Children kebabs, anyone?

So I’m helping out a friend by agreeing to supervise a school tree planting day at the local reservoir. And not just any kids – some of the highly pampered variety from a UK international school south of Bangkok. The weather’s OK, we’re all set to go and then we get to the planting site and there’s a big “home-made” rocket festival happening on the adjacent field, a couple of hundred metres away........ What to do, what to do? The area’s not restricted, so we make a start. I’m trying hard not to think about relaxed Thai safety precautions and that most Thai rocket launchers are made out of bamboo. These were big rockets too – travelling hundreds of metres before whine-ing their way back to earth. I think all of the teachers were thinking up emergency evacuation plans just in case. Would a bus or a clump of bamboo save us if we were in the firing line? I wasn’t all that confident. And a few were pretty close for comfort. We soldiered on anyway, with no rocket-skewering-children mishaps. Would not have been a good advertisement for the volunteering program.... phew! Kind of made the pre-planting “OH&S Site Induction” about wasps and digging equipment seem a bit trivial........

Yesterday I saw what I’ll call a poignant moment. I was in the local shopping mall to escape the heat and see a movie, when in the distance I saw a hill tribe family confronting an escalator for I think the first time – causing quite a commotion. Casting an eye around the consumeristic westernised interior of the mall I could only imagine their bewilderment at this new world (a.k.a. locals experiencing culture shock). Such a highly divided country to live in – witnessing that really made it obvious.

Last week I went to see the English-teaching afternoon program in an urban “slum” area. I’ve enlisted as a substitute teacher – there are lots of willing helpers already which is great. The volunteers are lovely, caring people – all from America. Lots of expats here.

Today I planted some trees with kids at a Children’s Home. They are learning about gardening at the moment. They all knew me from last week’s lesson and are really sweet. I'll be taking a group of them up to the national park research nursery this week.

The kids with their "big people" gardening gloves Abby with her "weed flower" thankyou

I’ve been enjoying the cycle to work every day and went for a kayak up river in town with some friends last week. Been swimming a fair bit in the uni pool. Wish you were here......

The next few weeks are going to be pretty low key as I plan the itineries for my sibling’s visits – both at the end of July and intercepting long enough for a dinner somewhere – there’ll be lots of photos. Alison will be passing through for 3 days from a holiday mostly in America, and will be heading to work in the UK soon for 2 years. Graham will be passing through for a week following a short term mission in Bangladesh.