Christ The King Catholic High School

MARIA PARKER'S BLOG 30/06/2009

We are lucky enough to be staying at The Redemptorist Centre which is part of the Fr Ray Foundation.  The different centres we have been visiting are all part of the Fr Ray Foundation.  Fr Ray was a Roman Catholic priest who set up these projects and worked tirelessly until he died to help the orphans, disabled and disadvantaged children in this part of Thailand.

Tuesday saw us at the Pattaya Orphanage in the morning.  All the school aged children were in school so we were able to see the little ones in their classrooms.  We then spent over an hour in the baby room - which was fantastic.  There were 4 brand new babies, 2 now more than 10 days old, who had been abandoned.  The rest were about 18 months old so walking round and in to everything.  Our youngsters loved being with the children and were very sorry when it was nap time!!   In the afternoon we went to the Day Care Centre.  This centre is quite new and is open to the children from the slum areas of Pattaya.  We had a fantastic afternoon and we were quite overwhelmed with the welcome we got.  Some of the children at the day care were children we had already met and they remembered us, particularly Greg!!!   Although not particularly sunny today the temperatures were really high and it was very muggy!

The day care is an absolute hive of activity and we were soon thrown in to the routine.  When in the orphanage we split into 2 - Alice, Greg, Sophie and Rachel went to work in the pre school class and were very impressed with the alphabet and number work that the children were taking part in - in English!!  Lizzie, Kim and Jess went into the baby room and spent a very happy hour playing with the babies most of whom were about 18 months old.  It is so hard to think of these so happy children as being orphans, but it is good to know how well they are fed and cared for.

Wednesday morning we were back in Day Care and we told a story to the children - thankfully the headteacher was on hand to translate!!!!  The children had a great time with the props and after storytime the children had to get down to some literacy - all about the letter G!!!!  After lunch we had a great time outside playing ball and climbing on the equipment, then it was bedtime for the children and lunchtime for us!! In the afternoon we headed off to the Blind School.  We were not sure what to expect and when we got there it was explained that some of the children had autism as well as blindness.  We spent a fun hour singing songs with them and we were staggered at home many English songs they knew.  They particularly liked 'If you're happy and you know it clap your hands,' and 'You are my sunshine.'

On the way back to the Redemptorist Centre there was a quick visit to the shops to buy some gifts to take back with us and then back to the centre for showers and dinner.  It goes really dark very quickly and early in Thailand - about 6.30pm so we spend the evenings inside.