27 days in Italy - photos

Has it really been a month.. PHOTOS

Has it really been a month..

Hi Everyone!

Well... officially I need to say Bonjour as I’m writing this update from Paris.. So.. Bonjour.. Hope you & family are well in your respective parts of the world...

After a couple of weeks of blog inactivity and a couple of emails kindly requesting some updates of where I am and what I’ve been doing.. I’ve woken up early in Paris to write an update..

Here goes..since my last update (firstly in short form for those who prefer an executive summary). I’ve left the orphanage in Thailand..explored Bangkok.. flown via a horror Swiss Air flight to Zurich (more later).. arrived in England via Birmingham International Airport (a bonus as there was no immigration queue.. and no customs). Dazed and culturally still in Thailand I arrived in Birmingham to be greeted by my good friends Steve & Emma.. I managed to score a room at their place in Stratford-upon-Avon. After a birthday, a couple of days of rest, bike rides, wild blackberry picking, all things Shakespeare and some stand-in-dad duties I left Stratford-upon-Avon for a weekend visit to Birmingham and then hit the big city, London for seven days before flying to Paris to launch my France-Italy leg of adventures..

So that’s the summary.. a lame attempt to summarise four weeks of adventures into one paragraph.. Now for the details.. for all you details people..

Leaving Thailand
Leaving the orphanage was hard. After spending two months there it was hard to say goodbye.. We’d had a lot of fun together and enjoyed some good laughs and adventures... On my last night we had a little party.. enjoying some beautiful fresh fish from the dam in a dish I like to call ‘Fish & Rice’. We ate together and then enjoyed a dodge copy of ‘Ice Age’ in Thai with some pop-corn and chocolate cake.. some western treats that I found on one of my market adventures. The kids and I had a great night and it was a nice way to say goodbye.

The next morning after 90 or so goodbye hugs, I begun my adventure down to Bangkok on yet another bus ride. This one wasn’t too bad about 7ish hours.. I arrived in Bangkok for an overnight stay with my flight leaving late the next night.. I managed to meet up with Helen the volunteer co-ordinator from House of Mercy and spent the night venturing around with her and a team of volutneers that had just arrived from Albury-Wodanga.

The next day I enjoyed some sightseeing around Bangkok. Completely against my personality I hadn’t really planned anything for my time in Bangkok. In terms of the real Thailand I felt that I had a pretty good immersion out in the village areas. After looking over the the tourist map and speaking with a travel agent that I was put in touch with I ended up venturing down to the river for a river cruise.  Was a great day and nice to go a little adventure.

Swiss Air Flight LX420

The trip from Bangkok to Birmingham (via Zurich) was eventful to say the least.. The flight was about 11 hours.. and I had the guy from that Coldral - cold & flu ad next to me.. You know the guy.. the ad is from a couple of years back.. the guy that just doesn’t shut up.. “Fine now, earlier.. blocked nose, sinus... yada yada yada!!” So to my excitement.. I had about 8 hours of mindless chatter from this guy.. The only way I got some space was to retreat to the back and talk to the flight attendants for two and a bit hours..

Dazed and sick of mindless chatter.. (the best has to be how young people seem to be eating more yoghurt now a days.. RANDOM.. I know.. but this guy could talk about anything!).. So dazed and very tired. I arrived in Birmingham and made my way down to Stratford-upon-Avon to spend some time with my good friends Steve & Emma.. I had a nice 10 days with Steve & Emma and it was good to be with friends on my birthday. We ventured out most days going for bike rides, morning runs, afternoon walks, wild berry picking and did all the touristy stuff. While in the midlands I was also able to visit some family friends Ron and Elsa up in Birmingham for a weekend.

After enjoying Stratford-upon-Avon I made my way down to London to spend a week with some more friends Nathan and Elisha. London was great! Something to do any time of the day. Had a great time exploring London doing all the tourist spots but also enjoyed some market shopping at the Borough markets and some Jazz at an out of town jazz club.. a little like the Brisbane Jazz club in Kangaroo Point.

After a week in London I jumped on a plane to Paris to visit another friend Anna. I arrived late on Thursday night and pretty much wandered through the Immigration/Customs checkpoint.. It was bizarre.. I’m pretty sure the guy didn’t even look at my passport just waved me through and again.. no customs checkpoint.. Anna worked on Friday so I took to the streets and metro and checked out Notre Dame and the Lourve. One the weekend we ventured out to Eiffel Tower, Arc of Triumph, Montmartre and stopped off at this little market area 'Montorgueil' for a coffee and some people watching. All in all had a great time venturing around Paris...

Today (well tonight) where I’m writing the end of the blog I’m in Rome.. but the update of Italy adventures will have to wait.. not another month.. I promise..

