Super Sandy!

We were doing our normal walk to the market for dinner an hour ago and I spotted a group of about 10 boys getting off their motorbikes and one had a beer. I told Sandy to be careful. As we were walking by, some of the boys started to beat two of the boys...apparently we walked into a gang fight. What should we do:

A. Keep walking with our mouths shut
B. Keep walking and contact police officials (like they will care about a gang fight!)
C. Scream at them and start to tap the boy who is punching another boy with your umbrella

You can guess which choice our crime fighting friend took. Lucky, they were too busy beating each other to worry about us.

Too Good To Be True?

I had a few meetings with WorldVision this week. They have agreed to pay for 2 kids operations, possibly a woman's operation, schooling for hundreds of kids, clothing for hundreds and assisting with building a bathroom. It could be that all the big problems I was working on could be solved soon....or it could be too good to be true. Either way, a hopeful serious of events and some really nice people who work there.

Getting a little better

Sandy has been sick for a month now but is slowly getting over her dizziness. I have had a couple of small things that have kept me sick off and on... thankfully off right now.

An unwelcome visitor

Yesterday was incredibly hot so I was sitting in my underware cursing my laptop which is finally dying and in walks a man into my house...for the third time. He is the deaf and mute brother of the landlord. The first two times Sandy was home alone. As you might imagine I am concerned and at least a little angry. I scolded him (I know he is deaf and does not speak English but you got to do what you got to do!). Then, I scolded the landlord. We may move out.

I was talking to a friend and she told me about a 18 year old girl who was raped nearby last month. My friend said nobody responded to her screams and the police are not investigating because she is not Thai. Hard to believe, but there really is no justice here if you do not have Thai nationality.

I think it is safe here but I think if we stay in our house we will have to change the locks and always have the door locked.

Words of Wisdom

A very important monk in the area died 2 days ago. I went to the ceremony which runs over several days and will be attended by thousands of people. My friend was introducing me to the new head monk (she spoke Mon, a local language)...this is Steve, is volunteering to help people in the area, he is from America. The monk thought a minute. I was interested in hearing his words of wisdom. Then, he spoke. Fa translated...."He said American...you can fire guns there"; and that was that.

Still Dizzy

Sandy is still feeling dizzy so we went to St Louis Hospital in Bangkok because it is known to be the best hospital in the country. The hospital is quite modern and impressive. The doctor ran a few tests on Sandy and could not make a certain diagnosis, but thought she did not have anything serious and should just rest for a week or two. This, of course, is the remaining couple of weeks of her vacation. At least we know that it is nothing serious.

A'int no dental care here either!

A couple of friends told me the dentist in town is pretty good and I really needed to have crown replaced and a cavity filled. I went and after an hour and a half, they said I needed a root canal also (this was not a surprise). I decided to do it and after another hour and a half, they were finished...kind of. The dentist said, "I could only find 2 of the 3 nerves in your tooth. You will need to find a more skilled dentist in Kanchanaburi or Bangkok." The next day the temporary crown they put on broke.

Since they said it will take 3 or 4 trips, I decided to go to Kanchanaburi since it is only 3 hours away instead of 7 + to Bangkok. Unfortunately, the dentist who can do this work there is out of the office for several more days. Luckily, I have no pain.

Two steps forward, one back in some crap

I have been working with a very poor children's home...no money for food, clothes, education sanition. It has been very difficult because the kids do not have Thai nationality and few are concerned with kids who are in the area illegally.

There has been a lot of progress on all of the issues in the last couple of weeks. I had a big break through on education when I got the support of the local government including the headmaster of the primary school, to let the small children go to the local school (which the law requires but is not permitted anyway). That is until a few days later when the headmaster went to the temple and told the monk that he did not want the kids in the school. I am guessing that he is short on resources and is worried that these kids will not stay in Thailand and will not benefit his community in anyway.

I decided to play stupid (quite easy for me!) and act like I did not know what the headmaster wanted. I am going to try to talk about ways I can help him. I am going to suggest that only kids who are permanently living at the home go to his school. I also have a meeting to find a way to allow kids to go into various grades instead of all of them going into grade one as currently policy requires.

Maybe not so lucky

Cho Cho Aye, the girl who was getting the heart operation, is not quite as lucky as I thought. The operation was to begin yesterday morning (as I mentioned). The doctor did a final exam and said that he could not do the surgery...she needs open heart surgery instead. Of course everyone is very disappointed and the girl is a scared. The operation costs $10,000 instead of 7,000. We are trying to find the money, if we do not, she dies within a year or two according to the doctor.

A little girl in heart surgery

We have become friendly with a family. Nice folks. Very poor. The second youngest girl is 16 years old has a smile that lights the room. She also has a severe heart condition. The doctors told her she would die soon with out an operation. Poor and sick is not a good combination here. Our friend Fa found a donor to pay for the heart operation (costs $7,000 US). I got a message just now that she just went into surgery. Most kids would have ended up dying here in the same situation. If the surgery is succesful, mark one in the poor, sick and kind of lucky column.

Dizzy girl

Sandy has been sick with a viral infection in her ear for 12 days. It is not serious, just causes dizziness. The doctor mentioned in the previous post said to just rest. A friend had something similar and it took a few weeks to get over it completly. The timing is good because she does not miss class because the kids are on holiday. It is not good because we were going to travel.

Devil Eyes

Sandy and I have been sick most of the last week; Sandy with dizziness and me with red eyes and a low grade fever. Some people believe that you can get the red eyes by looking at someone who has it, so it was quite cute to see the kids cover their eyes as a precaution when they saw me.

