English Camps

March saw the arrival of the english camp team. As ever in Thailand, FLEXABILITY has to be our ethos. A week before we were due to start the camp the location had to be changed because of a burst pipe. We ended up at the boys hostel and had an amazing time!!!! We taught english in the mornings - This ranged for us from teaching tenses to writing plays in english. We had the top two groups so they understood a fair bit of english. In the afternoons we taught dancing with our two new friends - Soph and Miles (Aka Milo). The late afternoons and evenings were usually spent with the kids playing board games, volleyball, foot volleyball, clapping games and many other things.



On the last day we went to the waterfall and had a marvellous last few hours. It was very strange for us as we waved the english team, the boys and the girls off. (As the children were all going home for summer) It was very quiet afterwards, but we used our time effectively, learning Thai. (watching a Thai Film!!!)



We did our first border run on Monday and crossed into Burma. It rained most of the time and as we were sat in the bus shelter (waiting for our bus which would take us to Chiang mai) it almost felt like england - cold and wet!!!!! The bus journey home was an experience. We felt as if we were on a plane. There was a lady who brought food and drink to us and gave us wipes at the end of the journey to refresh us. Much to our dissappointment as we borded the coach we were 2nd class. (Normal coach seats) First class had luxorious reclining leather seats. Again we watched another film in Thai that was very very strange!!!



We have spent the last few days with the Holt Family having lots of fun and reminissing over the previous week - We are really going to miss them.



Next on our agenda is a week Thai study and then Songkran (Thai New Year). We will post some pics soon of the water throwing festival xxx

The Arrival Of The Malvern Team!!

We had been looking forward to the Malvern Teams arrival for weeks and finely the wonderful day arrived.
It was great to see Deb, Dad and all our good friends again.

Over the course of the following two weeks we had fun, laughter, tears and
a lot of sweating on the boys behalfs!!!!

We went into schools, went to the girls hostel, visited a village, stayed at
the boys hostel for a week and did project work.
The girls had the slightly easier job of painting and preparing for schools,
whilst the boys dug lots of holes and trenches, wired a house, did lots of concreting and erected 5 steel poles.
We had a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones.
Alas, the last day eventually crept up on us and the difficult goodbyes at the airport began.
Now looking back on the two weeks it almost feels just like a really good dream. It came and went so quickly - We are now looking forward to the
Malvern Team 2011!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope all is well with everyone back home. We are missing you all greatly but having a wonderful experience here. We are slowly melting away due to the heat though!!! God Bless and All Our Love. Russ and Luce xxx

PS - We would like to thank EIL for their support. They have given us a grant for £5000 to help with expenses whilst we are in Thailand. It is such a blessing!
If you would like more information about EIL please visit the following website - www.eiluk.org