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Thank you to all
who supported this mission and to all who who contributed to its success.
It was a new record in terms of the fund raiser with a cash total of US$1,910, exchanged to 63,035 Thai baht. All but 5,000 baht was used for the purchase of much needed food an supply for The MERCY Center. 5,000 baht (US$150) were set aside to buy 25 new sets of pajamas for the children for Christmas. This was the busiest trip to date with 5 separate events scheduled; each reported below. |
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| Chumchon (the Slum Villages) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The first event
was to join the team from The MERCY Center for a
visit to the slum villages (chumchon). I t was
during first mission and
the very first trip to the Slums when I met Bo; a
then 2 1/2
year old boy running around naked, left there to his
fate by his parents a year earlier. Bo is now a
resident of The MERCY Center.
More
Here.The day started early with bagging the food for each family, 90 in all. This time the content was a bit different than usual because the families seemed to be doing well with the ordinary ration of fish oil, normally part of the food bag. The fish oil was substituted with an extra scoop of rice. Milk is also part of the weekly handout to all the children in the slums, however, at the time of packing for the trip there was none available in the store room.  We had to make a special trip to the
store to get the needed milk. This emphasizes the
need for on-going help keeping the supply room stocked. We
went to the same three slums as I have visited
during each of the previous three mission. The first stop
was a bit different than last time. Rather than
dispensing the food at the entrance to the slum as usual, we
walked through the small slum village to a community
center in the rear that was built by The MERCY Center. All
distribution of food and milk was done in the
community center, which was too dark for useful
photography.Last time I visited this slum area the social workers from The MERCY Center were attending to a young girl who was visually impaired and who had recently been identified as being mildly retarded.  Plans were being put in place to help her in to the
school system, this included the completion of an
an IQ test to determine whether she was even fit for
school. Between the previous trip and this one the tests
had been completed and she is now attending school
(special education).
 This
was the slum village where I met Bo, thus it has a
special interest to me. A supporter of OrphanKids
quickly stepped up to the plate after the previous
report and offered to sponsor this girl. As it
turned out another sponsor had already been found, but
soon another child in need was identified and Rick
is now a sponsor of an eight year old boy who could
not attend school without his help.
More Here.Slum village number 2 and 3 had many more children than the first and lots of milk was dispensed. As it was, I was imagining the scene if we did not have the milk required; it would have been grim. During the visit to the slums one of the volunteers, and a sponsor, was gathering the ages of all the children so that  he
could come about and offer a Christmas present to
each come the right time.At the second slum particular attention was pay to a young lady who has entered the sex trade. She was counseled as to her options and offered help to peruse a different 'career'.  This
is a very controversial matter which goes beyond the
scope of OrphanKids.com, but nonetheless noteworthy.
At the third and last slum village visit there, again, was countless children in the need of milk and help. Last time I visited this slum there was a little girl with an awful skin infection on her head at her hairline. She wasn't there when we visited, but I was told that all was good with her. Having now been on 4 trips to the slums it is interesting how many faces I recognize and how many recognize me. |
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| More pictures from Chumchon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| A day with Bo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 One
of the highlights of my trip was to spend some time
with my little friend Bo.Bo is the little boy that I met on my very first visit to a slum nearly 1½ years ago. He was 2½ at the time, he had no family what so ever nor did he have any any clothes. Bo was left abandoned at the slum by his parents. They asked an older man to look after him for a few weeks, but they never did return. The older man looked out for Bo and at times took the little boy with him in a basket to work, whenever he could get some.  Generally it
involved painting. Incidentally, this old
man is now in jail, so had Bo still been in
the slum today there possibly would have
been zero supervision.When we arrived at the entrance to the slum that day, he came running up to The MERCY Center social worker to get his ration on milk as it was the most important thing in the world. The picture at the upper left of this section sais it all.  To me, seeing
the slums and Bo, especially, for the first time
was an absolute shock to me and it had a forever
lasting and profound impact.
