Volunteer at "House of Joy" orphanage, Sangklaburi, Thailand 2009

Posted: Aug.2010, Written: May.2009

PART 1:

I've been in a remote/isolated town called Sangklaburi (straight west from Bangkok, on the Burmese border.) I'm doing volunteer work with my 13 kids, working at a home called Baan Unrak (translates to 'House of Joy.')

We're doing some intense manual labor, building bamboo fences, building cages for the animal sanctuary (geese are nasty buggers!), planting trees and grass, and vegetables since Baan Unrak is almost completely self-sustainable and is able to provide 80% of its own home-grown food.

Baan Unrak is an orphanage home to nearly 150 kids ranging from babies in the nursery to young adults 20-21 years old. They are predominantly ethnic minorities coming from Burma, having escaped persecution and war with the military junta. Most of these kids have been given up by their mothers who no longer feel they can run and keep their babies alive. These mothers flee the border and go to Bangkok in the hopes of dodging Thai immigration and finding work...sadly these women most likely end up in the human trafficking trade and become prostitutes working in the red light district.

A lot of the children are also 'unwanted babies'--babies with obvious birth defects and disabilities who were left at the doorsteps of Baan Unrak. Probably the mothers were too poor to be able to get the medical care their babies need, and hoped Baan Unrak could provide a better life.

The man who was helping us build a perimeter fence today is a Karen villager (ethnic minority highly persecuted in Burma.) He lost his entire family in Burma, since military soldiers got drunk and angry at his people and torched his village to the ground. His wife and daughters were raped and killed, and his baby boys became child soldiers against their will. He managed to escape and yet despite his broken heart and will, still found the hope to live. Now he's a project manager at the home, and he personally helps each new Burmese refugee that makes their way to the home (with or without children.)

The project is not just focused on the children, it welcomes with open arms adults---women who become surrogate mothers to the 'unwanted babies', women who use their handicraft skills and can weave fabrics to be sold in the cities, men who can farm and do construction work and who can become role models for the young boys.

This place truly is a place of love and care, and despite the horrific stories I learn on a daily basis, the children smile and the men and women laugh and tease each other. It's incredible.

PART 2:

Today I finally got a day off, woohoo! After 10 days of manual labor and intensive veggie farming, gardening and planting, and building bamboo fences, and building cages for animal sanctuaries with super-aggressive geese, and painting houses and murals for the baby nurseries...I'm pooped.

I had the whole day planned today, sipping my coffee, reading a newspaper, reading my book under the fan to keep the heat and flies away, and more importantly catching up in about 5 days of work online....as I was strutting to the internet cafe this morning, power was cut in the entire village (again, this usually happens once a day for a few hours.) Only difference is that today, we lost power for nearly 12 hours! 12 hours with no fans, made for miserable heat! The entire village sat their bums out on the concrete road to cool off, just like the stray dogs do on a daily basis.

Thailand, never ceases to amaze me.

Baan Unrak, the orphanage home I'm working with right now is truly a house of love. More and more, every day I realize how lucky we are to have basic things in life like love. The more suffering and pain I come across from those in need, the more determined I am to make something meaningful of my life.

Our project is a community development project, so we're involved in a lot of different projects. What I'm not doing Mom, is teaching though. The children here don't speak Thai, or Burmese...they speak the languages of over a dozen minority dialects...so specialized speech therapists from the government work here to teach them Thai, so that one day these refugees will be able to pass the Thai exam to gain citizenship and enroll in the free public school system.

I was working in the nursery yesterday, helping my students paint murals around the babies' cribs. We painted an underwater theme, with bright colors, hoping to increase morale for the babies and their surrogate mothers. These babies, all only a few months old were abandoned at the orphanage with HIV/AIDS. Their mothers, trying to cross safely into Thailand were sucked into the human trafficking industry, where as prostitues they contracted HIV/AIDS. Unable to provide for their babies (since only Thai citizens have access to the government provided free health care), they left them here hoping their children can have a chance at happiness.

I'm constantly being blown away by this place. Sangklaburi itself is magical; a sleepy town tucked in between mountains where the waterfalls form rivers, and the rivers merge into lakes in every direction...you feel almost like you're on an island. I've taken on a new admirer. He's 7 years old (we guess). His father, a Karen villager was a horrible abuser--he even branded his son's wrist with a hot iron to punish him. His mother smuggled him out, and is hiding with him at the home. He's the new guy, and he never went to school so he can't communicate with the other children yet, so he's terribly shy. For some reason, he's drawn to me.

He comes to visit me every working day, and runs down the steps to jump into my arms every time he sees me coming. He craves physical contact, always holding hands and hugging my legs every chance he gets. I've grown quite attached myself, and I know already that saying goodbye to him will be a hard blow. I'll miss his love so much, and I hate knowing that I won't be able to communicate my goodbyes to him...I don't know what I'm going to do. I think it's safe to say, that after living in an orphanage with over 150 children, I'm no longer afraid of little people :)

I already know that this season will be a huge time for me to grow as a person. My adventures as a project leader, leading community development and conservation projects are going to be priceless lesons learned about my life, and my place in this world.