I know the strangest thing

The man who has supervised our workers has not been at work for most of the last month, so I have had to taken on some of his duties. I now am becoming an expert on bamboo bridge making (use the straight ones on the walking surface so feet do not fall through) dirt road repairs (it is all about keeping the water off the road) and grass roof purchasing (stay away from bugs and brown stuff). I am pretty sure I will not need this for my future,

Serpent Head...yum

Following up on the recent restaurant post, I thought this menu was particularly scary/humorus.

I see the light but it ain't here!

We are finally getting the lighting installed in the house in the next few weeks. We have been using "borrowed" electricity. This is reasonably humorous ...we have run a line from a neighbors house to our house and kept the wire in the air with bamboo poles. It is so rickety but seems to provide enough electricity to take care of half or more of the rooms at night.

We are incredibly lucky to have an Italian company that donated the equipment and got volunteers to install it all to European standards (the standards here involve a little skill and a lot of good luck and a few hospital visits). All we need is the electicity from the road (which is 400 meters away). So far so good!

Ok, I am lying about one thing...getting the electricity from the road is a huge problem. Yesterday I had a meeting with the men from the electric company that was just surreal. We arrived at the office and the men are outside by the pool drinking Johnny Walker Black (expensive Whiskey is popular with the rich folks here). You know it is not going to be good when you are sitting with three extremely obese men in towels and they are drinking. The bottom line is they say that even though another children's home we know had to pay a few hundred dollars for electricity, they want over 10.000 dollars from us for it.

We do not have the money so I am trying to figure out a way to let them save face (very important here) and let them back down from their demands. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

A lunch worth forgetting

I just finished 30 of the grossest minutes of my life.

I love Indian food and there is a dirty little restaurant that serves something close to it in the Muslim part of the market.

Today I should have known it was going to be gross when I walked up and there was a dog outside eating what appeared to be an aborted doggy fetus. Yummy! I sat down at a table next to a skinny old man wearing white hat and gown with a white beard growing just from his chin (as is normal with many Muslims here). The lady behind the counter, who seems to snarl a little bit every time I sit down, came over and wiped the table with a dark grey cloth that at some point in its life was white. The skinny old man closed one eye and aimed his glass to pour some of his hot tea into a tiny ceramic cup.

The pots of food at the restaurant are prepared mid day and left on the counter the rest of the day (which explains why I was sick for 4 days after I ate here the first time...and I still returned). The lady took a dish, rinsed it in the dirty water where they wash the dishes, wiped it with her hand then she pointed at my usual. I shook my head, "yes" and she put a small amount of food and sauce in a dish along with some pita like bread on my plate. I begin eating and looking around at how filthy everything is. I can not I believe I eat there but the food is delicious. I looked at the skinny old man and he had just finished sipping tea from his little ceramic cup and was holding it a few inches from his face. Then, I saw the capper...he has an incredibly thick string of snot extending from his nose to the tip of his little cup of tea. I had to leave....but I will return for that delicious psuedo Indian food.

I was still shaking my head when I got back to my motorbike and someone had put all their groceries in my basket and next to my tire. 5 minutes of trying to explain to a clerk that I have no idea whose food it was and I was off. Two minutes later while thinking that this was almost a dream, I nearly hit a 2 meter long snake. What a lunch!

A diverse little town

I was walking through town this afternoon and I heard the Muslim call to prayer. This town is amazingly diverse. In a town of a few thousand (between 3000 and 7000 depending on who you ask) there are Buddists (the majority) Muslims and Christians. There are different ethnic groups including Thai, Burmese, Mon, and two groups of Karen (each with different languages).

I wish I could say everyone lives in harmony, but that would be a lie. The biggest tension is between the two biggest groups, Thai and Mon. Both have gangs that are always looking for a fight with the other. Driving across the big concrete bridge between the Mon and Thai sides at night is quite risky because the groups like to throw bottles at passing motorbikes.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my 44th birthday. Like most days, I spent much of it working which was ok except that we had some visitors so I ended up tied up with them until 8:00. Sandy and I ended up having some dinner at the hotel across the street. I have had a hankerin for red wine so I bought the only one in town...Carlo Rossi...for $12 (ouch!). I drink so little now that we could barely finish half the bottle, but it was not half bad

Thanks!

Thanks for the advice on the web site. I have updated it using some of the suggestions I have recieved. I still have a few more pics and movie stills to add. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I liked the photo of me and one of the kids that a friend took so I posted it for the hell of it.

A new web site

I have been working on a website for the children's home. It is not quite finished (needs a few more pictures and it is missing one video. I am interested in your feedback...ease of navigation, feel of site, broken links. The address http://baanunrak.org

No stoppin'

Malake is one of the kindest women we have met anywhere. She is in her mid-thirties, has a degree from a university in Burma and lived in the capital. She speaks several languages...quite a well rounded woman. She has never seen a stoplight. Such a strange world.

