Sue and I are now back in the U.S. We find that tax time is always a good time to be back. Most of our bills get paid by auto deductions from bank accounts, but piles of mail, a few pieces of which is actually important, have built up while we were gone. Anyway, we’ve finished figuring our taxes and have a bit of time for other things, like this blog entry.

I have wanted Walai to contribute more to this blog, but she has not had the time lately. Last month Walai became the managing director of the foundation, and so has been pretty busy with literally everything that is going on there. She did have time to send me a pictures of the village’s first two buildings, which appear here. She also told me that 68 trees averaging about 30 feet high have so far been moved from the forest and planted in the village. I think we are shooting for about 200 trees this first time.

This Sala will provide shade and a place to relax for our children, staff and volunteers.

Our children there are doing well. We have seen some improvements in their academics.

We are enjoying being with our children and grandchildren here, but are already missing Thailand.

Today (Nov 26th) is Sila’s birthday. (Sila means “Rock”) and I went to see him and his two grandmothers as I do once a week. I went one day late to make it on his birthday and went alone because my partner is out for a Children’s Council meeting in another province. As soon as I got in the house, his grandmother Yai told me that she was expecting my visit yesterday because her grandson cried so much. The boy has two caregivers, one is 78 years old and has leprosy and the other one is 80 years old. The latter currently has a cataract problem needing surgery. I was frustrated to hear of the boy’s illness. Then the old lady with leprosy asked if I could take him to the hospital. Well, that was not what I had expected for his birthday celebration. His birthday turns “bed” day instead.

Neither old woman was healthy enough to hold the boy and sit on the motorbike I ride. Eventually we got help from the neighbor who is a good friend of them. She is also of advanced age but seems more capable of handling any situation. She found proper clothes for Sila and rode with me to the hospital. As soon as we got to there, her arms were weary, so I carried him. The boy cried so much from his illness. We finally came out with a bottle of abdominal pain relief medicine from a private clinic for 30 baht. The public hospital we first tried was having a lunch break!

Who in the world would expect that he would get illness and medicine as a gift for his birthday? I was saddened by the fact that he could not have fun on his birthday. On the other hand, I was glad that when he is sick he still has his two old grandmothers and neighbor who care so much for him.

After Sila returned home with us, I gave him a green frog doll and prepared milk which he drank happily. I turned to his grand mom who has cataracts and asked her if she was ready to come with me for eye treatment. Lately, I have asked her repeatedly to go to the hospital for an optical check-up which she always refuses. This time was different. She consented and came with me. I was so glad I had not given up! Self-determination is one of our social worker core values. I fully agree with this value and try my best follow it. I don’t want to abuse my position by forcing her to treatment. For this time, I felt rewarded for not giving up easily. We had to wait at the hospital for two hours but it was worth it. We came back with some eye drops and advice from the doctor that the woman needs to have her cataract removed. I cannot and will not force her to do that. I asked her to talk this through with anyone she trusts and let me know her decision.

Sila’s mother had him when she was a little older than 15. She herself is also an orphan losing her father from a car accident when she was too young to remember. Her mom ran away after that. I was with her once when we took Sila to the hospital. She appeared very young and immature. I have no doubt that she does not care what happens to her baby boy. I suppose I could blame her for this mess, but how does that help? It is a time for healing instead of blaming. I need to focus on the issues and try to overcome them one by one. I hear Sila’s mom is hanging out with a new guy. I hope one day she will grow up and get back to a more healthy life.

I thank Opportunity Foundation for its vision and commitment to help people at every age. That enables me to not only help the girls having been abused and neglected but also become a helping hand to many people in the community that are in need. I believe that we as human beings are mostly kind, gentle, compassionate, and willing to help. What prevents us from doing so is the obligation of the lives we have to follow. This includes our precious time taken away by the work we have to do to earn a living. As someone has said: “We have money to buy a house but have no time to live in a home.”

I hope the Foundation will help more people feel that they are at home through our commitment and service of love and caring in action. Tonight, I ended my day with mixed feelings…I’m sad that there are many more people who need help…however, my joy came when I realized that at least one young boy and one old women have been helped today.

This is an actual case from our work. We may change a few details, insignificant to the case, its meaning or is impact on the child and society, in order to protect the identity of the children involved.

I spoke of Anita in a previous post (29 July 09), so you may be wondering how she is doing. After a week of meetings, some of them pushing eight hours, I’d have to say she is much better. At least her endurance in long meetings exceeds mine. There was a lot to talk about as we projected our plans and budgeting out through the next year.

Pon, our acting director, came in for a day of budget and management discussions. Included in this was planning for the first child home, whose construction we hope to start very soon. There are also various details related to the first few houses, such as a water supply, running electricity in, etc.

The longest meeting was with Walai, our new director of social work. Walai came to us just a few months ago after getting her master’s in social work from Baylor University in Texas. Not that she is a green recruit just out of school. In her previous life she worked nearly fifteen years with several NGO’s in Thailand, including working with relief projects after the tsunami hit two years ago. She is still involved in a bit of that work.

There was a lot to go over both in the issues with our current girls, new ones to come and how our families should run. A lot of this was interesting stuff. I’ve been after Walai to get some of this information into the blog and website, since her English is very good. Hopefully she will be able to squeeze in some time soon.

Why did we have these foundation staff meetings in Bangkok instead of Nang Rong? Anita had other business to attend to there, but the main reason was the additional meetings we had with other organizations. These days you cannot just come to Thailand, say you’re a nice person with a big heart, and start taking care of children. There have been a few problems in the past with some that did this, in rare cases even abuse has occurred. In the last few years the Thai government has revamped the laws and qualifications for working with children in ways that are similar to the laws in the U.S. Progress has been fast, which is good, but which also can lead to a little confusion at times as to just what exactly are the requirements in a particular area. The people and organizations that know the most about these things are in Bangkok.