School holidays and wonderful reunions

School holidays are finally here! 
The children enjoy taking easy and relaxing as it is the beginning of the holidays. 
During the day, it is also too hot for us to do too much.

We have had many wonderful reunions in recent weeks.
Hans Langenskiöld from Alba Care has been here with family and friends. It felt wonderful to show him what Alba Care has made possible, as they joined the refurbishment project.
Agneta is back after a month's leave so now she and the kids have started their art projects again.
Our dear old volunteer Thomas popped up like a jack in the box to everyone's delight and he has not changed, he was as full of mischief and pranks as usual.
We have had Tommy from Happy Child here for two weeks and you can imagine how good it feels when we get to share the joy of being around the children with our friends that work so hardto help us and the kids.
And then everybody's Calle been here and visited us for a week. Calle who has been volunteering twice, who has both walked from Bangkok to Barnhem, and cycled from Sweden to Barnhem to raise money for his kids. And who knows maybe there will be more ….

We are spoiled!

Happy Sunday!

What a great feeling to see the kids run around and play  in the middle of the day in the blazing sunshine. Now we have our large protective roof, which will protect against sun and rain.

Charity concert for Barnhem

We want to say a big thank you to the amazing Eka who chose to hold a charity concert for the benefit of our children on their birthday.
CWe got to experience a magical evening filled with love and beautiful music.
If you come to Phuket and have the chance to hear and see Eka so do not miss it.

Sunday fun

So  much fun on a Sunday afternoon if you live at the orphanage, and has the world's best Nid, Boy and Eak.

Happy New Year!

And with the celebration we had so it will be a happy new year.
We started at 2pm with lots of crazy games all the way to the dinner - the only time we paused was to cool off with some ice cream.
For dinner, we were treated with a fantastic buffet prepared by Miaoo and Porn.

And after dinner it was time for the show. And oh what that show they gave us.
All the kids gave all they got as well as for the volunteers.

 Then we danced into the New Year!

 Happy New Year from all of us to all of you!

Thanks to Stiga for our great new outdoors table tennis table!

Today it finally arrived - this year's Christmas gift! We have got an outdoor table tennis table from Stiga!

Many thanks to Jonas Wilen at Stiga who did not hesitate a second when the beloved Elin approached him and asked if they wanted to donate an outdoor table for us.

An equally big thank you to Elin who took matters into her own hands and contacted Stiga when she realized how much the kids love to play table tennis and this at a table that had seen its best days long gone.

Now we will play!

This year's Christmas gift

All of us at Barnhem want to say a big thank you to Happy Child and all who participated and donated money to our new safe school bus.

Having driven the children with our song teo (a converted pick-up) for ten years, it was time to get a new school bus. Over the past ten years the traffic situation changed drastically with many more cars on the road so it feels very nice to wave to the children off to school in a proper minibus now.

 Big, big thanks to all who participated and contributed!

Christmas carols at Paresa

On Christmas Eve we set off to Paresa where kids should entertain with Christmas carols.

We were there for the first time last year and the kids loved it so they have been practicing their carols every night for over a month. This year they added a little dance to the songs so guess if they were a success.

Before it was time to perform, we were treated to dinner and after the performance all of them got a Christmas gift - it was a happy and contented bunch that went back home at 20 o'clock.

Birthday celebration and celebration of good grades

Today we had a birthday celebration for the children who have had their birthday since our last birthday celebration. We also took the opportunity to pay tribute to our older kids for their amazing grades. We have not received the younger children's grades yet, so we look forward to another celebration soon.

The birthday was celebrated with extraordinary good food and fantastic cakes baked by Miaoo. And we got to inaugurate the new fine cloths that we have received from the orphanage's very own Anne and Ole.

Loi Kratong

Hello,

 My name is Elin. For you who does not know me Sussi is my aunt and I am also the one who five years ago convinced here that Barnhem should have a Facebook group. This so all the people who knew Barnhem would have a place to gather and share memories and thoughts. Today when the group has almost 2000 members and the feed is filled with pictures, new articles and text from volunteers who is longing back I will have to feel a bit content. The group has developed in to exactly what the ide was from the beginning. Very good! I am not at Barnhem as a volunteer but I will be living at Sussi and Hans for the next month so it is possible that you will here more from me.

 Yesterday we were celebrating the Thai holiday Loi-Kratong. The holiday is celebrated as I have been told to express gratitude to the lakes, rivers and seas. They built boats from banana leafs and fill them whit lights and flowers. In the evening these are put in to the water to say thank you to the sea, to apologise for the trash that ends up in the sea and as a way to send of all the bad things and wish for a lucky future. On top of this in the Thai “more is more” way there was also a market and a dance show.

