“A baby in these parts can fetch as much as twenty thousand baht ($500)”

I want to start the year by again calling your attention to the situation on the border of Thailand. Friends of mine over at Rubber Knife Productions recently took some time out to do a pro bono documentary there. They chose to tell the story of Children of the Forest, a large project aimed at helping people who live in the lawless land between a war being waged in Burma and Thai immigration check points. This is where many fall victim to trafficking or worse horrors. The documentary they made is about 15 minutes long and I encourage you continue to share it after watching (click here if the video does not appear).

I’m proud we started the year by sending $730 to Children of the Forest on behalf of the Cyril Duncan Siam Children’s Foundation and strongly encourage you give and add COF to your list of deserving organizations.

So things are already on track for a very busy and special year. I’m still getting thanked by the families for the Christmas we game them and I want to continue to pass on that gratitude to you. Thank you! Our work in Bangkok with needy families will continue and we’ll be adding two more families to our list this month (making a total of eleven). More info on them and our ongoing weekend volunteering coming soon.

-Dwight

Photo credit: Brianne Hoyt-Stern

I hope you all enjoyed last week’s video and photo update. Here’s more:

There are forty-one children at Future Light Children’s Home. We spent the morning playing games and doing art activities. The kids never grew tired of running around or hanging out with their new friends from Bangkok. Had any of them truly been tired, they surely would have been enthusiastically replaced by another brother or sister. By mid afternoon the play time had been converted into a group effort to do chores. The combination of the chores and the stifling Mae Sot heat made the kids yearn to go bathe in the nearby river.

“You know before the water is blue. But today, the water bad. Very brown. The rains not come.” This observation from one of the older boys didn’t seem to disparage his younger siblings at the orphanage. They had already jumped into the river from the rocky shore of the muddy Irrawaddy, not hesitating to begin bathing and playing. I looked up at the movement across the waters, examining the boats who were loudly vacillating between Thailand and Burma. The children, like the boats, are caught in a stateless limbo because of decades of conflict in Burma and Thailand’s muddy policy on refugees and migrants.

The children get three meals of day. A basic meal made of mostly rice and the vegetables that they grow behind the house. So when evening finally came I grinned and proposed to the house dad, Goin, that we sneak away right before dinner and get ice cream for all the kids. He agreed and off we went on his motorbike speeding towards town, but stopping once for gas just outside of Mae Sot. We took off once again to hunt down a bucket sized quantity of vanilla-raspberry swirl ice cream, but the bike stopped again–this time unexpectedly. Mai pen rai–or ‘nevermind’ in Thai I thought. We will work something out I rationed. Maybe someone will offer us a ride I thought, still being hopelessly optimistic. I will just call my team back at the orphanage to pick us up.

No, no, and no answer.

A mile later, still walking alongside the busted motorbike we had almost reached a bike shop that was already closed.

If nothing else was in our favor, the fact that a shop with a tub of ice cream was still open when our taxi arrived brought relief. Goin and I walked back in through the orphanage gates two and a half hours later. Everyone had already forgotten about dinner and kids had gathered singing and dancing their hearts out before bed (see a brief video clip here). Preoccupied with their singing, they didn’t notice the ice cream, the missing bike, or the overwhelming sense of relief we felt upon returning.

That night we scooped ice cream into cones, bowls, cups, and finally bare hands as kids made their second and third rounds for the treat. I can’t recall an instance where ice cream ever tasted so good, nor where the joy it spread was so abundant.

Feels great to have had the opportunity to spend with the kids of Future Light. This week we will be donating $1000 to them on behalf of the Cyril Duncan Siam Children’s Foundation. They are currently rebuilding their house and school and could use the support. If you want more info on making a donation yourself or voluntouring at Future Light you can contact them on facebook (or by emailing futurelightkids@gmail.com).

-Dwight

“Dream Big, Work Smart, Start Local.”