Ciao
Damo

Khon Kaen visit

Hi Everyone,

I'm writing this on a very muggy day.. it's been raining almost everyday this past week..  the rain gauge read 110mm for a 30 hour period the other day.. so lots of rain, lots of flooding.. rice fields washed away and wet kids on scooters completely drenched as they make their way home from school.

Since my last update I made a quick weekend visit east to House of Mercy Foundations third centre - the Khon Kaen HIV/Aids centre.  Khon Kaen is a 3 hour drive east from Phetchabun through the Nao Nao National park (very green and lush.. with elephant crossing signs everywhere).  This centre is designed solely for the care of children with HIV or full blown Aids.  It currently cares for 40 kids in a building that is now at full capacity. I have to say this visit was definitely the most confronting.  The kids were amazing.. so welcoming.. hugs as soon as you walk through the gates.. I played twister and a couple of other games with them when I first arrived and they were just beautiful kids, beautiful smiles and beautiful laughs.  While the kids went on playing I got speaking to Wendy, an Australian volunteer who has been helping here for the past 5 years.  Wendy works with Dtim (the Thai director) supporting her to run the centre. Wendy tells some shocking and amazing stories of how the kids came to be with Ban Meata.  One of the boys Art had this written in his profile 

"Art is very affectionate and loves to meet new people.. he loves books and he likes nothing better than to cuddle up to a new friend to read to him.  Art came to Ban Meata when he was 15 months old. Art's parents died of an AIDs related disease.  His blind grandmother tried to care for him but it was impossible. Friends of his grandmother brought him to Ban Meata"

This is just one of 40 stories.. heartbreaking stories and I shake my head everytime I read it.. What these kids have had to go through.. I can't begin to understand all that goes on inside their little heads.. 

I made it home (Phetchbun) and was greeted by the 12 boys whose house I'm sharing.. they were keen to carry my bags and gear back to my room.  My sponsor child Lift was eager to show me what he had been learning on the guitar that I got him a couple of weeks back.  And so was back into life here in Phetchabun.  I've only got a couple more days left in Thailand before I head to England next Tuesday. Am sad even thinking about leaving.. but very much looking forward to seeing my friends Steve and Emma in England.

Some Photos from Thailand

Pegs everywhere

Hello all. Hope you are well and life is going well in your respective worlds.

Wanted to share an update of the past fortnight with you.. Since my last post I've trekked a good 1900km around Thailand.. all on bus.. totaling approximately 26hrs.. good times.. plenty of laughs (including the overbooked bus which included 3 hrs of standing - an added extra which came as a little bit of a surprise and getting booted off the bus one stop early.. photo below).  I've seen some amazing countryside, sunsets, stars and met some really nice people.

The highlight since my last update has been meeting my sponsor child.  After picking my friend Abby up from Bangkok we made our way to the Children's village in Phetchabun. Phetchabun is a province in the North-east of Thailand. The children’s village cares for approximately 90 kids providing housing, food and education at Ban Meata (Thai for House of Mercy).  Lift (my sponsor child) is 12 years old.  He is 1 of 12 boys in the younger boy’s house. An amazing, smart, caring and thoughtful kid.  

There has been some good fun with the boys as I've been living in their house (the volunteer accommodation has been full).  It has been great being apart of their house.. although I'm still trying to work out why the boys get up at 5.10 every morning.. a time which gives them a good 2 1/2 hours to getting ready for school.. Nothing huge.. it has proved helpful in getting me up to go for a run in the the cool (?) of the morning...

Lift and the other boys love board games so we've pretty much been having a blast playing Uno, Jenga, Macala, Dominos and a whole raft of other games.

If there is anything I can share/encourage any of you reading this who have sponsor kids - it is to write to them. As hard as you might think it is - they LOVE IT. As I’ve been saying good-night to the boys each night I’ve seen many of them with cards/photo’s/letters next to or under their pillows (one boy had rocks & play-doh.. i’m sure they had special meaning for him!). The letters and gifts mean so much to these kids and I want to encourage you to pick up a card and write.. nothing big.. just a short message of encouragement. It will mean the world to them.

So aside from traveling around the country visiting and showing the other House of Mercy homes to my friend Abby i’ve pretty much been laying pretty low. Very much enjoying Thailand - the people, the food and the countryside. I am amazed each day at how rewarding simpler living can be. This is probably a good time to explain the title for my my blog - Living without pegs. The general theme behind it is living a simpler life - I’m not talking about living in a tent, just being more conscious of what I consume, it’s impact on the environment around me and the impact on future generations.. it all started during one of my house-sitting gigs earlier this year... the place i was looking after had no clothes pegs. Initially I had intended on purchasing some, but as the weeks/months rolled I began to realise I could live without them. I came to the realisation that all the resources, energy and waste involved in producing some pegs solely for the purpose of hanging my clothes out, was a luxury I could live without. After all, people in Africa and Thailand don’t have the of pegs.. don’t they?