 The day at Barnhem started before the kids had gotten home from school with building these kratongs that later in the evening were to be put in to the sea at the village Tamaprao. When the kids got home from school they joined the boat making. Me and some of the volunteers tried to built one ourselves but we got to understand that it was a lot harder that in looked when the Thai staff were doing it. On top of the kratong making the small kids were also supposed to get make up and dance clothes on because they were going to give a performance at Tamaprao. So to say, there was a lot going on.

 At seven o’clock we al left Barnhem to go to Tamaprao. The evening was a big success. The dancing was well appreciated, almost all the Kratongs were floating as they should and a lot of the kids got hold of some sweets even though it was not “candy day”. I must say as a person who has never been to something like this before that Thai people for sure knows how to celebrate. 

A lot of love from us at Barnhem.

Beautiful friends.

Our children are the best!

They are not only good at doing their own homework, they are additionally really good friends who help each other. Yesterday Fuse decided entirely on his own that he should help his friend Maeo with math. I love our wonderful kids.

Greetings from Sussi Karlfeldt, volunteer at Barnhem.

 Hey!

Now it's Susie K or more correctly Susanne Karlfeldt, who is writing.

In the writing moment, I have been at Barnhem as a volunteer 108 days of my 112 in total. I would like to share some of my thoughts and feelings about this adventure, for an adventure is exactly what it has been.

 It was a pure coincidence that I ended up at Barnhem, actually it was my daughter who was going to apply as a volunteer, but when I was reading all the information on the website along with her, I realized that I wanted to apply as well. Luckily there was room for us both.

Many of my friends says that what we are doing here is so nice and great for the kids, and I certainly do not want to diminish the volunteers role here, we are certainly important, but above all I want to highlight what Barnhem has meant to me.

 To be here as a volunteer has forced me to abandon a lot of my own ideas about how things should be done, and many times I have seen that it is possible to do things in a different way than how I think it should be done.

 The cooperation with the wonderful Thai staff has worked fantastic, even if I at several occasions would have solved problems in another way, their way worked perfectly fine aswell worked as well.

 But what I really want to highlight is of course the children. If somehow I have been able to contribute something to their development and general well-being, it is wonderful, of course, but it is nothing in compare with what they have given me. It is difficult to describe in words, but being surrounded by these 27 children for such a long time leaves marks,  positive ones. I have been laughing a lot, nagged a lot, played a lot and above all I have got to see many wonderful sides of these children. I will never forget them and for the rest of my life, I will occasionally think about them and about were their lives have taken them. 

 I have had my life’s adventure and even if there are things that I would describe as less great with my stay here, they are so banal and unimportant that it is no need to even mention them, that is how insignificant they are in context.

To be able to take a four month long break as a 43-year-old women and to experience this is such a luxury. I will forever be grateful to those who made it possible.

And if it has not reached everyone yet, I for one think that everyone who has the opportunity should indulge in this luxury, which is applying to be a volunteer at Barnhem.

 To be a part of everything amazing that happens here is something I will carry with me forever.

 Thank you for the opportunity, Sussi and Hans! See you, I promise.

Six of the best – a charity dinner at Paresa

What a night, what an event. The food, the music, the atmosphere!

Last night Paresa had their second charity dinner for the benefit of Barnhem and the refurbishment project. Last year Hans and me could not make it there because we were in Sweden but this year we were able to attend. Now we for sure know what we missed last year.

 The evening was absolutely fantastic! All the guests were treated to superb food prepared by six of the top chefs not only in Phuket but throughout the whole world. Fabulous entertainment by The Pejae Stanley Band whose amazing singer also ran the auction and as if that was not enough four of Bangkok's very best opera singers had been flown in.

 And everything this evening were paid by the wonderfull friendly sponsors, so not only did we get to enjoy an amazing evening, but soon Barnhem also will get to enjoy the result of the evening. When writing this we do not know the exact amount that has been raised but it will be somewhere around500 000 THB, money that will be used for the Refurbishment Project.

 We want to say a big thanks to Dawid Koegelenberg and his amazing team at Paresa.

 We are spoiled, and incredibly grateful that we are surrounded by so many fantastic people.

Thanks for the fifth consecutive year, the City Clinic in Gothenburg

Today we want to celebrate and to thank Thomas Anders, Jonathan and Sofia at the City Clinic in Gothenburg as you yesterday, 7th of November, for the fifth year in a row had an Open House for the benefit of Happy Child and Barnhem.

 You must have drawn a full house this year again as you gave the chiropractor treatments and gave massages for all together SEK 22,350.

 You are amazing!

Halloween

Last night we celebrate Halloween at Barmhem.

As usual, the preparation is at least as fun as the celebration itself, so there was a lot of time and effort put in to decorate the children's home in all sorts of creepy cobwebs and bloody fabrics and much more.

Once the decoration of Barmhem was done the transformation from cute children to scary monster took place. It is a delight to see how well the children are to cooperate and help each other. It was completely natural that the older children painted the younger. Slowly but surely our nice little home turned into a haunted home full of scary monsters.