It is an image that I will never forget;
never. You see these images on TV and on the
net, however, the first hand impressions are
so different. It was also these images that marked the
beginning of OrphanKids.com, it was the
moment I realized a mission to come.Come hell and high waters something had to be done to get Bo out of the slums and in to better care. That, however, turned out to be easier said than done.  Because
Bo was simply an abandoned child there was
no documentation whatsoever as to his
existence and to make matters worse the Thai
government believed that Bo likely was
Cambodian and as such would not qualify for
Thai papers. The good news was that I had The MERCY Center on my side and
they heard my plea. With their awesome help, lead by
my dear friend Lhen Lhen, they worked very hard over the following 3
months to convince the government to issue Bo
 the
appropriate papers and to allow The MERCY Center to
pick him up and to house him at the center.One of the first orders of the day when Bo became a resident of The MERCY Center was for a medical check-up for Bo. The conclusion, considering his history, he was in rather good health. Bo, at the time, had never received any type of immunization.  Obviously there
was a lot of catching up to to.Bo has now been a resident of The MERCY Center for just about one year. He is has fitting in very well and has become a darling of so many that care for him or otherwise interact with him. He is now attending pre-school daily and looking forward to going to real school in a year and a half.  My day with Bo started in the late morning meeting
up at The MERCY Center and we were joined by Lhen
Lhen. Bo does not yet speak English so Lhen Lhen was
the interpreter.First we went for lunch. Bo is such a well mannered boy. Seriously, few western children could even come close in a competition. At lunch he quickly assumed the role of being "the host".  On a number of
occasions he said "can I offer you more rice
or more meat?". Lhen Lhen was telling
me that Bo acts more as an adult than the
other kids his age and that is attributed to
the fact that he had to fend for himself at
such young age. On one occasion Bo dropped
his fork and I picked it up and handed it to
him, he quickly asked for a clean napkin to
clean his utensil; not what you would expect
from a 3 year old.Next on the agenda was a trip to Underwater World; the local aquarium. Bo never has only had limited exposure to the world outside the slum and The MERCY Center so this trip was a new eye opener.  I
remember when I took Bo on his first
excursion outside of his 'little world' a
year ago. It was to a supermarket where we
did the shopping for The MERCY Center. That
shopping center also
featured a few toddler rides and that was a
whole new world for Bo.The aquarium was a large circular dome where you walk in a tunnel with the sea creatures on either side and above you. Bo was besides himself and wanted to touch the fish though glass. We did encounter a 'vacuum' aquarium where Bo could reach in and try to catch a fish with his hands.  He got so exited that we had
to remove his shirt as he was about to jump
in.All in all we spent a few hours at Under Water World and at the end watching a sea otter show. After the visit to Underwater World we were aiming for a Dinosaur museum, but it turned out to be closed and in any event it was not what we were looking for. Instead we went to Swenson's for ice cream. Bo had a kiddy ice cream in a (plastic) turtle cup. Such a small gesture, but amazing what it does to a little soul.  Afterwards, we went shopping for a new
outfit for Bo as well as shopping for treats
for the other kids. A colleague of mine
(Dave) gave me US$40 and kindly asked that it
be used for a treat for all the kids at The
MERCY Center. $40 buys a lot. Most of the
treats were nutritious, such as fish sticks
and chocolate milk, but included was also
chocolate sticks and chips. A good ration
was handed out to the kids that afternoon,
but all-in-all we had brought treats for
days to come.  The day
ended with Bo (being the hero)
bringing the treats back to the other kids
to conclude a wonderful day.Bo is now my sponsored child and it is my duty to make sure that he has all the opportunities that a child should have.  While he is in so good care at The MERCY
Center he is still an orphan kid and I hope
to God that soon there will be an
opportunity for him to be adopted by a good
family. Thai culture and law
permitted chances are not that good though. Bo is in so
much need of a family and while I was with
him he called me Papa. I would love to be
the Papa Bo is looking for, but I am another
world away. There is nothing that would
excite me more than Bo being adopted by a
good family. |
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| More pictures from "A Day with Bo" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Thanksgiving at The MERCY Center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Every
year The MERCY Center sponsors a Thanksgiving lunch
for the church members and its supporters. I brought
the birds over from the US on dry ice in my luggage.
