First thing today we joined in with the morning activities: after meditation, the children play games and, despite having been up since 5am for chores, they are little balls of energy, fighting for our attention and demanding cuddles and treats. Afterwards, we planned a simple lesson on prepositions (under, over, etc) for Thursday, while trying to fight off yet another child invasion. If I remember rightly, this is the point at which Steve, having surrendered his camera to one of the little terrors, discovered that his photos had been completely deleted. We were a bit more protective of our belongings after that.

In the afternoon we travelled by songthaew (see pic below) into Kanchanaburi town for a Thai massage, discovering that it’s not so much relaxing as, well, torture. My particular favourite part was when my masseuse sat me up, grabbed hold of my shoulders and twisted my whole upper body round so that every single bone along my spine cracked.

We were joined by Nicole, another British volunteer travelling alone who happened to be staying at Moo Baan Dek at the same time as us ISV-ers. Nicole was sharing a House with Tess, an 18-year old Burmese student who had spent a month at the orphanage already and was totally and unconditionally adored by all the kids (and Steve).