Icing on the cake was when the volunteers then took all the scary monsters on a ghost walk and scared the life out of the whole bunch. The volunteers noted cheerfully that they never could scare children in Sweden in this way - and our kids loved it.

When the ghost walk was over the children sat down in the playroom to continue scaring each other with scary stories, and when the stories were ended, the ghost disco started.

The evening ended in peacefulness as Wow took all the little ghosts to meditate in our Pagoda - and with this harmonious and beautiful sight, we left Halloween this time.

Visit from the organisation “Phuket Says No to Dolphin Shows”

Today, Khun Mai and Khun Nii from the organisation “Phuket Says No to Dolphin Shows” have been visiting Barnhem to tell us why you should not visit the new dolphinarium on the island.Khun Mai and Nii was absolutely amazing and had everyone, even the youngest children, to listen carefully and understand.

 They started with some fun games to get the kids to relax and listen, after that they showed a short clip from one of the dolphin shows which of course made us all want to go there. The dolphins were so cute, playful and seemed so happy - but then they began to talk about the reality behind these pictures that they showed us.

 They told us stories and showed videos of how people scared the wild dolphins in to a cove in Japan, where they then were captured. To this place people who wanted to buy dolphins for dolphin shows came to select the beautiful and young dolphins, these got separated from their families. The old dolphins that no one wanted got killed and sold as whale meat in Japan.

 They described how bad dolphins in captivity are doing when they are separated from their families and live in small spaces, these animals are used to being able to swim freely. They also told us that they only fed the dolphins with dead fish; when they usually eat live ones. They finished by telling us that the dolphins who does not behave gets punished by not getting any food at all.

 They illustrated their stories very well by comparing the dolphins’ situation with situations in our own lives.

We will absolutely not visit Phuket delfinarie now that we know about the reality for the dolphins.

 Many thanks to the organisation “Phuket Says No to Dolphin Shows” for taking the time to come to Barnhem and tell us about the dolphins’ reality.

School holiday!

The kids have had school holidays in October.

A holiday filled with art projects.They have visited the Art Village in Rawai where they were producing their own art of old rubbish, and at home they have been painted very beautiful paintings directed by Agneta.
Annika from Happy Child has visited us with her daughter Nelly, who taught our children to make bracelets of rubber bands and to paint their own glass.

The children have also helped their society by among other things helped with the cleaning up in Temples. We all know how nice it is to do something for someone else sometimes.

 We have also had time to just chill, go swimming and tracking.

Next week it is back to school again. And although it's been a really great school holiday, I think everyone is looking forward to get into the daily routine again.

Lunch at Peony

Last Sunday Barnhem was invited to lunch at Restaurant Peony at Nai Yang.
They served us delicious food and we were treated like their most important guests.
We had a lovely morning and finished lunch with a long day on the beach.
Many thanks to everyone at Restaurant Peony.

Thank you all at Head Start for a wonderful day with you.

Saturday, 17 October, Barnhem were invited to HeadStart for an activity day at the school.

Everyone - students, teachers, and parents - had been working for several weeks to give us this fantastic day. They had been collected clothes, things and food to us, and they had had a bakesale where students at the school both sold and bought cakes for the benefit of us.

 And on Saturday, October 17, it was time for our visit. Oh how they had made an effort to give us a fantastic day and oh how amazing it was. Present were both students, teachers, and parents - we were playing in the school's ball pit, some of the older students from HeadSTart played football with those of our children that wanted to play football. Other older students had an art class with our children, we got to perform all sorts of sports in their beautiful indoor hall and swimming in their lovely pool. After games and sports were treated to delicious lunch that the parents of the pupils had prepared for us. The day ended with a lady teaching our children to make their own personal soaps. It was a happy, satisfied and grateful bunch who turned back home again in the afternoon.

Many thanks to everyone at HeadStart

We are getting a totally refurbished home for our children!

Thank you Barrie Buck and John Grendon for starting this fantastic project, for working so hard and for never giving up.

Thank you Dawid Koegelenberg and all the great people at Paresa for believing in the project from the start, for having the kids over repeatedly and for your fantastic charity dinners to help fund the project.

Thanks Happy Child and Odd Fellow Barnfond for always being there for us and for tirelessly raising money.

 Thank you dear Mireille and Andy Archer from the Sam and Ruby Charity, for year after year donating funds.

 Last but definitely not least, thank you Peder and Hans Langenskiöld, Alba Care Foundation for believing in us and for joining the project so it finally could get started. Thank you Carl G Langenskiöld and Khun Prasop from Twin Palms for representing Alba Care Foundation on Phuket and among a lot of other things finding Khun Joe Sanya from Amata Associate and Terra Group who decided to help us build it non-profit.