We must really suck!

I have been living overseas for most of the past 5 years and it is a given that most people (especially younger people) hate America. The conversations are always the same... people who have listened to others who have the same beliefs as they do and read the same America hating books. They consider themselves well educated and anyone who disagrees is ill informed and they are pleased to teach you about your country.

Two nights ago I was blessed with a particularly well educated person who made the statement "America is responsible for 95% of the world's problems". With his morally superior tone, he was pleased to tell me what a mess Iraq was. When asked about the 100,000's that were dying due to the "moral" sanction policy (that he supported) before the war he had nothing to say. This is not to say I think the Iraq war was a good idea, I really do not know what will happen but it does not look good right now. He told me what a mess Afganistan is now. When asked if life was measurably better now for women who could now leave their homes unescorted, go to school, work and vote he said (and I loved this), "I could not say that".

It is frustrating to me that people can not see that when their are tough decisions to be made (there are very valid points on both sides) that someone has to make a decision. Right now, the UN will not do it...look at North Korea, Iran...no serious sanctions...just talk. No decisions.

Of course the US makes tons of mistakes (don't get me started on Guantanamo Bay) but these fools who believe that the US does nothing right are jokes. I think I heard enought the other night to last me a while.

Why I stay

I am sitting at dinner tonight with one the girls from the World Challenge group that is volunteering at the home this week and she said to me, "The kids here are great. I never want to leave this place." I told that now she should understand why I enjoy being here (most of the time).

A new playground

This past week we have had a group of high school students from the UK volunteering at the home. They in a program called "World Challenge". They spend a month traveling in a country doing volunteering work and tourning. They have provided the money and much of the labor to build a playground for our kids. A pretty bright group of kids although it may not appear so from the photos.

The veterans

One of the jobs my friend Joyti has is helping veterans from the Burma conflict....way back when the Brits were involved. The old men are slowly dying off, but a group of British officers started sending money to the Burmese veterans 50 years later. Pretty impressive to me.

Oh my god that fruit smells like a butt!

Durian is the most popular fruit that smells like your butt in the world. I like to call it ass fruit. Hotels have signs posted to tell people to not bring the fruit into the hotel because their ass-like smell seems to linger for a long time. This seemed to be quite funny until our landlord harvested his ass fruit and stacked them (I would estimate 200 of those stinkers) under our house for safe keeping. Our house stinks so bad!

Is that a chicken in your pants or are you happy to see me?

Sandy was in class the other day and she heard the sound of a chicken (this sound is almost everywhere here but not in a class). She looked around and finally spots a young girl who brought a chick to class. Sandy asked why and the girl said the mother was missing and she was taking care of it. Later, the girl had put the chick on her shoulder while she was doing her class work. Sandy asked the Principal le if he knew about the girl bringing a chick to class and he said, "You mean the black one?" Now we wonder how many there are at the school.

I am not sure if this would fly in the US or Japan.

Why so few messages

Sorry I have not written much lately. I was sick for a few days (a minor cold) and just got out of the flow. I will start again now.

I hate my skills

I am enjoying my experience here, but I have realized one important thing...I hate the skills I have. Through much of my career I have been managing people in service industries. I have gained a certain number of skills that are very much in need here. It gives me some pleasure to help the home perform its duties better and to help develop people. That said, I realized the other day how much more I enjoyed teaching. I realized most of my career has been spent doing things I do not like doing. I am volunteering here and for a good cause, so I think it has meaning and I am enjoying the experience because of that. The day to day work....not too sure about that right now.

Why I am feeling angst

Last week, a beautiful little girl said to me, "My mom is back from the hospital, she is getting better!" She is bouncing with a big smile on her face like little kids do when they are thrilled with the news they are delivering. Unfortunately, she did not know the truth....neither did her mother. Her mother will die soon.

We sent the woman to the hospital and paid for an exploratory operation. The woman left the hospital before getting any news because she was worried about paying the bill even though we had agreed to. Maybe she knew we had no money to pay the bill either, but hospitals give us credit and we pay them back. Either way, two days after her operation, prior to getting any news nor medicine she left.

It is quite normal to not give people bad news about their health here. Of course in the west we would tell the patient exactly what was happening. I decided on a compromise that we decided to follow, we told the mother she was very, very sick and she needs to take care of herself and we will take care of her children. We do not know what will happen.

So what do you do when the little girl is bouncing in front of you? Gulp, try not to think to much, smile and say,"Good".

A strange interview

We have a position open for a guard and there were two people who were interested. One man came for an interview the other did not. The man who came seemed nice and his previous employer said he did a great job. His wife, who works as a cook at our home, says he is a good worker but he gets drunk 2 or 3 times a month and will miss work. You got to give her credit for honesty!

