Hello,

Had our meeting with the guy who runs the orphanage project last night, only to be told that there arent any children there at the moment! Our company were supposed to tell us but didnt. The reason is that most of the children that go there arent actually orphans, but there families are really poor and cant afford to look after them, so they stay in the orphanage but goe home for school holidays. the rest of them go then to live in temples to learn buddism during the holidays. there are still about 10 children there, but there must be about 30 or more volunteers so it doesnt really work. some of the girls were really upset because they came here to work with children, and some are staying for a couple of months and wont get so spend any time with them. instead we can help in building projects there, painting, and digging and building. i was a bit sad, but dont mind that much and i am happy to do anything that i know helps the children, and i dont mind doing a bit of practical stuff. So when we got there i got involved in construction work and i spent the day mixing up cement, which was really hard physical work, especially in 35C heat. I actually enjoyed it though, so it was ok. we are helping to build the children a new dining room, which is cool. I was booked on to go to the orphanage for the next two weeks, however today i swaped onto another project for the rest of this week, and then i will continue building in the orphanage next week. most people who are staying where I am are doing something called the Thailand Exepeince which lasts for 4 weeks, they have an intro week, a culture week, a trekking week then a beach week. so i am going to be doing the intro week with the others. this means i will be learning how to do Thai cooking, learn beginners thai language, visit some temples and go to local markets etc. I just thought that by only going to the orphanage for two weeks (where there arent even any children) i am not going to see that much of thailand, and since i am not going to get that much time here i thought i would get to see it a bit this week then still do the construction at the orphanage next week. Also the people who are doing the orphanage are mostly only dutch or swedish, and although they all speak english, they speak to each other in their own languages, so some of the time i am a bit out of the loop. the people doing the thai experince are also mostly english so that will be good. I have uploaded some picutres from today. I dont think i will make it online tomorow as i think we will get back late from the temples. it is scary coming to this internet cafe at night, as there are loads of wild dogs that congregate outside, and one of them bit the person i am sharing a room with once so getting online late here isnt so easy, but i am braving it tonight just for you guys!
We had a dance performed for us by some of the local thai children which was really nice, and made us get up and dance with them, which was fun.
Thanks by the way for all of your text messages, they really do help me to feel less homesick. PS i have just tried to uplopad some pics, but only some of them have uploaded. will try the rest tomorrow, so have another look then!