Enough rambling.. I guess what I’m trying to say is that in the time since being here I’ve learnt the power of ‘being present’ with the kids. I’ve enjoyed walking the land for a couple of hours collecting bamboo shoots for dinner, spent one afternoon fishing in the dam, another playing volleyball (without a net!) and another collecting paw-paw’s from the farm. The kids don’t have much by western standards, no Nintendo DS or bikes but from what I’ve observed and experienced, they really do have so much.. They taken what they have and turned it into so much. They have a family of 70+ brothers and sisters and carers who love them deeply.

There is so much laughter around the place, a really strong indicator of the vibe of this place.

In closing, they do have pegs in Thailand and given the number of loads of washing Oo (yes that’s the washing lady’s name pronounced like Boo minus the ‘b’) has do each day.. roughly 20 which she pushes through four washing machines from about 7am to early hours of the afternoon.. then jumps on the ironing board for the remaining hours.. 6 days week!!.. Yes so I can see the requirement for pegs as there is little to no time to chase clothes down the road.

Anyway, hope each of you are well and enjoying life.
Leave a message as I’d love to hear how things are going for you.

Talk soon
Damo

Let's go! & other activities

Sa-wat-dee everyone

Hope all is well for each of you. I'm been having a great time helping with an introductory English program at some of the areas poorest schools.  Had a lot of fun and laughs with the kids they just love any form of game or art activity. From what I've been told there isn't much of either in the schools here.  The organisation I'm volunteering with Mercy International has built some good connections with these schools and provides a free english program called "Let's Go!". Today we talked about all the different types of weather around the world... and what a  day to talk weather.. after 8 days of cloudy/rainy conditions I had the joy of experiencing the joy of Thailand's hot humid weather.. must have been close to 35 degrees C... don't worry I'd definitely prefer some of Brisbane's winter right now.

I met another Australian guy volunteering here at the moment, a consultant from Sydney. Series of random events have lead him here and he is now helping with the organisation's 5 year strategic plan and building/designing the supporting infrastructure for this... so to my surprise I also going to be spending some time assisting with something that I know a little bit about.. I'm looking forward to applying some of my skills and look forward to the weeks ahead.

What else to share?.. I woke up this morning at 4 am just cause I could.. plus it was hot and all... looked out the window to see the most amazing moon set.. tried as much as I could to get a good photo but was worth it just to watch the moon set... 

Went for a wander through the streets of Phrae this afternoon.. a little bit silly given the temperature.  Saw some interesting sights and had to wonder why the hotel (sign pictured) had to go out of it's way to say "Absolutely clean".. if they thought it would help with business... it definitely didn't work for me..

Over the last couple of meals and car trips I've been hearing little bits of the children's stories.. It's sad to hear some of the circumstances that some of these kids have been through (AIDS, abandonment and other families just too poor to care for their children). While heart breaking stories and really sad to think about what some of these kids have seen and been a part of, it's comforting to know that the kids now have hope for a better future.

Till we next speak.

(Oh yeah, one more thing.. I'm really missing my electronic toothbrush at the moment.. I'm trying whatever I can to get a good clean but the world (I mean MY world) isn't the same without my trusty Oral-B)

Wishing you all good oral health.

Damo

 

Some shots from Thailand

Alive in Thailand

I'm alive, in northern Thailand. Was a long trip.. 19 hours in total after a plane, taxi, bus and car trek I made it to the orphanage alive. All is going well and settling into life here. I'm spending a couple of months here at the HIV/Aids baby house just helping with general labouring and the most fun part of all.. playing with the kids... The orphange is in the middle of a soft opening with only five babies here at the moment.. it's serious business looking after 5 babies and a full time job for the carers that are already here.

The place is close to Phrae and it is a rural village about 12kms from the Phrae town centre. The land surrounding where I am is rice fields as far as the eye can see. It rains almost everyday and there are no water restrictions.. great fun.. Fook (a 3 year old boy or Dook as he calls himself.. he can't pronounce the "f") and I had a good hour of fun yesterday running around under the sprinkler.. and just generally wasting water... ah good times.. On the construction side there is one final baby house to be fitted out.. tiling, ceiling, painting and windows... I'm splitting my time evenly between working and playing with the kids.

Alright that's all your going to get.. the net is playing up and I'm not going to push my luck.
I'll keep you posted. The summary, I'm alive, enjoying life here in Thailand and wondering if two months will be too short a stay..!!

Is this thing on?

Have i really created a blog? I'm going to find help and watch a few tutorials.. Stay tuned.