Alexandra Sibely, Thailand 2019

Thank you so much for your generous financial support enabling me to travel to Thailand with London and South East Girl Guiding.

After the stress of the threatened strikes due to happen, it was a relief to finally be at Heathrow, all checked in and ready to go! Everyone was very excited. We were off; next stop Bangkok, the oriental city!

We started with a lovely fresh breakfast which include some delicious mangoes, then we quickly jumped into a truck and were taken to The Green Lion headquarters for an induction meeting where we learnt about the community project and the dos and don'ts of Thailand culture. We had a quick lesson on the Thai language and were taught how to write out names in Thai charcters. Following lunch at a lovely restaurant on a river with lots more fruit including dragon fruit we were taken into town and given two hours to explore the shopping area. Some of us shopped and some had a Thai massage. That first evening we attended a Thai welcome party, which consisted of several beautiful traditional dances and we were given flower garlands and invited to join in with their dancing. We all gave our best to the dancing even if we weren't as good as our next Thai Friends.

Week 1 of our community project

Activity 1 - Painting
As part of the schools newly build canteen, the walls were in need of a new coat of paint and some pretty pictures; and they entusted 4 of us with the task - Isobel, Anna, Lexie and Anjali. We decided to paint a pretty meadow of flowers and insects like butterflies, ladybugs and dragonfly.

Activity 2 - Construction
Lizzie, Betsy, Sruti and Emily all enjoyed doing some construction work for the school. They got to work mixing cement which was really hard work in the heat. Then started builing a wall that surrounded the water and electrics so that the children could stay safe. They had to break some of the bricks to they fitted and it ended up being quite a difficult jigsaw puzzle. They also started making a pavement so the walkway to the canteen is safer to walk down. It was very strenuous work but thoroughly enjoyable as it felt so rewarding.

Activity 3 - Cleaning
At the back of the temple school there was an area of land designated to drying off the children's clothes however it had become overgrown with tall grass and there was rubbish on the ground. Abi, Lucy, Katelyn and Evelyn used some tools to cut down the grass and clear the litter so the children could safely use the area around the washing. Although they ended with a few cuts and grazes the results were well worth it.

Activity 4 - Teaching the children
After lunch we were given the opportunity to interact with the children. The girls and boys split into two groups and were taught the colours and farmyard animal though interactive games. They then taught us some of their own games and even how to say 'I love you' by handshake.

Activity 5 - Dinner!!
So dinner was pretty cool we walked in and as we sat down small barbecues were placed on our tables. We then got to pick from a range of meat, vegetables and noodles to cook over it ourselves. The end result was delicious!

The following day we headed back to the temple school after breakfast. There we were given the choice of three different jobs; painting a wall, moving a pile of wood, constructing a path and finishing a wall we started yesterday. The group i was in spent the morning shifting wood to clear some space for a new path. It was hard work and there was a lot of wood, but it was a lot of fun and we were very proud of our new pile of wood. That evening we had so much rain, and thunderstorms, the centre soon flooded as it has been so dry in recent weeks and the rain started to come in to our rooms. Our reps quickly sorted us alternate accommodation and we enjoyed being in a lovely hotel, about 15 minutes away and taking advantage of the unexpected clean sheets and air con!

I couldn't believe that i had been in Thailand for a week already!

During an excellent weekend in Bangkok we were hosted by the girl guides of Thailand and we spent the morning trying out different activities including making Thai food, food bowls out of leaves, tasting a drink made from flowers an dwatching some of the Bluebirds (equivalent to Brownies) dance for us.

The old girls then joined us for a trip to Wat Pho where we saw the giant golden reclining Buddha. We had hoped to visit the Grand Palace but the Kind was in residence so that had to wait until the Sunday

We returned to Girl Guides HQ for a nap and a quick trip to the 7-Eleven before our evening activity which was a river dinner cruise. The boat was much bigger than expected, the food was lovely and we ate on the top deck watching the night lights of Bangkok. It was good to see the different areas and the temples and palaces lit up as we passed by. The girls, both Thai and English, then went inside to dance with the band. A great time was had by all and some good friendships were made.

Sunday was another early start and we went to the Grand Palace which was insanley busy and super hot. Everything was gold and glittery and so impressive. We went in to see Emerald Buddha who was perched up high above yet more golden treasures.

After this we went to a local market for lunch and some shopping and then returned to Sing Buri where we have moved acoommodation to a larger centre and our rooms had air con which was an unexpected luxury!

Week 2 Community Project

We were at a temple school that had been affected by fires in the previous weeks and as we still had to wait for the roof of one room to be fixed, we started on the walls of the main school. To begin with we prepared and stripped the walls of exces paint to make sure they had a smooth surface for our own creations. While we worked away we had a mix of music playing including a much loved Disney ensemble!

In the evening we got to visit a night market and while walking around Katelyn purchased some cockroaches nand shared them with the group! Some of the girls thought they tasted like chicken, others tasted nothing and a few could not bear to keep it in their mouth.

Halfway through  and more busy than ever!

We returned to the temple school to do some more painting of the walls that we had been set, and the sun was shining but we all managed to push through and work as a team. With some of us at one end, a couple in the middle and another group on the other end, we were as quick as mice, or in Thailand's case, geckos.

We began painting the walls blue in preparation for our designs to go on. We also glossed over gated windows of the school builing as parts of it were peeling off and needed redoing. We then set to work on our "educational walls" one is the alphanet with flowers surrounding it and the other is numbers along a colourful caterpillar. On the next wall we have painted loads of colourful fruits. We came home after lunch and had some time to relaz and begin packing for the night train to Chiang Mai. It took us a while to scrub all the paint off! We were excited to see the end products of our walls and then behin the next stage of our adventure.

Week 3 The Hill Tribes

Following an amazing weekend travelling up to Chiang Mai where we visited and worked at the Elephant sanctuary. We were able to prepare and feed the elephants before joining them for a bath in the local river. We crossed over to Chiang Rai and travelled up to the Akha Hill tribes for a week of hoomestays.

We immersed ourselves in Hill Tribe traditions by doing crafts, cooking, undertaking chores such as collecting firewood. We made our own coffee from roasting and grinding the beans to finally drinking it.

We also did a lot of teaching of both English and different sports and painted another school wall!

On our last day with the Hill Tribes we went on a hike to the hot springs and prepared a "traditional" British meal of rice pudding and welsh cakes for our hosts. Then it was back to Chiang Mai to see some very quirky Temples and our final stop back in Bangkok.

It was hard to believe this adventure was coming to an end. The last year has been a blur and roller coaster of emotions; the highs of being chosen and discovering that I was going to Thailand to the lows of mud, rain and more rain! I have fundraised for an amount of money I didn't believe was possible and discovered how much I love warm showers and western toilets.

Please can I take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made this amazing adventure possible. Without everyone's support, I would not have had this opportunity to grow and develop.