“Night off”

DAY 6

Another morning in Thailand began what would be a very productive day. Jono and Digi headed off on the bus trip this morning to collect the children. When they returned to the Monster House they were greeted by the group, devouring some delicious donuts.

Back on the worksite the boys, under the leadership of Collins and Flynna, worked on laying a base for the concrete on the extremely muddy ground. The human chain worked productively again and it didn’t take long for Mr Winberg’s coral/salmon/pink shorts to be covered with the brown mud. The leader of the school, Brother Matthew, joined in on the site to get his hands dirty and generously helped out. Best on ground today on the site was Brother Mario who was shoveling away all day.

We clocked off at 11 and hosed off to get ready for lunch at 11:30. Today all kids were dressed in their traditional dresses/clothes full of unique colours and patterns. We played with the kids whilst they were on recess and played some games.

And that’s when the shenanigans began. After lunch we resumed work at 1:30 and the human chain assembled with an increase of work ethic and banter. The rain came and followed by the mud fights where no one came out clean except for James Digi who has his pristine clothes on and stood under the gazebo recovering from injury. Luis, Charlie and Winberg had a rivalry and were constantly trying to take each other down. Ms Hower and Mr Winberg plotted revenge on Charlie, they fooled him by leading him to believe he had a blood nose, but with a quick swipe at the legs Charlie was down. The jokes and play fighting continued all afternoon until 4:30pm when we clocked off from the work site.

Brother Matthew offered us a lift to the river to wash off all the mud from the worksite. We piled into the back of the Ute again and painfully headed down the road to the river due to the rain smacking our faces at high speeds. Upon arrival at the river we went in fully clothed including socks and boots. It was refreshing and was a chance to wash our feral clothes which came out immaculate after.

Back at the school, we got ready for dinner at 6pm. Briefly before Flynn brought a range of yo-yo’s which none of the kids could figure out. Rice, spiced potatoes and noodles were on the menu and went down a treat amongst the boys.

After dinner, we got all our food we bought from 7/11 the previous night (thanks Mr Finn) and assembled in one of the classrooms to watch a movie of the kids’ choice. The group found it hard to pick one movie so we ended up watching the intro of Chicken Run, an episode of Kung Fu Panda ,half of the Minions movie and Flushed away. The kids loved the treats especially all the fizzy drink that was bought. Ethan had to play parent to Tanapon, restricting his soft drink intake from a sugar overdose. It was nice to relax and gave the teachers a chance to have the night off. We loved the girls company and they also loved ours but around 9:30 we called it time for bed. Everyone had an enormous day so we all rested soundly.

Charlie and Ethan