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Location: BangkokSpending the day with a group of elderly people at first seemed like it would be a harder task than the ease of playing with children that instantly love you but we soon realised that there was nothing to worry about as they greeted us with flower chains and broad smiles on their faces
Author: Lara D. Location: Bangkok
Spending the day with a group of elderly people at first seemed like it would be a harder task than the ease of playing with children that instantly love you, but we soon realized that there was nothing to worry about as they greeted us with flower chains and broad smiles on their faces. Having been led into the main room to greet all the elderly people, we would be working with for the next two days we sat down amongst them to take part in their weekly prayers to the Buddha. Following this we had an eventful two hours of both Thai and English singing, dancing and games with the surprisingly mobile elderly people, my favorite moment of which was when we all danced together to the sound of some of the Lifeworks group singing some classics.
In the afternoon we split up into three groups to go on a tour of the neighborhood around the DPF headquarters where the elderly people we had spent the day with lived. We visited the elderly people who are part of the DPF project but were unable to visit the center to see us this morning to donate to them a bag of rice. My group visited the community health center on our journey where we had a go on some of the gym equipment they had there (such as coconut shells for a foot ‘massage’) and chatted to a lady who had been paralyzed and was receiving treatment.
We all left the DPF headquarters excited for tomorrow and being able to spend another day with the elderly people away from the confines of the city. Keep reading our Thailand travel blog to see more of our volunteer work and our Thailand vacation photos.