Triples aren't so bad

Today I went to the project I worked on at Three Pagodas Pass. When I got there I saw the bathrooms and dining room floor were quite dirty. The bathing area was reasonably clean as was the clothes washing area.

I was disappointed at first and then noticed the boys...they were clean, their clothes were clean, and the kitchen was clean. The kids report that they now go to school for 5 hours a day versus 45 minutes that they used to go to school. There is supposed to be another cleaning person starting soon to help take care of cleaning the dirty areas on a daily basis.


I guess it is like hitting a triple in baseball...you got to be happy with it even if you really wanted a home run.

Off track

Even though I am here in America for awhile, I have been working on the project in Thailand. Unfortunately, the guy who had promised to do a lot of work for the children has turned out to be a total slacker. He promised to organize meetings and didn't. In addition, the head monk has not been assertive (which of course monks never are) and the teachers at the school are not performing their jobs properly. The new headmaster is going to start soon, but it may be too late. The donor for the school, who happens to be in a different part of the same organization as the slacker, is frustrated that the school has not gotten its' act together and may pull the funding.

Sandy and I are considering making another short trip back to Thailand to try to get things back on track before we go to another country. We will decide soon enough.

My friends

There is a little 10 year old boy who walks around the market near the temple selling trinkets. He is the cutest kid and somehow I became friendly with him and then his sister. These days one or both visit me nearly everyday. He is smart as a whip and can speak a little English. He came with me to the store today and someone asked me in English who the boy was. The boy said, "his friend". Cute. It is quite saddening that he has to work instead of going to school.


In one of the nicest parts of the project, the lead worker has completed all of his work that he was under contract for, so I told him I would start paying him his regular wage. He said later, "no money...when you done I am done...present". Pretty nice when a guy who has next to nothing is willing to give up a few days pay just to help me. I am really lucky to have him.

Under pressure

Today we ran the line for the gas from the septic tank and we got the water out...in other words, it was not quite as disgusting as yesterday.

It turns out that they have not had any water pressure in the bathroom we are now renovating in many years...you could not even run water in the sinks. We were talking about a work around for a while (cutting a new trench in the concrete was the first choice). Then I thought, "why don't they have pressure?" I backtracked through the system in 15 minutes and found that there were some rocks caught in this faucet which controlled the water pressure. 30 seconds later, problem solved. I am amazed they went many years without water for the bathrooms and cleaning when it took such a small amount of time to resolve it.

Thanks but no

Now that people in the community have seen the project, many want to give me a little food or something to say "thanks". The problem is people like really spicy food and I am not certain of how safe the food is. Consequently, I play stupid (quite easy for me!) and make a gesture of some sort and say "thank you!" It seems to work for now.

Look at the fish!

Yesterday I was in the bathroom that is under the temple and I looked in the clogged sink. There are a bunch of little things swimming around. I point it out to one of the workers and he says "fish". Yup, fish in sink under the temple...ok they were some kind of larvae but it seems better to think of them as fish.

.

I looked closely at the water on the floor that my feet had been in all morning and, yup, chock full of "fish".

It turns out that the water is a nice combination of lavae, urine (the boys pee in it some times) and spit (the guy next to me refused to stop spitting in the water where we were standing in in our sandals). Lovely.

.

The 3 sinks in the bathroom were stopped up for years because the pipes were buried in concrete and the only way to resolve it was to break the concrete. We found that the first sink had wood and wax jammed into it so it must never have worked. The others were clogged with miscellaneous "stuff".

.

The septic tank for this bathroom is directly under it, so a brilliant contractor vented the tank to this enclosed area. Fumalicious.

.

We broke concrete, dug out a trench, ran pipes for drainage and fumes and put in new lighting. Today, we will remove the bathroom doors and pour a new floor. Tommorow we will put the doors back in and paint.

.

The kids use this bathroom during rainy season so fixing it will be a major improvement in their lives during June, July and August. Thanks to the recent donors for their donation for this project.

More Unrest

On the Burma side of the border at 3 Pagodas Pass there are reports of a bomb and on another day a army officer being shot. There is no way to know what the truth is, but something is going on.

