BUPA 60th Thailand Challenge

Those five simple words from Father Mike just about sum it up.

The challenge is finally over and everything’s back to normal. Or is it? The experience might be over but the memories and spirit associated with Sarnelli House will stay with many forever. As one of the volunteers so succinctly put it, “we came to give and received so much more”.

We in Community Connections had hopes that this challenge would be a success for both the volunteers and the children of Sarnelli House. Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to be so overwhelmed with support and passion from the volunteers and everyone else who has contributed along the way.

Every single person involved in the BUPA 60th Anniversary Thailand Challenge should be immensely proud of their achievements, commitment and spirit. This challenge has shown what dedicated employees we have at BUPA and has united people up and down and across BUPA businesses around the world.

In summary, we achieved more work than we ever set out to do. Thanks to the absolute determination of each and every volunteer Sarnelli House now has: 

• Four newly re-decorated houses both inside and out
• A landscaped BUPA garden
• New beds for the older boys
• New furniture throughout all the buildings
• Four new sports courts
• Four new playgrounds
• New kitchen at the girls’ home (together with new appliance and a raised ceiling to make it bearable in summer)
• 20 new bathrooms
• Hot water allowing the children to have showers in the morning before school
• Protected rice fields so rice can be grown for the children each year
• Newly painted front fence and signs

Wow. A truly amazing achievement in just six weeks and it couldn’t have been done without you. 

Just as Sarnelli House will never be far from our minds it appears that you also made quite an impact during your time there. We heard from Father Mike just the other day and his honest words show how you have touched the lives of so many. We thought this would be the perfect time to share them with you:

 “We have photos of six weeks of BUPA volunteers and the kids can pick them out and give their names. I go home for five weeks and when I return, the wee ones stare at me like I have a bunghole growing out of the middle of my forehead. They can’t remember me. They sure do remember their favourites from BUPA. You haven’t just sent money from some unknown location from unknown people, but you are friendly, caring, loveable, huggable people who have entered their lives.

We will always be beholden to you. Thank you for all the BUPA people did. We look at the flower garden and the memorial, and miss you all deeply. Have a wonderful Christmas and all God’s blessings in the New Year!” Father Mike 

 Lots of love, Claire, Jo and Siobhan. 

Note: Please continue to use this blog. It is a way to help ensure Sarnelli House stays top of people’s minds and we will use it as a way of communicating future plans with you all. 

The video diaries for week 3 and 4 volunteers have now been uploaded on to the site.

Find out more about their individual experiences in Thailand by clicking on the relevant links.

Week 3

• Debbie Cook
• Gavin Nicholson
• Annette Tanchittiwat
• Jackie Travers
• Maria Garces
• (Elaine) Florence Cross
• David Soanes
• Loida Lopez
• Ilja Pospisil
• Ben Sutton

Week 4

• Julie Fox
• Alistair Good
• Suzgo Chibambo
• Lonie Hon

Happy viewing!

Siobhan x

Andy,
What an amazing blog, I was hooked reading every word. The pictures you’ve uploaded brought a lump to my throat as I sit here at my desk desperately trying to get back into the daily routine. I love the photo of Auhn sitting on top of the parrot, what a superstar! I miss him and the others so much.

Like so many have said before me, things now seem so trivial on our return. Getting home to unopened bills and trawling through the work emails it really is a struggle. However, I had the perfect text message yesterday off Ben Sutton from week 3. It helped me enourmously and may help those others of you that are finding being back tougher than you expected.. “Keep your chin up and remember, without being at work we can’t earn the money we need in order to go back!”

Enjoy every minute weeks 5 and 6 and keep writing as we all love to hear how you and the children are doing.

Love Siobhan x

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

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

 The troublesome twosome (Jackie and Elaine) took the terrific ten as typical tourists on a tour by tuc-tuc to tesco’s to buy toys and treats! (Beat that Week 4!)
Bear in mind that Elaine and Jackie have had trouble with their computers all week and haven’t been able to post any blogs while they have been here….so here are the comments (obviously tongue in cheek) from their week here…..
What a week we’ve had, we have both learnt new skills and have plans for new careers once we get back. Jackie is going to publish a DIY book called “Jackies Jobs In Ten Easy Steps” and Florence (aka Elaine) is going to teach Thai cookery! With a joint TV project about gardening called “Get Down and Dirty”.  One funny thing that, amongst many laughs this week was when Ben was trying to retrieve a paint brush from the floor and asked Jackie if she minded if he put his hands between her legs!

Derek (our Pattaya Orphanage Trust representative) gave us a special project, which was to tidy up and plant some new flowers in the children’s cemetery. We sent him to buy some gardening tools, which he kindly did (but not the wheelbarrow-as he couldn’t put this on his motorbike). Derek came back and told us that he had bought the most expensive tools he could find, however the first time we used the trowl, it broke in two!!!!! So after we had finished the job, we presented the broken trowl back to him as a keep sake, to remind him of us!!

On a serious note, we had an absolutely fantastic experience and we would not have wanted to have missed this opportunity. We have felt a real mix of emotions, happy, sad, achievement, pride and an overall sense of reward. We wish we could bottle Father Mike and his team and take them around the world to all the suffering children. An example is when we were leaving the Orphanage for the last time today and we were saying goodbye to the children and staff, Father Mike asked one of the little girls (Nuke) if she wanted to go home with all of the volunteers and she just said “No”. What could be a better compliment to him and all he has achieved with the children…..?

Love and Kisses

Jackie and Elaine (The Troublesome Twosome).

xxxxxxxxx

Hi,

 More to come………..

Ben

This has been certainly a very productive day. It was a real satisfaction to see the drugs room so clean and bright, but also we had experienced some of the most deep feelings so far with the children. As Ben mentioned I felt I had to be quick to led Tadum to the new elephants at the playground because I saw all the girls that were surrounding her running to play with them and without realize that Tadum was left hopeless in her own. I experienced a beautiful feeling when I saw her smile and the way she held my arm when I was leading her to the elephants. Seeing her enjoying the music from an mp3 with David was a lovely pleasure as well. Later on I had a good cry with a little girl called Fay, it was an overwhelm feeling that suddenly I couldn’t avoid when I was looking for her and found that she was bowing down at the edge of her bed with weepy eyes. All she needed was a cuddle for 10 min. both alone in a sad and unpersonalized big bedroom. She was static while I was rocking and squeezing her in my laps. For the things I’ve heard about her background I was wondering how painfully she must have been living before, as she is new at the orphanage, only from last Sunday and she has the saddest face I ever seen in a child.I cannot stop thinking of her and I will never forget this day.

We finished at Tesco to buy lot of presents for the tomorrow’s leaving ceremony that no one wants to believe is few hours ahead.

I’m praying God that give them a chance to get a bright future and bless them.

xx Loi