Sawatdee kha!

Dear all,

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Ranong at the moment (20 Baht per hour, less than 50 cent or 35 p) after having checked in at TV bar with Satoko, a Japanese volunteer from the TCDF. We are planning to spend our free weekend with a couple of other Dutch and Japanese volunteers as well as Poo, the Thai volunteers coordinator, in Ranong to have some drinks and see something else than the jungle for a while.
Ranong is situated about 50 km west of Phato, the next "bigger" city to Paksong where we are staying.

I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday evening after two okay flights from Frankfurt to Dubai and Dubai to Bangkok with Emirates. Was shattered anyway, took a shower after having checked in at Sawasdee Sukhumvit Inn where we already stayed last year (the reception lady even remembered me and welomed me back) and treated myself to some chicken with cashews and rice.

Wednesday was prety busy. I did not sleep very well, to hot and humid without aircon, to cold with, got up around 9ish and had some fresh pineapple and melon for breakfast before I headed off to meet a friend at Central Plaza, a big shopping mall in Bangkok. I got to know Kate in Warwick two years ago, working with her for Hospitality. She took me to a Japanese restaurant, we had a nice chat and she helped me buying a Thai SIM Card (if you want my number please drop me a line!). Afterwards it rained like hell and I decided to take a taxi to the train station instead of the subway. Guess the guy ripped me off, as it took quite a while to get there, but I did not pay more than 3 Euros anyways, so who cares :). Bought my ticket for the night train to Langsuan for the same day and took the next cab to MBK shopping centre where I had a quick look around, a snack and met up with a girl from Bangkok who read my blog, wrote me on facebook and awaited me with two huge bags full of books for Thortaang school. Thanks again for that :). I rushed home, packed my stuff and took the train to Langsuan, ariived in the morning, got a motorcycle to drive me to the market, almost fell off cause my backpack was that heavy, found a pickup taxi to take me to Phato, arrived and got picked up by Rose from the foundation who just dropped two volunteers off in Phato who were leaving.

There I was again, beautyful surrounding, very nice people and fantastic news: a four metre long king cobra on the property. Scared like shit I couldn't sleep very well, but had an okay day anyway.
On Friday we hada meeting with Poo, talked through a lot of things with all the volunteers (seven in the house at the moment), got some delicious food fixed by Moon and I started to prepare my first lesson with Sarah who is going to work with me in Thortaang school. I used a lot of material I bought in Bangkok for drawing and a couple of kids living close by already helped us. When I went down the mountain to our place I sudenly heard Sarah screaming, running out of the bathroom having seen a snake inside. Jay, the Thai volunteer, found and killed it after a while: a small king cobra (60 cms long) in our bamboo shelf. FUCKING HELL, I HATE SNAKES!!!

We stayed up very long at night, learned some Thai with Jay and tried to use what Poo taught us before. Saturday morning Marieke and Dagmar went for the pony club with the kids, I had a nap and then we left for Ranong, found some nice guys giving us a lift and arrived about two hours ago.

On monday Poo will take us to Thortaang shool to stay there until Wednesday evening and teach. We will be living in the teacher's house and have children from kindergarden up to 12 years old. When Ingrid, one coordinator, comes back I can give all the stuff i bought and got to Thortaang school and arrange what exactly to buy with the donated money, when, how etc.

Thanks a lot to everyone who gave a bit - almost 500 Euros are a LOT over here and can really make a difference!!

I'll try to write some more soonish and maybe put some pictures up, but this also depends on the connection, whether I'll have time to come to Ranong etc.

So long, chok dii!
Julia :)