Amanda, Sam and I volunteered at the Blind school the other day. It was English Day Camp 2013 (probably didn't matter that they used an old sign...). The staff were happy to have us there helping with English pronunciation in the games we played. There were students there from ages 5-18 or so. All of them were blind, most had developmental disabilities too. I think this might be due to a vitamin deficiency... :( but not sure. I felt like I was at the Challenge Course playing a communication game or something. First there is the language barrier, then they can't see you, and some of them are mentally disabled. It was pretty tiring and required a lot of patience, but the kids were sweet and cute. It also helped me with my vocab. Were going to try to go back on a weekly basis to practice English with the kids and teachers.
Afterwards we walked to a near by temple called Wat Phra Singh. Here's some pics:
 |
| Reclining Buddha - Symbolizes Buddha at the moment of death, or final state of Nirvana/enlightenment. |
 |
| Relics are usually inside of a Pagoda |
lots of buildings on the grounds where the Wat is...
We actually weren't allowed to go inside the main Wat without paying because we are Western. Even though we said "Di-chan pen nak-sik-sa ti Moor Choor!" (I am a student at CMU) So I don't have pics of the actual Wat. They are all pretty much the same anyway.
...
We also stumbled upon this awesome bar/art gallery/house. The owner told us about a hippie festival going on that weekend, and we went to it!
 |
| This is Su-wat. He was an art professor and then he opened this cool cafe/bar/studio. He told us about the festival and we hung out there this weekend. He's super cool and you can't see his dreds in this picture. |
 |
| Chang Dao- Shambhala Festival. We are going back to hike that mountain. |
The festival was started by "the biggest hippie in Japan" and his partner from Thailand only 4 years ago. It was pretty small which was nice. We camped by the river, went to hot springs, chilled out and listened to music. There was a cool fire dancer one night, a beautiful night sky, and we met interesting people from all over the world! It reminded me of Ionia- living outside, Teepees, Japanese hippies and food.... etc. The miso soup was excellent, lots of veggies (daikon). And they didn't really wash their dishes that well - so now I'm sick! Blech.
 |
| Cool Japanese band. |
 |
| New friends! Tiago is on the left - we played a lot of soccer and will more because he lives in Chiang Mai too. |
 |
| Campfire and stage at Shambhala in Chang Dao |
:)
No comments:
Post a Comment