BUPA 60th Thailand Challenge

Hi everyone back at home!First of all sorry for the lack of blogs but have been having some technical hitches - now sorted - so this is a long one!!We’ve done a lot of work over the past week at Sarnelli and it’s been an amazing, humbling and emotional time. Lots of laughter, smiles and some tears but VERY rewarding.

Our first mission was to scrub clean and repaint the exterior of the medical centre, the long bench that circles the building and paint two of the posts at the front. I worked with David on the side stairwell and we scrubbed and painted away whilst talking about all sorts of things from ‘Phoenix nights’ to how we met our partners to embarrassing CD’s in our music collections (well I owned up, don’t recall David giving anything away!!) I wanted to mention this as it’s an important part of what we’re doing here - making new friends and new conversation - think we all feel like we’ve known each other for ages and yet it’s only been a week. We’re a great team & I think we all agree that firm friends for life will be made on this trip! We’re even learning new languages as we have representation on our team from the Czech republic, The Philippines, Spain, Denmark (IHI) & BUPA Thailand - beat that!! We all manage to communicate very well and the differences in our languages has started some very amusing conversations!!

Anyway we finished the stairwell on day one just before lunch (again fab thai food cooked by Father Mike’s cook ‘Da’) and then conquered the front wall, bench and posts afterwards. The difference it has made is great - it looks so much cleaner and new! By the time the children started to head back from school at 4.30, we had cleaned up ready for a few hours of play which despite the long day in the heat, we were all excited about,

Again, I know I sound like a broken record but the children are the most beautiful little people - each with their own special characters and quirks. I have sat each day with some of the younger children whilst they ate their dinner and chattered away - I couldn’t understand everything but it didn’t matter as I could have sat there forever watching their happy little faces - no cares in the world. Everytime I see them I keep a mental picture to play over in my head when I am back home - I am hoping it will keep reminding me how some of the things I worry about really don’t matter. I’ve made some new friends and one little boy Adan drags me around as part of his routine after school, shower, tea, play and homework. He seems to know I don’t understand his language and he helps me out! He’s a lovely little boy and i am growing very attached to him - then of course there’s Bee - a lovely little girl who’s face is disfigured. She hasn’t had a pleasant life but she seems happy enough. I could go on but there are far too many to mention. They are all special little people.

I have also spent time over at the baby house with the real little ones - lots of cuddles and kisses. I never fail to get a lump in my throat when I go in there. I have hopefully loaded up a piccie for you all to see!! Fingers crossed it works. On a regular basis Goy & Bowling (2 little beautiful girls) mob me for my camera in the play area - they love taking pictures and are so clever at it - it’s amazing to watch them. They work the camera better than I can!

Each day, the children gather around the minibuses and wave us off - leaving on Monday was ok as I knew I would be going back for 4 more days - today was a different matter. A day I have been dreading all week.

Tues/Weds & today have also been fab days, we tackled more around the medical centre and touched up the paintwork from Monday including glossing the window frames and doors. Yesterday was probably the most most rewarding day for me ‘workwise’ as we were like the ‘changing rooms’ team and we completely refurbished the clinic area - cleaned, painted, glossed and yet again I managed to cover myself in blue gloss (not in my hair today though!) We even bought new furniture for the room - it was ordered Weds morning and turned up an hour later. You don’t get service like that back in the UK!! Everything really does look amazing and I have tons of photos to share. The children notice the differences each day - especially the new bright colours!

As each day passes I pick up more thai words and manage to have little conversations with the children - well enough to get by! It really makes the day when we get to spend time with them. The new play animals arrived for the playground today and you should have seen the faces of the children as they piled off the school bus when they saw the procession of elephants, pandas, cows, Camels, Horses, dinosaurs and tigers ! Priceless.

Because today was our last day of work at the orphanage, we went to Tescos last night (yes you read that right!) and bought lots of gifts for the children for the leaving ceremony. I used the share of the raffle money I made with Lindsey Ash (week1) and Paul Haywood (week 2) to buy 9 cd players, Cd’s, DVD’s and toys/sweets for the three homes (Sarnelli (youngsters), Vienkhuk (older girls) and St Patricks (older boys). I also gave out the gifts I brought along and all the kind donations from people back home.

It’s now 2.30am and I sit here thinking about the day we had today. We managed to do more work than expected and painted the upstairs area of the younger girls house, go to the garden centre and each choose our individual plant for the BUPA garden and then plant it - then decide where the rest of the animals would go in the play area! It was a scorcher of a day too! Once the clock struck 4.30, the minibus arrived with the first load of children and the lump rose in my throat knowing this was the last time I would see them. The leaving ceremony was a mixture of laughter and tears (lots of!) as EACH of the children came up to see us and tell us they loved us. How can this not pull on your heart strings?

I’ve experienced a powerful set of emotions this week and it’s easy to underestimate just how much the children have an impact on your life. I guess I didn’t expect to take anything back with me other than amazing memories but for everything I have given here, I have been rewarded more than I could ever imagine. We can learn a lot from the work of father Mike and his team (all the credit in the world to this man, he has the BIGGEST of hearts) and also the children.

The happiness you see and feel at Sarnelli can’t be described but it can be seen and touched the moment you step through the gates - It truly is an amazing thing and I am so glad that I have been given the opportunity to make what was a dream, a reality.I will never forget this experience and I want to thank everyone who has made this possible from the bottom of my heart - the BUPA Community Connections team, Siobahn our fantastic project leader (you’ve been a star and I’ll miss you and your fun nature next week telling us all to take our malaria tablets!) the fab week three team( I’m going to really miss you all!) and of course everyone out here - Derek - who has made the week run so smoothly and kept us amused with his funny stories and all the staff at Sarnelli who looked after us so well each day.

Better go now, got a long journey home - but it’s with a fantastic set of new friends and we all have said already that this doesn’t end here - it’s just the beginning.

(ps thanks for all your messages back home , you know I value your support)

All my love - over and out

Debs xxxx