Renovation Camp  2 - 14 September

WEEK 1

We’ve been staying in Peace Village for two weeks and we joined the School Renovation Program that is hold by VSA.

We gathered at the train station on 2 September with Gear, Most and Diane. We stayed in Kaew’s house in Padang Besar a week. In the beginning, we painted the garage of his house. Since then, We went to two schools (Ban Rei School, Ban Kuan Mai Luan 2 School) and painted desks, chairs, and walls. After we farmed with the children of the school. We met so many children, they always smile although some children are poor. We could communicate by a little English and Thai and also with sport because we played volley-ball and soccer with them. They gave us courage working together was a precious experience for us.

Kaew introduced us to the people of his village and to his family. He showed and explained us Thai and Buddhist culture. He is such a generous and friendly guy.

We also met long term volunteers Alex, Roxane, Peter and Tatiana and camp leaders Tum, Ava, Gear, Bell and Bird.

WEEK 2

This week, we went to a school called Kok Taew Pittayasun which used to have 3000 students and now only have 36 students. The school wants to attract more students by renovating her facilities. And that’s also the opportunity for VSA to create a “new” Peace Village.

So we started to clean a building, just to use it as a temporary dormitory and canteen for all the volunteers. Once finished, the next step was to clean another non-used building in order to use it as a new Peace Village. But we also took part to activities with students like farming or picking up mussels at the beach !

At the end of the week, we did some painting works in another school and that was really great because all the students came to help us !

The team work was really good during this week, many volunteers were in the camp (long term and short term) and the harmony between everyone was great. We met a group of Japanese volunteers Kota, Atsuko, Mayu and Shiori.

But working or playing, it doesn’t matter because camp leaders Ava, Gear, Mos and Gear are really amazing.

Asuka Japanese, Diane French, Thomas French