Bits and Pieces of the End

These last few weeks have been bustling with activity! Lots of outings with the kids, and outings among volunteers. Julia and I are leaving on the same day and are trying to squeeze in as much as we can in the short time we have.

One trip we took to the floating market was unsuccessful due to closed roads, so we crashed at McDonalds and had one of the funniest afternoons of my trip.

The three musketeers, trying to get it all in before we all return home next week.

We also made a trip into China Town. The lights were brilliant, and the food was even better!

Typical Emily and Julia photo. 

On the boat to get to China Town

Yummmmmmm

Too late for the boat, so we ended up taxi-ing home.

One Sunday after lunch a beautiful and generous family from Nichada invited us to their house to eat lunch, swim in their pool and make ice cream sundaes. 

This little girl, Nong Pim, joined us for the afternoon at Nichada. She's recently been granted her visa to go to the USA after a long adoption process.

Other things involve the children from Rainbow! 

Anna and I took two of the kids from Rainbow out for some McDonalds ice cream and then to some good ol' mall rides. You know, the ones that cost a loonie and last about 1.5 minutes? However these ones cost 10 baht (30 cents) and last long enough for the kids to get bored.

Pet and Kim, the two we took out.

Beautiful Kim

Pet riding the helicopter.

The next thing on the agenda was a graduation ceremony. Bee, Pet, Ploy, Deaw, ChiCha, Kim, Au, and Pet Siri were all kids who attended Rainbow House Daycare every morning and did school teaching with Sethi and Kru Nok. These kids took a test this year and were ALL accepted to real school! The date for school starting date was approaching and I asked Sethi and Ana if they thought we should do something in celebration. So we took our idea to the director and planned out a schedule. Costumes were created, families came, photos were taken, a slide show was presented, and a few tears (mostly mine. . .) were shed. It was a real proud moment for everyone, and a great success on the Thai staff side as well as the volunteer side!

The graduates!

Bee!

This was such a touching moment! This boy, Pet Siri, was taken to Rainbow House every day from his house by the same motorbike driver. He lives at home with his father but I had never seen him in my whole time being in Thailand. However, for graduation he came and the pride across his face was so incredible! 

All the graduates with their certificates and the director Khun Wasan.

Au and his mom! Au is from a town 3 hours away and hadn't been able to get into school there. His mom brought him to Rainbow House in hopes that one day he would be able to pass the test to get in. It was always really tough for Au to live away from his mom, but his excitement of passing the test and succeeding in such a big way was so amazing to see.

Everyone is so proud of this little boy, Deaw. His next destination was the older boys government home where his chances of getting any education was zero. His passing the test prevented this tragedy and now he is off to school, getting the education he deserves and thrives on.

Teachers, volunteers, and graduates. CONGRATS!

Ana and I brought an activity to Rainbow House last week. Cooking! The outcome was an excellent lesson that I'm continually taught it seems, but I just choose to ignore.

I can't cook

There I said it. The only thing I seem to do well is fish, and once in a while I can make a batch of cookies without any mix ups. . .oh and scrambled eggs.

Bread though, for pizza is beyond me. My mom is an excellent teacher, and has taught me so many times, however, I guess my listening skills require some work.

We wanted to make pizza with the kids. So we made 4 batches of dough, ONE turned out alright. One of them I allowed to rise, or didn't miss the egg, or didn't roll out on a table full of old food crumbs. One. . .

So we made a quick run to Tesco and bought some bread. Pizza bread was the alternative!

Me and Samon

Sethi and Ku Nok with the pizza bread!

Bee with Kru Nok decorating her pizza

Ana and I made one real pizza, we put it in the oven, took it out at the right time, tried a piece and it was amazing. We said, "Just a few more minutes" and stuck it back into the oven. A few more minutes was a few too many (it was more like 15. . .)

The outcome discouraged me from ever touching an oven again.

Whoops.

So we had the pizza bread, and it was alright; but I think I'll need intense encouragement before I'll touch the handle of the oven door again.

Last weekend we had four of the girls from Rainbow House over for a slumber party at Sirin House! 

First was a trip to Swensens where Gable treated us all to two huge bowls of ice cream.

Yummm

Bee and I

Camping out in front of the TV for some Nanny McPhee in Thai!

The next morning was Sunday so we took them to church. The girls all really enjoyed junior church. The songs were a lot of fun! Full of actions and dance moves that the girls are all too excited to participate in.

Bee on the mattress in the morning. The night before we let them choose out one hair accessory for church the next morning. This was her choice!

Chicha with her hair choice.

And these last few photos are just from good times at work!

Au as a lion in the soft play room!

Rawrrrrrr

Ton!

This is his Power Ranger face. He tries to be tough, but really he is only able to be cute.

Bee and Ana in Drama Therapy at Rainbow House being "silly"

Joy at Drama Therapy!

Ball poolin'

Toa joining in the fun

Probably the cutest monkey you will ever see

I have 6 days of work left, 6! Soon this blog will be finished, and I'm going to miss this a lot. Keep hanging in there though followers as I am working on a few more posts before my departure! 

And as a side note, I thought I should include the fact that I stole every single one of these photos from someone. Thanks Ana, Julia, and Gable!