Don’t go chasing Waterfalls…

Day 7

My head ached a little, just a little. It transpires Chang is 6.4% in Thailand, not the lower percentage that I am used to in England!

The plan for the weekend was to accompany David, his family, and Cliff & Jackie up into the mountains, and to Hot Coffee (a resort owned by The Rain Tree Foundation, to help support their adjoining children's orphanage). The resort is in the Maenonchorn area of Northern Thailand, which meant travelling through the Doi Inthanon National Park.

First things first – Cliff and Jackie are lovely people! They set up a charity called Josie’sDragonfly Trust, about 5 years ago, when their Daughter - Josie - died of Leukaemia, at a tragically young age (16). After months andyears of treatment, nothing was helping, so Josie decided that enough was enough, and that she was going to enjoy her final moments, instead of suffering them in a hospital. This led to the Dragonfly Trust, which uses its funds to help brighten the difficult days that many young children & teenagers experience when living with cancer - they do this by giving young children and teenagers suffering from Cancer a ‘cash gift’, so they have some money and independence to enjoy themselves and to take their minds off their illness.

Obviously ‘cash gifts’ cost money…and money doesn’t grow on trees, so feel free to donate some money to this wonderful cause, to tell others about it, or visit their website to buy some jewellery or dragonfly products - Josie designed the Dragonfly necklace whilst ill!

The Dragonfly Trust have organised some fundraising treks/trips in Thailand, and thus why they wanted to do a ‘dry run’ and see some of the places this weekend. A part of the trip involves each fundraiser donating money to buy a Rain Tree Foundation water filter, and then helping the villagers install them. So it’s win, win, the Dragonfly Trust raise money for their wonderful cause, whilst aiding one of the Rain Tree Foundations wonderful causes!

So, we headed into the mountains and away from Chiang Mai (my head was still aching!), our first stop was the Vachiratharn water fall in the Doi Inthanon National Park. A lovely waterfall, I think you’ll agree...

Whilst here, some Thai Muslims (a minority religion in Thailand) asked to have their photo taken with me and Cliff - I’ll confess this has happened to me once before - whilst in Spain, Madrid to be precise, some Spanish girls asked to have their photo taken with me, and then went back to join their family at their table, to this day I don’t know why, I've always assumed they mistook me for Brad Pitt, so I’m going to assume this is what happened this time as well! Anyhow, they got their photo, and I managed to get one back!

We then headed onto Hot Coffee at Maenachorn. Here, we met with 3 other Rain Tree Foundation volunteers, Lara and Linda – who are helping to look after the kids and teaching English at the local school, and Jessica – who is helping to run Hot Coffee, as well as helping out with the kids. The kids were all at a sports day, so we all went Bamboo rafting!

When we returned, we looked around the Childrens home, to find out what the kids do and understand the project more.  Some of the Kids are orphans and some of them come down from the tribes for the school months. There is little education or opportunities for the children up in the hills, so the project provides the children with some basic education and language skills. The kids go to school from about 8am – 4pm, then they return to undertake various activities around the home i.e. gardening, cleaning, woodcraft etc then after dinner, they have another English lesson. Although this sounds like hard work, it’s not as hard as they would be working if they were with their Tribes – where they would be getting no education. As well as the volunteers, there are also ‘Host Parents’ living on site.

Day 8

It is supposed to be ‘colder’ in the mountains, and I’ll be honest, for the first time since being in Thailand, I felt a little Chilly in the morning! However, still warmer than 95% of the year in England!

I had decided to have a bit of a lie in, partly to shake off the remaining jet lag/mild hangover, and partly because I was comfortable!

I had some free time in the morning, so I got talking to one of the workers at Hot Coffee – Rut, who is from the Karen Tribe, and can speak some English. Sensing I had some time to kill, he took me to see a local church/prayer room near the Childrens Home/Hot Coffee, a few of the kids said ‘hi’ and shook my hand, others stared and kept their distance. I spoke to some of the locals, who were all friendly, smiled and laughed a lot – I’m pretty sure at times they were mocking me! I think they thought it was strange that I am 26 and have no wife or children!

On the way back into Hot Coffee, one of the kids was playing Takraw on his own, so I thought it would be nice to play with him. This probably ruined his fun, as I wasn’t as good as him, my excuses for this are as follows: the ball was smaller than usual, it was made of rattan and I’m not used to playing some kind of football/volleyball/tennis hybrid!!

After this, we heading back to Chiang Mai, stopping off for lunch on the way. Davids two kids had got more used to me during this trip, and decided to spend the whole day attacking me with the dragonflies that Cliff and Jackie had kindly given them, also at one stage they tied my hands together and declared at various stages that I was their prisoner/pet/a pirate. I’ve decided that entertaining two kids for a day and a half is knackering...which is why I’m 26 and have no children!

