We had a couple of days off this week so a few of us headed into the city. We left here on Wednesday night and got the songthaew to the city. A songthaew is one of the common modes of transportation here. They are essentially covered pick-up trucks with benches in the back. They have no fixed route, you just flag one down, and tell the driver where you want to go and if he is heading in that direction, then he will take you. Each one can accommodate around 10 people inside, with a couple more people hanging off the back! They are pretty cheap, it was a 45 minute drive from here to the city and it cost us 16 baht each, around 32 pence.

We got to our guest house, and then headed out to the night market. I did a bit of shopping there, and then we got some dinner there followed with these yummy banana and nutella pancakes!

The next morning, I had to be up early as I had to go to the immigration office. I had been given a 30-day entry stamp when I arrived instead of 60 days as per my visa so I had to go and get that corrected. I got to the office and followed the crowd to a room where they were all queueing. A few men kept coming in and pushing in front of me which was pretty frustrating. After around 30 mins, an official came round and asked me what I was there for and I told him it was for a visa issue. He told me that I was waiting in the wrong place and I should be in the next office. He then announced to the room that I had been waiting in the wrong place and they all laughed!

I headed to the correct room, and it seemed so much more organised! We were given numbered tickets on arrival and just waited for our numbers to be called. It took almost 2 hours in total, but I got it sorted! I then headed back towards the guest house, went to get a manicure and pedicure, and then went for breakfast. There was an international restaurant opposite our guest house and they served a traditional English breakfast which I was pretty excited about!

Later that evening, we headed to a Khantoke show, which is a dinner with a performance of traditional Thai dancing. It was really fun! Here are some pictures of the show:

The next day, I went to a cooking class which was really fun! We were taking to a market where they explained the various ingredients used commonly in Thai cooking. We bought the ingredients we needed for the cooking. We then cooked a variety of dishes. I cooked Khao Soi (Chiang Mai Noodles) which is one of my favourite meals here, and then made a Penang Curry paste by combining the ingredients and then grinding them, and then made the Penang Curry using the paste. I then made some Pad Thai. I had actually missed cooking since leaving London! So I loved it! And everything tasted so good! Here are some pictures:

So I am now at the halfway point! It’s been 3 months since I left London, and I have 3 months left! It feels kinda strange. I do feel like so much has happened since I left. I’ve seen so much and experienced so much! It feels like a lot longer than 3 months! But also, I’m really not ready to start thinking about going back! Back to reality, getting a job, and getting back into the swing of things. 3 months is still quite a while though I guess!

The area we’re in here is such a nice, quiet, relaxing environment. We’re surrounded by green, and can see mountains in the distance! It’s beautiful! When we have had to go to the local shops or restaurant, we have been able to take the bikes out. They have a few bikes here for the girls, but we are free to use them while the girls are at school and my shortness makes them the perfect size for me! It was so weird the 1st time! I hadn’t ridden a bike in so long, probably not since I was 15/16 but they do say you never forget how to ride a bike which proved to be true! It brought back some memories though, I felt like I was 15 again! And with the roads being so quiet here, with the mountains in the distance, it felt pretty amazing!

Last week was pretty busy, we had a group of around 20 visiting students from a school in Australia who came for a few days, so we had to prepare activities for them to do with the girls. We have the same again this coming week with a different school.

I feel like I’m enjoying it here more and more every day as I get to know the girls more. They are so great! Some are just super sweet, others are loud, funny, and even sarcastic! And then there are some who are very quiet and it takes a while before they start talking to you. One of these is a girl called Ann. For the 1st couple of weeks I was here, she didn’t really say anything to me but she has become more chatty the last few days. We seem to have bonded over sharing the same name! And she asked me a few days ago if I can be her older sister! Sooo cute! I’m glad I’m here for a while, because it does seem to take a few weeks just to get to know the girls and for them to get to know you. These days, some of the girls will come to me for a hug, or the younger ones will want to sit on my knee or want me to give them a piggy back but it has taken a few weeks to get to that stage. Here are a few pictures of some of the girls. The 2nd and 3rd picture are of the girls singing an ‘Australian’ song to some of the visiting students from Australia!

I’m in my 2nd week here now and am settling in well. I know almost all the girl’s names now! I’m enjoying it here. With the background that the girls here have come from, you would expect being here to be very intense! But it isn’t at all! The shelter is full of love, fun, and laughter! The girls are really great! They love being able to go to school and learning, and are really making the most of the opportunities available to them here. They have great aspirations for the future. Some want to be doctors, nurses, chefs, 1 girl wants to be an activist like Mickey (the founder of COSA) and another wants to go to Ethiopia to help the children there!

I love seeing the way the girls here look out for each other. They really are like one big family and are very caring and loving to each other. A few days ago, one of the girls wasn’t feeling well and I went in to check in on them when they told me. Around 10 of the girls were on her bed, all trying to look after her! Some were rubbing one hand, some rubbing the other hand, some rubbing her feet, and others her back, stomach and head! It was so lovely to see! A new girl joined the shelter last week and she was just accepted as a new member of the family.

