raft for hours. But I loved every minute of it! And I loved the fact that I loved every minute of it! Does that make sense?

We spent the night in Pillokkhi village, then the next day headed back to the fishing village to set up nets. It was a long process! By the time we arrived back to the orphanage (at around 10pm) I was sick, literally. I actually threw up about 5 times in a gumboot! (Not my own gumboot either to Georginas suprise)...


So the next day I took off work. You are meant to take at least a day off a week but I've found that hard because there is so much to do! I actualy spent the day doing washing and cleaning and sewing. Washing here takes an eternity. Its so humid and it takes so long for anything to dry. All of my clothes smell gross, but I'm used to it. It helps because we all smell pretty disgusting..

Yesterday we all decided to go to the Three Pagodas Pass. This is the border of Burma that not many people go to anymore because the border is closed. Previously you could cross over for the day but of course now thats not possible. We went and saw these pitiful 3 statues simply for bragging rights...I saw Burma! ha.

In the afternoon Ingrid, Dionne and I met with a 'Didi', she runs another orphanage in the area and also teaches meditiation which I have been very interested in! She talked to us a little about the principles of NewHumanism and the kind of meditation she teaches and then showed us a basic universal practice. All I could see when I was doing it was the colour purple! I'm not quite sure that that was meant to happen but I accepted it. She then asked us individually why we were interested in meditation and from my answer decided I was ready for a first individual lesson. I'd love to tell you all about it because it was amazing but I promised to keep it a secret. I was given my own personal mantra which I can never say out loud again, only mentally.
We had to go after that, and I told the girls to really consider if they are ready for it because its going to be the start of something big for me I can tell. It couldn't have been better timing and it couldn't have felt more right!

Today Ingrid and I have been working on a Project proposal that some previous volunteers made a huge mess of, I think that will probably take us till the end of the week.

The last 2 weeks have gone way too fast. If anyone is planning a trip to Thailand please consider coming here, its truely an amazing place. Dada doesn't mind if you come from days, weeks, or months. Contact me if you want to know anything!

We leave early Saturday morning to Kanchanaburi, where we will trek to a waterfall in the afternoon. Then on Sunday we're heading to Bangkok then Chiang Mai, one of my favorite places in Thailand! Can't wait.

Im going to try to write a full blog on the kids who I can remember on here next time. Theres so many of them! I do have my favorites ...