Day 15 - 5 November

This is my travelling day. I headed off from Chiang Rai to Bangkok. I enjoyed the travel because I had some fellow Destiny Rescue people to travel with. We travelled together from Bangkok to Brunei where we had the same lay over but this time in the middle of the night. We met an interesting woman at the coffee shop who buys clothes from Thailand and makes her living selling them through boutiques in Australia. Then we flew to Brisbane arriving early on Saturday morning.

It was great to be home and a truly life changing trip.

Day 14 - 4 November

This morning we travelled up into the hill villages. I am amazed at just how much has been achieved. There is new accommodation for the children as well as a pig sty to provide food and bartering potential. There is a school nearby where the children attend and staff who live on site.

We had an English lesson in the traditional Thai outdoor eating platform followed by delicious Pad Thai made in an open cooking area.


We also met a little boy called 'Seven' who was born at 7:07 on 7.7. 2010.


From there we headed further up into the hills where the Burmese refugees live. They run craft stalls, farm the land and run elephant rides for the tourists. Just another one of those things I can now cross off my bucket list.

Day 13 - 3 November

Today we went to the Destiny Rescue office and taught English to some of the national workers. They were really enjoying speaking English as their speaking skills were already quite good. They all had post school qualifications of some kind, many were married with children and each spoke about goals that they had for their families futures. They indicated how appreciative they are for Destiny both what they are doing for them personally but also what they are doing for the youth of Thailand.

In the afternoon we went back to the rescue home and had another lesson with the workers at the home. The English level was beginner but we really had fun playing counting and alphabet games. We had a great tour through the sewing centre and the jewellery workshop and were given a Destiny Rescue T shirt. It was great to see how much is being done to help these girls become independent.

Later in the afternoon we went to the children's home to play games with the kids. It was lovely to meet them and play games with them. They also love the staff and seem to love rough house play with Kerry!

Day 12 - 2 November

We had a lovely visit today to the children's home. There are lots of kids who live at the home even though they do have families. They live in Chiang Rai during the week to go to school as their families are part of the Hill Tribes and live in poverty without the opportunity to attend school. We had the opportunity to teach English to the girls who run the home and what a joy they were to teach. They were so enthusiastic to have the chance to learn English and really participated well.

We went out to lunch in Chiang Rai and got a real salad which was such a treat after not having salad veges while I had been away. I did then take the afternoon off for a rest, a chance to read and chill out. I read a great book by David Batstone called 'Not for Sale'. which outlined how human trafficking is a growing problem in so many countries including western countries like Australia and the USA. I learnt so much from the trail blazers in each of the countries who are doing their bit to tackle the problem of trafficking starting from the grass roots level. Very challenging stuff.