We were lucky to meet an Australian who offered to take us to an orphanage that he was visiting during an upcoming weekend and we were interested so we were invited to go along and see what it was like.
We were picked up on Friday afternoon and had a 4 and a half journey ahead of us to Khon Kean (I think that's how it is spelt). I sat in the front and watched Thailand go by on the road towards our destination and when we took a wrong turn! We managed to get there at around 9.30pm and we managed to meet up with some of the other volunteers as this was the weekend that everyone was meeting up. We surprised them in their rooms and then went out.
We came back early as we weren't finding much and we had to get up early anyway. We set off at 8.30am and had a 3 hour journey to get to the village (orphanage). We arrived just as they were starting lunch so we joined in to eat with them.
The children there are all children who have been orphaned or abandoned by their parents due to lack of money or for some other reason. In the village, the children have love, and educated and are able to create a family with each other. Their ages range from about 6 or 7 to around 16 and they are installing a section so the kids can stay until the age of 18.
When we first arrived, we were really shy and stuck together but after 5 minutes of being there, this really tiny girl came and hugged Clem and then wandered off. We were quite shocked. We ate lunch and sat with the adults we had been introduced to and afterwards, we were shown where we were staying. After settling in one of the adults, Linda, took us to see the school part of the village. It was quite big and looked really tidy and well-kept.
Afterwards we watched some of the kids play with some of the other volunteers there until we were told that Ron was going to give us a tour of the farm which was near by. They had a number of fruit trees and a worm farm as well. On the way back, we saw the younger kids picking berries so Ron dropped us off so we could walk back with them. They were all so cute and tiny and we had been there for about 2 minutes and they were all holding our hands while we were walking back. It was so sweet.
Once we were back we stayed with the smaller children who played outside until dinner. We sat with them for dinner and then afterwards chalk was brought out and we all drew on the concrete playground. Everyone joined in and some of the little kids are really good drawers. Once that was over, we played with a couple of the kids on the trampoline. There was only two at a time but we managed to scrape it to having three. Either myself or Clem and two really small girls who would add up to one. We played 'tag' which is actually really tiring on a trampoline.
Once all the kids had gone to bed, all of us adults played a game called 'snorta'. It was funny as we all had to make animal noises every so often and some of the kids could hear us and started to make noises themselves which was quite funny. Afterwards we went to sleep as it was a tiring day.
Seeing as this is long enough already, I shall stop and put the next day in a new section.
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