The border has not opened since the Thai soldiers were abducted over two weeks ago (they have been released). Initially, the border closure made the town feel like a ghost town, but now people are traveling back and forth through unofficial border crossings.

Pulled over for drunk driving

Last night I got pulled over for drunk driving. It is a little different here since I had not been drinking and the officer at the military/police checkpoint wanted me to get drunk with him. I tried to say no because it was late and I was exhausted, but the guy had a beer and a gun so I figured what the hell had a quick one and I was on my way.

Forced Labor

I had no workers for a few days because the Burmese government decided that a nearby village needed a new building for the residents to rest at while they were traveling around the village. All the men were required to work their for a day, which turned into 2 to 3 days.

I talked to one of my workers, who speaks almost no English so I could be getting the information totally wrong, but he did not seem to be bothered about it at all.

How you doin...look in the mirror

I guess everyone's outlook affects the way they see the world, but when you can not speak to people it the power of your outlook is exaggerated affect.

Every morning I talk to my wife, Sandy, at 8:00. That is generally the last conversation I have until after dinner...sometimes it is the only conversation of the day. Because I only understand a few words of each of the 3 languages I am surrounded by (Thai, Burmese and Mon) I do not understand what people are saying. I understand "foreigner" in all three languages (which is what they refer to me as) so I know when people are talking about me. So I hear that people are talking about me, sometimes followed by laughter. I sometimes wonder what they are saying and why they are laughing. No way for me to know. If I am in a good mood, I think they are saying something nice and I am happier. If I am in a bad mood, they are idiots saying something terrible and I feel angry.

The fact that I am aware of the fact that I am in total control of my happiness makes this situation much easier.

Work Hard

The other day I was getting grumpy with the workers because they were slacking. One in particular was terrible. I told the leader who brought him. He told me the young man had no food and was very weak from hunger. The man said he was donating food to him. I felt pretty guilty until the next day, when I was not paying him and the leader was. The leader got angry and told him he had to go home for not working hard enough.

Getting Close

We have almost finished the kitchen and dining room. The entry is finished and we have put a little foot washing area in front next to it. The dining room has two big picnic tables that we have stained and finished.

The temple has a supply of safe drinking water about 100 meters away but did not have easy access. Consequently the kids were drinking extremely unsanitary water from the tap.We put in a safe system to bring the water to the where the kids need it in the dining room and monestary. I am surprised that they do not have more health problems.

The children did not have a good place to wash their hands and dishes so we built hand sinks which will be used for washing dishes after dinner.

The kitchen has 3 cabinets that are for food storage. They are pretty well sealed up so the number of flies will not be so bad; they literally cover food that is left out which they are currently. The two compartment sink is for washing pots. Their is a low table next to the sinks for placing hot pans. We made the one wall black since people cook with wood which will turn the surface black from the smoke. The people in this part of the world like to cut vegetables on low tables so we made a big one for many children and adults to work on. We also made a pass through so no children need to go into the kitchen to get their food. Finally, there is new lighting and electrical system so they can use a refrigerator which was recently donated.

Now their are just a few more details to finish in the project and construction will be completed. I have got a second wind and part of me is actually disappointed that it will be finished. I am certainly losing my mind.

Making Merit

The other day I met a 91 year old Japanese man. He was still pretty energetic given his age and could speak English very well. He had donated a school for the children, a sleeping area for them and a small temple in front of the big temple where I have been volunteering. The temple he built has a set of train tracks in front of it as a way to remember the people who died (91,000 of them!) building the Burma Thai railway during the Japanese occupation.

He served in the Japanese Army as a translator in this area. I am not sure what that means, but often times when Buddhist in this part of the world are approaching the end of their lives, they try to do good things in part to make amends for bad things they have done earlier in their lives. They call it making merit... gives them an opportunity for a better life the next go around.

It is kind of funny that so many of my Japanese friends used to say that there was no way that they could do these sorts of things and here is a 91 year old man helping others. Pretty impressive.

More dead

I was told, but can not confirm, that 2 more people died from the bus accident. The funeral service for the woman that died in the crash happened today.. The border was shut down, but I guess the military kind of turned their heads and allowed the temple to open its back gate which opens up into Burma so Burmese people could attend the funeral.