They were transported on dry ice and
 the
whole suit case was kept in the freezer until
departure.As it turns out turkeys are very expensive in Thailand. A big bird may set you back US$100 as it is imported from the US. Anyone from the US will know that just before Thanksgiving most supermarkets in the US practically give away the birds as a loss leader to attract shoppers. The net net was good for The MERCY Center as I am allowed 140 pounds of checked luggage in addition to my carryon.  It
has become an annual tradition that OrphanKids.com
supplies turkeys to The MERCY Center. Last year it
did the same. This year the 5 Turkeys were sponsored by 5 donors of OrphanKids.com, each donated US$100 to become a turkey sponsor. Sort of double dipping as the turkey sponsor funds went to The MERCY Center, same-same as the birds.  Before
the lunch and as the meals were being prepared the
guests of honor were waiting so ever patiently in
the family room of the center; nicely sitting on the
floor in rows. My friend Bo was obviously there and
when I arrived he was allowed to step out of line to
join me.The Thanksgiving lunch was attended by nearly 100 people; all contributors to the center. All the resident children of the center were there and so was a number of other children of other contributors.  Some
westerners, some Thai adopted children and others
mixed race.One thing that I noticed was that the older resident children (11-14yr) quickly assumed responsibility for doing the grunt work as well as attending to the younger boys and girls. All of them are so well mannered it is actually hard to believe. The individual turkey sponsors as well as OrphanKids.com were recognized and the gesture allowed the center to offer the Thanksgiving feast for only $5 per person and likely doing better than break-even. Somehow I managed to sneak in for free. |
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| More pictures from Thanksgiving | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Shopping | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 One
of the highlights of the mission is [obviously]
shopping for the center spending the money kindly donated
by so many. I have to admit that it is not
necessarily the most thrilling. That said it is
joyous to see how much goodies can be purchased for
a modest amount of money. This
time US$1,910, exchanged to 63,035, was raised and I
asked the directors of The MERCY Center to write a
wish list for anything that they may want that was
not related to food and supplies. The idea was to
pick one wish and fund that separately. On top of
the list was to buy the 25 children a new pajamas
for Christmas which was estimated at 5,000 baht
(US$150) or 200 baht (US$6) per child. It took no
time to decide that this would be the right 'extra'
to do.
Also
on the list was a few minor items such as fans for
comfort in the common area, a new heavy duty iron
and some new dining chairs to replace several broken
ones. The
cost of the additional items were
 moderate enough
that it was decided to include then in the general
shopping list. If I recall correctly it all totaled
less than 3,000 baht (US$90). The MERCY Center receives donations from a number
of
different contributors, however, most are earmarked
for things such as food and toys.
OrphanKids.com allows the center to buy other items
that are most needed so long as it is related to the
general household of the center and all spending is
witnessed and paid for by the organization.
The
MERCY Center again and again has expressed that they
are in starvation for non-food households such as
cleaning materials and diapers, obviously these
items were on top of the shopping list.63,000 baht buys a lot. Another much larger institution run by Father Ray has it own warehouse and buys all wholesale offered The MERCY Center to provide a shopping list of the bulk items and to purchase at cost. About half the money was spent this way and it filled a pickup truck with goodies.  Part of the lot included
over 700 cartons of milk and more noodles than I
could quantify.Off to the store, Carrefour, we went to spend the remainder (less the Pajama funds).  We shopped so much that it was
time for lunch before we could finish. During the first
round we filled up 8 shopping carts. That included
cleaning supplies estimated to last the center 6
months, over 1,000 diapers, loads and loads of food.
