Day One

Apologies for the delay* We’ve had limited wifi as the router is broken and will be replaced today.

DAY 0
Sawadee krub! You would think from the hullabaloo caused by Sherine, the plane was going down however it was delayed an hour with the airline compensating with Bega cheese and Jatz Crackers. Thai Airways, even without any safety instructions, was bearable. The only source of entertainment however throughout the 9 hours was a flying beef casserole, cauliflower gratin, dinner roll and lukewarm orange juice that was worn by a nearby passenger waking everyone up with their screaming.

DAY 1
Arriving in Bangkok the brothers drove a convoy of minibuses to the La Salle School in Sangkhlaburi, stopping at every Cafe Amazon in western Thailand. This trip gave birth to the pen game (Winberg’s favourite). Brother Matthew greeted us and we played with the Blue Sky Home girls with Sherine’s smuggled bubble blowers. That night the girls cooked us a welcome meal and we all were introduced to each other (Elijah didn’t receive a handmade card-trag). Banana and chocolate pancakes were the hero of the night market in town, where the cook absolutely abused the batter to make the masterpiece.

DAY 2
The plywood beds were surprisingly comfortable or it may have just been that no one had slept in 48 hours (except Flynn and Sherine who were out cold on the plane and, Billy’s novelty child pig neck pillow didn’t aide him in getting any sleep either). The morning assembly introduced the boys to the entire La Salle school. The open bus took us to the cultural hotspots of the area including temples and the Mon bridge (the second largest wooden bridge in the world) with our excellent tour guide, Br Mario. The dogs were a temptation to pat however we had to restrain our urges to avoid disease. Back on the bus Charlie almost died playing corners before we reached the Bamboo School, and the crazy kids. The children, being mostly Burmese were extremely excited to see us as we played duck, duck goose and things got hectic with these little balls of endless energy. Justin was a fan favourite with him creating a posse of kids around him. All the boys planted two papaya trees as a sign of new beginnings. Although the kids wouldn’t let us leave,we had to say goodbye to them (and Mount Sherine). Next, we visited a local village where some of the students lived. The bus skrrrt skrrrted full sicko mode to the Thai-Myanmar border were we lost Ethan(abcdE) and Sherine at a market, forcing us to return A$AP Rocky. Back at the school all the boys played Australia vs Thailand in a soccer game which we lost. Recovering from a thrashing in soccer, we all attended a mass that night – completely in Thai, yet still reminding us of similar Lasallian traditions back home, and went to bed exhausted – ready for our first working day tomorrow.
*More pictures to come. With the lack of WIFI it’s taking forever to upload!!