I am slightly behind in my updates because of the hours we are keeping. We leave Baan Orapin each day at 8:00 AM and don’t return until 6:00 pM. After a shower and quick dinner we return to find the internet not working after 10:00 PM so I have been posting in the early morning hours between 4:30 AM and 7:00 AM. Crazy schedule but fills the time I would normally be staring at the ceiling anyway wondering why I can’t sleep.
Christmas Eve was spent with one of my favorite guides Sergeant Kai, who knows what I like by now like the back of his hand and brings us only to non touristy hilltribes and villages. We visited an elementary school where the kids found Steve to be the best jungle gym ever. He taught the villagers “high five” and the phrase “later dude”. That tribe will never be the same again!! LOL
The teachers invited us to join them for lunch so we had a phenomenal peasant style meal with them and such hospitality you wouldn’t believe. They didn’t know Kai at all yet invited us to stay and share with this very poor school. We purchased cookies for the kids beforehand and the teacher handed them out to the beautiful kids. You will notice a blonde girl….she was albino (most likely from inbreeding) and isolated herself from the other children. It was very sad to watch.
If a few pix you see the childeren clustered around Steve…..he taught them to flip the photos on his cellphone and they litereally overwhelmed him on the ground!! Every one was laughing so hard!! At each location we visited we were the only visitors. Kai knows we love the off the beaten path experiences and he delivers 10 fold!!
ONe of the childeren named Rata followed me like a lost soul. I could see she was in awe of something..maybe it was my red hair….she couldn’t unglue her eyes from me. I wanted to just give her a huge hug!!! She was quiet and shy yet bold enough to grab my hand and hold it. What a moving experience. These kids are so incredibly poor but very happy. I love to visit these kids and will do a fundraiser in 2011 to help as much as I can.
We visited a few villages and wandered around each until finally it got dark. I didn’t wan the day to end!! I hope you enjoy these photos as you celebrate your Xmas day and we can all count our blessings together!!! Merry Christmas from the patio of our B and B…2 cats at my feet, a bunny, and incense burning a few feet away!! BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW VIDEOS BELOW OF THE THAI COOKING SCHOOL AND OUR SUITE. MORE ABOUT THE SCHOOL TO COME TOMORROW
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