There is a Chrisitian hospital about 30 minutes from here which, given it's limited facilities, is really good at giving basic care. Sandy and I went there yesterday and were seen by a volunteer doctor from Crofton Maryland, USA... just 20 minutes from my parents home. The total cost of seeing both of us and two prescriptions was $2.50.

I am especially hopefully that we will be well soon since Sandy has time off and I am hoping we can travel during this time.

Santa's Little Helper

The owners of our house have the world's most stupid dog...because of this and the physical resemblance I call him Santa's Little Helper after the dog on the Simpsons. His real name is Kang but it sounds far to strong and regal for such a stupid animal.

I have never seen Sandy as excited to spend time with anyone or anything as this stupid dog. She literally prances up to the dog with a huge smile and gives him this baby/dog talk.

As you may know, we have chickens next door which I despise because of the noise they make. This morning one jumped the fence and was in our yard. This set SLH off and he began to chase the chicken. The young girls who are maids at the main house began chasing SLH. The chicken ran into the house followed by SLH followed by two screaming girls. Somehow the chicken and SLH escaped the house followed by the girls who were now laughing. I found myself cheering for SLH and calling him Kang. At one point he had the chicken cornered and was getting ready to give it a little bite (I found myself smiling at this point) when the girls caught up with the dog and chicken. Damn girls!

Ultimately, the girls stopped the dog and caught the chicken and threw the chicken over the fence. I can not believe it but I am now a fan of SLH.

Food Safety at its finest

How do you take care of meat to be sure flies do not lay eggs or other nasty things? Refrigerate... silly idea! Put in any sort of case?... absurd! Have someone stand with a flyswatter... that is old fashion! Hook up a piece of wire with some plastic tassels on the end to a fan motor... perfect! It does seem to keep the flies away but it is not so good about keeping the meat from spoiling (and smelling like it!).

Miscalculation

Yesterday I went to a soccer game and I saw one of the little girls from the home by herself. She is quite cute, but always a little melancholy. She came over to me and wanted to sit and watch the game with me. I thought I would be a nice guy and buy her a soda. One slight miscalculation...there were 40 other kids from the home at the game and they all wanted soda of course. I figured what the hell, and bought them all soda. I think I was just as popular with the soda vendor as the kids.

An interesting meeting

Meetings are strange when you have no idea about what is appropriate and what is being said during the meeting. I had an interesting meeting today with the community leader, the headmaster of the local school and my friend and translator Pone Pone. We were discussing the future of the kids at the children's home in a town called "Three Pagodas Pass". These children have nothing...no food, very little clothes, poor medical care and poor education. I think that some of the people at the meeting want to help, but others are less interested because all of the children lack Thai Nationality.

I think that we got permission for 12-15 (out of 40 or so) of the kids to go to school starting next year (March). It is not final yet, but it looks good right now. The NGO that is going to provide food support needs to make a longer term commitment before the school will allow the kids to come to school. I am hoping to set up a meeting in another week.

Still on the agenda for the home is more clothes and medical care. I am still working on getting their bathrooms repaired/replaced. One NGO has agreed to help and I am still looking for support from other donors.

With a little luck, things will get better for these kids soon.

Good Timing

I had decided to try to find some support for the homes in the area that are in desperate need and I just spoke with an NGO which had decided to support the temple where the children live that need to beg for food. The monk who is running the temple was not aware that they were preparing to support him so it was a nice surprise for him. It is nice being the bearer of good news. Now I need to find support for their other needs.

Great day

A friend of mine took me to this school that is kind of remote...you have to go by motorbike than by boat to get there. The children can not go to the government school yet so they study in this little bamboo school. 15 of the children live there also. The kids look like they are in pretty good shape.

As I was getting ready to leave, the village head offered me coffee so I sat down and started to enjoy it when I noticed the women next to me wearing western clothes. So I asked one woman if she spoke English which she did. It turns out they were there to make a show for Animal Planet on a female Mahout (elephant trainer).

After the trip, I went back across the river to one of my favorite places...this waterfall that literally spills out on to the dirt road. It is beautiful. You can climb up the many terraces to the top of the water fall and at the top there are all of these beautiful orchids all over the place. What a great day!

Visiting another children's home

I visited yet another children's home yesterday. This one was very different because of the philosophy they use. The children are responsible for many of the day to day decisions for "their community". The community has meetings twice a week where the children decide a variety of things from tasks that need to be done in their community to punishment for children who have acted poorly. They can decide that a child can not live in their community any more if he/she is dangerous to other children. The adults have one vote each, the same as each child. Kind of a shocking concept, but it seems to be working.

In two years, a volunteer from the UK has set up a home which cares for 50 children and a school which teaches and feeds 200 children for free.

Pretty amazing to me.

Chatting with the monk

I met with a monk yesterday to talk about the situation with the kids he cares for at his temple. It is a really difficult situation for the kids and I am going to try to help him in the near future but I am trying to make sure I understand what is happening before I decide how to help.

I went with my friend and translator Pone Pone. Usually I ask a question then it takes several minutes of conversation between the two people before I get an answer to even a simple question. This was quite different. I asked difficult questions and Pone Pone asked him and he barely made a noise and then Pone Pone gave me his long reply. I am not sure but either the monk is a master communicator or Pone Pone is having a little fun by making up answers.

I will write more about this temple and their children later because it is really a terrible situation...I just need to understand it better before I ask friends to help the kids.