Monday 27th June 2005
Woke up by an alarm called Adam. After getting ready, we headed upstairs for breakfast. Lets just say, I didn’t eat much at all. After breakfast, we took the buses to Pak Weep School. As we entered the school, there was an army base stationed right on the school front field. They were there to help the victims of the Tsunami that struck Asia but had affected the whole world on a ‘normal’ 26th December Boxing Day. As the bus arrived in front of the school building, these cheerful, gleaming, laughing, smiling girls were huddled up in tight groups each one of the thirty of them holding a rose and a yellow piece of paper printed ‘Welcom Bangkok Patana’ in Comic Sans MS.
As I got off the bus and got a closer view of some of the kids, aged between four and twelve, opposite of those smiles and laughter presented on the outside. I saw sadness, pain, misery and loss of hope in some of their eyes. I saw their interior through those pairs of shocking eyes. Have you ever looked at someone and could tell right away how they felt from just looking at their eyes? Well, that’s what happened to me right then. I felt for them. Without being able to help it, I was thinking back to nine years ago, when I was in a similar situation to them. But I was not struck by a natural disaster like them. I had lost the one person that mattered the most in my life. I had lost my beloved father. Even though I was trying so hard to push the tears away to show the kids a happy side of me, it was hard. One of the hardest time I could say. I really felt tears starting to trigger down my cheek but I knew that I had to hold them back the best I could, and show these kids a happy exterior and eyes that signaled the possibility of moving on and enjoying every day you have. As the other bus arrived, we were all gathered as a group and the whole of Pak Weep school were also gathered in front of the main building. A two storey building with five classes per floor. The thirty flower girls were all lined up and all handed us the roses at the same time, and giving us a Wai to show respect as well. They were all smiles as they handed us the roses, they were acting as if nothing had happened. I really look up to them to be able to put everything behind and move on so quickly. We had a short assembly where Mr. Nagy was just telling the whole school the reason why we were there, and I was doing the translations. One of my main jobs on this trip is to act as a translator for anyone and also to collect stories behind a few selected children, most affected by the Tsunami.
After the assembly, we were giving out boxes to each individual student which was made by Elementary students at BPS prior to our visit to Khao Lak. I really loved seeing all these kids with smiles plastered on their faces as they were discovering item by item in those boxes. It was like a treasure chest for them. The boxes had the same style of items, which included a piece of clothing, stationary and a letter from the children that made the boxes. Just seeing all these kids with all these smiles made me feel so good I don’t even know how to put it down in words. It was ‘magnifique.’ That morning passed by so quickly. All I did in just over an hour was to collect drawings and stories from the kids, and we also played Pictionary with some of the older kids.
Lunch provided was fried rice. We ate in the school canteen with all the rest of the school and it really intrigued me how they weren’t even scared of us. This one girl was surrounded by two Europeans, and it didn’t even look like she cared, let alone notice. During our lunch break, we had time to chill out and Fizz, Gee and I got addicted to three kindergarden kids who were just so adorable. This one girl, Mod, was holding on to Fizz the whole time when she was being carried. She didn’t even want to let go. I also noticed this cute little boy in kindergarden, who shone out of the whole group with his shiny golden brown hair. Half Thai/Dutch.
After lunch, while group 1 were entertaining the kids with games and crafts, group two were designing the mural which we were going to complete during our week here, and we were also white washing the wall at the same time. When some of us were taking a break from white washing the wall in the bright sunlight, we would go and either sit around the table under the shade or go into the un-air conditioned computer room where this adorable boy would sit there all day long playing computer games. In the evening, we went out to dinner in a national park five minutes away by bus. Once again, we had Thai food, but it wasn’t that bad. Personally, it was an emotional dinner. It was sad in a way, but happy in another. I have no clue why though considering I got rid of someone I love. After dinner, most of us went to Seven Eleven to stock up on food. Went back to the resort after, and slept pretty early compared to the precedent night. Most likely because I was so tired from staying in the sun for so long.