Later that night, I was visiting my friend Joyti. Joyti has a great spirit. She has next to nothing yet is always giving what she has to help others. I really enjoy chatting with her in her bamboo hut which invariably has about 5 guests. I was chatting with her and the other applicant was there to get some food since he no money to buy any. He seemed nice enough, but a little pitiful. He was a young man with a bad back, no papers to work legally, and was just getting over malaria (remarkably, they are out of malaria medicine at all of the public hospitals in this region during this the peak of the Malaria season!). He was too weak to walk to work. Either way pitiful, but nice guy.

I need the first man because he can do many things for us. The second man needs us because he is down on his luck. I hired them both.

I need Windows licenses or I will kill this guy (I may anyway)

Our home has an internet shop which in principle will allow us to generate a small income (this principle is constantly violated). The shop had some illegal software on the computers and was caught by the police. This sounds reasonable until you realize that in every shop around they sell any program you want for $2.50 all illegal of course. Either way, we were caught prior to my arrival and ordered to pay a fine and buy legal versions of Windows. This bastard who worked for the home got $750 to buy legal versions of Windows and bought illegal copies (for a total of $10). Now we have illegal software and risk being fined again. There is nothing we can do to him because he is Thai...we are stuck.

If anyone has a copy of windows XP, or Windows 2000 or knows where we can get legal copies of them I would greatly appreciate it.

Kung Fu and other monks

I always thought that monks were kind and thoughtful men who tried to enlighten others with the wisdom they got through deep meditation and long hours of study...kind of like the monks on the 70's TV show "Kung Fu". Many monks here in Thailand are like this and I have immense respect for these men. There are other monks...novice monks who go to train at a temple for a relatively short period of time. This helps give them perspective on life and also lets the person and their family get more respect from their community. A fine idea in my mind.

Just like many organizations (including religious ones) there are bad apples. I am told that some monks are in temples to hide from the law or have been "encouraged" by law enforcement to go there to help get their lives in order. I have no way to know if this is true, but several people have told me this and the recent beating in a temple suggests that it is true. Either way...most are good men who are doing great things with their lives.

One interesting custom is the monks will walk through the community early in the morning to get cooked rice. Every morning around 6:30 the owners of our house or one of their servants is out at the street to give the rice. The monks take it, do a short chant and go on their way. This is a picture I took this morning.

Stop Smoking (I think)

A strange but entertaining sign.

I am feeling such angst!

I feel awful. There are a couple of kids, one I am somewhat close to, that will get devastating news soon. I will write more details once they know. I hug and try to laugh with the kids but I can not help feeling awful every time I see their beautiful faces. Soon they will know, soon they will cry all the time... it just sucks.

They are bad....really really bad!

We are located close to the Thai Burma border here in Thailand. There are thousands and thousands of refugees here and the stories they tell are simply incredible. You may know that the Burmese military junta has a long running campaign to rid the border region of two ethnic groups, Mon and Karen, that are troublesome to them. The stories the refugees tell of widespread killings and rapes are horrific.

I was chatting with a child who is Karen and he told me of his early years...always feeling hunted...always feeling like he would be killed soon....seeing a man shot through the eye and watching him die. Another child saw his parents killed. Not surprisingly, these children have problems. I guess I would too if I had been through what they have been through. I guess some people care about what happens in Myanmar, I wish more did.

They are going to far this time.

The goverenment tries to block all web sites that it deems undesirable here in Thailand. Apparently, my hotmail account is undesirable because it is blocked. I am guessing that this is a temporary thing (it does not affect other hotmail users), but who knows?

Medical care...it ain't here

A woman from our home had surgery a few weeks ago. She is having trouble and we took her to the hospital tonight. They referred her to another more capable hospital...three or four hours away. She went in a van with another woman and a baby who was just born an hour before. It is hard to imagine a sick baby making it through a three or four hour drive. I wonder how the other patients will feel if the baby dies along the way.

How was your lunch?

I had a great lunch today! It had nothing to do with the food... just making a little girl happy. They do not serve food in the hospital so I brought the girl along with lunch for her mother who is in the hospital. The girl was so happy to see her mom. We had some ice cream together afterward and she seemed like her usual perky self. It was a great lunch!

I am cornered!

Sandy thought it was quite entertaining to watch a bunch of kids play a game of catch Steve in our old shop. The goal was to grab me around my feet then jump on my back.

A woman with a knife...not a good combination

A while back a woman left us her baby that had been concieved through rape. The woman is 16 now and decided to visit our home with a knife. I do not think she meant harm, but she would not hand over the knife that was hidden in her waistband. None of the children were nearby and our security guard held her down and another person took the knife. The woman then got hysterical. It was not a bad as it sounds, but it was a little scary.