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!