Last weekend, I went to Khanom to help out with a fundraiser/beach day for the Sri Thammarat Home for Boys, the orphanage in Nakhon. I know I have mentioned this before, but Khanom (which, by the way, means bread in Thai) is one of my most favorite places to “get away” to in Thailand. Close to Nakhon, it’s an easy escape when you want or need one. There is a bar there- CC’s Beach Bar- owned by a really great guy named Charlie. When I was there about a month ago (when we splurged and stayed at Aava), Charlie and I talked for a good long while about this event. How he was getting sponsors, like Coca Cola, to donate products and supplies, and how he was recruiting many foreigners, who now call the Suratthani and Nakhon provinces their home, for their time, money, and resources to make this dream of his a reality. All he wanted was to give these kids a day at the beach that they would never forget. He sourced boat rides along the shore, games and activity stations, kayak rides, a banana boat!, and a huge feast of food and treats. Then, he recruited a Nakhon teacher, who has been here a while, to coordinate it all, get teams of foreign teachers together, and execute it. I can’t believe all she did and was able to do, and how wonderfully she made it all come together. These kids were not lacking anything- they had bags and bags of toys given as prizes, and the day was filled with smiles and shrieks of excitement and the most positive energy. After a busy week, I really had to push myself to go, but I am so glad I did.
Originally, I was assigned to the scavenger hunt activity, but about an hour into it, the scavenger hunting was over, and I found myself knee deep building sand castles with the kids. Later in the afternoon, I took a boat ride along the shore with a group of about 10 kids who looked like they were between the ages of 4 and 10. Many of them had never been to the sea before let alone on a boat, so this whole experience had to have been a complete sensory overload. At times, the ride was silent except for the motor and splashing water- with the children watching the land and the water as we putted along, some with the most contemplative looks on their faces, some with just huge grins, and us two teachers just watching their faces and smiling for reasons of our own. I kept thinking about what these little children must have been feeling, thinking, what their imaginations must have been churning out about what they were doing and how they were making sense of it all. I thought about what it felt like to be that young and excited about something so foreign. There was one little boy, maybe six years old, who started off sitting next to me, then scooted down to the side. Then, gradually as the ride progressed, he scooted over a little bit at a time, until he was sitting in front of me, on my toes, his back against my knees, leaning on me and looking out at the sea, pointing out the big homes along one section of the beach, and letting out little excited gasps every once in a while. Adorable. It was a really good feeling, being there on that boat.
The end of the day was spent wading through the water, trying to corral these kids and make sure they were staying safe. All other activities had ceased and it was just pure water chaos. My friend Bliss, an Aussie who teaches here, also keeps a blog, and in it she wrote about one scenario in the water that I thought was really cute:
Many of the kids had never been to the beach before and I stopped a few of them drinking the sea water. I assumed they were doing it when they got thirsty but one of the other teachers, who speaks better Thai than me, asked a boy why he was drinking the sea water and he said he wanted to keep the ocean with him when he left. How beautiful. I ams o happy they were able to come along and have a wonderful day. – Bliss, hellomissbliss.blogspot.com
At about 3:45, things began wrapping up and all of us teachers were dragging children out of the water, only to have them run back in, only to have us drag them back out, only until we finally found a way to put an end to the game we had unwittingly created. They simply couldn’t get enough of the ocean. I couldn’t either, as a child (actually, I still can’t- nothing’s better than being salty and sandy from a day at the beach. I LOVE IT.) It felt really good to be a part of something like this, and to be able to play with kids at the beach all day long- I miss those days.
One teacher was explaining to me how the beach day was giving him anxiety- the thought of orphans made him really sad. Seeing their faces, watching them all day- it wasn’t sad at all. It was wonderful. They were so happy. Kids are, after all, just kids. To them, this was a fun day at the beach- they weren’t wondering if we were judging them, pitying them, wishing better things for their lives. To them, on this day, their life was wonderful. And I feel lucky to have been a part of it.
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| Trying to keep him from running back into the water at the end of the day! |
(To see some great photos, visit Bliss’ blog… I unfortunately forgot my camera.)
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