Our journey began in Bangkok, where we walked around the very busy Grand Palace, and concluded in Krabi, where we snorkelled in crystal-clear waters.

Each of us had different highlights from the trip, including feeding and bathing cheeky elephants in Chiang Mai, climbing the biggest staircase we’d ever seen to visit stunning temples, and marvelling at a beautiful man-made waterfall. An unexpected and slightly awkward encounter with the Princess of Thailand also made for a memorable moment! However, the most special experience we all agreed on was helping with the projects we visited and meeting Cedar’s sponsor children.

Meeting our Sponsor Children

We spent time at four projects: Hill Tribe, Supporting Heart, House of Union, and Santi Church. We were able to hang out with our sponsor children, get to know them better, and bring them gifts from home.It was amazing that we were finally able to meet these children, because before this the only connection we had with them was seeing posters of them around the school and raising money for them. A highlight for all of us was painting Supporting Heart’s head office after floods had ruined most of the building.

A Life-Changing Experience

Being immersed within the Thai culture has broadened and grown our worldviews. Each of the students have learned so much from this trip! It taught us how to be independent as we were away from our families and had no contact with them for the whole month (except for one phone call!). It may seem like that’s an extremely long time to not talk to your parents, but it ended up being a lot easier than expected!

We were able to make connections with many of the children, although it was hard to communicate because of the language barrier. Brooke made a special connection with one child, whereby they communicated through hand signals and they could understand each other perfectly! For me, it has changed how grateful I am for everything and has taught me the importance of showing love to others. Meeting people at the churches who have so little, yet treated us so well, and give us so much, has changed how I want to be as a person.

The trip was everything and more than what we expected, and we had the time of our lives!

Georgia Ianni –  Year 12 student