It was a beautiful fresh, sunny day. Very cool by Thai standards but some of the kids still braved the water for a short time.

As further reward I spent a little extra on the kanom from the lady vendor. The kids got a further nice surprise when a Thai family sitting close by sent their duaghters over with more kanom for them, good healthy seaweed snacks

They were a lovely family and they all spoke very good English too, so I was able to have a nice chat with them

I’m so sorry , we did introduce ourselves, but I’m hopeless with remembering Thai names, I’ll remember to write them down next time we meet.

They were very interested in the Foundation and expressed a wish to come and visit and we are all looking forward to that.

And the pleasant surprises weren’t finished yet, as a little later in the afternoon Greg Kennedy, who recently donated plants for the childrens “Villa”, turned up with his two wonderful dogs, Biccy and Song See,(hope I got those names right).

They arrived right in the middle of a drawing what you see session. Two of the Thai fanily returned at the same time, they had forgotten their mat, and were very impressed with the childrens drawing and English writing.

With reasonably good weather this Sunday and no other hiccups we headed out to Huay Tung Taow in the early afternoon.

Unfortunately all the recent rains had obviously taken their toll at our usual swimming spot, raising the water levels to a point that it was unsuitable for children to do much more than splash around at the edges of the lake whilst I kept an eagle eye out for the increased risk of snakes.

With mid term tests happening this week Tai refused my advice of a break from his heavy study schedule and took his books with him. We are sure that he will do very well and may well move up to the top stream in his year, (Class 5, he is currently in Class 4), but I have also tried to counsel him on not putting too much pressure on himself and letting him know that we will be very proud of him whatever the results, as his effort can not be denied.

Despite recent heavy rains that continue still, Sunday afternoon was reasonably dry, if a bit grey.

So along with our Volunteer Becca, we all jumped into the truck after lunch and went of for a welcome bit of rest, relaxation and fun.

Once at Huay Tung Taow we were soon joined by Oscar, who came along to get some shots of the kids enjoying their time out.

Wispa came along too and had herself a good run around whilst the kids jumped in the water for a swim.

Yet again we hit it lucky as the heavens opened throwing torrential rain on the way home.

Our little river in Mae Salab is now a raging torrent and the waters at Huay Tung Tao have risen much since last week.
With the rain comes increasing levels of mosquitos so daily spraying with deterrent is a high priority.

Spending much time in doors has brought more art work to our walls, which is always nice.

In order to try and combat the numbers of mosquitos we have been doing our best to control the fast growing garden vegetation and this weekend all the older children took turns with the strimmer.

They all did a great job and this will be a regular task whenever we have a dry period and some spare time.

Sundays trip to Huay Tung Tao was fun as usual, though cut short by more rain.

Tai was missing as he spent the day at school attending a Energy Conservation Seminar.

On the way to Huay Tung Tao we stopped off at two new locations for our collection boxes, Photobug in Chang Puek Rd and El Diablos Burreto restaurant in Moon Maung Rd. Full details will soon appear in our “Where To Go and Fing..” Directory which I hope to make live by the end of the week.

Luckily the rain held off on Tuesday morning enabling me to go for my 3rd teaching session at Huay Sai School. We spent the lesson showing the children how to use the Thai Schools English website and its Moodle section.

 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.

 This time we took two of the bicycles with us to extend the range of the days activities.
As usual the kids had lots of fun playing in the water.

Water snail collecting seemed to be the popular past-time for the day.
In between times the bicycles were put to good use as was the nearby play area with swings, climbing frame, etc.
With so much to do the children were very undemanding giving myself and Boon time to relax and enjoy the atmosphere too.

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.

And here are some video clips:)

I’m happy to report that the clear message that the trips out are a reward for good behaviour seems to have worked as things have improved again, with the children keen not to miss out.

As expected the children that did go had a wonderful time.

We were there for a total of about 5 hours so they had lots of time to enjoy the water and run around and play inbetween times.

There was plenty of Kaow Pat in the lunch box as well as snacks and drinks.

For more photos please visit our photobucket album here