Apparently the border is shut down for a different reason than I had thought. A paramilitary group aligned with the Burmese army abducted 2 Thai border patrol soldiers. Things are quite tense because of this. I just read an article which said the Thai government is expecting the soldiers to be released in the next couple of hours. Hopefully this will cool things out a bit.

Details on the tragedy

You may want to read the previous post before this one.

A couple of details on yesterdays tragedy. The bus was an immigration bus returning people to Burma. They are caged in so nobody can escape. I did not understand why there were so many belongings on the bus and my Burmese friend said that although the people were arrested and sent out of the country it is all part of a game. People pay a fee to an agent who pays the police off to travel to Bangkok. Then, when people want to go back to Burma, they call the agent and the police arrest the people. Human trafficking with out so much nastiness.

The army and immigration are quite worried about an uprising because, from what I am told, this is not the first time something like this has happened. They closed the border crossing and local businesses that employee Burmese were shut. As I was leaving town there was a group of 10 soldiers with automatic weapons walking down the street. As I got closer to my town there were several pick up trucks full of more soldiers.

The woman I saw die yesterday was brought to the temple for a ceremony and cremation today. They did not have either so the box with the woman in it just sat there, in the heat. The ceremonies generally happen quite quickly here...usually a day or two after the death. Hopefully, tomorrow things will get back to normal.

The thin red line

15 minutes ago I saw a woman die.


I was at the hardware store feeling so happy about my little project. The people in the back of the bus going back to see friends and family in Burma probably felt the same way. The bus, packed with its human cargo and their worldly possessions, was barreling down the road ...looked like the wrong side of the road. It swerved and that is when I looked up and saw the truck hit the curb in the island in the middle of the road. It barrelled through some trees and flipped. The sound of the side of the truck scraping as it slide 100 yards was bone chilling.

I immediately ran to see if there was something I could do. There were a couple of people thrown from the front of the bus which was now pointed in the wrong direction. I decided to stay near them so nobody would try to move them. Then, I saw the woman, her body contorted head under the dash. I could see she was breathing. I both wanted to run over to her and did not want because sometimes you just know that it is going to be terrible. People kept grabbing at the people on the ground in front of me and I would yell and yell"no!" . Finally, a few people got the picture and were protecting the people on the ground. I looked over at the woman and she did not appear to be breathing.

I ran to the back of the truck. People were screaming and moaning. The people in the back were trapped under their belongings. I just started helping people move their stuff and helped get people out of the bus. We thought all the passengers were out but then someone thought they saw movement. We started pulling everything out of the truck. Ultimately, their were no other people.

The police arrived and started moving the victims...they left the crumpled up dead woman for later.

I was in total shock (still am). I can not talk with anyone which I think I really need to help deal with this sort of thing. I walked back to the hardware store to get my motorbike. I saw a man I met earlier and he gave me a big smile/laugh. I realized that it is a common way that Asian people deal with emotions...smiling at totally inappropriate times. Me...I just write about it in my blog. Now I need a good cry.

Update
It is 6 hours later and I have learned that the buses brakes failed. It was going approximatly 100 kilometers an hour (about 60 miles an hour). The driver must have swerved into the island to avoid ramming the bus into the market which the road dead ends into. The act of courage cost him his life...he died in addition to the woman I saw die.

Living scrub brushes

I could not understand how the bathing area was staying so clean until I saw the living scrub brushes that were taking care of it.

I

Thank You!

Thank you to my long time friends Deborah and Deb for your generous donations to the project. A thank you to long time family friends the Dalpras for donating.

A second thanks to Dave Rogers for a sponsoring a second project in the last year. I met Dave when he sponsored a project at Baan Unrak. He coaches entrepreneurs and gives motivational speeches around the world. You can read more about him here.

Didn't figure on this one

The temple is located right next to a crappy market which is a tourist attraction (for the life of me I do not know why). I thought I had thought of everything while planning the bathrooms until I saw a little old man leading a tourists up to the new bathrooms. As they left he started getting money from them. Apparently, the man started his own little business offering the use of the toilets. I guess this could be considered a compliment since he was able to make money, but I decided to scold him anyway and tell him not to do it again.

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.