I have finally arrived

I thought I had been exposed to poverty on other mission trips, and I have… but none like this. In the past it has been: Andros Island where their homes made of wood were run down rotten and dirty, needing cleaning and new plywood. Pittsburg where level floors and new coats of paint and repaired drywall were large concerns. And Newark, where the need was for us to scrape paint and add new paint, but largely to love for children.

Here they carry everything in old grocery bags or used cardboard boxes. Every old train car has been turned into a home, and old tour buses serve as apartment complexes. Plywood homes are built on stilts over stagnant water green with algae and congested with trash. Barefooted children walk through the streets to “train stations” that are little more then slabs of concrete next to the tracks. Women spend all day passing the isle of the train in attempts to sell what they grown, cooked, or made.

No none of the poverty I have seen is quite like this.

I arrived here at the orphanage late in the evening after the kids had eaten and begun to quite down for the evening, but food was left out for me.. They were nice to me a Farang (spelling?.. means foreigner).. they left me fried rice.. something not spicey, they will help me work my way into the spicey food this week. The first children I met were three little girls (4,5, and 5 years old) Ilene who has gorgeous long hair which signifies she is in private school and then two beautiful girls with short hair like all the girls in public school I have not learned both there names, but one is toy she is the 4 year old. They spent the evening showing off singing songs and rhymes. Roger began to tell me about the children and his work here the orphanage is almost 10 years old and right now there are 13 children living in the house and 6 that come in for the weekend, they also support one handicapped child in town and a school of 121 more students. The youngest they care for is 7 months (she will be my biggest responsibility while I am here) and the oldest is 23 and goes to university.

Roger is an amazing man of God. His love for these children is indescribable he listed off every child how old they were where they were from and their birthdays as if he were the orphanages database. He told me first of Ilene who is now 5. She came to the orphanage when she was 28 days old. Her mother was given the choice of keeping her or marrying a man she had been seeing… she chose the man who then infected her with aids. When Ilene came to the orphanage she had never been bathed and still had afterbirth in her hair. She was the youngest for several years but now with the arrival of the two other kindergarteners and baby Amanda she gets to be a big sister and be the teacher when they play school. As of now she dreams to be a teacher when she grows up.. that may change as it does with most kids. The two other young girls are sisters brought to the orphanage by their mother who gave them up to flee from their father who set their house on fire.

I will tell you more of their stories as I learn them

As for the travel.. uhg it took forever! on top of 26 hours of flying a lay over I impatiently waited at a very very nice hotel then in 2 hours of traffi to travel 20 miles to the train station where I waited for a train that took an hour longer to get to Buri Ram than expected. Oh and while waiting at the train station I paid to use the restroom... no one told me toilet paper cost extra haha thatwas an experience. My deoderent broke lol and so did my camera :-( but... have no fear I bought a new one that I wil use while Im here and then be able to leave for the orphanage to use as they watch these beautiful children grow up. speaking of pictures Ive uploaded the ones from the trip to bangkok already and will soon upload pictures from the train and once I take some here they will go up as well

I love you all and I miss my hugs... Im still waiting for my first one here

mom.. email me when you are back in VB and we will set up a time to talk on aim :-)