Boot Camp

The last couple weeks has gone by really fast and very buisylike. I've been spending a few days helping to paint a building in a nearby villiage for CCD that will work as a home base for a Community Based Rehabilitation project that they are doing. Most of CCD's work is done with the disabled children who have been abandoned, but the idea of this project is to work with the poorer families in the villiages around Bangkok who are trying to raise disabled children. We send staff there to educate the families on the disabilities and the needs of the children, encouraging them not to give up on the child. It's a great project and I've been happy to be able to help out in a small way with it. Spending a hard day workin and being able to see some progress at the end of the day is also nice for me. Most of my days I work hard with the guys that have cerebal paulsy, but it's very difficult to see any immediate progress.

Last friday we took some kids after work to see Disney on Ice. It was a lot of fun for the kids. I was looking after one of the kids in a wheelchair. Not only was he such an amazing little guy to get to know, but his wheelchair scored us a couple front seat passes to the show. He really liked it and waved to all the actors as they were entering and exiting the ice. It was a blast to be there. I also have to say I'm thankful to all you guys who helped to contribute some money for me to be able to be here. It's nice to be able to take the kids to events like that and treat them to some overpriced cotton candy without putting myself into debt. I'm sure the kids really enjoy all the places I've been able to take them so far, like to the zoo, and to the movies. You guys really made it possible for me to be here doing this and I thank you.

Boot Camp!

Last weekend we took some kids on a retreat to a navy base on the beach a couple hours away from Bangkok. A buisnessman named Koon Visit, who I've had the opportunity to get to know here, has an amazing heart for the orphaned children around Thailand and brought 600 of them from around the country to a vacation at a navy base! He really likes the kids at CCD and we took about 50 of them or so to the retreat. Some of the kids we took had never seen the ocean, so it was an amazing opportunity to bring them along. 6 of the kids we took were guys I work with. They were so excited to be there and loved the all you can eat food court that was brought in for the kids. For me the weekend was completely exhausting filled with running around taking care of the guys that we brought along with the other smaller children that CCD had taken to be there too.

2 of the guys that I work with have Cerebal Paulsy really bad and don't have the ability to walk. We had to carry them into the ocean so they could swim. They loved it! Behind me in the picture you can see the human chain set up by the navy guys to keep the kids from going out to far. That beach gets really deep really fast, which I later understood to be crucial for the Navy since they can bring their large ships right up to the beach!

The navy brought this warship to the beach and took all the kids on a ride around the ocean on it. It was pretty cool for the kids to see. This happened on Easter Sunday, so while we were holding our worship service on the beach for anyone that wanted to come, this ship was docking in the backround. It made for an interesting easter service.

The first night we were there someone told me we'd be waking up at 8 or so in the morning which I thought was nice. I'd been had. We got up at 5:30 every morning to shower the guys and get ready for the day. The sun wasn't even out yet! I've never understood the concept of waking up before the sunrise...unless you were only doing it to see what it was like. But then, there's a lot that is foreign to me here. Me and a guy from Belgium were the only two white guys in the whole place. We stick out a lot, but that's not all bad. All the food venders would see us pass by and give us some of their food to eat to see if we liked their cooking. I gained 2 kilos that weekend alone!

Everyone, staff included, has been pretty worn out since that trip. We've been working with the kids for a few weeks nonstop now and are in much need of a break. All of us volunteers are taking friday off to go down to a nearby island and chill out for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to that, though I have to wake up in 3 hours to leave for it. The next couple weeks will be busy also. We have a staff retreat next week which will be nice to spend some time with the staff that we don't usually get to see in a normal week. After that is the Thai New Years which everyone around here seems to be excited about. It's the biggest holiday in Thailand, everyone runs around throwing water on each other. I'm excited to see what that's like. Then it should be back to normal after all that is done with. I'll get back in touch with you guys next week after I'm back. Thanks for reading this far!