8:30 and our bags are being thrown into two gray vans heading toward Sangkhlaburi, a 6 or 7 hour northwest drive outside of Bangkok. A few stops later, myself and 15 amazing volunteers arrive in the quiet town of Sangkhlaburi.
Our sweet ride with amazing speakers.
For the next 7 days we will be staying in a not so luxurious boat house, sleeping on the wooden deck. The first few nights were a struggle, but soon my days became so action packed that hard wood soon became Tempur-Pedic. The amount of citronella and DEET in the air I was breathing was probably enough to chemically bond with my blood, which was good to keep the malaria away. I mean we were sleeping on a damed river in Thailand.
Luxury, don't let the shiny floor fool you.
That evening the volunteers gathered at Baan Unrak Children's Home for dinner and planning out the coming events in the next week. Honestly, everything could not be covered in a blog. I could write a short book about my week with the children at Baan Unrak, so I will have to cut down a lot and hopefully hit the most important parts.
My team teaching partner was a Japanese girl named Yuko. She actually had no teaching experience since she was still in University so we were a little worried about our lesson plans at the Primary School. Thankfully, due to karma or fate, the class we were teaching was behind schedule so we just had to help them with their current curriculum. So I decided to join a few other classes with some of the other volunteers which mainly consisted of playing games, which was great since I really didn't want to run a classroom environment on my vacation.
Our first event was to help with an Environmental day. In Thailand, teaching recycling isn't even part of the agenda. We just hope that people will throw garbage in a bin, instead of the street, river, gutter or any other open space. So in order to clean up Sangkhlaburi we hit the streets to pick up all kinds of trash.
Takin' out the trash!
It was this first day that I met two amazing kids. Granted, all the kids were amazing, but the twins Bee and Sea were two kids I ended up getting really close to. It was weird, I was introduced by another volunteer and suddenly I was trapped. They were showing me around and dragging me all over. I was actually very surprised how fast most of the orphans at Baan Unrak warmed up the the volunteers. Somewhere along the way I also picked up the nickname "Giraffe" because of my height. The funny thing is that Thai kids can't say the word correctly so it always sounded like "G. Love," which took me a whole day to figure out they weren't talking about the musician.
Bee and Sea, twins with attitude
After getting to know the kids more, the more comfortable I began to feel, and it didn't even take very long. I felt useful and appreciated. I was painting signs and walls, teaching, digging holes, meditating, chasing kids and giving piggy back rides.
My sign with an arrow river pointing to what will be a trash bin.
Besides being charmed and amazed by my students, the food we were served was beyond amazing. Everything was vegetarian. I was surprised how great Thai food could even be without the fish base that is used in almost everything in Thailand. Almost every day we ate breakfast and dinner at a bakery owned by Baan Unrak where we were served an extensive menu of fruit, vegetables and noodles. Not to mention you could buy a large slice of the best pineapple pie or chocolate cake for less than $1. If I could eat such fresh and delicious food so easily everywhere, I could become a vegetarian without even looking back.
Vegetarian
After a tiring day volunteering a couple volunteers would usually head into the center of town. Since this was rural Thailand there wasn't much except for an open market that closed at around 8PM and a couple convenience stores where we would get a yogurt drink to keep up on the friendly bacteria, indispensable when in Thailand. The best part of our treks into town was that the dog from the bakery would always follow us into town and cause all kinds of trouble. Aggravating other dogs and coming into the 7/11 with us. No matter how many times he was kicked out, the only automatic doors in Sangkhlaburi would always welcome him back in.
I can not truly express here my week volunteering at Baan Unrak. There is just too much to share! One thing is for sure, I want to go back next Christmas. I know I made a difference in the lives of the kids at Baan Unrak, but they may not know the difference they have made in mine.
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