However, there are usually quick fixes to minor physical discomfort. Pop some aspirin, a sinus tablet and get back on my feet, right? Not quite. The most discouraging thing about the political battle that has my neighborhood up in smoke, is witnessing the devolution of public discourse. Rational dialogue with all it’s beleaguering complexities has promptly been evicted and people on both sides have found, fed and fortified something more simple: hatred. A hatred wrought with ill will, fear-mongering, and deception so insidious, that regardless of the political outcome, it could only engender more of the same hurtful enmity in the future.

But before you airlift me a lifetime supply of prozac, let me share that like many here I still hold on to the hope that a peaceful solution can be arranged. And a runny nose coupled with a few people’s ugliness can’t really efface the search for sanuk friends described in the last post. On the contrary, trials have actually provided the contrast by which we can value what we take for granted. For example, this month we sponsored extra supplies for five refugee families. All of the five families were having trouble purchasing basic needs; two families of widowers, two with small children, and all very grateful for any help. With the recent escalation of violence here, you can be sure the goods (rice, sugar, cooking oil, etc…) were more than timely. Also there have been a lot of interruptions in volunteering because of the situation here, but similarly, it has made us all the more appreciative of moments we do get to spend in the community.

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern for Thailand. We’re staying safe and being patient. The next few weeks while things are being sorted out, I’ll be sharing some of what I learned working with Bangkok’s homeless.

-Dwight

-Dwight

SANUK MY SATURDAY!

Enjoy the pictures. Next week we’ll be featuring a post from Chris Castellani (our volunteer coordinator in the photo below) detailing her visit to a refugee camp in Northern Thailand.

-Dwight

]]> http://www.insearchofsanuk.com/2010/02/saturday-volunteer-photo-blog/feed/ 1 http://www.insearchofsanuk.com/2010/01/my-new-classroom/ http://www.insearchofsanuk.com/2010/01/my-new-classroom/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:49:59 +0000 Dwight Turner http://www.insearchofsanuk.com/?p=1800

Welcome to my new classroom. This is a part of Bangkok called Yommarat. The community stretches along the railroad tracks for 3km or more. Like most of the slums and poor communities in this sprawling city, it’s only minutes from major shopping districts and tourist attractions. Occasionally, you do see a drifting foreigner stand at the street and peer curiously into this community. But there’s no welcome sign here. No access by car. And an attentive group of residents I like to refer to as the Neighborhood Watch.

Unlike the first location, here we don’t have the privilege of a neutral location to meet and teach. A quick glance across the tracks from where we’re teaching reminds you of the proximity of people, as you realize you’re looking into someone’s home. I don’t mean to paint a scary picture. If you make it past the Neighborhood Watch, you quickly realize most of the residents are poor, but very hard working. They rise early and return late from the streets and local markets where many sale something. You also notice the neighborhood is full of children. The two biggest groups seem to be the tiny kids wandering about and a loud pack of scrappy, mischievous boys. As in the other community, the kids all attend school, but may not have a chance to study English until they begin secondary school.

We begin our Sanuk My Saturday program teaching here at the end of February. Don’t forget you can donate to this project this month and receive a Big Fish book. I’m already sending books to California and Western Australia, so I’ll be glad to send a copy to anyone else donating $10 or more. Finally, to give you a real sense of the sound and fury of this new community, I have uploaded a rough–mostly unedited clip of me walking around. If you watch you will hear me asking questions about where the kids can play. That gets interrupted (wait until you see why). Next, they take me to see a pretty pitiful play area that the kids can use. The most interesting part, however, is all the people I pass on the way. Take a look below (or go to the video by clicking here):

“Dream Big. Work smart. Start Local.”

-Dwight

There we joined the Little Light Project by playing games, snacking, singing and dancing together.

The next photo is with a student named Daw, expressing her gratitude to everyone who participated. On the far right is the founder of LLP, Prae Sunantaraks. Join her group on facebook to learn more about their project or join the next activity. I’m very proud of this photo with them, except that it was taken while I wasn’t wearing my clown nose.

After lunch was Sanuk My Saturday, where we celebrate being child-like weekly and teach English (yes, in that order).