All in all I had a pleasant weekend, which went quickly. It was nice to meet Cliff and Jackie, and I hope their fundraising trips are successful.

Although tired, when I got back I decided it would be nice to go for a cycle around the local area, whilst there was still a little sun left (and to help burn off the copious amounts of Rice I have been eating). As per usual, this lasted longer than I had planned (I definitely didn’t get lost/go round in circles), I was relieved once I had found my ‘homing device’ – the Ping River. Many of the locals said ‘hi’  on this trip and it seems they live quite contently away from the mod cons of the modern world, and I felt envious…but then I got back to my guesthouse and Skyped with my family, and I thought how great the modern world and its mod cons are!

I don’t like Cricket(s)…I love them!

Day 5

The cockerel kept me company for most of the night (I’ve decided to name him ‘noisy’), but at least this gave me time to think about what I was going to do, and to put a plan of action together in my head.

Ralf has leant me a bicycle, so I cycled into work, making sure I avoided the dogs! Most of the staff were out; at various seminars, delivering water filters, or visiting the villages. So I was able to knuckle down and get on with the task in hand.

I spent the day trying to summarise the various sources of financial transactions the organisation has, so I could produce an overview and understand the Foundations finances a bit better. I also began producing some project budgets, a cash flow forecast – which should all lead to me improving their ‘accounting system’ (this is my plan of action!). I’ve enjoyed doing all of these things, as It’s recently become a fear of mine, that the longer I’m an ‘auditor’, the harder it would be to do ‘day-to-day’ accounting tasks (no matter how basic) - so being able to use more of the skills I learnt whilst gaining my qualification has been reassuring.

I went out on my own to get lunch, I walked past many food stalls, but was waiting for a busy one. I was also preparing in my head what to say, I fancied some fried rice, which in Thai is ‘Khao pet’, (pronounced ‘cow pat’), and for some reason or another, I just couldn’t gather the confidence to go up to a food stall, in a foreign country and ask for ‘cow pat’! Thankfully, a local took pity on me, after doing a loop (and looking hungry and lost), I approached a food stall…but before I got round to pointing to some food, a local said ‘hello’ and then asked if I wanted to eat, which I did…she then proceeded to order for me…I got back to the office, with no idea what I had in my ‘doggy bag’. I opened it to find some noodles, veg, soup, blood sausage and some chicken on the bone…I put the last two items in the bin, and had a lovely noodle and veg soup! For dinner, I went to the local village shop and bought some bread and cheese!

I haven’t bought any DVD’s to Thailand with me (as I can watch films anytime!), so after eating my lovely cheese sandwiches (and doing some more work!), I thought I would see if I had any films on my laptop - as it was too late and I was too tired to do anything else – It turns out I only have one film on my laptop…Love Actually...I have no idea how this got here!! Anyhow, in a hot foreign country, I ended up watching a soppy Christmas rom-com - my favourite bits include: Hugh Grant dancing, Andrew Lincoln declaring his love for Keira Knightly via ‘dummy boards’, the story involving Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson, and the story with Liam Neeson and his son – so most of it. Afterwards I did some press-ups, and looked for football scores on the internet to counteract what had just happened!

Day 6

I spent the ride to work thinking of the various ways I could declare my love for Keira Knightly.

The day was spent continuing the tasks from the day before. I also began my attempt to put a new ‘accounting system’ together (just an excel spreadsheet) and writing process notes, to show how it would work (with examples) and why it would make things easier! I’ve never done anything like this before…im not sure how it will end up!

Thankfully someone in the office went out to get lunch!

Stefan and Thomas asked if I would like to join them for a drink in town in the evening. At first, I declined, as I had an early(ish) start on Saturday morning, and I know that a few drinks, can easily lead to a few more drinks! However, after some rather gentle persuading, I quickly changed my mind – I figured it would be rude to decline their offer/I fancied a beer/they are both nice people. So we went to the Tha Pae Gate area of Chiang Mai for some Chang lager, some of their other friends also turned up. I then lost a few frames of pool to Stefan, before we played (and lost) a couple of frames of ‘doubles’ against some Belgium travellers (I fear I may have been the weak link!)!

Some bar snacks were ordered whilst we finished our beers, what to expect; Crisps? Peanuts? Pork Scratchings? No, nope and nada! Instead a plate of ‘fried Crickets’ was served up – now, I don’t know what made me try these, I wasn’t hungry, there was no pressure for me to try them, but I did. To be fair, they didn’t taste of much (just salt), and if you didn’t look at them, it could have been anything…until you get a wing stuck between your teeth - which is a stark reminder you are eating an insect!!! All in all it was a pleasant evening!

The Task...