Tuesday 28th June, 2005
Headed off to Bang Sak school in the morning. This school is sponsored by the King’s project. All that was left of this school after the Tsunami was the flag pole because all that separated the school from the beach was a road and a few lines of palm trees. What they did post-Tsunami was to build a temporary building on top of the hill just behind the old building for classes to go on as normal while the classes and dorms were being built just behind those temporary lines of brick.
As we got off the bus, we were greeted by the principal of the school, who gave us a brief history of the school. We were then taken to a temporary hall which seemed to me more like a sauna once we were inside. The kids we were given to take charge of were a small group of twelve, aged between eleven and twelve. We played a few ice breaking activities, for example the parachute game where the prop we have is a round parachute, and there are so many things we can do with them. We then played dodge ball. They loved it. After sweating during dodge ball, we calmed them down by letting them draw and write about their experiences of the Tsunami and about their lives. One thing during that whole morning that I couldn’t stand was the heat. And on top of that, we didn’t have water until late morning so were all pretty dehydrated. As the kids were finishing off their drawings, I was taking a picture of each of them alongside their drawings, and I also asked them about their pictures and also if they had lost anyone. After we collected off the drawings, we headed down to a waterfall not far away for a well deserved cool off in the water during lunch.
After we were able to cool down and fill our stomachs, we headed off to Pak Weep to start on the painting of the designs. Using our designs we had made the previous day, the other group had drawn out outlines of shapes in the morning so all we did in the afternoon was paint! In the evening, we dined at the resort. The menu was salad, fries, burger and spaghetti. After dinner, we had more time to chill out so we divided our time between the pool, Adam’s room and our room. Nick and Ashleigh were so cute on the beach chair by the pool.
Wednesday 29th June 2005
Fresh start to a new morning. Ok, maybe not fresh considering both me and Fizz were sick. We headed off to Khuk Khak school this morning. The main events of this morning were to collect stories behind drawings and play games with the group. We had a slightly larger group though. Around forty of them or so. They really enjoyed dodge ball. They had a blast. Most of the time, I was with the dodge ball group being umpire. Gas, Kush and Vinu did a great job in collecting stories behind the drawings. It really helps when you have more than one person who can speak Thai even though when it was doing translations, I was the only one doing it. I think our whole group had so much fun today and most of us were running around so much. The funniest moment of the day, however, was probably when Nick asked me to tell the kids to chase Ashleigh. Or could it be the time when this one boy was running after Ashleigh the whole time, or grabbing Adam and Chris’ armpits or even grabbing a few BPS girls’ backsides.
For lunch, we went off to a hotel called Similana hotel. They had a great pool there so it was a great chance once more to cool down. There was also a gorgeous view of the sea from where we were seated having lunch by pool. In the afternoon, it was the same routine. Painting all afternoon. I didn’t mind it at all though. On the contrary, I love it. It’s the only thing that really connects me to my late father. It’s a chance for me to relax and just chill out, even in the sun. Except I didn’t do much painting this afternoon because I was talking to the teachers and students to get stories behind the drawings the kids had made on Monday.
On the way back to the resort, we stopped by the famous police boat which had floated inland to take photos. Most people, however, were throwing rocks either into the stream or across, having a competition as to who could throw it the furthest. That evening, we were in the conference room and had Thai food. We had a quiz that night. The activities we had to do were name the celebrity, name the animal, watermelon carving, play dough food chain, flags, karaoke and a random quiz. We had a blast. Our group, the girls, consisting of Rachel, Christel, Emily, Vinushini and I came in second place. It ended pretty late, so we didn’t get any free time.
