Kaow Pan Saa celebrates the beginning of the new rice growing season.

It was a colourful affair with children and adults from the many schools all dressed up in their different traditional costumes. All meeting at the local Wat, the procession got under way at around 2.30.

There were many colourfully adorned pick up trucks and marching bands as well, adding to a great atmosphere.

Thankfully the rains, that had been on and off all day, held off during the procession.

All the children seemed to enjoy the affair very much.

My ex-pupils from Pasak school were in attendance and it was very nice to see them all again. I do miss you lot!

Sadly I could not stay for the whole celebration as, with House Mother on her day off, I needed to get home ready for our children to get back from school.

I sure it all went well and hope everyone enjoyed it.

For all the photos please visit our photobucket album here.

For all the video clips visit our youtube here.

Hopefully I will complete the catch-up over the next week , so please check in for features on the holiday period, including our first Volunteers;

 a 7 day home visit for the kids from Nan; two new arrivals;

and the return of regular updates on life at Stratton House.

Last week saw 5 of our 7 children go down with a 5 day virus. poor Jack even ended up in hospital for 3 days with a fever of 40 degrees.

I’m happy to report that everyone made a full recovery.

Last weekend I was not so well myself and Sundays day out was a quiet afternoon in Chompoo village which I shall add a report on later this week.

This weekend the children had asked to go to the waterfall at Doi Suthep but we explained that with the recent heavy rains this might not be very safe.

So in the end we decided on a trip back to San Kampaeng Hot Springs.

A good time was had by all. 

You may notice from the photos that Mae, Yong and Jack weren’t present.

Mae and sister Yong have finished the school year and have gone home to Mae Wang until the 18th of April.

Poor Jack, after his illness suffered the loss of his Grandmother and went home for 3 days.

The rest of the kids enjoyed the time swimming in the Hot Springs pool and playing in the play area later before heading home.

 Not happy about the risk of more injury from broken glass, we decided to try the Huay Kaow Waterfall a little further downstream.

This waterfall is more developed for visitors with a car park and many shops and cafes.

The entrance is just a few yards from Chiang mai Zoo at the bottom of Doi Suthep.

 The hope was that it would benefit from better upkeep and be safer.

Eating at home again we left at 11.30, getting to the waterfall at 12.30.

 It is certainly more beautiful and better maintained, although this means its loses some of the natural wild charm of the one further up the mountain.

We picked a shady spot as our base and the kids had lots of fun playing in the waters.

Again, despite having eaten already, I couldn’t resist getting hold of some sticky rice and nam pik see daeng, my favourite picnic snack, and lemonade and kanom for the kids.

Luckily no injuries this week.

I say luckily because, although there was certainly less, there was still a fair bit of broken glass around.

 Little Som did a valient, unprompted, job picking up several pieces out of the rock pools and disposing of them in a safe place.

We left the waterfall at around 3pm , with a short visit to the impressive ‘aboretum’ park the other side of the Zoo entrance, at the top of Huay Kaow Rd., before heading home for 5pm.

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

 A second look at the possible costs of concreting, and the fact that we are still in rented accomadation, led us to believe that we should look at cheaper, less permanent, options, and we settled on gravel and stonedust.

Having used this before with a similar project back in the UK, I know that if done properly it should set hard enough to give a reasonable riding surface.

The first load was delivered early Saturday morning and the children were keen to get to work, despite the heat.

 We made it a short hour long session to start, with another hour and a half later in the afternoon, when the heat of the day had subsided.

All the children worked very hard. And on Sunday, on returning from the weekly day out, they all pleaded with me to allow them to carry on and do some more.

 Personally I was too tired to do much myself, but was cetainly not going to deter such enthusiasm and was happy to supervise.

Well done kids, very proud of you!

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

 but also visits to both Kamtieng  Garden  Market and the Flower Market close to Chiang Mais China Town at the banks of the River Ping.

We ate at home this week and then enjoyed a couple of hours of the peaceful ambience of Huay Tung Taow and some time in the water, before heading into Kamtieng Garden Market, behind Tesco Lotus on the super highway.

The children had made a special request to be able to go and buy flowers for Valentines day.

At Kamtieng we let the children choose some flowers for the garden. From there we went to the riverside Flower Market where they all bought roses.

The spirit of Valentines truely came to Stratton House a couple of days early. Friday evening saw the culmination of a very stressful week for myself.

As hard as I tried I know that the children had sensed my stress.

On returning home, mid-evening from a meeting I was met by all the children as I walked into the house. They took me by the hands and ushered me, excitedly, round to the art area. There they proceeded to hand me a whole load of Valentines cards and paper hearts that they had made for me.

To say I was touched is an understatement. The stresses of the week, and this spontaneous show of affection, hit me like a tornado and I have to confess to being unable to stop the tears.

 I quickly assured the children that it was because they had made me so happy.

 This now has become a running quote in the house, “Daddy long hai, bpen kwam suk mak”.

The cards and hearts now adorn my door and bring a glow to my heart each time I see them.

For more photos from the day please visit our photobucket album here.

May got a little extra pocket money for the day at school and we gave her her card on her return from school.

 It had ended up that I was on my own to do the present buying at the market in Banthi in the morning. May had requested clothes and I was not at all sure what to buy an 11 year old Thai girl. After a light dinner I presented her with the two shirts I had bought and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw how happy she was with them.

She rushed off to put her favourite on, before we had the small party at around 7pm. Birthday cake, mango and sticky rice and lots more kanom and pop.

Lots of smiles and happiness that make this work worth it.

It is rideable now but with a very rough shingle surface.

We would like very much to complete the road with either concrete or possibly sand and stonedust mix.

We estimate the full cost of this to be somewhere around 10,000 baht.

 Our good friend and webmaster, Ally, has kindly offered 5, 000 baht if we can raise the other 5.

Any help towards this goal would be very much appreciated.

Once they got started and the track started to take shape , the children didn’t want to stop.

All the younger children worked hard gathering up loose stones and leveling the track.

Tai was entrusted with the job of shaping points on short bamboo stakes to hold the track marking poles in place.

All the children wanted to have a go at banging the stakes in and managed very well in places where the ground was softest; using wooden sticks as hammers when I refused to allow them to weild the heavy metal lump hammer that myself and Tai used later to bang the stakes in until they were firm.

Even working lat in the afternoon the heat was quite intense and I tried calling a halt to the work after a little over an hour.

 But the children would have none of it, not wanting to stop until the whole track had at least been laid out.

Well done kids, to say I am proud of you is an understatement!
For more photos of this project please visit our photobucket album here.

Thankyou for your patience.