Day 3

I think jet-lag caught up with me during the night, as from 2am – 5am (7pm – 10pm) I couldn’t sleep, then, just as I nodded off…the cockerel started!

Ralf greeted me in the office and instantly put me at ease, after some introductions and drinks (it’s already a running joke that I keep drinking Tea…which seems to be a purely British obsession!), we started to discuss the Rain Tree Foundation and the scope of my ‘assignment’. I won’t go into too much detail, but to cut a long story short, the Foundation is growing, and what was once a simple organisation consisting of a few projects to help Children, is now an expanding organisation with lots of different projects helping various groups of people. This is what I am to assist with, to help get an overview of the organisation and its finances, and potentially suggest improved ways to record transactions and how to account for certain items. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I can achieve everything I would like to (due to a lack of skills and time!)…but I’ll give it a go, and I already think there would be plenty of work for another volunteer to come over and finish/start.

For lunch we had noodle soup, and my penchant for spicy food, seems to have gone down well with the locals!

The afternoon was spent talking to Ralf and David, and it’s amazing how many barriers etc are in place that can prevent NGO’s carrying out their work.

After work, we (Me, Ralf, David & Stefan) went to a Horse centre (literally minutes from our office), where Ralf & David’s family were enjoying drinks and cakes. It was a pleasant way to end the day, although, when I ordered a Tea, I was given a comically large mug…everyone else had normal size cups! I also had the best tasting snack ever, I can’t remember what it was called, but it appeared to have chocolate, fruit and custard in it!

By this time, I was feeling shattered, so decided I would walk back to my guesthouse (approx. 15mins), quite a few of the locals said ‘hi’ and smiled as I walked by, which relaxed me. Closer to home, one older local came to talk to me, after surprising me with a ‘hello, how are you’ I responded with my standard; ‘Swadee Krap’,‘wai’, smile and thumbs up, we then talked for about a minute, what we talked about, I have no idea – as we had both used are understanding of each other’s language in the opening exchange -  but we did lots of smiling, gesticulating and pointing, he then started laughing and gave me a big pat on the back, before wandering off. This gave me a bit of a buzz, and I started to think that a guesthouse in the middle of nowhere and out of the tourist centre isn’t so bad!

Day 4

I walked to work with a spring in my step, partly because I felt more relaxed about the assignment, but mainly because some small dogs started chasing me!

The day was spent going over the organisation further, finalising the objectives and understanding the figures a bit better. There was a lot to take in!

The other workers and locals keep complaining how cold it is, I know it’s all relative, but the first few days here have been warmer than the majority of our summer - I’m not sure I’ve seen a cloud in the sky yet - not, that I am getting any time to work on my tan!

In the evening we all went out for a meal in a fancy restaurant on the outskirts of the city. I’m not sure what the theme of the place was, but I felt like I was in I was in a scene from the Flintstones Movie – waterfalls for taps?! Once again, I ate far too much, but the food was soooo nice and there was lots of it.

Once I got back, I thought of all the things I need/want to do, and how little time it seems I have (mild panic set in!). But I figured I would start with some of the smaller tasks, and see how far I can get through them! I nodded off into a peaceful sleep...until the cockerel started in the early hours!

And so it begins...

Day 1

I arrived in Chiang Mai after a surprisingly pleasant (but sleep deprived) 13-14 hour flight. David (Office Manager) picked me up at the airport, and we went for some breakfast with his family – which was nice. After settling in to my guesthouse, which is peaceful, clean and cheap (I don’t think there is anyone else staying here!)…I decided to ‘stroll’ into town, this ‘stroll’ ended up lasting around 2 hours (I definitely didn’t get lost/go round in circles) and resulted in a sunburnt neck! Needless to say, I quite enjoyed it, within minutes, I couldn’t ignore the glorious smell of food anymore, so I picked a busy looking restaurant and ordered my first Pad Thai! I inadvertently walked ‘The Saturday walking street’ on a Sunday during this jaunt…I doubt that counts as a tick on my bucket list though!

I had agreed to meet David and his family for dinner, so I hailed down a ‘tuk-tuk’ to carry me home…I got mildly concerned, when it headed off in a completely different direction to which I expected, but I figured, ‘he probably knows Chiang Mai a little better than me’…after about 5 minutes of heading North, he stopped and said he didn’t know where he was going and hadn’t heard of the place (I had shown him the guesthouse’s business card)…after 10mins on the phone, he decided he did know where it was and we finally got back in time for my dinner appointment.

