No influence!

After 4 cancelled meetings, we finally met the principle of the local school. The news could not have been worse...none of the children can go to school. I do not think he wants Thai children to go to school. I am guessing that the men who attended the previous meeting talked to him because he went from one extreme to the other. The woman who usually translates was not available for me, so I could be wrong but I do not think so. I guess the guy who had influence actually had none.

Kitchen Update

We are making good progress on the kitchen. They have finished putting the roof and walls up in the kitchen. They have started to put the stones on the exterior of the dining room.

The small public kitchen, which is very simple, should be finished in a couple of days. The bigger kitchen for the children should be finished in a week or so.

Burning out

The project is going well, but I am worse for wear...been sick off and on for weeks and I can not take a few days off because the workers need supervision. In addition, the education stuff (which is on hold until Tuesday) is at a precarious time.

The kitchen is well on its way to being completed (sorry no pics...camera died) and then we have to make the walkways and playground. I am hoping construction finishes in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to it.

No meeting

The dude with influence did not show up for our meeting yesterday afternoon and we could not reach him until I ran into him this afternoon. He says he will arrange a meeting tommorrow morning, but I doubt he will. How did he get influence anyway?

Dead!

The mother of the girl who has been jeopardy has died. The official cause is HIV, but it was suicide. She had many opportunities for care free of charge. She would start it, start getting better and then quit. Being a prostitute is not a career choice...it is something that she probably was forced into. I guess life wore her down and she decided to quit.

The girl will stay at the home for a week waiting for a final ceremony and then she will move in with my friend. I hope this story has a happy ending, but it will be a few more years before we know.

Now that was stressful!

It was 10:00...time for the meeting to begin and I was waiting with my friend, but the man with the NGO that had influence with the school was not there. We called him and no answer. Crap! 10:15 he called us and said the meeting was moved to another location, he did not tell us the man we were supposed to meet changed too. Nice. We went to the new location and the man from the NGO that had influence was nowhere to be seen. I decided that we should stay far away from the offices because it would be terrible if the meeting started with out our contact at the NGO.

A man we did not know was walking around the school and saw us. He offered us water and asked us to sit. He told us he was the man to decide on who goes to the schools, the man we really should see and we were with out the man who has influence. Crap. He then told us none of the kids could go to the public school. My heart dropped but I decided to not let my head explode like it wanted to.

20 minutes later the guy from the NGO shows up. He talked to the school dude who ends up agreeing to let all kids 10 and under attend the public school if the school has space. We will have to split up the kids and send them to multiple schools to get them all in school. I did nice talk at the end happy that I had kept my mouth shut earlier when I wanted to scream. I have the feeling that this schooling story has many more chapters to be written.

Here comes the big one!

In one hour I have a meeting with the headmaster of a school that will really determine the future of the children. If he continues to say the children can attend the school at a reasonable cost it will give the children:

• an education
• a pathway to citizenship since it is easy to become a citizen with 7 years of schooling in a public school
• a good meal everyday
  
• an opportunity to use the informal education system after they complete 7 years of real school to get a high school diploma.

Of course, if the kids have an education, a diploma and citizenship they have a chance for a good life. I am really hopeful but anxious about this meeting.

Getting some gas

Sometimes I forget the day to day stuff that is so different here. When a woman came to Sangklaburi the other day she thought it was so funny that you would get gas from a 50 gallon drum that she insisted on taking a picture. I decided what the heck and took one too even though it seems perfectly normal to me at this point.

Progress

I thought I would dump a bunch of pictures from the project. As you can see, the bathroom, clothes washing area, clothes drying area, water tank and septic tank are finished. This was the difficult part. We have started the kitchen and in 3 weeks or so the construction should be getting closed to finished (I hope!).

I also put a couple of pictures of the kids who seemed quite excited today about the project.

A banana and a smile

Today, in my brillance, I decided to burn the trees and stuff we cut down to make the bathrooms and drying area. This, not surpisingly given the heat and dry weather, was not a wise decision. I moved a bunch of the brush to be sure the fire did not get to large. Later, as a nearby tree literally exploded into flames, I decided I did not remove enough brush.

As the flames grew, I went and got a hose which would have been good except there was no water today. In a few days, when the water storage tank is finished, this will not be a problem. Today it was mighty inconvient. I ended up finding a bucket and made many trips back and forth and got the fire under control.

Later, a couple of boys who helped knock down the fire came up to me...one with a glass of water and the other with a banana both with smiles. Nice way to end the day.

Kidnap or not

The girl I have written a couple of times here and here is in jeopardy again. The mother has her in Burma (went over the border without the adoptive father's permission) and is threatening to send her far away to who knows what fate.

Now that she is in Burma, the options are quite limited. Forget her? Not easily. While visiting me my friend ran into a relative of a General in the Karen Rebel group who said it would be quite easy for them to go get the girl and bring her to my friend (some in Burma might call this kidnapping but they have been put in jail for trying to have free speech).

Difficult decision when you have a legal right but do you have a moral right to take a kid from her dying mother? If you do, will she stay with you or just hate you forever? Glad he has to decide and not me.

