Baan Unrak Hip Hop Boys And Their Dreams For A Better Life

The boys at Baan Unrak do regular Hip-Hop shows in and around Sangklaburi and Bangkok (Thailand) to promote the children's home, raise awareness about the issues surrounding children and families living along the Thai/Burmese border and to fund raise every chance they can.

Inspired by the American Hip-Hop group Jabbawockeez, they created their own routine and rehearse themselves every spare moment to get the moves just right! Chocolate, Somchai and Taji all love to dance and have taken to hip hop style and fashion like fiends. (Taji, the smallest one at 13 years old admits he only recently started dancing, less than 1 year ago if you can believe it!)

Chocolate, 14 years old, and the main driving force behind this dance team says he dreams of the day he gets to meet the Jabba boys in person, and even better the day he can perform for them. Talking to Chocolate, I can see the dedication in his eyes and I know he's dreaming of going all the way. Here, keeping the kids inspired for a better life is the most important mission, and to see him stand out and inspire the other children who look up to him is...indescribable.

I'm doing what I can now to help him achieve this dream...at their request they'll be released into the You Tube world soon enough, with polished performances and a number of new dances they're choreographing right now. Maybe someday they will get the fame and attention they're working hard to achieve!

Home Sweet Baan Unrak: Sangkla, Thailand

It’s been two weeks and already it feels like I’ve been back here forever. I’m back at the Baan Unrak Burmese orphanage in the Thai border town of Sangklaburi. You’ve seen the videos and the photos from this region, so you already know the scenery is breathtaking…and soon I'll post videos showing the very best of laughing children, inspiring women and dedicated volunteers who run this home.

I’ve had 10 volunteers under my care these past couple weeks and today is our last day together. Tomorrow morning we have a killer 5 am wake up call and a 7 hour drive through winding mountains to the Bangkok airport where we will say our final goodbyes, and where I pick up my next group. Looking back at our accomplishments we have done some amazing work together! We planted nearly 1000 tomato plants and ladyfinger herbs, we created a paddock for planting 25x35 meters, we spent days repairing the fence work around the home (after we found a hole kids were sneaking out of at night!) and we've cleaned and painted the front of the entire orphanage home, making the face of Baan Unrak brighter and more uplifting for everyone living here.

This place...words are hard to find to describe what this place does to me. Don't get me wrong, it's not all that easy being here. The work is hard: physical hard labor in a burning sun all day; pink eye, stomach bugs and chest infections tend to spread like wildfire; waking up to scorpions in your pillow and poisonous man eating-centipedes on your doorstep is not uncommon; and living for months on end with no meat, no electricity, no hot water, and absolutely no privacy does strange things to your body and soul.

And yet...I swear I have never been happier in my life than the times I have spent here. Maybe the only experience that comes close is when my big brother's first baby born came into this world. So tiny and frail, Cooper looked up at me with eyes full of trust and need...and that is something I continue to see every day from the children here.

When traveling, we realize that it takes time to fall in love. Visiting somewhere once, twice, even three times is not enough to really take it in through the skin. Making connections, understanding your surroundings, and reveling in the rhythm of a place can take years. I've been working with this orphanage for over a year now, but it feels like only recently have I been 'seeing' with a new set of eyes. The day I came back for the first time in many months since being away, I felt my heart swell. My chest physically expanded and I found myself releasing a long slow breath I didn't know I was holding.

Didi, the spiritual leader who runs this home, said the children were waiting for me. As soon as I stepped out of the taxi, I had Zola and Taji in my arms again. The last time I saw Taji was in January, and he was swimming after me as my boat was driving away. He was shouting my name, and trying to keep a strong smile on his face. The day he was finally back in my arms, Taji looked up at me with the biggest grin I've ever seen from him, and said he always knew I would come back. Yeah, I knew it too.

