Life After Wave

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Life After Wave

Our friends Alex and Tara arrived today. They visited last year just as I left and stayed three and a bit weeks, went away, worked in Alaska all summer and came back.

The children love Alex. He is about 6’5” and 240lbs. he is (in my humble opinion) exactly the type of male I would expect to run into in Alaska….auburn hair, a full face beard and mustache and really gentle hearted.

Tara is a wonderfully talented person who lends her knowledge and hard work everywhere she goes. Together they developed an organization called Life After Wave that is about the Ban Tharn Namchai orphanage.

It is primarily a fundraising project for themselves, but through it they are selling the batik that the children make (and will be making again in October). If you are interested, take a look at their site.

Speaking of Batik, if anyone would like a handmade batik cloth with a particular design, please let me know. The children will be making them when we return from our Bangkok camping trip in late October. I will be bringing back some pieces to sell as well, but the children love a challenge and would be honored to be able to produce a piece for you.

I was told today that Som is no longer at the orphanage or coming back. I was told she was visiting her grandaunt, but today I asked Rotjana directly. In March, the man who lives with Som’s Grandaunt came late one evening to the orphanage and asked to take Som. Naa Bai was the night staff and said no as Rotjana had given direction for the children to stay in as it was wet and late. The man became angry and assaulted Naa Bai. Som was taken and has not retunred since. Rotjana explained that she is very concerned about Som, especially as she has a heart condition, but there is nothing we can do to interfere unless her Grandaunt asks us to. So far we have had no word.

I really upset about this, especially as it was months before I discovered anything….I am at the very least not pleased at the silence on the Orphanages end. I am not worried about the sponsorship money that I have been sending for Som’s behalf…it is needed by all the children. It is the lack of transparency again that I have issue with. Sponsors need to know what is happening, if even in the abbreviated form.

There is still the ongoing inconsistency with independent sponsors. If they aren’t around to ask, there isn’t anything told. Of the organizations working with Ban Tharn Namchai, the sponsored children are better known because it is the agencies looking after their sponsoring groups. Dragonfly for example, sends a staff member now and then to collect pictures and updates, a few crafts etc from the children and takes responsibility to send them to the sponsoring groups. Ban Tharn Namchai still has the issue of no English speaking staff to maintain he sponsorship program and ensure up to date and regular communications between the children’s lives and the sponsors…so it doesn’t get done.

The greatest need as far as protecting and ensuring ongoing sponsorship is for a resident staff person to be in charge of exactly that…looking after the communications with the sponsors, sending updated bios, maintaining a website and being responsible for the updates, mailings etc pertaining to sponsors.

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We have been very busy preparing for the arrival of over 100 dentists (Thai and Japanese) who will be arriving in Phang Nga tomorrow morning. They are coming for check ups and cleaning fro over 13,000 registered children in Phang Nga province. The joint venture is being supported by Ban Tharn Namchai and Duang Prateep. We are respoinsible for the food, housing and care of the visiting dentists during their stay here for the next 7 days.

Each volunteer has been assigned a responsibility and I will be cooking. I am super excited to learn traditional methods of cooking Thai food! (Just wait till I get back Greener! REAL THAI FOOD!) I am even collecting the real cooking pots and items here to ship back so I can do it properly. I have a list already.

We will work from 7am to 5pm every day preparing, cooking and serving the food. During that time Malie and Buud will accompany me to the Orphanage restaurant and will do their lessons there while I prepare food. In the afternoons they can run free and play in the river etc.

I am still recovering from being sick, so I am not sure how I will do in the afternoons. Usually I need to lay down at about 2 or 3 to recoup. I still get severe dizzy spells can’t eat much. The fever has left me, but I am still pretty weak. It’s been a week since I have written anything.

I’ll let you know how the week goes!

Love to you all…I miss home.

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