I flew from Bali to Singapore and then Singapore to Phuket. I will be spending the next 3 weeks here at Baan San Fan orphanage (http://www.baansanfan.org). I was picked up at Phuket airport by Sam who runs the orphanage with his wife Gai, and the 2 other volunteers who are here. One is from Australia and only has 2 days left here and the other is from Germany and will be here for 6 months! It was a 2.5 hour drive from the airport to the orphanage! By the time we got there, it was 11pm so I was taken to my room. The volunteer house is nicer than I expected. After sharing a room with 7 others in the last place, I was surprised to have my own room here! There are 4 bedrooms in the volunteer house with 2 beds in each room so because there are currently only 3 volunteers, we have a room each. Here is a picture of my room here:

I was told that we have to be up at 7am the next morning (so early!!!) for breakfast so we headed to bed very soon after. The next morning, we got up and ready and went for breakfast where I met the children here. There are currently 12 children, and then Gai and Sam have 3 of their own children. One is at university in Bangkok and the other 2 live with the children here. Breakfast was nice – toast with eggs and a mango. We helped clear up and wash up afterwards, and then I was given a tour of the orphanage. The orphanage receive no outside funding so they struggle to get by financially. They do what they can to make themselves self-sustainable so that they are not always relying on donations. They have a chicken coup here with 500 chickens! 300 for meat and 200 for eggs. Gai travels 10 hours each way on the bus to Bangkok every week with 700 eggs to sell! I don’t know how she manages it. But there is more of a market for organic eggs in Bangkok so she can sell them for higher there. They also have a fish farm here, they make their own coconut oil, make their own soap, and their own honey. It’s a lot of work for the 2 of them. They sell their products online at http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BaanSanFan#. They also collect all of the food waste here in a big container where it is left to decompose. As it decomposes, it produces methane gas which they use to run the cooker here! I was very impressed with how creative they are in thinking up ways to make and save money. After my tour, we spent some time playing with the children.

That afternoon, a group came to visit from Wicked Diving – a dive centre in Khao Lak – 45mins from the orphanage. They support the orphanage by buying the organic products produced here. They spent the afternoon doing arts and crafts with the children and teaching them how to make bracelets which they want to sell in their diving shop to raise money for the orphanage. I’m enjoying it here so far. The children here are happy and it is very relaxed here, like a big family. In addition, the food they cook here is great! Here is one example!