Well, I have officially survived the high school group. 3 weeks traveling with 22 people, all between the ages of 15-17 years old has me more exhausted than I've ever felt before!
The group was great, a great group of kids who really made me laugh every day. They were naughty and constantly asking a million questions (never waiting for the answer!) but they were inspired by everything they saw and did during their time in Thailand. I'm not a teacher, but I know that I touched the lives of each of these kids in some small way or another...so many of them started to cry as we hugged goodbyes at the airport yesterday, and better yet so many of them swore they were going to come back to volunteer again when they turn 21. Some of them really learned something new about themselves.
The kids were incredibly naive and sheltered, so they were challenged every day and pushed way beyond their comfort zones. In three weeks I could see personalities change, and personal growth from these kids which was amazing since university students rarely go through such a quick transformation. I'm proud of our accomplishments together, and looking forward to spending with with high school groups again...despite the sleepless nights and manic running around 24 hours/day!
Our time together at the orphanage was amazing, nearly 100 meters of fence construction was done in 3 days, we painted the home from head to toe (which is a feat for a 4 story building), we started construction of a new volunteer house, we did two days of gardening planting vegetables and banana trees (not as easy as it sounds!), and we did several sessions of English teaching (maths, vocab, arts)...but the real impact was with the relief work.
Feeling inspired after our New Year's meditation ceremony, I asked Didi to let our group get involved in relief work within the local community. We set out the next 3 days building roofs (grass thatched roofs) for a blind lone grandmother, and delivering rice, clothes and medical care to the Burmese refugee camps. I took small groups of 6 at time in the back of a truck to the Thai/Burmese border. We then set off with our Baan Unrak volunteer nursing staff and headed straight into the jungle. To say villages doesn't quite cut it...we were in camps. Small families and spaces cramped together, in the middle of nowhere. A lot of the babies were born to women younger than the high school kids in my group, and a lot of them having been born in the jungle were seriously malnourished and physically deformed. One young boy, 15 years old got caught in a forest fire...all of his skin from head to toe had melted off only a few days ago, so I got in to help re apply ointment and gauze...
I also watched a man die. He had been lying down for 6 months and his stools were pitch black...internal bleeding. He couldn't move, eat, sleep, or pee. For 6 months in this condition, because as a political refugee from Burma he has no rights, no access to anything! When I was there with the nurse, he took one breath and closed his eyes...then he stopped moving. The nurse said she would come back again tomorrow with a car if she can find one and try to get him to a hospital...but we both knew it was too late.
I can't explain too much more...there was a lot more that I saw and did, but it's still processing I think. Leaving Baan Unrak this time was the hardest time yet, and I still haven't come to terms yet with leaving Thailand in general....Australia is sounding worse and worse every day, and I feel like I'm trying to dig my heels in as hard as I can. How can I go to Australia and leave all this? I'm finally doing something with my life, something meaningful and I've finally found something worth fighting for--the preservation of life.
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