Day 2

It's been a bit difficult to find time to blog this time, mainly because the evenings before dinner when I used to write, I now chat to my kids through iMessages! Writing back and  forth with the three of them takes a lot of time, but it's been a great way to keep in touch!

The group on the ride is great! It's a very relaxed and easy going group of people, and I e had the chance to chat to or ride with most now. Everyone has their own story as to why they're here, and how they got here. It's humbling to hear the challenges and experiences that some have faced over the past year.

Mae Thiew continues to ride every km with us, full of smiles and support for everyone. However, I didn't realise how hard she's really doing it until I just spent an hour in the car with Kuhn Gae who explained. Mae Thiews tumours have grown. She spends 4 to 5 hours cleansing her stomach each night. She is in a lot of pain, yet we just never see it. Gae shared with me the details of Mae Thiews illness and the extent of what she does each night and I just can't believe she functions at all, let alone rides a bike each day............

We spent some time today with a group of kids on the side of the road. It was loads of fun, and a reminder how great it is to hear children's laughter in any language! When we left the kids grabbed their bikes and rode with us for a while, which was fun!

The ride itself was only 60 Kms today. Two problems with that. One is that clearly we need to make up the Kms on another day! And secondly, we set off to climb the big huge freakin mountain again that I described last time. I won't go into too much detail as I spoke about that last time, only to say that it wasn't any easier this time! Our legs are sooooo going to hurt tomorrow!

Adam continues to push the Kms out, and really took off today out the front of the pack several times! He rode hard and fast, and truly deserves the beers he's now consuming! I'm loving showing him all the places and experiencing all the things I've been talking about for so long now! He has, however, managed to be nominated as the ride sports reporter, so is regularly updating everyone on the cricket scores!

Off to dinner now, we've certainly burnt enough calories today!

Contemplation the day before 2014 ride

Welcome to my 2014 Hands Across the Water experience! This will be my third adventure into Thailand supporting this great charity and some awesome kids! If you scroll through my previous blogs you'll see some thoughts that I wrote down on my two previous trips, and how they both have impacted on my life in different ways. I guess for me, these experiences have been about the people that I've met and the people that I've travelled with. My first trip was with my sister, Renee, who I shared a lot with at the time and it was great fun to travel as two single women! My second trip was as a single mum with three kids, and couldn't have been further from the carefree travels with Renee!! But as different as these two experiences were, they changed me forever in very different but equally powerful ways. Tomorrow I embark on yet another HATW journey, this time with my very gorgeous, loving husband, who has already strengthend and enriched my life beyond words! I can't wait to share this with you, Adam, it will test us both beyond anything we've experienced, and through that I hope it gives you the wonderful inspiration, rewards and feelings of achievement that I have felt in the past. I love you and can't wait to do this! xox

A weekend of friends and fun!

Our friends, the Taylor's, came to visit us here in Uasothon for the weekend. They are currently living in Chiang Mie as Jim is posted over here with DFAT. They have 4 gorgeous girls, so the 10 of us had a great time! On Friday we explored Yasothon and attracted lots of attention. Everyone was interested in all the kids and the Thai women kept coming up asking who owned which kids! Then we would see them pass on the info to their neighbor and so it would carry on like Chinese whispers throughout the town! Clearly they like to gossip as much as Aussies do! Jim was saying that less than 1% of travelers visit Yasothon so we probably make up their years worth at once! On Saturday we all went to the orphanage for the day and ran activities and English lessons for the kids. Jim
Speaks Thai very well so it was great for the older kids to have lessons with someone who speaks both languages! The younger kids really enjoyed having so many other kids to play with and I have some gorgeous pics of all the blOndes playing with them! Melissa also has a baby so she was very pillar with the older kids and spent most of the day being carried around by them. On Sunday we had planned to go to the elephant show, but it was raining and Mae Thiew phoned to say that we shouldn't go as she didn't want to risk any of the kids getting sick! What a great mother she is, I was fully prepared to take mine out in the rain! So we had to find activities for the kids to do on Sunday too! We played volleyball and soccer, did some more English lessons, watched a Thai elephant movie, played tunnel ball and also with the parachute again. I was definately feeling weary by this time, so in the afternoon I just let them all play while I sat amongst them and watched their happy little faces! The dinner on sun night was donated by a local restaurant which a Korean style BBQ. It was very cool to cook our own meat and see the kids enjoying the food! On Monday we had a rest day to recover some energy and regroup for the next few days. My kids have been doing great and have adapted so well to do much, but the sensory overload on the weekend definately took its toll on them and they needed a break. Today they are feeling much better and keen to get back out to the kids! We bought some books yesterday that will help with tonight's lessons so we're looking forward to being a bit more organised! We also bought some skipping ropes (about 20) so will play some games with those too! We only have two days left, and have very mixed feelings about it. We will really miss these gorgeous little kids and the happy environment over here, but we are all getting homesick and missing everyone very much!! xox

Party!!!

Today was loads of fun!! We played with the kids all afternoon after school, and with both my kids and the Thai kids relaxing now into us being a part of their day, the play is becoming much more natural and relaxed! The boys are loving Paddy because he's wrestles and chases them, and they are very cheeky in the way they chase him and goad him into chasing them back! We had a party tonight because Mae Thiew and Sister leave tomorrow for the hill tribes up north. A Thai style BBQ prepared again by Wutt! And the kids performed dances for us, and Nat played his guitar too! It was all just beautiful!! I also found out that this weekend is the first time that both Sister and Mae Thiew have left the orphanage to go away at the same time!! Sister has been ensuring that everything is ready and organised. She has been very focused on the preparation and does seem a little stressed about leaving them all! But she does keep saying to me that she is very glad we come at this time so she feels better about leaving them because we here to help!! So given her level of stress, you can imagine my surprise when she agreed that I can take ALL the kids to an elephant camp about 140kms away!!! We will do it on Sunday, and 5 staff will come with me to help! Even the babies are coming! I can't wait, what a privilege to be trusted with their children, and what fun we are all going to have!!!

