Building a yoga hut..

Normally when any extensive building work is done (or in Europe anyway) a whole array of building equipment arrives on site, as does a foreman. In Thailand, however, when there is no machinery and frequent power cuts, everything is done by hand. 

Today I have been a pneumatic drill, a digger and a roller. Instead of actually using a pneumatic drill to break through 8 inches of solid red clay, I had a crow bar and my own brute strength. Instead of a digger, I had a old flower pot with a sealed hole and the roller was my own body weight. The floor has been destroyed and now removed. The walls will be opened up to create an open yoga space. If we have enough time before we leave I will make a sculpture for the mosquito coils. 

I have the red blisters all over my hands and fingersto prove my hard work! 

Unfortunately I have no photos from today but will get some for tomorrow;) 

Until then..

Sarah x 

Two days off at Ranong

We are staying the night in ranong as our weekend is mon& tues. Standing in torrential rain on a corner a pickup stopped and turned around to take us 20km here! Algerian man and his Thai wife were driving

We had only a hand drawn map from Eco logic. So with kids on scooters off we went

Rather hoping for the best

We were a little outside our comfort zone

"I think  it's this way"

"Are you sure?"

"No but we have no choice but to carry on"

"But can't we get a pickup truck taxi?"

"We could but we don't know what route they followand we don't speak Thai"

"But the kids are tired and want an ice cream"

"I know that but there aren't any shops here"

This was interrupted briefly by finding 

We found out that crocs and slimy pavements don't mix. Our state of mind was not helped by this.

After another few heated words we looked up to find we were standing in front of the Ranong tourist office!

In we trotted to find it deserted but open. A quick check revealed no maps of any description. I did not find this unusual as we are now getting used to some things!

Upon trying the office of commerce next door, I held out my paper offering and as I started pointing, the lady whipped a map out of her drawers. So then confusion as the hand drawn map was different to the printed one.... 

After ten more mins we found Palmy guesthouse. I had to Jump on to google translate to get them to bring extra marttress. Then kids watched scooby doo and it kept raining

Some crusty Germans smoking putaide the guesthouse advised us where to eat so we wandered off in the rain crossing mini rivers at street edges. The kids were great not one complaint

So challenged by the rain were we that we left scooters accidentally on a street corner. We only realised when we came back after and found them!

Night market was part of ten day vegetarian festival

Today we return to EL

Xxx

Eco logic - teaching

 We donned our green t shirts and had our plan for an hours lesson. Special kids are on a break and its better if they don't have high staff turnover with short term ers like us so they let us loose on the weekend kids who are ordinary locals . After raising the flag we sat in circle and rolled a ball to each other saying "my name is"

Then still in circle we played pass the talcum powder to music. When it stopped we could rub the face of any chosen person

Much mirth as i am sure you can imagine

It was all very informal

Then our lesson, a welcome intro from us done in hangman style

The girls had it won as soon as they cottoned onto choosing vowels

With "a" scoring twelve I knew the boys would not recover

In the end we made it one point for the winner so they weren't too down

We then did a word search copied directly from the kids plastic coated "100 things to do on a long journey" cards. Then in the last 5 minutes we did a chalk circle on the concrete floor and then it was follow my leaders Actions not Words as we jumped in or out of the circle. Any child that jumped when leader didn't or vice versa was out. Later TheCroods in Thai, some ping long and flippy football. Kids made two trips to local shops during the day so lots of fizzy drinks and ice cream were consumed.

At the end they all shook hands and said thanks. As it was a weekend school it all pretty easy going

Xxx

Eco logic -kids at play

Pee-mai is the son of the manager Gun and he also happens to enjoy being ganged up on

He is very easy going

Generally it went ok

Then after lunch it was coconut time

Kids decided they liked it only after everyone else did. The lady in green "Pierre" was carrying big cement bags by herself the other day, but she is actually a teacher! So a coconut proved no match for her.....

Later it was mangosteen time. Tastes like oranges and lemons

Xxx

Eco logic What it's like..

We are in the middle of the jungle which again is a very different part if Thailand. The temperatures here at the moment are somewhere between 20c and in the full heat of the sun it can get up to 30c. The climate is so humid that nothing really feels completely dry.. Not as humid as Koh Phayam, when you could wash something and it would stay wet for days.. but it is still hard to dry clothes..

But it is so beautiful.. The site is built into a huge hill on an old palm oil plantation site of 18 acres. 

The charity does really incredibly important work in the area. There are many disabled children in the area due to them being born to young parents who have no knowledge of parenting because of their age. Also a lack of thermometers is a problem. Children can become disabled because of lack of care when they have a high fever. I didn't realise that if a young child runs a high fever and it is not dealt with it can result in disability. 60% of the 35 children in the school were born healthily but then caught something on their early life

The charity cares for and educates children who have been abandoned with grandparents or would be left home alone all day when their parents went to work as the kids are too heavy to carry to the fields, and provides all of the children in the area (that are in need) with very much needed nutritional support, access to medical care, (operation and hospital costs) as well as education and scholarships. Amazing work

. If specialist care is not available outside of big cities then rural dwellers need to pay firstly to get to the city and secondly to then access care out of area and thirdly the Children's parents lose income earn able that day because they are accompanying and not working. Net result is that they can't afford it so don't go.

We are volunteering here and so far have been involved in weeding (and there's lots of that with the rate if plant growth) laying cement over pipes that had previously been broken due to falling trees and clearing the yoga hut. It's absolutely filthy work - much more so than at home and because its so hot it's sweaty work too..

That's me in my work gear! 

If any if you fancy a trip to Thailand doing something that 'gives'.. I'd highly recommend here.. Hard work for a bit but lovely lovely people and its for a very important cause.. 

Last night we had 12 hours of torrential rain that caused the river outside  out bedroom to swell so much that it changed course! It's now running pretty close to our room.. 

There's only one nasty thing here.. Take a look at this!! 

The pen is to provide some scale.. Yech!! 

Sarah xx

ECo logic 2nd day of work/fun

Guy helped cement in a pipe coming down the jungle hillside

Sarah looked after the kids. Tomorrow we swap

Kids did some bathing

And then they exported some squirton traditions to their new friend

Before feeding the "plah".

Xxx

Eco logic- getting there & our first day

On our last night ate by sea again

We left quiet koh phayam a day early as rain was set in. We had return 2 hour ferry ride where Rowan decided to return some mini whitebait to the sea

Then after harder bartering to get from port to bus we had 3 hr wait..... Until they said" the 2 o'clock bus to paksong has crashed so come now " they should have said " and squeeze into this impossibly cramped back row of minibus" it was a miracle we even got to our seat let alone sit in them. Kids took their tops off it was so hot

Bloke next to me was from Myanmar and was having a vexed conversation in stops and starts as the jungle hills would allow signal

Lady to our left offered a deep fried chicken leg ( but her mobile ring tone was pretty bad)

Large lad in seat in front was smiling and trying to engage Rowan

Driver was not only driving too fast and seemed to need to not only talk to fellow front row passengers but also wanted to check their facial expressions all the time. Thankfully my back row position meant I couldn't "drive the road "with him

As we got to our stop too early we had no lift to Eco logic, as car was on an errand so two female Thai cooks on motorbikes we summonsed to pick us up so we were 3 up on each bike. It was the first time I had long black hair in my mouth as we sped along!

Now we have arrived and are sitting in the communal large veranda with rotating round central table

( like some Chinese restaurants have) mountainous jungle is all around

Sicadas going, gentle music playing, motorbike chugging up a hill, birds, and food being prepped for us. Rowan saying" can I play angry birds yet" Esme hungry. Mummy reading

Xxx