A few days after our volunteers left, it was time for the kids to spend time with their families during the end of year holiday. Yong and May(1) went home for a 3 weeks and Jack went for 2. The rest of the kids, who all come from Nan Province had 7 days, during which Boon and myself had a well earned break fromthe day to day running of the home.
We left Chiang Mai on the 8th of April, getting an early start at 4am, to give the kids as much time with their families as possible.
Its a long haul to Nan, especially with just one driver in the April heat, so there were lots of rest stops on the way.
We finally got to Pua in Nan at around 1pm after dropping May(2) off at her village near Tung Chang.
Needing to keep to a low budget Boon and myself booked into a guest house in Pua at 300 baht a night.
The holiday had been delayed due to Tai needing to sign in at his new school in Sarapee, so our original plan to get home for Song Kran was scuppered. This was maybe a good thing as it meant that the children got to celebrate this important cultural celebration with their loved ones.
Me and Boon spent most days at the nearby Silaphet Waterfall, a beautiful spot to stay cool in the summer heat…and free!
Its very popular with the local population, but luckily the stream is accessible for quite a distance up the mountain. This means that with a bit of trekking you can always find a spot that’s not so overcrowded.
On the 13th we went into Nan city to join in the Song Kran celebrations ourselves.
We booked into a guesthouse there for one night and rented a motorcy for the day.
In many ways Nan was quite a relief from the mayhem you tend to get in Chiang Mai.
We spent the day riding around the town, getting doused with the rest of the revellers. Once we’d had our fill of getting soaked we took refuge in a coffee shop in the main street and took time to get some photos of the fun.
Whilst on this break we got two new enquiries, one for a 12 year old girl, friend of Mays; and one for a 14 year old boy from Santisuk.
On the 14th we drove out to Santisuk to assess the boys case. This involved a long hard drive to his very remote hilltribe village.
In the end we agreed to take both children, Jor,the girl and Gu, the boy.
On the 15th we collected all the children and returned home to Stratton House.
Already friends with May(2), Jor settled in quickly. Gu took a few days to find his feet and come out of his shell but is now well established as part of the group.
The April Holiday is a long stretch and we are thankful for having the small river so close which gave daily respite from the sweltering heat. Weekly trips to Huay Tung Tao also helped.
The rest of the time we kept the kids occupied with art, karaoke, English language lessons and playing with the board games they had made with Mikki and Siva. We also purchased a version of Monopoly which became almost as popular as Uno.
Chess has also emerged as one of the childrens favourites and Tai even made two chess boards from some perspex we had left over from making the collection boxes.
For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.