In the community we teach in, the smallest students are the ones who have the best attendance. Luckily, we are joined by great volunteers who are ready to help even when we change our plan to teach at the last minute to better engage the kids who come.

This week we begin an art project making a book called Big Fish. Big Fish is short story for kids about love and companionship that anyone will enjoy reading. The book is an original work written and illustrated by ISOS volunteer Lola Rainey to help us fundraise.

Until the end of February, when you donate $10 or more online you will receive a free copy that has been colored and autographed by the kids from Sanuk My Saturday.

Thanks for reading. In the next update I will share more about our plans to expand the program into another slum community in Bangkok.

-Dwight

[In General] There are a few large slums in Bangkok, but what is more common in this big city is a very mixed housing structure with smaller patches of unconnected slums all over the city. This describes the community we teach in. It’s on the way to plush Bangkok suburbs and hidden behind a large temple, less than a kilometer from the area’s largest shopping mall. Almost every Saturday we meet a group of 25-40 kids. Their ages range, but the majority of them are 4-11 (but as you’ll spot in some of the photos, holding babies may also be on a volunteer’s to-do list).

My outlook on teaching is not too different from my outlook on life. If I was honest we should probably call this time “fun with foreigners” instead of English class. The biggest goal is not English fluency, but building relationships with the kids and having them associate fun with learning. For an hour class, I typically plan to teach about fifteen minutes. The rest of the time? Well, I will let you either come volunteer with us, or examine the incriminating video below. Teaching also varies because Sanuk My Saturday has a unique problem. Quite often, we have too many volunteers! If you can imagine, one Saturday we had 25 kids and TEN teachers. That’ll change your lesson plan a little, right? I want to make sure that volunteers who come get connected and feel that they have a role, so now we’re looking at a few other small slums or homeless communities around Bangkok where we can spread Sanuk My Saturday.

Can you save the world teaching English? I have an answer, but I won’t debate with you. Just know that the plan is to use this program to build bonds in these communities. That access is invaluable because in the future when we have more funding we can expand programming, using Sanuk My Saturday as the launch pad for micro-loans, urban gardens, or whatever we plan to implement.

[Lessons Learned] This program would be impossible without partnership with Thai friends who wanted to do something special in this community. You can’t just show up anywhere and plan to teach English and help people. Now that I want to expand the program, I’m going to have to be careful to make sure I spend a lot of time building the same connections with the community. I have to also tell you about new team member Chris, who joined the program a few months ago by telling me I didn’t have enough help and taking the reigns. Because of her initiative and dedication, she’s now the go to gal for spending your Saturday in Bangkok doing something worthwhile.

[A Special Treat] We have a jambalaya-like mix of good for you here from the last few months. This was put together by another In Search of Sanuk team member, Cody Mckibben. More than being the guy who designed this great looking site, Cody’s also one of those people who will jump up and booty shake or do whatever it takes to put smiles on kid’s faces. You’ll see a little bit of that in this video of our campaign in search of sanuk from Cody’s recent blog, My Secret Recipe for 100% Guaranteed Happiness. Enjoy.

“Dream Big. Work Smart. Start Local.”

-Dwight

What are the reasons you decide to give? Is it because of what we expect in return? Do we give because someone has told us giving is a great thing to do? I’m getting ready to take fourteen volunteers for a big weekend at the Chonburi Children’s Center. We will spend Saturday at the center and take the kids to the beach on Sunday. The beach will be a special treat since the kids get to go about once a year. When I visited the center before, we not only had a great time, but we were able to help the orphanage by compiling profiles for all the children. This trip I will challenge everyone to give in spite of everything. I’m hoping we’ll all really forget the tasks undone and troubles we’ve left behind in the city and focus on really giving love to these kids.

I need to pack! But before I go, I want to leave you with something to chew on:

What is your style of giving? Do you give from the bottom of your hurt? OR do you give from the bottom of your heart? Is one better than the other?

While we’re doing art projects, teaching English, and running around on the beach, I’ll be wondering about the best ways to give with you. I look forward to hearing from you and writing more on this topic.

~Dwight