Anuchai and Paskorn

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I’d like to tell you so many stories about the boys but I’ve picked a couple so you can get a feel for the background of these boys.

First Anuchai - a hill tribe boy from the Thai /Burma (Myanmar) border

Anuchai featured in a previous blog because he was the lad who took my photographs of Richard at a Manchester United event and just gazed lovingly at them for hours. Since then his perpetual grin and thumbs up wave to me has won me over. His ambition is to play football for the national side and his most favorite thing in the entire world is to watch ManU play football. Generally the boys can only watch TV on Friday evening when they watch English premier Football and perhaps on Saturday night when they sometimes have a rented video.

Anyway back to Anuchai.

Anuchai’s grandparents were forced to flee from their state of Kareni into Thailand shortly after their leaders declared independence from Burma at the end of World War II. The ensuing wars between the Burmese and Kareni troops caused an influx of tens of thousands of refugees into Thailand. After several years of staying in refugee camps Anuchai’s grandparents were granted permanent immigrant status. They and their compatriots settled down in a hilly area in Mae Hongsorn province in the northern-most corner of the Kingdom on the border with Myanmar (Burma) and now oen of the hilltribes of

Anuchai’s parents were born in Thailand, thereby gained Thai citizenship, and so does Anuchai. His family eke out a miserable existence by practicing the slash-and-burn farming, growing rice and other field crops. They live in a bamboo, thatch-roofed, hut which decays after 3 or 4 years of use when it is pulled down and rebuilt. Under such circumstance the family has been reduced to constant poverty living from hand to mouth. About 6 years ago, during a dry season, an old Buddhist monk, who was also the abbot of a nearby monastery, traveled on foot for 900 km. to Northern Thailand as a religious austerity practice. While wandering in the area he happened upon Anuchai’s village and met him and his family. The monk became so saddened by their miserable conditions that he offered to bring Anuchai and 3 other boys back with him to his monastery, promising also that he would help the boys get as much as education as he could.

Upon arriving back in his monastery, he sent the boys to a nearby village primary school and housed then in the monastery but once they reached secondary school age the local school principal and the abbot asked Dr Anukul if he would admit Anuchai and the boys to boystown. Dr Anukul agreed to this and Anuchai now live happily at boystown and is doing O.K. in every subject at school but is struggling with Thai language because his native tongue is the Kareni dialect.

Anuchai seemed to pop up wherever I wandered always grinning, always thumbs up to Manchester United. I had taken with me to boystown some games, gifts, jigsaw puzzles, clothes etc which I gave to Pramote the sort of ‘house-master’ for want of a better word. Pramote is one of the first boys to go through boystown and now has a degree in Production Engineering but Anukul has persuaded him to do the onsite management of boystown (for how long we know not), but he is another remarkable man. Pramote was going to share and distribute to the boys the stuff I had taken to boystown but I couldn’t resist giving to Anuchai a ManU kit bag (Anukul said the other boys would not be jealous because they just don't think like that). For the rest of my stay I would see him wearing it on his back like a T-shirt - I bet he is sleeping in it right now!!!

Anuchai always made me laugh not so with Pasakom.

Pasakom is a tall handsome boy friendly and popular but in his unguarded moment you can see there is such sadness in his eyes and he seems to be worried much of the time. He is an orphan, when he is not living in boystown he stays with his paternal grandparents in a small, simple wooden house leaning precariously on its wooden stilts. They live from hand to mouth eking out a living as farm labourers, they own no land of their own. They are aged and worn down by hard labour but love their grandchildren and look forward to their visits.

Pasakom has a 9-year brother who is HIV positive and is being cared for in ‘The House of Mercy’, a Christian run charity in Khon Kaen. Anukul gives Pasakorn a weekly allowance (50p) so he can take the bus to Khon Kaen to visit his brother each Saturday and take him out of the orphanage for the afternoon. He is a loveable child but very small for his age and is starting showing signs of mental retardation.

One day Anukul took Pasakorn out of school and we went to see his village and visit his grandparents. Anukul wanted me to see the villages the boys come from. Sadly we didn’t get to see Pasakorn’s grandparents because they were working in fields a long way from the village but we looked around his house. That gave enough time for the news that he was in the village to spread so when we came to leave he had been given bags of foodstuff to take back with him to boystown. I in turn was able to leave a little of the money with a relative to give to his grandparents. It was not much (5GBP) but Anukul said that was an appropriate amount and be gratefully received. I am constantly staggered at how so little goes such a long way here.

I made a point of meeting and chatting, no that’s not true - no chatting more nodding and smiling with all the boys who are sponsored by people I know and I’m bringing back stories, letters and photos of them with me.

Bye for now
Rosemary

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Photos

Anuchai
They know about Rabbits's ears this is about as naughty as it gets here!!!

Local Monastery
Anukul talking to monk at local monastry.

Anuchai with his Man U bag
happiness is....

Pasakorn
Watching table tennis

Pasakorn at work
Saturday morning task clearing the weeds around the orchard.

Writing to sponsors
Writing to their sponsors from left to right is Apisidh, Saharat, Tawatchai, Tanayuth, Teparit and finally old smiley - Anuchai.

Little brother
Pasakorn's little brother who is 9 years old very tiny, he is HIV positive.

Lunchtime
Lunchtime in the kindergarten. Pasakorn's brother is front left.

Grandparent
A bit of a lean on the house means a rebuild due soon. The pots bottom right is the cooking area.

Inside the house
To the left is the bedroom where you can just see the mosquito net. Ahead is cupboard of possesions, there is the obligatory TV but it doesn't work, electricty is one wire inot the house with sporadic supply and payment. Kitchen is outside on the verandah.

Family Album
On the wall of the granparents house is a pictures of the King of Thailand, The Buddha and this, the family album.

The cupboard was bare
Teh kitchen cupboard

Protein
Cheap Protein ( to add to the plentiful rice) comes from the frog box as well as chicken eggs and next door there were rows of boxes of locusts being fed to be eaten.

Khomsun
Pasakorn's friend Khomsun looking woefully at the state of his parent's house. They have gone to Bangkok to work in service in a hotel and send back what money thay can

Family Home
Khomsun's family home abandoned as his parents have gone to Bangkok to get work.

With Dr Anukul
Pasakorn on right and his friend, Khomsun on left as you look. Dr Anukul in centre.

Comments

[penny lind]

Oh! Rosie
It was heart rending looking at your pictures of the boys, especially the little lad who is HIV. But atleast they are being educated to the point where they stand a good chance of a decent income. That is a positive point. BUT,I keep asking myself here and in SE Asia, what about the girls? Their´s is a desperate future! Keep the piccies comming please Penny

[Rambling Rose]

Girlstown
You are right Penny about the girls needing help as well and it is always in the thoughts of the trustees of boystown but it is much trickier to set up a girlstown. The Joe Homan charity has managed to fund girlstowns in India and many sponsors (including me) ask specifically to sponsor a girl which means I have a girl in India as well as a boy in Thailand.