Thursday 30th June 2005
We visited Bang Niang School in the morning and the time was split into two. . Indoor activities and outdoor activities. Luckily we did that because the kids here were very enthusiastic and never ran out of energy. We were exhausted a long time before these kids For indoor activities, we did Pictionary, head shoulders knees and toes, Stella Stella but with the alphabet instead and we also sang Old McDonald with the kids. After that, we went outside to play dodge ball on their football pitch, which was dirt. At the same time, Ashleigh, Vinu, Gas and Kush were once again collecting stories as I was needed for the translations for the various different games. After a few games of dodge ball, we just chilled out and I was chatting to a few of the girls and all they were talking about were the couples within our group and how cute they looked. They couldn’t stop mentioning Fizz and Adam, Nick and Ashleigh and also Nun and Nick because Nun had been at this school with the other group on Tuesday. Pupay was the most enthusiastic kid I’ve ever seen. She was so crazy, in a good way. She even helped Nick, our photographer, take random pictures. She couldn’t stop asking us about Nun either because they were already friends. Nick even had to call Nun so that the girls could talk to her. It was pretty funny actually, in a sense. The last activity we did with the kids was a puppet show to calm them all down. Vinu and Ashleigh did a great job! The kids were enjoying themselves so much.
We went back to Similana for lunch and once again had a great time chilling out and cooling down. In the afternoon was our last painting session. We were privileged to finish off the painting and had to do a bit of editing and ‘splashing’ but we had a blast. Ms. Pardoe and I had fun messing up a small section of the wall. Ok, we weren’t messing it up, we were actually making it better because the kids at Pak Weep wanted to help so they were painting when we were taking our lunch break. For dinner, we were back in the conference room. It was mixed between Thai and Western food. After dinner, we watched a DVD of the tsunami from the point of view of a hotel guest. It was actually taken from Khao Lak Sunset Hotel, where we were staying, so it was pretty fascinating. And on top of that, it hasn’t been released to press so its not one of those repeats that we saw the whole time on CNN. Right now, we still have free time. Its half an hour until curfew and I am alone in our room on the balcony listening to the waves crashing on the beach. The sound is sensational. But this is actually freaking me out because it sounds so rough.
Friday 1st July 2005
For the fourth day in a row, Fizz and I were woken up by our own alarm. One called Adam. He’s been waking us up every day. Thank god, otherwise we would have over slept every single day. Our mission for the whole week was successful. We went to four different schools to collect stories and play with the children from these various schools. We completed a long mural. Must have been around fifty metres. We also painted a fence to surround a new playground that we are going to donate at a later date.
After breakfast, we rushed around the four schools to say our goodbyes, take our last pictures, donate off the remaining items and also take a whole group photo of the mural. We then had an hour to finish packing our belongings. Fizz and I had already finished though, so we had free time. On the way to the airport, we were split up into five buses. One went to donate computers to a different school, three buses went directly to the airport and one bus stopped by at the Memorial where the Remembrance Wall was. I was on that bus with Fizz, Adam, Chris, Suferne, Rachel, Callum, Neha, Emily and Mr. Hazell. It was really moving when we were there. Fizz and I couldn’t even stop crying until we reached the airport. Just seeing all the flowers, the pictures, the notes left on the wall was really touching. I didn’t really pay much attention to anything when we were at the airport because I was still in tears from the memorial.
But all I remember was when the plane had started to board, twenty students had bombarded Burger King right in front of our gate ordering lunch in a frenzy. We were practically running to the plane after considering the staff weren’t prepared to be bombarded like that in one go. The plane ride back was normal. Not much happened. I sat next to Alvin and the aisle. Fizz was next to the window and Adam, obviously! On the other hand, when we arrived, we had to take the bus to the other side of the airport, and our bags took around fifteen minutes to get to us.
This trip was definitely a success, and if I could do it again, I would. I had so much fun. I learned so much. I really cant describe it in words except for three words, I loved it!
Much thanks go to all the teachers and staff which went on the trip with us. Mr. Robin Nagy, Mr. Nick Hazell, Ms. Abigail Barnett, Ms. Anita Pardoe, Ms. Jackie Houghton, K. Tong, K. Nong. Special thanks also goes to Nick Mak, our official photographer on the trip. This trip would not have been possible, however, without the support system of the Business staff at Bangkok Patana School. Many lives work behind putting this trip together, and without them, it would not have been as successful as it was.
