Hello all and Sawadee Ka from Chaing Mai!
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The last week has certainly been eventful, and I am beginning to settle into the culture of the place and surroundings. Here Westerners are known as 'Ferangs' (tourists), named after the white pasty inside colour of a guava (which is especially applicable to me!)
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I am nearing the end of my first week of volunteer work with
Cultural Canvas Thailand (CCT), where I am currently developing a workshop which will introduce painting for the very first time to 3 boys with Cerebral Palsy (CP).
The status of people/children with disabilities in Thailand is considered to be very low, along with their quality of life.
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My work here with CCT involves linking with one of the very few services available to people with disabilities, named Baan Pinanan (translates to Piranan House), which basically consists of 1 woman caring 24/7 for three boys with CP.
I have attached the website of the organisation here,
http://www.baan-piranan.org/ .
Please take the time to read over it, as it really is a revolutionary concept to offer such a service here in Thailand. There are literally no schools or respite centres and extremely limited opportunities offered to people with disabilities here, so Baan Piranan is really a step in a new direction.
The workshop I'm facilitating will be offered tomorrow, and will basically consist of introducing paintbrushes, paint, rollers and paper to the 3 boys, and adapting the art tools as required so that the boys can grasp them effectively. For example, one boy has been lying in a bamboo cage his whole life and therefore only now learning to sit up by himself without support, so he will require hands on support to undertake the activity. There are 2 other volunteers who are working here as well, and they will be involved in the activity with Baan Piranan also.
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Myself and the other volunteers will also be working with a couple of other groups in Chiang Mai; offering art workshops. We have another couple of workshops next week with 2 different schools for children of migrant workers. We visited one of them yesterday and it was beautiful ~ some of the children would 'Wai' us (a special kind of bow with their hands in prayer position) as they walked past. They had very little but they all looked so happy.
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Other than that, my time here on the whole has been wonderful. The culture here revolves around food, which is a total joy for me as most of you would know. On the times where I do buy dinner or lunch, it costs only around $2 or $3 for a delicious Thai restaurant meal. I am totally hooked on the fruit shakes they offer here which are freshly prepared in most restaurants, and perfect for the warm weather here (even though it is meant to be winter!).
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CCT hires a maid to cook our meals and clean the house, do our washing etc. On days we go to work, she comes to the house early and prepares a lunch box of Thai cooking for us to take with us. It seriously rocks! We also have a driver who picks us up from home, drives us to work and also to pick up anything we need throughout the day. The people who run CCT are lovely also, and all speak fluent Thai which enables them to translate as we volunteers run the art program. It's wonderful!
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Anyway, I'd better get back to preparing for tomorrow's workshop. I hope you are all well, and drop me a line with any news from home. Talk soon
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