Missive 11

Well I’ve started so if I can keep at it you will all get another dose fairly quickly. Colleen is making a bit of progress and is able to sit and stand for longer periods but pays for it if she overdoes it. And the health of all our kids here is on the improve and the ravages of the flu seem to be waning. In a place with 85 kids and 30 staff in close proximity there is a high risk of these things getting out of control and Glom has had the staff taking extra precautions and they are always boiling water in the kitchen to make sure the plates and cutlery and surfaces are sterilised.

For years we have only used cold water in the kitchen and our equipment is pretty basic. All this changed only last week when a huge truck pulled in and opened to reveal the most wonderful array of new stainless steel kitchen equipment and appliances. When we were building the kitchen in February this year we were in touch with the brother of Jenny Chapman, a long time friend of ours. David Kidney works in Bangkok in the kitchen industry and he has taken a keen interest in Ban Meata and our needs for a new kitchen. He has cast around amongst his colleagues in the industry and a number of international firms and encouraged them to donate a number of items to us.

We were astounded by his efforts and their response – we unloaded huge freezers and fridges, a walk-in cool room, gas stoves and grillers, stainless steel sinks, multiple stainless steel shelving and work benches – the list goes on. Pawinee walked around all this stuff and couldn’t keep her hands off it. “Thank you God, thank you David!” she kept repeating. Some of the stuff we have pressed into immediate use but David hasn’t finished yet – he is arranging with his contacts and with his Harley Davidson motorcycle club to come up and install it all. We are frantically trying to finish the walls of the new kitchen and have it tiled ready for installation – difficult with a stretched budget so if anybody …………….. !!

Sometimes it seems like roughing it in our kitchen but our older boys had a great roughing it experience recently while Damien Costanzo, a young volunteer, was spending a number of weeks here. He took them over to the fish ponds and set up a camp there with some tarpaulins. He had them prepare with a woodworking project where he collected some old planks and had the boys cut them up and make little wooden stools which the Thais commonly used. The boys worked industriously for hours, cutting the wood in pairs with a bow saw and risking life and the loss of limbs in the process. A few nails (pre-drilled holes because the wood was pretty hard) and they were the very proud owners of a camping stool.

They caught tea themselves by hopping into the pond with hand held nets and getting some fish. These they cleaned and put on the fire to grill. They had the inevitable rice and chilli brought over from the kitchen and they were ready for their meal. If you can imagine sitting outside on a warm evening with the sun going down behind the hills on the farm, a crackling fire, fish and spices with rice served on a banana leaf plucked from the nearby trees, lightning flickering over the distant mountains, then you can understand what an idyllic place this is. I can just about hear Tony Pittaway, a friend from Lucindale, packing his bags!

Damien is a real asset to the place when he is here and a wonderful role model for the boys. He is also pretty good with IT and we keep him on the hop solving our computer problems. He is such a personable young bloke that everybody gets on well with him. I have written before of the way the girls are attracted to him and although I wouldn’t go so far as to say he is a liability when you take him somewhere, you do have to wait at times while a horde of admirers all line up to have their photo taken with him!

A feature of life in Thailand is the frequency with which you come across girl-boys. We try not to do an obvious double take when the check out girl at the supermarket says “kopkun kaa” (thank you) in a deep basso profundo voice. Some are more obviously blokes than others but they often wear their hair long and have colourful head bands. At the English camp I wrote of in the last blog there was a tall bloke with lovely long hair, a pink head band, and what really sealed it, a fluffy pink handbag. When Damien was having his photo opportunities at the camp that was one he was taking care to avoid.

I want to tell you a bit about Santi who has lived at Ban Meata for all the10 years of his life – he was in fact the first orphan that came as a baby. He is probably the quintessential ADD kid, struggles with school, always in trouble and a constant frustration for his carer. He is the most pleasant of characters and helpful to a fault. He sometimes helps us carry groceries into our place and being an inveterate fiddler he takes a matter of seconds to have both our air-conditioners on and re-programmed, our lights blazing, our CD player going, and on his way to check out our bedroom and toilet. He is like living with a whirlwind. Recently he has taken up the drums (surprise, surprise about the choice of instrument) and you wouldn’t believe how good he is. Suddenly Santi, a “failure” at just about everything, was wonderfully successful at something. It brought tears to our eyes to see him playing in church and then hearing the spontaneous and prolonged applause when he finished. It was great moment for him and the perfect example of not defining people by their weaknesses.

We have just celebrated Whun’s birthday. She has been in a high state of excitement for a month when she started a countdown and reminded us every day about how long before the big day. A couple of years ago there was some confusion as the records had swapped Whun’s and Why’s birthdays and we were sending gifts at the wrong time. We have been kidding her about whose birthday is coming up and this has added to the excitement.

Pawinee wanted to do some shopping for the big Dutch team that arrives next week, and she took Santi as a gofer and to give him some much needed special attention, so we all headed off to Phetchabun for the birthday bash. We went to the Pizza Company for a treat (pizzas and pastas), did some shopping (some is a bit of an understatement because we had 4 shopping trolleys which packed out the back of our ute) and had the traditional icecream at Swensons. We bought Whun some shoes and she looked great in those at church this morning when they weren’t being worn by Why who took a shine to them. Last night we had all the girls from Whun’s house over for popcorn, lemonade, and to watch a couple of DVD’s about the Sydney Aquarium and the 2008 Christmas Pageant. It was a great day and this morning we told Whun it was only 364 (sam roi, hor sip si) days until her birthday!


When we were getting ready to head off to Phetchabun Whun came with me to get my shoes on. My first shoe had a big frog in the toe so Whun emptied him out for me. Then the second shoe had the same, so she did the honours again. There are an enormous number of frogs around in the wet season and they are always hiding in the toes of your shoes if you leave them outside. Some of them are huge, as big around as a tennis ball, and surprisingly you can sometimes get your foot in there with them, although they do look a bit indignant when you chuck them out. We have taken to leaving our shoes in a box just inside the door but this doesn’t stop them either – after the incident above we found 5 more in the box waiting their turn for accommodation in a shoe. They don’t take up residence in thongs so maybe that’s why Thais always wear them!

I’ve written before about the geckos and they are even more numerous than the frogs and they don’t mind what time of the year it is. We have dozens and dozens of the little ones living with us and they make themselves heard with a “chit, chit, chit” sound. The big blokes, called “tukus” because of their distinctive sound, can be up to 30cm long and are quite beautiful with their purple spots. They seem to take a deep breath and emit a loud “tuku”, and then repeat it up to 7 times decreasing in volume until the last one which is some sort of a pathetic groan. They breed like rabbits, and shifting some sheets we had left on the spare bed for a few weeks I uncovered a heap of eggs of the little ones. They break quite easily so I had to be careful not to get gecko yolk over our guests’ sheets.

Sometimes the Thais will eat the big geckos and they certainly get after the snakes. Glom was sitting in the dining room with a dish in front of her the other day and she invited me to join in. Someone had cooked up some frogs so I had to at least try some. They were a bit rubbery, somewhat like when they are still alive I guess, and I don’t think they’ll make it onto my list of top ten culinary delights. Eating them doesn’t seem to diminish their numbers much either.

We are up to Missive 11 and we have just completed 12 months here. It certainly feels like home to us now and we are torn between our loved ones back in Oz and our new family here. It’s going to be hard leaving here in 12 months time, just as it has been hard leaving our family behind when we come back here. But what a blessing it is to have two places you can call home. We look forward to sharing more of our adventures over the next year.

God bless
Ron