During the summer break the girls helped with a lot of things around the house including cleaning, cooking, getting groceries and also gardening. Of course a lot of them don’t like having to help out   but there are some of them that really do enjoy this kind of work. And working together makes it a lot more enjoyable and things get done faster. It becomes even more fun when you get to help Peter cut branches out of trees with a big knife on a stick. All in all they got a lot of work done and the garden looks very nice and neat. Afterwards a tasty reward was waiting for all the workers and everyone got a chance to rest.

Since there was a fire in a children’s home in Chiang Rai province the government has been checking other homes for safety, hygiene, permits, rule obedience, etc. Most of the requirements have been met at House of Refuge but there are still a couple that we have to work on in a very short amount of time. The two things that we still have to work on are a hospital room and the kitchens.

On each of our properties we need a hospital room. A room set apart for when one of the girls is sick. We merged the head office and one of the staff offices into one so that we now have an extra room that we can use as hospital room. The room still has to be cleaned, painted, and furnished.

Three kitchens isn’t enough according to the legal requirements for a children’s home in Thailand. One of the kitchens has a countertop that has broken tiles. Another kitchen has kitchen cabinets that have started rotting. The third kitchen doesn’t have a working drain. Step by step we will take care of everything.