The short school holidays are over but every single day of the three weeks was full of a range of fun activities for the children. We had four German volunteers, three long-term and one with us for a month, and they were shepherded from house to house by Kate, armed with a rigid timetable and a growing bag of toys and games. We have been very lucky with donations of activities being sent or donated to us and the building blocks, Lego and magnetic construction pieces have been huge hits with the kids. Some of them have shown fantastic creativity and imagination, while others just like to make things that are very tall. Uno and jigsaws are other successes, although it is fair to say that house rules apply in all games of Uno, i.e., whatever the oldest girl or boy in the circle of players decides suits them best! And drawing and coloring in are reliably popular with all ages.
The children had regular trips to the freshly re-tiled swimming pool and the lifejackets and other flotation devices allowed some of the smaller kids to join in. The weather has hot for most of October so the children eagerly looked forward to their turn. The late afternoons saw games of badminton, volleyball and football on courts and fields in the two villages where our houses are located. The staff join in and scores are rarely recorded; it is all about having fun.
There were day trips for the children, mostly to ‘Civet Land’, a new enterprise about 15 minutes away from Sarnelli House. It is still in its developmental stage but has a wide (and weird) variety of animals for the locals to see. There are two arctic foxes, raccoons, a dozen or so miniature horses, one camel, giant turtles, a couple of monkeys and a wallaby. On top of that, there are animatronic dinosaurs, which move and bellow at people walking past, putting the fear of God into our little kids. There are plans for more animals apparently and a giant waterpark is being constructed at the back of the property. There is also a small go-kart track and a train to take the kids around. It is free until the New Year, and it was packed with families for the holidays. All of our houses got to visit and the smaller kids went on for their annual visit to the Nong Khai aquarium, which is a tad sorry looking at this stage but the little ones seem to enjoy it.
The last week of the holidays saw the children help to decorate the new house for children with disabilities and a sports day with activities outdoors and in the hall. We are grateful to our volunteers for their energy and our donors for sending toys and games and also for funding days out and new sports equipment.
