Positive Thinking = Positive Changes

Sawatdee kaa! Time for a beginning-of-December update! Loads of great changes happening around the Home.

CAR-LESS NO MORE

We got a truck!! FINALLY! After 12 years of Dada working here and relying on one lone motorbike to do all the Home’s food shopping, take the kids to the hospital when needed, conduct the mobile eye care camp with Unite for Sight volunteers, and pick up needed supplies, Dada is now the proud father of a silver second-hand 2-wheel drive Mitsubishi truck, with 6 seats and room in the back for a load of kids, goats, and/or supplies. Dada was so happy he slept in it for the first two nights!

I got a ride in it yesterday morning with Toni (a German volunteer) and the 5 boys in the band as Dada drove us out to Three Pagodas Pass, a Mon village right on the border with Burma. We went to participate in a World AIDS/HIV Day event, organized by a local NGO, the Global Fund, and the local community. We left at 6:30am to make it in time for the parade, in which school kids marched down the street yelling ‘No Aids!’ but which came out sounding like ‘No Aid!’ since they don’t pronounce their final consonants. The focus was on preventing HIV/AIDS transmission among migrant workers in this border area.

There were Mon traditional dances, 6 year old boys dancing to a pop song, speeches, pamphlets about AIDS given out, more songs, then our boy band took the stage. They sounded great, and I stood in the audience clapping and snapping photos like any proud parent. I was impressed with the organization of the event, except for the vast amounts of litter than covered the grass. It was eventually picked up by homeless children who stay at the temple, but could have easily been put in trash bins, had they had any ready, to start with.

Wiwat and Tarit, along with Naoki, Olan, and Kamal, dripping sweat in the boiling heat but still putting on an amazing show!

WEAVING ON DISPLAY

With Toni’s help, we thoroughly cleaned the office/sleeping space and transformed into a Weaving Display Room, with coloruful bags, purses, and keychains now hanging from bamboo posts recently put in by Mieng, one of the men who works here. It’s nice to have the woven products on display, so that visitors and volunteers can see what what the Karen women are hard at work making in our Weaving Center and perhaps buy a few items!

If you'd like to support this Fair Trade initiative by purchasing a bag, purse, scarf, table mat, or keychain, please let me know before December 14th and I’ll bring it home or mail it to you!



lease see http://www.baandada.org/projects.htm#Weaving





VOLUNTEER POWER & TRAVELING BROCHURES

The kids and I said some tearful goodbyes to Ali, who was lending her creative energy, songs, and clapping games here for 6 weeks, and Kate, my cousin, who enjoyed her time with the kindy kids for 2 weeks and is continuing her travels around Thailand. We had a fabulous time in Kanchanaburi, hitting up the crystal clear 7-tiered Erawan waterfalls and sipping white wine with pizza and watching Queen live-in-concert in an outdoor restaurant. Pass the Pigs also made another appearance in a bar – you can’t spend time with Ali without tossing a pig for points!

I placed more brochures at Toi’s Tours on the tourist street in Kanchanaburi City, and Ali and Kate helped put up some laminated colour ones on an internet café wall. I also asked a guesthouse, Pong Pen, if they could display my brochures, and they agreed. We also may sell weaving there in the future.

Various volunteers have arrived at the Home after reading my brochure, but not all of them in Kanchanaburi. It seems my brochure has traveled around Thailand in tourists’ backpacks, ending up as far south as Ko Samui!! My brochures are seeing more of the country than I am! J

We’ve recently had a slew of volunteers come join us: David from England came for 4 nights: he worked on the farm, chopped bamboo, and played football with the kids. He also wants to fund a project – perhaps buy a goat.Paula from England came for a week to teach English to the ‘kindy kids’ and her friend, Mary, whom she met travelling, helped teach and engaged in arts&crafts with the kids, as well as taught Naoki some poi moves! Toni from Berlin is here for 3 weeks and is helping out in every way possible, especially cleaning and bandaging the kids’ various woundsA family from Austria with 2 little kids are now playing with our kids non-stop. Rita from Norway is still here doing eye care camps with Dada and Kik in remote villages and schools. All of us are having a blast and enjoy spending time in the Volunteer House late at night chatting about our day and munching on sweets bought in Sangklaburi.

CHILD SPONSORS

I recently had success finding 4 more sponsors for our remaining children, through a Vancouver man who read my article in the Province. His children’s animation production company manages a foundation that wants to support grassroots projects in developing countries. He contacted me and I told him about our need for monthly sponsorship for Eh, Somchai, Olan, and Ekachai, and he agreed to sponsor them! Rita is also going to sponsor Dina, our new girl, and that completes our Home’s kids, until more arrive!

YUMMY TREATS

*The oh-so yummy barbecued bananas on sticks dipped in a carmelized sauce in the Sangklaburi market
* The 20baht Papaya Salad, where ‘just a little spice please’ can make your nose water for hours afterwards
* BURMESE SALAD! My favorite dish at the Home, made up of Burmese green tea leaves, tomato, peanuts, chili, coriander, chick peas and a great sauce.
*The deep-fried pumpkin and green beans at the Home – our cooks are truly amazing women!

TUBING DOWN THE RIVER

The older boys helped organize a full day of inner tubing down a river and through the lush green jungle. Toni, Rita, Paula and I enjoyed the rapids and the chats with the boys as we navigated tree stumps and rocks, but we were a tad too long in the water and my lips turned blue! hard to believe in this heat. Dada and the younger kids were waiting for us patiently at the stopping point with hot food and warm towels. The older boys would like to organize more day outings such as this one for volunteers and tourists. It could be a way to earn money towards their college education and a great way for foreigners to experience the natural wonders and cultures of this area, all in an eco-friendly way.

LINKS

I recently met a few foreigners working for Generation Journey, a British non-profit organization that seeks to bring the elderly together with parentless, neglected children in an effort to create a loving community that promotes dignity and purpose for the elderly while passing on traditions and wisdom to the young.
See: http://www.generation-journey.org/index.html

SUPPORT THE HOME!

If anyone would like to donate towards the Home or community projects, please let me know and I'll pass on our 'Christmas Wish List'. Thanks!

Hope everyone is well and good. I’m home Dec. 17th so I hope to catch up with all you west coast peeps then!

Take care, and thanks for reading and for your support eh! Khap Khun Kaa,
Lindz x
Website: www.baandada.org
Email: lindsay@volunteerinthailand.org