We of cause also manage to fit in the oscillating
fans, the chairs and the iron. Once we had checked
out and was ready for lunch we still had about 6,000
(US$180) baht left.We had lunch with the directors of The MERCY Center (Fred and Dianne) and also joining us was Craig and Cheryl who are new volunteer principals of the center. Craig and Cheryl are a married couple from Ontario Canada who did mission work in Northern Thailand 6 years ago and pledged to be back. Took them a bit long, but here they are now. Craig has assumed the responsibilities for managing the children's home and  Cheryl the fund raising and
Internet activities. I offered to be of assistance
to Cheryl concerning the Internet; a type of
volunteer job that can be done a continent away.After lunch we resumed shopping. Giving the fact that we had accomplished the main mission it was decided to spend most of the money on perishable food and especially fish products. Given the tight budget of the center and that fish is more costly the kids only get to enjoy it, but once per month.  We bought
enough to provide four dinners for 25+, including a
rare treat of scrimps. The last cart (of another 4)
had some treats such as potato chips.When we were checking out I happed to look at the running total just before the last cart and we were 40 baht (US$1.25) over budget. Unfortunately the cart with the treats had to stay. As a joke I told the MERCY shoppers that I would not fund the 40 baht. It was hilarious to watch them scramble with personal funds to make up for the shortcoming. After loading we headed back to The MERCY Center to put all the goodies in storage and freezers. Seeing all the food and supplies stacked up was a sight. It was estimated that we (together) funded the center for 6 months in  general supply, over a month in food and
somewhere in-between for others such as diapers and
milk.In summary the money collected and spent were not far from a monthly budget of a western family of four. In contrast it will keep a family of 25 going for months, and tidy for several months. I am not much for shopping (it bores me), but seeing what good can be done with relatively little effort is thrilling to say it the least. As a final note; if you felt bad that the last cart with the treats did not make it through the register, take comfort. A support of OrphanKids from California (Rick) stepped up to the plate and followed in my footsteps with some friends of his and did some shopping for just that. Rick is also the sponsor of Nick who I visited at his school; see below. |
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| More pictures from Shopping | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Visiting Nick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 As
mentioned above Rick, an OrphanKids.com supporter from California,
in now sponsoring an eight-year old boy through the
missionary work of OrphanKids. The name of this
young kid is Komonpob; his nick name is Nick. Nick is 8 and he was caught in
his parents financial dilemma.
His parent could only afford to pay for school for
one of their two children, so the big sister drew
the larger straw, unfortunately leaving Nick with no
option to get an education. That was until Rick came
along and offered to fund Nicks schooling. Actually
schooling in Thailand is free, however, each child
must buy school uniforms and lunch meals for the
year to attend. The cost is less than 4,000 baht
(US$125), but that was way too much for many families
to bear. Likely more than one months income. Liz and Sam from The MERCY Center helped me organize
a get-together with Nick. We met up at Nick's school
and brought lunch for him and us. On the menu was a
whole roasted chicken,
 salad and orange juice.It was a nice lunch and Nick is a very well behaved boy ... a little shy. He is fully aware of the the fortune Rick has afforded him and knows that if it wasn't for him he would not be able to attend school. Just days before Nick had finished his midterm tests, but did not yet have the results. He believed that he did good. This boy, I am sure, will make Rick proud, he is determined to maximize his opportunity for an education.  He
asked me to say "thank you" to Rick; so done.It was a funny situation with the few of us having lunch while the other kids were curiously watching. It was clear that Nick was the focus at the "VIP" table and it gained him face big time. After lunch we went to Nicks house to drop off some food for his grandmother. I had also bought some noodle soups, plus some snacks. The grandmother is a delightful lady and also appreciates the help Rick is giving Nick. |
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| More pictures from Visiting Nick | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conclusion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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With
each mission the rewards just seems to get greater.
Seeing and experiencing first hand the good that comes out of relatively little effort in helping the kids has been more rewarding than anything I have done before. I have had the great fortune of so many supporting this effort, without you it would not have been the same. I am truly honored and representing the supporters of OrphanKids.com is very much a privilege. Hopefully I have lived up to your expectation and hopefully you as well as new supporters will join me next time. Lars. |
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Next mission. The next mission is scheduled for the late July of 2010, please watch this site for details or send an E-mail |
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