Every morning we start with meditation on the hill at 5 am. We watch the sunrise and chant a mantra the children study every day: Baba Nam Kevalam, which roughly translates to 'love is all around us.' After working hard in the field all day, we break at 3:30pm waiting for the children to come back from school and proceed to play for hours: tug of war, skipping ropes, soccer, and dancing classes (even the big boys want me to teach them ballet!) Evenings we share meals and stories together, and put the little ones to bed before doing a nighttime yoga session. Wake up tomorrow, and do it all again. Weekends are spent doing relief work and bringing medical supplies to the nearby refugee villages, and taking group trips to the local river spot to teach the kids how to swim. No alcohol, no smoking, no meat, no romantic relationships. It's the ultimate detox for life: cleaning your body, cleaning your soul, and filling your day to day life with laughter, happiness and most importantly hope for the future.

Now I'm back, and I'm staying put for at least another 3 months...After that, I don't know. Somehow I'll have to tear myself away. But until then bring on the love, the games, the physical labor and relief work for Burmese women and children who struggle every day in the jungles between Thailand and Burma.

Sangklaburi, Life Along The Thai/Burmese Border

...Right now the situation in Burma remains dire…thousands of people are suffering along the Thai/Burmese border with nowhere to go. Organizations, NGO and Government alike have come together to do as much as they can for the refugees, but the camps are barely able to cope with the numbers of Burmese coming in every day, and supplies are limited.

Yet, despite what’s going on across the Thai/Burmese border 20 kms away Sangklaburi remains to be the quiet, charming, sleepy little town I have always loved it for. Children still go to school, monks study quietly in the temples and women barter and sell their home cooked foods at the market…life carries on.

Feeling inspired, I took a camera around the town looking for smiles. There are so many sad stories every day, but the people here are resilient and determined to carry on. I went to the local temple for some peace and understanding and came across a gang of ‘mini monks’ who instantly brightened my mood. I also spent the afternoon visiting the Burmese Mon and Karen resettlement villages, lending a hand where I could and learning more about the needs of those living day to day along the border.

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....Sangklaburi and The Longest Wooden Bridge in Thailand...

I'm starting to grow roots here in Sangklaburi again. I'll be staying here for the next 3 months with children rescued from the border, and I can honestly say there is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now.

It's 4 pm now, so the children walk lazily in the heat and stiffness of their school uniforms and chase the chickens down the street as they make their own way home. Motorcycle taxi drivers toot and tease me as they zoom by, and I'm thinking it's time for me to cough up the 1$ it would cost to jump on the back of a bike and escape the humidity! Construction workers lay down their tools and join in a locals' game of football that seems to be a daily occurrence in front of the temple grounds. And all around smiles and polite nods greet me as the locals seem to recognize the 'white girl' that keeps coming back again, and again, and again.

Life surrounds Khao Laem Lake here. This was once the site where 3 rivers joined together, until the 1970's when the Thai government decided to dam the water for better resource management programs in the surrounding villages and provinces. So now, the lake has flooded the lowland valley and the people have adapted their culture to life along a lake---floating village culture.

Villagers meet their needs by fishing in the lake off one-manned motor boats, and building bridges to cross from one side to the other...in fact, the longest wooden bridge in Thailand is found here.

The bridge links the Thai villages to the Mon villages across the lake. The Mon is an ethnic minority group that was once part of a powerful empire in Siam's history. Today, this Mon village is known more as a protective hub for Burmese refugees. This village has been here for years and is now home to several human rights groups caring for the refugees and creating a resistance movement against the military junta across the border. Life on the Mon side is where Burmese culture reigns: the locals still rub their faces with yellow 'tanaka' root to keep away the burning sun, the men don checkered sarongs tied high up on the waist, and chewing beetle nut is more than a past time here...it's a cultural stamp.

Today I chose to visit some of the local sites I haven't seen in a while: the wooden bridge, the streets of the Mon village and the sacred temples and pagodas for the Mon Buddhist population.

**This video was created when I was playing around with my Picasa application...my first attempt ever, so be kind!