Saturday, June 30, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Volunteering in Thailand
I'm currently in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand [near the Myanmar (Burma) border]. This town is home to many refugees from Myanmar, particularly ethinic Mon and Karen peoples.
These three weeks I've been volunteering at Baan Unrak, a community development project that serves the children and mothers in need. The 2 primary functions are the orphanage and the primary school. Other projects include programs such as one that provides various support for mothers, aiming to help them get and maintain employment and not to have to give up their children.
Children here are orphaned by fatal diseases (which are rampant due to conditions in Myanmar), as well as by poverty. Most places will not hire women with children. Some parents simply can not afford to feed their kids. Others resort to selling one child (to child traffickers) in order to afford to feed the rest of the family. And of course, there are cases of children from abusive homes.
The poverty and lack of employment and schooling is a complex problem. Luckily, there seem to be many aid projects here, but of course there are never enough resources. And when you've got someplace that has some resources, it attracts loads of other people desparate to escape the exploitation of a corrupt political system.
Anyway, going back before this Internet cafe closes...
I live in the volunteer house, which is one block away from the primary school. I teach English to kindergardeners and 2nd-graders in the mornings, Monday through Friday. Every afternoon (Sun - Sat), I hang out with the 6 kids who live in a house on the school grounds with the Didi in charge of education. We go swimming in the lake, use the Internet, eat meals together, and stuff. [The other 200 or so kids live some blocks away at the home with the Didi in charge of the orphanage.] These kids live here instead of the home for one reason or another.
There are 4 girls and 2 boys. One girl is 14, and the rest of the crew are 11-year-olds. One of the girls (triplets with the 2 boys) has a physical disability, and she and I spend a lot of time closer together--and man, she could melt the grinch's icy heart in under 5 minutes. These kids are completely capable of entertaining themselves, and staff are around campus all the time, but Didi A prefers that they have frequent direct attention. The kids are fun, can be rowdy, and a pain when they're in naughty moods. The Didis are in Malaysia for 3 weeks for a conference, so we're without the regular check-in's with their top authority figure. Thank goodness they keep each other in check, because I can't understand a word of Thai. I know someone's breaking a rule, if I suddenly hear Didi's name half a dozen times in the midst of a railing in Thai. They're English is pretty good, though it's really 2 of the girls who I'd say are best able to express most things in fragmented sentences.
The websites for Baan Unrak are: http://www.baanunrak.org/ and http://baanunrakprimaryschool.com/
Okay, sawadeekaw for now!
These three weeks I've been volunteering at Baan Unrak, a community development project that serves the children and mothers in need. The 2 primary functions are the orphanage and the primary school. Other projects include programs such as one that provides various support for mothers, aiming to help them get and maintain employment and not to have to give up their children.
Children here are orphaned by fatal diseases (which are rampant due to conditions in Myanmar), as well as by poverty. Most places will not hire women with children. Some parents simply can not afford to feed their kids. Others resort to selling one child (to child traffickers) in order to afford to feed the rest of the family. And of course, there are cases of children from abusive homes.
The poverty and lack of employment and schooling is a complex problem. Luckily, there seem to be many aid projects here, but of course there are never enough resources. And when you've got someplace that has some resources, it attracts loads of other people desparate to escape the exploitation of a corrupt political system.
Anyway, going back before this Internet cafe closes...
I live in the volunteer house, which is one block away from the primary school. I teach English to kindergardeners and 2nd-graders in the mornings, Monday through Friday. Every afternoon (Sun - Sat), I hang out with the 6 kids who live in a house on the school grounds with the Didi in charge of education. We go swimming in the lake, use the Internet, eat meals together, and stuff. [The other 200 or so kids live some blocks away at the home with the Didi in charge of the orphanage.] These kids live here instead of the home for one reason or another.
There are 4 girls and 2 boys. One girl is 14, and the rest of the crew are 11-year-olds. One of the girls (triplets with the 2 boys) has a physical disability, and she and I spend a lot of time closer together--and man, she could melt the grinch's icy heart in under 5 minutes. These kids are completely capable of entertaining themselves, and staff are around campus all the time, but Didi A prefers that they have frequent direct attention. The kids are fun, can be rowdy, and a pain when they're in naughty moods. The Didis are in Malaysia for 3 weeks for a conference, so we're without the regular check-in's with their top authority figure. Thank goodness they keep each other in check, because I can't understand a word of Thai. I know someone's breaking a rule, if I suddenly hear Didi's name half a dozen times in the midst of a railing in Thai. They're English is pretty good, though it's really 2 of the girls who I'd say are best able to express most things in fragmented sentences.
The websites for Baan Unrak are: http://www.baanunrak.org/ and http://baanunrakprimaryschool.com/
Okay, sawadeekaw for now!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Reading Frenzy
i'm in kanchanaburi, thailand now--staying at a place called "jolly frog". took the train from bangkok this afternoon. i hope to see some tigers and elephants and the bridge over the river kwai before going further northwest to sanghklaburi to volunteer.
boy is it raining! rainy season had begun, but so far it'd mainly been at nighttime. it's been great listening to the thunder and rain from the comfort of my cozy (i.e. small) bedroom, curled up with a good book.
i just finished a book called: "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time". it's fantastically written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with asperger's syndrome. it's an easy read, and pretty short, and there are illustrations, so it wouldn't be a great candidate for audio listening.
i also read a book called: "first they killed my father" which is a very sad true story about a cambodian family during the 4 years of genocidal rule of the khmer rouge. the author (and narrator) writes from her perspective at the time (ages 5 - 9). it was a good book to read in conjunction with travelling through cambodia. it's been a while since i've actually read and finished a book, and here i've done two in less than 2 weeks!
my other readings the past month have been chapters from my "lonely planet" guidebooks. i've been reading up on histories for each country i'm visiting, and then of course planning what i'll see and do.
boy is it raining! rainy season had begun, but so far it'd mainly been at nighttime. it's been great listening to the thunder and rain from the comfort of my cozy (i.e. small) bedroom, curled up with a good book.
i just finished a book called: "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time". it's fantastically written from the perspective of a 15-year-old boy with asperger's syndrome. it's an easy read, and pretty short, and there are illustrations, so it wouldn't be a great candidate for audio listening.
i also read a book called: "first they killed my father" which is a very sad true story about a cambodian family during the 4 years of genocidal rule of the khmer rouge. the author (and narrator) writes from her perspective at the time (ages 5 - 9). it was a good book to read in conjunction with travelling through cambodia. it's been a while since i've actually read and finished a book, and here i've done two in less than 2 weeks!
my other readings the past month have been chapters from my "lonely planet" guidebooks. i've been reading up on histories for each country i'm visiting, and then of course planning what i'll see and do.
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