Strange meeting

I had a meeting for one of the projects I am working on at a temple. The men who I was meeting with were trying to get me to pay for about $1500 extra stuff for the project about 1/2 of which would go into their pockets (this I declined). At the end of the meeting, one man looks to me with a big smile and says, "So, you want to go get a massage by some young girls?" Which part of asking this question is the strangest...

we are at a temple

we are trying to help children (not screw them)

my friend is waiting for me (I can just imagine my conversation with her...Pone Pone can you wait a half hour while I go have sex with a teenager?)


FYI ...I declined the offer

A new roof

My friend Joyti introduced me to a woman and 5 children today. The woman's roof looks more like a strainer than a roof and she has no food for the family. Her husband is in jail (I have no idea why). Not a good situation obviously.

I went ahead and paid for a new roof...it cost less than $20. I have to say that I felt really awkward and got no pleasure in giving the woman money for her roof.

If you want to donate

I wanted to make it easy, safe and tax deductable to donate to the bathroom project I am working on and my friend, Jim, from Whispering Seed has been kind enough to offer his support.

If you would like to donate:

• Go to whisperingseed.org
• Go to the bottom right part of the page and click on the "donate now through network for good"
• Click on "Donate Now" button when the next page comes up
• Leave the defaults ( "This is a one time donation" and"Provide my name and e-mail address to the charity")
• Enter the amount of money you would like to donate
• In the "Designation" box, write "Steve's Projects".
  

Network for Good is a huge organization that processes donations...quite safe and they will send you a tax receipt.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Puking Monks In Stereo

I just made a 3 1/2 hour trip in a van (which is the main bus service to our town) to get some dental work done. There were a group of 4 monks in the back of the van eating all sorts of snacks when we got started. They must not have known that the road becomes very windy and the drivers like to go as fast as possible. 1/2 in I heard arrrrrrrrr and realized a monk was barfing behind me. 5 minutes later I thought the guy would never stop but it turned out it was two of them barfing. This continued on and off for the next 1 hour.

When we got off the bus and went to the bathroom one of the barfing monks (which should be the name for a rock band) walked up to me with a big smile and said "Oh my god!". Quite cute.

Disheartening

3 hours ago I was at the temple where I am trying to build a bathroom when I heard screams coming from a group of children and a few adults. In the center were a pair of boys fighting as little boys sometimes do.

I ran over and pulled them apart and realized that they were not angry.

My friend Pone Pone investigated and found that some people had paid the little boys to beat each other for their entertainment. She had a little meeting and tried to explain right from wrong, but when you are really poor, this concept is a little hard to grasp especially when you can make some money. Click on the picture and look at how intently these little boys are listening. I can not tell you how disheartening this is.

Good news!

Last week was full of bad news regarding other NGO's. This week UNICEF has finally written me about some education matters and gave some good advice. Another NGO is going to help with the new bathrooms.

In addition, my nephew Joseph was the first to give money to help build the new bathrooms. I am very impressed!

Pay Her Off?

I was talking to my friend earlier today about the girl whose mother took her to work in the brothel. She is not working as a prostitute yet, but it is only a matter of time. I gave him one idea....buy the mother off. Give her 10,000 baht ($250) to give her child back and to never try to take her again. It is really wrong...but is it right?

You gotta do something

There are 51 children that need help and I have given up on the NGO's. I want to find a way to improve their situation.

The picture above is the main bathroom that the fifty one children and 10 monks use. As you can see, the roof is falling in, the concrete is deteriorating. You can not see the toilets were installed backwards so they are always a mess.

They have a second bathroom which they use sometimes but it is flooded because of the poor design. The kids do not want to walk in the water so they pee in it instead. The smell is disgusting.

The kids bathe together outside as the picture shows. It is not terrible for the little boys, but as boys get older this is not good. It is also inappropriate for monks to do this.

