Last night, I arrived at my room and felt wary of the bugs and the dark and thought about how soon I could leave. Tonight, though, I am already thinking about how long I can stay.
This morning I woke up late to a dark-skinned woman knocking on my door and making motions of eating with her hands. I followed her outside to a breathtaking view of clouds rising over the mountains and turned to find a tray with coffee and two fried eggs waiting for me! What a blessing. I sat up on the roof top (sort of like an open construction site), and again appreciated how what was beneath me (this open construction site) might not be so nice but if I only looked out to God's creation, it was so beautiful. All day the beauty of this place has been slowly seeping into me - even the ants that crawl in lines by the thousands are becoming fascinating. This afternoon, what I thought was an overgrown garden came to life when the children came back from school and started hoeing, weeding, and watering it - I realized that the overgrown garden is actually full of lemongrass bushes, papaya trees, cabbage plants, and many fruit trees. It is so amazing what you can see if you give things a chance.
The girls and boys doing agriculture in the farm. The Swimming Home is a home to sexually and physically abused children, orphans, and currently a deaf woman and her son - really, anyone in need of a safe home. Right now, they have 8 adults and children, 4 boys and 4 girls. The Swimming Home is just one part of a larger organization called Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities. They work mostly for prevention of at-risk youth who are vulnerable to being trafficked. Most of their children come from the surrounding villages and hill tribes, both Myanmar children (of which there are many ethnic groups - Shan, Akha, Burmese just to name a few) and Thai children. In addition to the Swimming Home, they also run a school called the "Half Day school" which picks up children by bus at the Myanmar border and from the surrounding villages in Thailand and gives them an education every day. These children return to their family by night.
This morning I woke up late to a dark-skinned woman knocking on my door and making motions of eating with her hands. I followed her outside to a breathtaking view of clouds rising over the mountains and turned to find a tray with coffee and two fried eggs waiting for me! What a blessing. I sat up on the roof top (sort of like an open construction site), and again appreciated how what was beneath me (this open construction site) might not be so nice but if I only looked out to God's creation, it was so beautiful. All day the beauty of this place has been slowly seeping into me - even the ants that crawl in lines by the thousands are becoming fascinating. This afternoon, what I thought was an overgrown garden came to life when the children came back from school and started hoeing, weeding, and watering it - I realized that the overgrown garden is actually full of lemongrass bushes, papaya trees, cabbage plants, and many fruit trees. It is so amazing what you can see if you give things a chance.
The 50 meter swimming pool at "the Swimming Home" of Khun Sompop and Khun Dusadee
The girls and boys doing agriculture in the farm. The Swimming Home is a home to sexually and physically abused children, orphans, and currently a deaf woman and her son - really, anyone in need of a safe home. Right now, they have 8 adults and children, 4 boys and 4 girls. The Swimming Home is just one part of a larger organization called Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities. They work mostly for prevention of at-risk youth who are vulnerable to being trafficked. Most of their children come from the surrounding villages and hill tribes, both Myanmar children (of which there are many ethnic groups - Shan, Akha, Burmese just to name a few) and Thai children. In addition to the Swimming Home, they also run a school called the "Half Day school" which picks up children by bus at the Myanmar border and from the surrounding villages in Thailand and gives them an education every day. These children return to their family by night.
Actually, the DEPDC organization is badly in need of funding right now as all of their big-name donors recently pulled out when Thailand was considered to no longer be a developing country. Thailand might not be a developing country, but this part of the country - the Mae Sai province - still has thousands of poor families who sell their children into trafficking to bring back more money. It is also home to thousands of Burmese refugees and "internally displaced persons" who are not officially welcome in either Myanmar or Thailand. Learn more about the DEPDC organization here.
They also have this 3 year-old boy, Pi Tup, who was abandonned by his mother and has an alcoholic father. A neighbor called the DEPDC's hotline to see if they could take him in. He has been here for a few months and will probably grow up here. I hope to come back and see him again one day!
Me and my host sister, Kaesai, who is also 25 and a law student just like me. Here we are at her university, Mae Fah Luang University, the best one in the Chiang Rai province. A breathtaking view, certainly rivals Berkeley's!
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ReplyDeleteQuick Question: How are countries defined formally with respect to "developed" or "developing"? I would say after my trip to Bangkok that Thailand is for sure a "developing" country but perhaps there is a formal definition dealing with GDP or something.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that pool is nicer than the one I trained in growing up!
The Human Development Index published by the UNDP - http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi/ - uses factors of life expectancy, education, and gross national income to determine the "development index". In 2013, Thailand was ranked 103, "Medium Human Development," and in the third quartile.
ReplyDelete