My job

I am working at Ban Rachawadee in Nonthaburi Province, just outside of Bangkok. (Yes, it's spelled differently on the sign. They are wrong.) It is a home for boys with both mental and physical disabilities. There are about 600 living there, and most are officially orphaned. Their families (from all over Thailand) are often too poor to care for a child with such extreme handicaps, and so turn them over to the care of the state. They live at a home down the street until they are 7-years old, then they live the rest of their lives at Ban Rachawadee. They are separated by severity of condition, from unable to function at all to very self-sufficient but unable to live on their own. I chose to work with the more self-sufficient group.

The first day there wasn't bad, but I didn't fall in love with the job either. Today, though, I really had a good time. Ban Rachawadee has a lot of different activities for the boys and men to participate in, but I was immediately attracted to the art room. So far I know I haven't worked with children, but I can't guess the age of the men I'm working with. I help them with their work, and hopefully will be able to suggest some new projects for them. All of their crafts are sold in the on-sight store.

All of the staff are really nice (like all the Thai people I've met so far). They even nicknamed me! Tomorrow I will go with them to a province in Northern Thailand for 2 days. I think it is some sort of conference where we'll meet people and see other homes like Ban Rachawadee. I'm sure I won't understand any of it, but it's in the mountains so I'm excited about that.

A large gymnasium for organized games and free time:

Some of their bodies are severely deformed, and so they learn to use whatever they can best control. This is often their feet or mouths.

One of the boys had a crush on my host mom!

The love getting their picture taken.

I sewed together the one on the right!

I spent the morning outside with them, making and packaging hooks to hang keys on.

In other news, I think I have been officially accepted as a member of my host family. First of all, if you didn't know already, Thai people live by their own special time. If a Thai person tells you 10:00, don't expect them before 10:15. Yesterday my host mom told me she would pick me up between 4:00 and 4:30, and when she came at 4:25, she apologized for making me wait. Today she told me the same time, and made no mention of her arrival at 5:15!

Today I also had my first, and hopefully last, experience with Thai dancing. My host sister had her first lesson tonight, and they said I could come along and try it. I was really excited, but after 20 minutes, my fingers, wrists, neck, knees, and toes were in pain. I wasn't even thinking about the 10 people inside the studio watching me, and the various passers-by looking through the windows! The pictures from this experience are on my host family's camera, so those will come some other time.

This was an unavoidably long post, so I'm sorry about that. For those of you who stuck it out, thank you and I hope I didn't bore you!

Love,

Alex