I think this is just wrong and I want to find a way to fix it. I am going to have the one bathroom made into a clothes washing area and build a new bathroom. It will be enclosed with 8 toilets, 4 urinals, places to bathe. The monks will have their own seperate area. The bathroom with the poor drainage will have a new floor poured with drains.

The total cost of this will be about $2500 US. If you are interested in supporting these kids send me an e-mail ssnidero@hotmail.com

Thanks

Too good to be true...yup

As I mentioned in a previous entry, WorldVision had promised to do a lot of wonderful things for children in this area. I was so happy, but wondered if it was too good to be true. It was.

I took them to meet many projects and they promised to help many children. They missed meeting after meeting but I thought if they will help, it would be worth the headache. I just got off the phone with them. They will do nothing. No clothes, food, schooling....nothing. They truly suck.

Is common sense breaking out?

In an astounding development, the local government reversed themselves and are allowing the kids to go to Bangkok to perform yoga (mentioned in the previous post). I wonder if common sense is starting break out here.

No Papers, no prob....big problem

This Saturday an NGO in Bangkok has their annual fundraising fair that is attended by thousands of people. They invited the kids from Baan Unrak to go and perform yoga (you can see a video of their performance here http://baanunrak.org/Videos.html ). The last few months the kids have worked quite hard and their performance is really beautiful. As you might imagine, they were really excited about this.

Most of the kids do not have papers (either born in Burma or in the hills here), so they must get approval from the local government to travel outside of this area. In the past, they would have had no problem, but with the changes in the government they have tightened up on papers for travel. Unfortunately, the kids were denied permission to travel.

I'll help...just kidding

I have to say I am surprised how many people have promised me to do something (donate, call back with information, call back for meeting) and totally drop the ball. This includes people who I am trying to help, major groups like UNICEF and large companies that you would think would be professional. I am not upset but more disappointed.

Damn!

Last November 14th I wrote in my other blog about a little girl...

"One of the little girls he brought was just learning English and when I said sorry about something she said "your welcome" then she realized she had made mistake and just started laughing like crazy...I guess she will need to review that lesson. Either way really cute girl with a great sense of humour."

I was talking with my friend the other day and he said that the little girls's HIV positive mother tracked her down and told the little girl (about 13 years old) that she needed to work in the family's business....it's a whorehouse. Damn!

Why don't they wear black hats?

There is a Fillipina woman in town who is quite attractive, has a beautiful and frequently used smile, and a quick laugh. She is an an evangelical christian and she opened a children's home a few years back. Except for the fact that she wears her religion on her sleeve (she explained to me why I was going to hell...but with a smile) she seems quite nice.

Attractive, friendly wants to do good things and abusive. I knew of one instance of abuse where she forced a girl to undress in front of all the other children in her home as punishment for a minor infraction. Apparently, this was one of many instances so an NGO took some of the children to Bangkok (local authorities not too interested) and finally got the home closed down. Now the woman is opening a school in Burma to "help" those children. I am trying to prevent her from "helping" anyone else, but it is Burma and it may be difficult.

It is strange to me that a person who obviously came here with good intentions turned out to do bad things. I wish these folks would wear black hats so I could figure them out a little quicker.

Who ya lookin at?

My friend Pone Pone went with me to Burma as I mentioned on an earlier post. I thought it was strange that she would do this since she is really concerned about being arrested or harrased by both the government army and the Karen rebel group. Her family was very upset with her because they are somewhat well known and she is easily identified because there are spies everywhere... everything and everyone is noticed. Being a foreigner, I was at no risk and realistically she was not in a lot of risk, but if you have been persecuted like most Burmese people have been, it does not take a lot of risk to get you anxious.

Pone Pone told me a little story about our trip. 15 minutes after we arrived at the temple, a man came on a motorbike. He wore no uniform, but she immediatly recognized him as a Captain in the Karen army. He did not talk with anyone or do anything except watch her. She said her heart was racing and she decided to act like she did not know him. After 15 minutes, she went up to him and made small talk. She said he got anxious and left a few minutes later.

