A fantastic welcome to Thailand

The Rotary Club of Westbourne, Bournemouth, has been sponsoring children with Plan since 2006. Last summer, Rotarian Phaedra Palfrey and her partner Craig met the Club's two current sponsored children during their trip to Thailand. Here is Phaedra's story of their visit to meet Mahithorn (4) and Pathomphong (12).

"We were going to be in Thailand as part of a four-and-a-half month trip and thought it would be interesting to visit the sponsored children and see how the contributions that the club makes are spent.

We stayed in a hotel the local Plan office had recommended in Srisaket, the area where the sponsored children live, and it was fantastic. Srisaket is a very interesting town that's off the tourist trail and we were the only European people around.

On the day of the visit, we were picked up by a member of Plan staff called Tao. He was very helpful and helped us to pick out some suitable gifts for the family and the school. At the Plan office the staff were really welcoming too - they wanted to know all about us and about England.

We were the first European visitors to the village and when we arrived, one of the Plan workers - a girl who works in the village - went to get the children from school. Mahithorn, the youngest sponsored child, ran to the tea-shop to get snacks for us. In the village there was hardly any electricity but they managed to find ice for our lemonade, which we thought was amazing.

We met Mahithorn's grandmother and other family members and there was lots of shyness. Tao did some translation, but the children were initially very quiet. I think Mahithorn was a little hungry and tired as he is only four and this was the time when he would normally have a nap. Soon though, we gave them the gifts we'd brought and they were very impressed with the yo-yo. It really broke the ice.

Next we went with Tao and the two children to their school. We were taken to the nursery and they were all supposed to be sleeping on mats on the floor. We met the headmaster and the English teacher and signed the visitors' book.

The classrooms were quite basic, but they were very clean and tidy with children¿s pictures on the wall. The pupils and teachers demonstrated a game called takrow and they invited us to the sports day they were putting on the next day.

Within the school we also saw another Plan project. There were huge fish tanks full of catfish which they feed and then eat for lunch. It means the pupils can have a good meal at school.

The next day we visited the school again and they put on a show for us. All of the children from the school were saying 'hello' and laughing and smiling. The Minister for Health and Education for the village was there and we were treated to traditional Thai dancing performed by ten little girls. We sat with tears in our eyes because they'd gone to so much trouble.

They thanked us for coming to the school and then invited me to say some words. I thanked them for making such a huge effort and said I was so pleased to be there. There were cameras flashing and then we presented the school with the balls that we'd bought and gave some stickers to the nursery.

It was a fantastic two days and Tao was the nicest man on the planet! I would definitely recommend a visit to anyone and I feel very, very lucky to have done it. We're both very impressed with the work that Plan is doing."