The wicked witch is gone

Snarl face, the woman who I wrote about here who lives in the main house next to ours is gone. The other day she yelled at me and told me to get out of her house. The problem is, it is not her house. I went to the man whose house it is (her brother) and at first he offered to have me live at his resort. When I told him she said it was her house he proved it was not by throwing her out. I guess I should feel bad... I will put that on the to do list for next week this week I will be happy she is gone.

It is hard to be a cock

A few years ago I would have been angered by cockfighting but given my current hatred of these early rising vile animals I do not care so much. In town there is a little rink with fighting roosters for sale. I have only seen them fighting one time there.

An hour ago I was eating dinner at my favorite tea leaf restaurant and they started having a cock fight. Usually they end after a couple of minutes when one of the roosters is going to get injured and the owner throws in the towel. This one went on and on because there was no clear winner.

Banish all the condiments!

When I went to Kanchanaburi for my periodic dentist trip, I went to Tesco (kind of like Walmart). In the liquor section they had this sign that said , "Not sell Tabasco and liquor to children who Are under 18 years". With all of the food being so hot in this country I can not see why they would not sell Tabasco to kids except if they see it as some sort of gateway condiment to ...mustard or other more dangerous condiments.

Meeting the Monk

Meetings here are different here because of the whole respect factor...no feet pointed at anyone, the oldest person must sit in the highest chair, you must let the conversation move along at its own pace....usually a little slow.

An hour ago we met the monk for the temple where I have been volunteering. He has not been there for a couple of months so I wanted to talk to him about what we have been up to and what we had plans for. I think he is pleased but, like most monks, it is very difficult to read him.

He agreed to the most important things...establishing a committee to oversee the care of the children and establishing separate bank account to maintain the financial integrity of the donated funds. Quite good news if everything goes as planned.

There not going to be happy!

The bathrooms are almost finished (pics in a couple of days) but I am guessing these boys will not be thrilled about losing their outdoor bathroom/waterpark.

Special Life

Someone who reads my blog said my life here sounds so depressing. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Jim Valvano, an American Basketball coach, was diagnosed with cancer and knew he was going to die. He created the Jimmy V foundation to help with cancer research and taught others how to have a fulfilling life. In 1993 he gave a wonderful speech at an awards show (you can listen here). The part that really stuck for me was:

"We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

I am forced to think about life every day, I feel sadness everyday and I laugh everyday. Not a day goes by that I do not feel lucky to have this special life.

Upadate on kidney patient

I wrote about a poor Burmese woman needing treatment for kidney stones in September here. The money was raised and paid to complete all of her treatments (about $750). Unfortunately, the machine broke and needs to be replaced. The hospital will not refund the money because they say that they will be able to treat her once they get a new machine donated.

Last night the woman was hospitalized again, in agony and called my friend. Through her tears, my friend recounted the conversation last night. The woman said, "what can I do. I have been in so much pain for so long. All I want to do is get well enough so I can go back home and take care of my mother and grandmother". It is really sad and crazy. My friend is contacting some people who have influence to see if they can help. We will see what happens.

I should be shot

A few days ago the guys pouring concrete at the project made a mistake and I had them take up a couple of meters of concrete (a very popular decision as you might guess).

Yesterday, they were still stressed, so in my infinite wisdom, I decided to play a little joke. I got back from lunch and they had poured a few meters of concrete and I yelled, "stop! no good!" The foreman's shoulders went down in disgust and he looked at me in anger. Then, I laughed and said "good, good! Joke!". The workers got it immediatly and started laughing. The foreman understood a minute later and had a good laugh also. The rest of the day the workers kept smiling at me and saying, "joke! joke!"

More instablity

Yesterday was Mon National Day, a big celebration for the Mon ethnic group. There has been a large celebration in our town the last few days that has been well attended by everyone but especially the military and the police. Given the recent instability this is a good thing.

Last night, on the Burma side of the border (20 miles away) there was an explosion followed by machine gun fire. Different reports had different stories from a couple of injures to many people injured and a few dead. There is no way to know for certain the truth, but my guess is the village has a lot of the Karen rebel group and they probably were trying to disrupt a major Mon celebration.

The uncertainty of what is going on is causing a lot of anxiety. I do not feel like I am in any kind of danger, but I am very cautious about what goes on around me.

So Good!

Soma is a 20 year old woman whose family abandoned her years ago, so she lived at Baan Unrak. She completed high school here and is studying to take an American GED test in Bangkok. She takes care of a group of children who are also studying there. Usually I feel strange calling a 20 year old a woman but she is wise beyond her years.

It is not often that I meet such a nice young woman... there is just such goodness radiating from her. I think I am not the only person to see this since a family that has been sponsoring her offered to pay for her to go to university in Canada. Once she passes the GED (hopefully next month) she will start school there.

Such a nice girl, born with no papers and later abandoned, the sort of girl who usually has no future, now has the opportunity to have a great life. I can not tell you how happy it makes me every time I see her.

Happy Birthday

Once a month the have birthday night at Baan Unrak to celebrate all of the children's birthdays for the month. It starts with each birthday child's name being announced. Then, the child walks to Didi while all the other kids sing happy birthday. Next, there is surprisingly good pizza, chocolate cake and then throwing candy from the second floor down to the million kids waiting to wrestle for some candy. I love to go, like I did last night, just to see these wonderful kids so happy.