BUPA 60th Thailand Challenge

Hello All,

What a rollercoaster ride today has been, our last day at the orpahanage and didn’t we know it!! Nothing can prepare you for a day like today and it was a really emotional day for everyone. We have built up such a relationship with the children here. Most of us cried today several times, when it came to leaving. There had been such a build up of emotions throughout the week and having to say goodbye was very hard. It’s been amazing what you can do in only a matter of days with the childen and what you can achieve with the decorating.

I am going to keep this fairly short as it is 3.30am in the morning over here and like me, I know most of the group are still up writing about their experiences today and over the past week.I just wanted to tell you about one particualr girl I met two days ago at the orphanage. Her name is Tadam (meaning “Eyes Black” in Thai). She is blind and like a majority of the children she has HIV Aids. I won’t tell you about her history before coming to Sarnelli House, I have read it and it is certainly not a comfortable read. We were working the other afternoon at Sarnelli and Tadam had been led out by one of the staff to sit outside while we were working. I saw her and someone in the group mentioned that she was blind. I decided to take a break for a while and I thought that it might be a good idea to sit with her to keep her company, as the other children were still at school. I suddenly remembered that I had taken my i-Pod with me and I thought that she might like to listen to some music. So I managed to ask her if she wanted to, which she did. So we shared an earpiece each and we sat and listened to some music together. We laughed and I sang along with the songs that were playing to her. I took her hand and we tapped out the rythm of the song on her knee…which made her giggle. The most beautiful smile and facial expressions were on her face the whole time and we were interacting through the music she was hearing. We had formed a bond in just a matter of minutes-that’s how easy it is to connect with the children here! They just need people’s love and attention to make them happy-that’s all! I saw Tadam again today and we sat and listened to some music again when I had a break. When we came to leave, Tadam called me “Pei-David” which means “My Brother David”. We have one additional task set for tomorrow, which is to go to the market to buy Tadam a CD player and some CD’s, so that she can listen to them when she is on her own at the house.

My appeal to Week 4-Someone please look out for Tadam next week and make a point of sitting with her and listeneing to some music, you will will not be dissapointed when you see the joy it brings her and you!

Thanks very much to everyone back home, at work and anyone else who has taken the time to read our blogs this week.

This week has been an eye-opening and very humbling experience for me and everyone else in the group. An experience we will never forget!

David x