She was very scared and decided to wait a few days to tell me about the situation. She is really a wonderful woman, but I think she was a bit dopey this time.

Getting a clue!

Thousands of kids in this area were born in Burma or in remote areas of Thailand so they can not prove they should have Thai nationality (these are stateless children). They are often unable to go to public school even though the law requires them to go because the schools are over crowded and they do not have sufficient resources for the children they are responsible for already. Consequently, barriers are erected to keep the stateless or Burmese children out of school.

There are many indendent schools, some are ok some are terrible, that try to help with these children get an education. Children who attend these schools do not get a paper from the government saying they have completed a grade, so if they go into the public school, they must start over in grade 1. There is a law that anyone who attends a registered school here for 7 years is eligible to get Thai citizenship. Going to these independent schools provides the children with some education, but does not qualify them for Thai citizenship.

In a perfect world there would be enough money for all the children to attend public school or a registered school and, ultimately, get Thai citizenship (if that is what they want). Of course, this is not a perfect world especially if you are poor and born in the wrong place.

Everyone wants to do something because these uneducated children grow into uneducated adults who have no opportunities because they do not have Thai citizenship. This creates a permanent underclass that is not healthy for any country.

I had a meeting with a headmaster on Thursday that was enlightening. He supports some independent schools with textbooks and teachers who visit the schools on a periodic basis. He does not need to build classrooms and hire additional teachers. Kids go to grades 1 to 3 in the little independent school (more like a bamboo hut with bamboo desks and a chaulkboard) and go to grades 4 and up at his school. Many more children are in these first three grades because of this. Generally, if children stay in one place for three years, they are staying in place for a lifetime.

This works for him because he can comply with the law, help the children (which he seemed sincere about) and not adding any significant expenses for new classrooms and teachers. An additional benefit for him (which he did not say) is he does not spend money on the transcient children (some follow their families back and forth over the border).

I went to the board of education on Friday (3 + hours each way on a bus...ugh) and talked to them about how I could get it applied elsewhere. It is possible.

Now I am getting a clue...WorldVision will support the families, public schools and satelitte schools provide the education, the educated children are able to get Thai Citizenship (if they want it which most do). It is possible all it takes is some persuasion. This, of course, is true until the new government changes the rules, which they certainly will.

Decisions, Decisions

Sandy is probably going to go back to the US for a while (could be a month could be many months). It is the right thing to do, but it means giving up some important work and a mostly pleasant life. I have to decide what to do. Should I go to be supportive and be with my wife or stay and follow through on some of the things

More Meetings

Had a meeting with a group from World Education. We went to a few schools including the elephant school. I think they enjoyed the adventure of going to the elephant school (which has elephants for tourists) until the long boat got stuck in the river on the way out. We pulled out some oars and made our way out. Either way a good adventure.

Back to Burma

I went back to Burma with my friend Pone Pone and World Education, an NGO that assists people in border regions with their educational needs. The temple/children's home we went to had just finished a celebration and one of the little floats had the insignia of one of the rebel groups which is disliked in the area due to some atrocities they have committed. It turns out they are big supporters of the temple. Of course, the people do not like the government because of the atrocities that they commit. he Head Monk (who we met with) is well regarded in the community so the government listens to him.

The fact that he is respected by everyone means that he is probably more powerful than any politician in the area.

What would you do?

A friend of mine has applied for Thai Citizenship along with the rest of her family. If you do not have Thai nationality, you can not leave this poor part of the country, you have no rights and no police protection. It is incredibly important and it takes a lot of effort to get it.

Everything was going well until a week or two ago when the government officer in charge "lost" her paperwork which agreed to find again for a fee. My friend was outraged by the fact that the officer was asking for a bribe (which is strange given that nearly everyone who has power is corrupt here). She wrote a government officer in Bangkok and they are making a big deal about it. They want her to name the person involved which could screw up her opportunity to get Thai citizenship.

What would you do, pay the bribe and forget the report or take your chances and name the corrupt government official?