Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Day 4 - Chiang Mai


Good morning from Chiang Mai!

We are about to embark on our final day's activities, followed by a visit to the night market which the children are excited about. Their spending money has been burning a hole in their pockets and many are itching to spend it. Many children are thoughtfully talking about the presents they intend to buy for family members. Keep checking the photo and video gallery at the bottom of the blog. Each group takes a camera every day to capture the fun and we have uploaded each evening.

4pm - Another great day, no time to stop! Showers packing, then out for evening meal and the eagerly anticipated night market!

Photos will be updated for today later this evening.

Day 3 - Chiang Mai

Obviously the fun is catching up with a few children as almost all were still sound asleep at 6.15 this morning and needed to be practically shaken awake. Conversely, the teachers jumped out of bed bright and early and, after a 5 mile jog, a quick 20 laps of the pool and a sunrise yoga session, joined the children for a hearty breakfast.

Following breakfast, we split into groups again.

GROUP 1: The children set off for the elephant farm in high spirits. One noisy journey later, they arrived in even higher spirits and rushed to buy bananas for the elephants. They were soon brought back down to earth when, whilst trying to feed the elephants one banana at a time, were shocked to find that these intelligent animals just reached past the children and grabbed whole bunches of bananas that were apparently 'hidden' from view! After the elephant 'show', we took a ride on the elephants through the forest. Lunch was yet another delicious spread and, after a short break, we climbed aboard the bamboo rafts and sailed down the river. Actually, to be more precise, the teachers rafted down the river whilst the children spent most of the time in the water, swimming between rafts and shrieking with delight the whole time. A brilliant afternoon, finished off by (yet another) round of ice creams!

GROUP 2: Bikes, Mud, Team building and The Prem farm.
(Miguel A)
After a refreshing sleep, we got changed, ate, walked to the bikes and we started our long journey to the buffalo farm. We passed picturesque landscape and we felt like we were biking somewhere in the province of the Philippines. Only when we saw Thai writing we realized we were in Chiang Mai. At the buffalo farm we got to plough in the mud with buffalo. Chris, Josh, Ben and I each got 2 house points for being the first to volunteer when no one else would. One of the most memorable experiences was jumping on to a buffalo from behind, I also enjoyed planting rice and eating sugar made from the juice of sugarcane (which was made by making the buffalo walk in circles and a wheel it was attached to crushed it). Later, we biked to the prem center for lunch. Team Building was the next activity. We played 2 games: Sherman Tank and bean bag, my favourite was Sherman Tank because I won with Ben. Next we went to the farm and learned about how prem center recycles everything. There are also boars, goats, chickens, rabbits and water buffalos there. We did a scavenger hunt and we got a first hand experience of farming when we planted cucumber seedlings. I can't wait for the Khantoke dinner and the elephant camp tomorrow.

GROUP 3:
(By James)
Its been so fun in cooking. Heres all the things we learnt so far. We had a long walk all the way to the farm and saw little bunnies. The guide told us all about the plants and farm animals. After that we started to collect the ingredients for our fried rice and soup. Later we rode on the van back to start cooking. The head chef explained and showed us what to do then we started cooking soup with chicken and vegetables. Not long after we listened on how to make fried rice with a lot of ingredients. In the end when we ate it it tasted so good.

(By Paco)
Today has been really fun we did many fun activities including; arts and crafts and cooking. The first thing we did was to meet with the chefs and farmers to collect some of the ingredients for our meal. Once we had done so we took the items back into thee nearby kitchen and began cooking. We prepared three Thai dishes for us to eat, a dessert made from coconuts and plant seeds, a soup containing chicken and other vegetables and a platter of fried rice. All were delicious. Once we had finished our lesson we headed towards another building in the PREM campus, where we started our arts and crafts. All the activities there were also really great.

Day 2 - Chiang Mai

There has been a technical hitch here: IT department for the Prem changed password settings and so we were unable to post any pictures last night. However, its all sorted now and there are lots more photos in the gallery at the bottom of the blog:


Update for Day 2: Another early start, a huge breakfast and then a fun filled day for all:


Group 1 went cycling to a buffalo farm and got ridiculously muddy. Nina, Leif and Andrew decided to give themselves a mud bath (I hope parents are looking forward to the washing when they return!) whilst most others happily plunged up to their knees in the rice fields and helped to plough the field the traditional way using water Buffalo! The children were then able to ride the buffalo, before heading back to the Prem Centre on bikes. We visited the Prem farm in the afternoon and learnt about sustainable living as well as planting some banana trees.


Group 2: The children enthusiastically made their own lunches and the teachers, not wanting to leave anything to chance, made their own equally enthusiastically. The menu was the same as with Group 1, and many children all agree this has been their favourite activity so far. Perhaps its time to book your table at home and call on your children to cook you a thai style meal!


Group 3: Day started with a trip to the orphanage. Our kids were a bit shy at first, especially the boys, but by the end of the session they were having a great time playing with the children and it was hard to say goodbye. Next we went to FORRU which is an organisation designed to replant the forests. After a potting activity, the children then went on a nature trail through the muddy forest which was quite an adventure. The final activity was a visit to the Doi Suthep temple which was amazing despite the rain and the hundreds of steps that it took to reach it. All in all, a tiring but fantastic day!


In the evening we visited a food court. The children were encouraged to try new and different foods. Many did and relished the opportunity, whilst others opted for slightly less 'traditional' Thai fare: steak and fries! Nevertheless, it was a lovely evening and the children enjoyed their independence. Following the meal we played ten pin ' disco' bowling, before heading back home.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Chiang Mai - Day 1 - evening


All three groups had a brilliant day today. Group 1 enjoyed the fruits of their efforts in the kitchen this morning, and had a smal banquet at lunch time.

MENU
Starter: Gaeng Jieud Tom Leung (Clear soup with tofu/pork and a whole host of herbs vegetables and spices)
Main: Khao Pad (Egg fried rice with chicken and vegetables)
Dessert: Saa Koo Peak Kao Pode (Corn, coconut cream and tapioca)


Group 2 visited the Buffalo farm and enjoyed seeing the traditional way of rice farming, as well as getting interactive with the mud!


Group 3 had a busy day! They visited an orphange, a buddhist temple (with 306 steps!) and finally a trip to a local forest conservation program where they were able to plant saplings.

Dinner was at 6.30, so we had just enough time for half of year 6 to play a huge game of football, whilst the other half played capture the flag and poison ball. After a hot and sweaty hour (especially Mr Paddington) we had showers then ate another delicious meal. Finally, our already packed day was ended with a nigh time fun swim.

The teachers, having worked hard to tire the children out all day, were able to reap the benefits as many children insisted on turning lights out and falling asleep at least 20 minutes before official "lights out!"

What a brilliant first day.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Good Morning from Chiang Mai!




After a long journey, we finally arrived last night although it was close to midnight (Manila time) before the children dropped off to sleep.

Slightly bleary eyed, the children have just had breakfast and are about to start the day 1 activities!




Look at the photo gallery at the bottom of the page for photos and the odd video of each day. The code to view these was sent out in the pre-trip information.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

FOBISSEA



What a great few days the FOBISSEA games were. Check out http://www.fobissea08manila.com for more pictures of the event.

Chiang Mai

The Chiang Mai trip is just 3 days away! We will update the year six site each day with news of what we've been up to. we will also place photos and video links in to the Box.net atthe bottom of the page.