Remembering the dead

Two weeks ago we had a ceremony for children who had died. There is one child, Lahachai, that Sandy and I really loved that died (the details are on the old blog here
http://steveandsandy.spaces.live.com/?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=blogpart&partqs=amonth%3d10%26ayear%3d2005

It is amazing how his death still affects us so much. I still think about him nearly everyday. The ceremony was really difficult for both of us. It was made more difficult by the child who was responsible for his death playing like nothing was wrong. His playing could be a defense mehanisim, but it still upsets me.

Another World Record

As many of you know, I am a world record holder... no need to go into details except it involves squid eyes. Either way, I am always impressed with people who can achieve great things, so, as I was driving down the road an hour ago, I could not help but be impressed by the much dreamed of but never before seen 6 people on a motorbike. It is a little difficult to see in either picture but the two combined provides conclusive evidence. I am not sure if it is evidence of squeezing a lot of people on a bike or me getting excited over something stupid...either way I think it is interesting.

Busted!

The other day I wrote about the fellow whose views on America I disagree with. He read my blog and wrote me a note about it. I guess I should know people read the damn thing...I guess I got busted. I should also note that he is a big help to the home and I like him even though I think he is a commie pinko America hater.

Helping a guy I like and respect

There is really a nice man who work for Baan Unrak. He is really a decent man who has drawn some tough cards. I heard that he was running with some children and a piece of bamboo went between his toes and an inch into his foot. He was refusing to go to the doctor even though he really needed to. He had a day off so I went to his home to check on him and he was at church so I told his friend that I was coming back at 12:30 to take him to the hospital.

I went back and his foot was enormous. I told him he had to go and he did. We got the treatment and the medicine he needed. I have been around poor people enough to know why he did not want to go to the doctor...he had no way of paying for it. We went to get the medicine and pay and as I took out my wallet I asked how much it was. He had this really sad look on his face and said he had no money to pay. When he realized I was already planning on paying he was so happy. I took him home and I looked me in the eyes and thanked me in the sort of way that I knew it was not just polite talk. Best 10 bucks I ever spent.

Nice Memories

We had a group of volunteers come to the home who are in the JET program in Japan. Sandy and I spent three years there so it brought back some good memories. They had a good time playing with the kids and of course the kids loved it.

The damn clowns

I was working at our internet shop and struck up a conversation with a couple who were in town. It turns out they are circus performers and were interested in seeing our kids yoga performance. I took them to see the one we had scheduled and afterwards they did some movements for the kids. Of course they were excited and they wanted to try. Same old story...a couple of clowns roll into town and next thing you know I am just a side show (two bad puns in one sentence...very impressive...they are trapeze artists by the way).

Bitch!

There is a woman who was very sick...she needed an operation and nobody would help her. We ended up paying for her surgery and having one of our staff members care for her child for a couple of months so she could rest in one of hour little houses. Everyday she walked around hunched over like someone just shot her in the gut. The house mothers did not like her because she never even offered to help in anyway.

Apparently she was feeling better than we realized because we found her with a man in her room in the middle of the night. We decided that she was well enough to leave. She has her mother in town as well as an aunt and a sister. We gave her some milk for her child and offered to give her training for a job and, if she was decent, a job.

How did she thank us? She left her baby in the market and asked someone to take it to our home. Then she left town. Bitch!

Sad but kind of nice

As I mentioned before, we care for some people who have nowhere else to turn (they have no papers and no one else can help them). I went with Fa again to meet with some patients. One we stop at just to say hello...incredibly beautiful little girl, mother who is HIV positive and father who has asthma. A short but reasonably nice visit.

The second house is a really tough situation. We arrive to their bamboo house with floors rotting out. The man wearing a tradition gray floor length Burmese sarong with no shirt...very traditional look that I have grown to like. The wife was laying motionless on a bamboo mat on the floor. Their 8 year old daughter in the background. The woman is 46 and just had her second stroke. She is paralized on both sides. She just lies all day on her mat.

It was incredibly sad and nice at the same time. The woman cannot talk but mumbles so we were talking with her husband. The wife tried to speak but nobody could understand her. Her frustration quickly turned to tears and Fa just held her while husband lovingly massaged her feet. It was incredibly sad but you could see the love so there was something kind of nice.

They are desperatly poor so their thirteen year old son works doing construction work...building our children's home while destroying his future. The husband works at home weaving baskets so he can care for his wife 24/7. He makes $55 a month doing this.

We brought them 15 kg of rice and we are going to redo their floors next week. I guess we did good but it is kind of sad thinking about it.