The children thanked us tonight by giving us blessings and tying friendship bands around our wrists! So we all now have many beautiful white bands around our wrists that are full of live and good wishes for our future. Mae Thiew leaves tomorrow for the hill tribes, so saying goodbye was very hard. We both had tears in our eyes, and she told me she loves me many times! She even told me that she stayed strong and healthy to see me again! I have promised her that we will come back again and again, and that we'll bring more friends to help support her beautiful children! I told her that she is the most amazing woman that I have ever met! How special to once again share time with her and to part with tears in our eyes! I am truly blessed to have met her, and am so very glad that my kids had the opportunity to meet such a beautiful person. xox

Market day!

When we arrived at the orphanage today Sister asked us if we'd like to accompany her to the market. So we all piled into the car and drove into the market for a very special experience! Sister said that she wanted to show us how they live and going to the market is one aspect that she was keen to show us! She kept asking my kids "different to Australia, yes?". And yes it is very different. Sister bought us many foods to try, and by the end of the trip we were so full!! I can't make all the things that she bought us because there were so many and she was so fast at buying them and getting us to try them! The kids were great and tried most things! We have a huge bag full of sweet things to bring back to our hotel that we couldn't eat! My favourite was a dessert that we ate after dinner. It was a coconut based custard baked in a pumpkin! Very delicious! After the market we went back to the orphanage and when the kids arrived home from school we played until dinner time! Patrick has made friends with Tong who follows him around everywhere and likes to play and wrestle! Gracie played with the babies again, and loves to make them laugh! Laura and I played with the other kids blowing bubbles for them and chatting to the teenagers. After another beautiful dinner cooked by Kuhn Wutt we gave more English lessons. This time we took some chalk and the kids wrote numbers and did maths on the path! One very clever little boy wrote the numbers all the way to 100!

Today was a very special day for me for another reason too. On Friday Mae Thiew and Sister along with most of the staff are heading north to the hill tribes. They will be staying up there for a week. The tribes up there ate very poor and Mae Thiew has packed her car full of things to take up for the children up there! Whilst Homehug doesn't have much, they said that the children up there have even less, including no electricity so they wil do what they can for them! What very special people we are visiting with here to give to others when they themselves have so little! Mae Thiew and Sister are very grateful to me for being here at this time as there will be very few staff here over the weekend to look after the children at Homehug. Sister asked me yesterday could I plan the activities and schedule for the kids for Saturday and Sunday! She said that she was giving me get children for the weekend!! How very special, exciting and humbling that they would trust me to do this! They do not trust their children to others very easily, so I feel so very privileged! So now I have to write a schedule for two whole days, and show it to sister before they leave. She runs a very tight ship here, so I hope my planning and activities are up to scratch! I will show her today for approval, fingers crossed she approves!! xox

Mae Thiew

We arrived at Homehug this afternoon to a very excited Mae Thiew! It was so great to see her again, and she kept hugging me and saying "I miss you"! She is such an amazingly strong woman, yet so gentle, loving and caring that I just feel so privileged to be with her! We hugged and chatted for a while, and then it was time to play!! The kids got home from school looking beautiful in their white shirts and school uniforms, they changed, did their chores and then came out to play! We have a parachute for them and spent the afternoon showing them how to use it! We played cat and mouse,but their favourite was lying on their backs under it while we lifted it up and down over them! The littlies loved the feel of it over them, and I think the wind it created was a welcomed relief to the heat! It is so hot over here, just so humid and sticky we are always wet! Gracie loved the babies and kept asking to go in and play with them. Paddy played poison ball with the boys and loved it! It was so great to see him relax into life at the orphanage, make friends and find the confidence to join in their games. He is really looking forward to getting back there tomorrow, as are we all!! I think what helped him relax was that he realised we didn't need to be able to communicate with words to understand each other. Dinner was cooked by my buddy Kuhn Wutt and was amazing! We all agreed it was the best meal we've had since we arrived in Thailand! Perhaps our emotions have something to do with it, but what an amazing cook you are Kuhn Wutt! After dinner we gave the kids English lessons. Interesting, given that I can't speak Thai!! But great none the less, and Laura was amazing helping me!! Her ability to adapt and jump in and give everything a go continues to make me so very proud!!

Homehug!!

We've had another big day of traveling today, with all three kids asleep tonight by 7pm!! Flew from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani, hired a car and I drove the 100kms to Yasothon. Despite directions from Peter, I still drove past the orphanage a zillion times before I worked out I could pull up a picture on my iPhone and show it to someone who could point me in the right direction!! Did the same for the hotel, pulled up the website on my phone and showed it to some locals who gave me directions!! Clearly you dOnt need to speak the same language to give or receive directions, sign language of sorts was very effective!! And a note about driving in Thailand - indicators, using lanes, speed limits and any sort of road rules are all optional!! But I figured that I just had to drive the same to blend in, and I was fine! Nothing like overtaking a car and just assuming the oncoming traffic will make a third lane and drive in the shoulder to let you through!! I don't know why they bother painting white lines at all!! So after all that we quickly checked into our hotel, then went in to see the kids! Was so good to see them again!! And Kuhn Wutt and the beautiful staff too! Mae Thiew wasn't there this afternoon, so I will see her tomorrow. Can't wait!! 😄