Day 2

After a nice night’s sleep (my first in over 24hours), it was time to go to the office for my induction (I travelled in style on the back of a moped!), the office is based in an old lepers colony/missionary, and there is a skin hospital, retirement home and many other businesses based there. I met the office staff, using this as the perfect opportunity to impress them with  my ‘sawadee’ and ‘wai’ (the traditional Thai greeting)…the office consists of; David, Stefan (Project manager), Pe (Accountant), Wanida and Noi (Office admin) – all of them were nice and welcoming. Ralf, the director/owner of Rain Tree Foundation was away on business (this had been communicated to me prior to my arrival), so after brief introductions and talking about the organisation with David, we went out for lunch.

I then had some free time, so decided to attack my ‘bucket list’, I decided it was too late in the day to attempt Doi Suthep (a large hill which overlooks the City), so I headed for the ‘Old City’ and Wat Phra Sing…which took longer find than I thought it would (I definitely didn’t get lost/go round in circles), the Wat (Temple) is one of the main attractions in the city, and the buildings are surrounded by some pleasant gardens (See photos!). I then decided to head to the Ping river, before heading back into the Night Bazaar (another tick!)…which was just getting busy, and where I will return to buy gifts at a later date! I was feeling hungry by this point, and decided to risk a busy street stall for a Pad Thai…it was amazing (I still have the taste in my mouth as I write this!).

So, now all I had to do was get home, right? Once again no easy task! After my ‘tuk-tuk’ experience, I decided to play it safe and get a licensed Taxi, but, the same result…he had noooo idea where it was, but he made some phone calls and finally decided he could get me there. I departed from my usual ‘cab driver chat’ for this ride, and had a nice conversation with Mr. Saringkarn Nogoon…or Bobby (his English name), it turns out whilst at University he used to fight in Muay Thai competitions, and had 21 fights, winning 16 of them and losing 3…I didn’t correct him on his maths, as my current kick boxing record is F 1 W 0 L1!!

So, Two days in, I think I’m slowly adjusting to Thai life and customs, which is slower than the UK, but also more cheerful and relaxed! I’m looking forward to getting properly started tomorrow, and seeing what I can do to help. I also think that once I am a bit more settled, I will move to a guest house in Chiang Mai, so I can relax and mingle in the city more.

Bucket List...

On my last night in Brighton, me and a few friends went to a local Thai restaurant for a few farewell drinks and to get me (and my stomach) in the mood for the trip! As per usual, a couple of us tried to ‘out spice’ each other with an ‘extra hot’ Jungle Curry (it ended in a draw) - I can only imagine the rest of our friends at the table/all the other customers were impressed! All in all, it was a pleasant evening (thanks friends!). As a side note, and to put how nice the Thai meal was into perspective, I also went to see some mates in London the night before departing, we ended up getting a Burger King at London Bridge Train Station, and as per usual, we tried to out ‘large’ each other (it ended in a draw!)

Anyhow, I digress, the ‘bucket list’…the waitress at the aforementioned Thai meal, got wind of my imminent departure to Chiang Mai, partly because some of the people told her, and partly because I was trying out my limited Thai language skills – at this stage* all I could say was ‘Hello’ and ‘Thank you’. It transpired that the waitress and some of the chefs are from Chiang Mai (or nearby!)…and they presented me with a ‘bucket list’ (see pic) of things to do whilst in the city. Time permitting; I will attempt to complete this!

*Update: This remains all I can say!

A few days to go...

Sawadee...

As I'm only a few days away from my volunteer placement, I thought it would be a good idea to start my blog!

Since stumbling across AfID a couple of years ago, its always been my intention to volunteer abroad...I've just had to wait until I qualified!!

I've wanted to volunteer for a number of reasons; to challenge myself, to get out of my comfort zone, to learn new skills, to experience different cultures etc...but the main (and cheesiest) reason is that its always been my ambition to use my skills & experience to help others!

I've felt a number of emotions since securing my placement; relief, excitement, doubt, anxiety, doubt, anxiety, excitement, and then some more anxiety! The anxiety and doubt stem from the fear that:
a) I wont be able to achieve much in 3 weeks; and
b) I wont have the skills required to help The Rain Tree Foundation as much as they (or I) would like.

I believe the above concerns are the 'common fears' for volunteers, so hopefully my blog will help prove that although these fears are common...they are unfounded!

I've never been to Thailand or travelled alone before, so the whole time should be an experience and hopefully a positive one!

I'm sure there will be some tough days, but I'm equally sure these will be outweighed by the good days. I plan to experience, help and learn as much as I can over the next three weeks. I'm sure there will be things I miss, like work (just in case my manager/colleagues are reading!), and playing football with my 5-a-side team, in fact another concern of mine is c) My football team will win all their games without me and realise I'm not needed!!!

Finally, thanks to AfID for making this happen, work for letting me have time off, The Rain Tree Foundation for agreeing to have me!

Anyway, enough of me talking the talk, time to walk the walk! I'll update this blog when I can!