Nicola’s update
Greetings from a rather dormant 1Step2Step!
If you have been wondering why there has been so little information about what we are doing, you may need to watch the video in the previous post. I hope that will explain better the situation for us as a charity. Watch that to get greater understanding.
As a charity, we felt back this time last year that it’s right to draw the work of 1Step2Step to an end. Our plan was to finish well with two projects. One would be a project for the children in the way of a holiday for all past and present children, to enjoy time together with a last hurrah of fun. The second would be a project for the staff by arranging a final study tour trip to England. Alas, as you will all know, the unexpected global pandemic messed all that up. The timing of it cancelled the holiday and meant I needed to leave my house and conclude my work in Thailand and get back to the UK before there would be no flights and my visa had expired. I returned to England a month and a half earlier than I’d planned into the UK’s first day of lockdown.
I got to say goodbye to the children, but only in a very clinical way with minimal time.
You may remember in my previous blog, I planned to have this past year broken up into those different projects and to wind down both the input with the children and with my accommodation. Well instead it was a mad dash to get the house empty and stuff sorted.
I had intended to break the year into task-focused spells to make all the tasks manageable:
Jan to April – plan and implement the holiday
May to August – plan the UK end of the study tour
August to October – plan with the Thai staff and implement bringing them to the UK for the study tour
October to November – possibly back in Thailand to complete vacating the rented house.
Since I’ve been back in the UK, I’ve found that not knowing much about how the children are is better than knowing and then being able to do little to help them. I have heard that Miss K had to have further hip surgery and stay in sick ward afterwards and seen a picture where Miss A was waiting to have the orphanage-wide chest X-ray in the portable X-ray van. It’s hard, but I have had to give them over to God and trust he knows what’s best for them.
Bann Feung Fah have done wonderfully to keep Covid19 at bay. None of the children or staff have had a positive diagnosis and that’s due to the staff working hard to protect the children and making sacrifices to life outside.
We have posted ten packs of good quality incontinence pants to the orphanage that were stored here in the UK for the holiday. They were received after some customs issues were resolved. I’ve been in communication with the nurse about some medical needs within the home that have been requested but not possible to source, which previously my contacts in the Thailand expat community would have assisted with.
I keep in touch and have sent postcards to the staff to send love and reassure them that I’m in good health, even though the UK is on the news in Thailand a lot related to Covid19.
For the future, we are waiting for Covid19 numbers to reduce in both countries and there to be more of a normal situation, so that we can try to do a final study tour at that point. While we wait, I have been able to move to Blackpool, taking up opportunities to gain further training and experience in what my personal future holds within God’s plan. I will also still have a little time connecting with children with disabilities, as I’ve a casual job in the transport service, supporting children on the school run.
There will be less blogs from now on, but when we have the AGM, the information from that will be posted and if there is any progress on the final study tour, you’ll see what practical help we will need for that. Until then, please all stay well and may God bless you all greatly.
Nicola Anderson