Happy Songkran, Hope Home!

Hot town, summer in the city!

The temperature climbs to 36 °C and we are all looking forward to Songkran to cool off and refresh ourselves. The Songkran festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. That is the hottest time of the year in Thailand and likely the end of the dry season. But all people around the world know it as THE WATER-FESTIVAL! The people equip themselves with buckets, bottles and water guns and throw water at one another until there is NO dry spot left anywhere. As it is a big holiday in Thailand the most people have some days off to celebrate and also the ARI- team will go on short holidays. But before the holidays start we wanted to celebrate the end of the hot season with our students from Hope Home with our own water battle in the front yard.

 

Water was the main topic of this workshop. We filled balloons with watercolours and let them pop above a sheet of paper. Boonrot, especially, was amazed by the sound of the popping balloon and the splashing colours 'BOOM-SPLASH'. 

A further highlight were the spray bottles with watercolours - No, that's not quite the right way to say it - a further highlight was rather Paradon's shining eyes when he saw the spray bottles with watercolours. He spent the whole morning spraying, mixing colours and painting. At the beginning of the workshop we offered him four big sheets of paper (A0) but that was not enough. At the end of the workshop he covered five big sheets of paper (A0) six smaller sheets (A3), a table, the ground, two volunteers and himself with bright colours (luckily the cat was not around that day).

The other kids painted with watercolours on drawing and painting paper with rubber splashes and words, which resisted the colours. But all of them got distracted by the balloons we brought with us. 

Yim loves balloons! She spent the morning just hugging the balloon and enjoying the balloon massage that Alicia gave her.

 

The other kids played a fun collective game called 'Soccer- Volleyball-Push'. The kids were sitting in a circle and tried to pass a balloon to one another by moving their hands and legs as much as possible.

• Phil was playing Soccer and kicking the balloon up high.
• Boonrot was playing Volleyball with some help from the volunteers.
• Joy loved the 'pushing' part of the game – we put a balloon on her lap and she pushed it down with a lot of laughter.
  

 

Happy Songkran, Hope Home!

Until next time

-Alena