In terms of what I’m currently doing here, as well as teaching the weekend English classes for the girls, I am now also teaching English to adults in the community 2 nights a week. I also helped to run a computer class for the girls a few nights ago. A lot of the free time in the day when the girls are at school is spent planning lessons and activities for the girls. I am currently also writing a proposal for a business workshop I want to run for the girls, and am working on a project with one of the old volunteers to create postcards and calendars featuring the girls here to sell to raise money for the shelter and help raise awareness about the organisation. In addition to this, the girls here all have sponsors who contribute to them financially as well as writing to them. The funds they contribute are used for getting the girls Thai citizenship, for their school fees, and their general living costs. We send quarterly updates to each sponsor about how the girls are getting on so we are currently working on writing those updates. The volunteers here are also jointly responsible for making sure the girls are ready for school on time and have eaten breakfast, supervising their outings, helping them with their homework, disciplining them if they break the rules, and making sure they go to bed on time.

I was taken for a trafficking talk after a few days here with a few of the other new volunteers to give us a background into trafficking, especially in this area.

We were told that COSA work with the hilltribe communities who are a mixed ethnic group who live in Northern Thailand. They were born in Thailand, but are marginalised. They don’t have Thai citizenship. They effectively have squatters rights, but not much more. They don’t have access to free education past 12 years old, so they can’t get good employment. They are not entitled to an ID card or passport. They can’t own their own land so farming is difficult. The Thai government take around 70% of what they earn so they can’t make enough money to have a decent living. Because of the rough conditions that they live in, the children mostly help their families to farm instead of going to school. This is a practical decision for them, not a moral decision as they are just trying to survive. It is not uncommon to see young children not being allowed to go to school and instead, having to work from 5am – 10pm to help the family.

Trafficking takes place in a few different forms in this community. Males 15+ are sold to work on fishing boats where they are mistreated. They regularly get beaten if they are not deemed to be working hard enough, and you regularly see boats returning with less people than they left with as men are thrown overboard if they get sick.

There are then 3-7 year old children who get sold for agricultural labour – picking tea leaves or coffee beans. These children are then at high risk for sexual trafficking as they get older.

Then there are 10-20 year old females who get trafficked for domestic labour which leads to sexual labour. Girls are sometimes rented out to the local men from their own homes which isn’t trafficking but they essentially become sex slaves.

The children involved don’t say no to their parents due to the culture here. They don’t want to feel like they are letting their family down. They don’t even think to question their parents decision or even think about saying no.

There are 7,000-10,000 hilltribe villages here in Northern Thailand, and each village has it’s own community brothel which services the community members and passers-by. It is usually the most cash-rich business in the village as they get regular business so they will often loan money to families in the community in exchange for their daughters working there for 6 months to pay back the debt. Prostitution is actually illegal in Thailand, but is normalised. 65% of Thai men have their 1st sexual encounter with a prostitute.

Nowadays, trafficking is also becoming normalised in the community here. Families who aren’t so poor will sell their daughter just to enable them to afford to buy material things to improve their social status in the sight of their peers. It really is heartbreaking.

COSA was started in 2009 in response to this. Some of the girls here have been sold by their families and subsequently rescued and taken into the shelter, while others were taken in after being identified as high risk for trafficking and were taken in to prevent it. The organisation work on a prevention based approach. They build relationships with the hilltribe communities and their chiefs and help to provide education for the villages and show them the value of education. They work to gain Thai citizenship for the girls at the shelter, and each girl goes to school, and then either university or vocational college. They try to teach the communities that educating their children will provide them with a long term source of income which will help the family for years to come as opposed to the short term gains that they get from trafficking.

There is currently a documentary being produced about trafficking in the hilltribe villages here and the work that COSA are doing. The documentary is being produced by Shine Global who recently won an Oscar for their documentary Inocente. Filming is due to start very soon, and you can watch a trailer below:

The flight to Chiang Mai was only an hour long. I collected my bags and got out quite quickly, and was greeted by a couple of ladies from the organisation who were waiting for me. There was Cath, one of the other volunteers, and Faa the house mother, known as Pii-Faa. I was told that in Thai culture, you put the word Pii in front of someone’s name to show respect to them so for anyone older than you or in a more senior position. It sounds very much like the African culture I grew up with. We drove 45 mins to the COSA shelter where I’ll be working for the next 6 weeks. The shelter is in a district called Mae Rim. COSA (http://www.cosasia.org) stands for Children of Southeast Asia. They work to prevent human trafficking among the hill tribe villages here in northern Thailand. After I arrived, I was taken to the volunteer house which is just a big room with 8 beds inside and a kitchen and bathroom area. It feels strange sharing with so many people after spending the last 5 nights in my own hotel room! This is the most number of people I’ve shared a room with so far. I met the other volunteers who are currently from the UK, America, Canada, and Australia. I was then given a tour around, met the staff, and also some of the girls who were now back from school. There are currently 25 girls here so it is going to be hard learning all their names and getting to know them all. It was then time for dinner soon after. Everyone here has dinner together which is really nice, and the food was good! The younger girls go to bed soon after dinner, and the older girls can stay up until 9pm so I spent the evening chatting to a few of them with one of the other volunteers. The girls here are really lovely and I’m looking forward to getting to know them. The youngest girl here is 6, and the oldest are 2 19 year old girls who have now started university which is great! The role of the volunteers here is to act as an older sister or brother to the girls and just spend time with them and get to know them and support them in any way we can. And then on weekends, we run English classes for the girls.