Taste of village life a real eye-opener

By CASEY NEILL
A TRIP to Thailand was a life-changing experience for Upwey High School students, parents and staff.
A delegation from the school recently travelled to Bang Ngu village in Northern Thailand to rebuild a sanitation system wiped out by fire in the isolated village.
In ferocious heat they dug five toilets, each two and half to three metres deep and half a metre wide.
“The amount of work these guys did – they were amazing,” assistant principal Mick Sheedy said.
“The kids just wanted to keep going. They wanted to keep working.”
Jess Whattam, 17, said the village was definitely in a better position when they left.
“When we were leaving, a villager said ‘now whenever we go to the toilet we’ll think of you’,” she laughed.
“It was incredible. I see the world in a completely different way.”
At the end of their time in the village the students left behind their gloves, hats, boots and other equipment they’d brought with them for the villagers to use.
“We didn’t need any of that stuff but for them it will make a big difference,” Jess said.
She said the Thai villagers had nothing.
“But they’re such smiling, happy people,” she said. “It was absolutely amazing. It was life-changing stuff.”
Brodie Thomas, 17, said it was amazing to see how differently the Thai kids lived and how easily they were entertained.
“A pair of sunnies entertained the village children for hours,” he said.
Jess handed out lollies one day and watched in amazement as the children took tiny bites, savouring the experience she took for granted.
“It was so incredible to them,” she said.
Mr Sheehy said everyone in the village crowded around his laptop computer when he put a movie on.
“I had half the village hanging off my shoulders,” he said. “They just love anything. They’ve got nothing.”
Mr Sheehy said the trip took everyone out of their comfort zones. They slept on yoga mats on a bamboo floor and to bathe used a plastic bowl to scoop water from a creek just a few inches deep.
“It was certainly life-changing,” he said. “The kids have got great stuff out of it. It was very special.”
The group also spent time in Bangkok’s slums where they met Angie, who’s devoted her life to educating kids.
“It’s all about trying to get them out of prostitution and show them what else they’ve got,” Mr Sheehy said.
Jess said the experience was a huge reality check.
“It was good to hear about it, because so often we’re hidden from the truth,” she said.
“We’ve come home to people complaining about having to pay to fix their car – at least they have a car, and a home.”
The delegation – Mr Sheehy, Jess, Brodie, chaplain Stephen Barrington, teacher Amanda Baldasso, Bethany Allchin, 16, and her mum Becca, Jess Elms, 16, Zoe Hewett-Batt, 17, Jacqui Beovich, 17, Skyla Steele, 15, and Shayla Rance, 15 – paid for the trip from their own pockets and fundraised more than $7000 to help people during their journey.
One donation helped a woman with a disabled daughter to put a roof on her home.
Since returning to Upwey they’ve spoken to other students about the experience, and Mr Sheehy hopes to make the trip a regular event.
“We would do it again for sure,” he said. “You really do make a difference. We were part of it.”