Day 7 - Götene

0600 Wake up, get ready, breakfast, depart house and take subway to centralstation.
0830 Pick up my colleague, Mr Nimit, from Nordic Sea Hotel
0845 Meet up with entire group of 7 visitors from Thai Ministry, they landed 2 hours earlier in Stockholm
0915 Get on a train to Skövde, 2 hour train ride

Making sure everybody is all right, feel welcome, try to be hospitable and accommodating!
Some of the guest are tired from the flight, they sleep on the train and this gives me an opportunity to make a few phonecalls to my friends - who by now think I am dead and gone!

1115 Arrival in Skövde, Martin (my assistant trip arrangor) and I hurry to get two rental minivans to transport all 10 people and their 20+++ pieces of luggage! I am travelling light, camera and one large handbag.

Somehow we find our way out of this small town I have never driven in before and head for Götene municipality, about 1 hour away. It is a beautiful sunshine day, blue sky, green grass and spring blossoms everywhere....I love this part of Sweden!

Arrive at Lundsbrunn, where we will stay for the night. Lovely lunch which culminates in one of the guests from thailand wanting to play golf rather than join the sightseeing arranged. Fine, make everybody happy! Golf it is, while the rest of us get back in a minivan and head for a historic church, stone carvings and a stunning view of the area from a lovely hillpoint! Ice cream is then consumed, happily!

Guests are jetlagged, return to the hotel, only to find that there is no hot water there for them to shower - in addition to that we have been accomodated in a house with only one shower for all 10 to share! Cant stand by any longer, step in and make some moves at the receptionist - whom, with my help, now can see clearly that she has other rooms we can move to, each room having their own shower - and I also help her to see that this will not cost us more due to the small fact that it is not our fault nor responsibility that there is no hot water. She agrees we should have the new, better rooms at the same rate as the initial booking. Now I am happier...but still not satisfied with some food arrangements. Sort this out, food is provided and I make sure all drinks are served, all guests are tended to and the bills paid in an orderly fashion.

Scratch my leg and blood gushes all over my foot - just what I need!

2200 Finally get everybody moved into their new rooms. Withdraw to my own in order to write up some receipts and documents, answer urgent emails in my work inbox. Sms:es and phonecalls incomming until midnight, when I decide to download the days pictures from camera to computer - and realize I want to make a record of this hectic schedule these days to come....

So, welcome and hope you have the guts to join my adventure!

....and if you are wondering - yeah...I am tired...beyond tired....but today I am happy!

A record of a hectic schedule - Day 1 to 6

Just for fun, I want to make a record of my days of work at present!

Today - first day of the official visit from our collaborators in Thailand - Ministry of Interior, Community Development Departement.

But wait...I have to rewind as this visit sort of began last sunday, when my thai collegue, Mr Nimit arrived to Sweden. His flight was scheduled to arrive 06.50 sunday morning, 18th may. 8 hours later he arrived, exhausted from a seriously delayed flight from Bangkok. Took care of him that evening, accomodated him in a hotel and spent my evening packing and preparing for the comming days.

Mon - wednesday we had a training camp for our project fascilitators, the ones that take care of the groups of youth in the exchange - in the field. Nimit and I were in charge of 6 facilitators, but the training took place for a total of 12 people at the same location. All from Sweden, Costa Rica, India and Thailand. Early morning until late at night we were coaching, mentoring and having various workshops to assist them in their work and in their collaboration. Their work is tough, challenging and time consuming. To say the least, I was exhausted after managing their training.

Then, thursday - friday, followed a conference together with all our collaborating organizations form the above mentioned countries, as well as Cambodia and Zambia. From early morning until late at night we were in an LFA process, working with the goals of the exchange and improving our collaboration. All I can say is...it was a challenge!

Looking at the past 6 nights, i was lucky if I got 5 hours of sleep per night.

Friday night I slept at my home, finally! The following morning the adventure of the official visit REALLY began...and here I end part one of this record!

Spring has arrived!

Clean
Originally uploaded by Beckis

After 6 months of winter and darkness the days have grown longer, brighter and easier to enjoy! Biked to Kungsträdgården today with the sole purpose of taking pictures of the japanese cherry blossoms. In Sweden on days like this everybody leaves work and heads for the parks, icecream in hand!

Warm spring sun, blue skies, clean air and a billion bees buzzing intoxicatingly from blossom to blossom! Life is sweet in moments like this...

click on the pic if you want to see more images!

Young Love, Petchaburi

Young Love, Petchaburi
Originally uploaded by Beckis

This was taken on my last trip to Thailand, february and march of 2008. They were so cute, with matching t-shirts and braces!!! Click on the pic to see more from this worktrip to Thailand.

Back in Thailand

Ok ok I know...it has been ages since I last posted ANYTHING! But you know, I do have a life....
Anyways, here I am again in Thailand and I figured I should do some blogging and add some pics, but this visit is very official in characther and I am not getting more than few hours sleep per night....thus no time for neither blogging nor pics - which means this one will be short!

In brief - being programme director of the exchange programme between Thailand and Sweden means I make an official visit to the groups of youth at present in Thailand. Together with officials fromthe Ministry of interior I have been to Cha Am and trained our fascilitators, visited the youth in Ratchaburi and in Chiang Mai. Ratchaburi is very close to Pathum Thani, where I was last year, and thus also similar in its environment. Chiang Mai was very different, I love the hills and the people in the village of Maewin!

Visiting the youth has been very inspiring, i feel such joy seeing them in their experience like this and feel very proud of their efforts! They are amazing, putting themselves into this for 6 months and there are several inspiring projects being created on the theme of sustainable entrepreneurship...

Well, I have more stories but they will have to wait until the weekend when I am back from Loei! Now I have a few hours to sleep - they come pick me up from the hotel at 7 to go to the airport to fly to Loei, where we stay for 2 nights. If you cant find it on the map look for Udon Thani and then it is close to there....