Asia's Hope Orphanage

---

Singing

Well I am finally back from my vacation in Thailand, I was the most wonderful and life changing trip I have ever taken. There are so many things to share and talk about I will do my best to describe every part.

My first week in Thailand I stayed at Asia's Hope Orphanage in Chiang Mai. The orphanage was started by Dave Atkins about 2 years ago and with help and money from many Grace Brethren churches the orphange has been built and they are now supporting 72 orphans. This is a miracle and the orphans only change to have a relativly normal life. The government in Thailand does not provide any money or help for orphans or orphanges. Without all the help from the people and church in the States these children would be on the street or worse. In fact within a mile radius of Asia's Hope there are roughly 15 orphanages all supported by people overseas or the foreigners living in Thailand. Right now they are trying to get funding to build new dorms for the kids since they currently sleep in bamboo huts.

For a week I stayed in the directors house on the orphanage property. I slept on a lounge chair thing which was actually comfortable. I spent the week seeing all sorts of things in Chaing Mai. During the day the kids were all at school, unless of course thier teachers decided not to show up (apparently subsitutes dont exist in Thailand). We saw many different ministries going on in the area as well as the day market, the Chiang Mai Zoo and the night market. I personally do not recommend the zoo because they require you to do alot of walking and hiking and going up and down stairs to see some animals. The best part were the pandas. They are the only 2 captive pandas in SE Asia, they are currently on loan from China.

Each day the students came home from school at 5 and then the chaos would begin. The orpahange is like summer camp, only it lasts forever. The older kids take care of the younger kids. They are very independent. Even the yougest kids, JoJo, gets his own dinner goes to his seat and feeds himself. These kids also clean the dishes and anything else that needs to be clean. You would neve see something like this in the States. The kids also attached themselves to us in an instant. They are so loving and affectionate. I think about how many hugs they have missed out on in their lives. Its said that we need 7 hugs a day. Well I am serioulsy lacking in that department since hugging is foreign in Taiwan and they dont have a family. So I was more than happy to hug and hold hands as much as they wanted. They only problem was some of the girls has lice.....so I tried my best to keep the hair away from mine, no way did I want lice for the next 3 weeks of my trip, although I do remember a time when my dad wished I would get lice so he could try out some of his company's medicine, real nice. So mainly the time I spent with the kids they were hanging all over me at all times. I wish I could have brought some home, they are some of the sweetest kids and I would love to give them a chance at a better life. Unfortunatly the Thai government makes it nearly impossible for the kids to be adopted. It breaks my heart cause these kids deserve a loving family too. But, they seem so happy, at the orphanage the kids are like one big family. It is a wonderful place to go and to spend time with the kids, they will definatly touch your heart and leave a lasting impression.

Here is the website for Asia's Hope- http://www.asiashope.com/chiangmai.php
You can read the stories of the kids and how the ended up at the orphanage.

Also I have more pictures from the orphanage on this page- http://community.webshots.com/user/rachswim83

---