4
Location: New Life Project, Kanchanaburi
Today we have successfully completed our second day of LifeWorks Thailand. We spent the morning checking out of the hotel and going to the Duang Prateep Foundation. We had the opportunity to meet Duang Prateep herself; she walked us through the slum area before talking to us about the Foundation. After lunch, we then left the foundation to head on a 3-hour journey to Kanchanaburi. The bus ride was long and tiring. However, when we arrived, we were greeted by many young children with big smiles on their faces. Immediately everyone’s faces lit up; we were all happy to finally meet the children and get to know them. We got the chance to interact with a few of the children before going to eat dinner, many of the children were excited to play with us even though we thought they might be shy. After dinner, we got to experience an amazing performance done by the older girls of the school, after that came the boys and then we all joined in and danced together. The kids seem to have enjoyed spending time with us, and we are lucky to get another five whole days to spend with them. Everyone is getting along really well, and everyone is having a lot of fun. Our group has gotten closer already, even closer than the first day and I hope that we will continue to bond. I also hope everyone in the group will be able to take something out of these five days, whether it appreciates the things that you have or the people you know. I hope that this time with the kids as well as the rest of the trip will inspire every one of us to continue with something similar to this. Our interaction with the kids seems to have given us a lot of energy, and everyone seems to be fighting the jet lag well. However, there are some things that will forever be a mystery such as boats.