Bangkok, Thailand - Thailand Photos posted, on my infrequent blog entries...

If you haven't visited the NLD photo gallery in a while, the Thailand pictures were very recently posted and Malaysian photos were also posted a couple of weeks before that. Thanks so much to cousin Ric for posting the photos we send to him!

Please excuse the infrequent nature of my postings. I've spent a lot of time in doing trip planning, including the visits to my sponsored children, getting visas and tickets, taking, editing and selecting photos and I am also working with my cousins back in the USA who are handling the affairs related to my Mom's passing. I've also spent time selecting, having printed and mailing photos to some of the native people I've met in the countries I've visited who have requested them. Along with that have been the short trips to northern Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and next to Laos.

You've probably noticed that my last three blogs have been on visiting an orphange and then on visiting my sponsored children. Visits to my sponsored children were planned into the trip at some point, but the timing was providential, as was the visit to the orphanage. I have no nuclear family left. My brother, father and mother have all passed away. It is comforting for me to meet with my extended, international family.

I think John did a good job of covering the trip to Halong Bay, Vietnam so please read his journal entries for that trip.

Hue, Vietnam - Visit to my sponsored child, Quy, Quang Tri province...

I must say the people who planned my visit to my sponsored child (SC) did an excellent job. The translater they hired to accompany me on the visit called me the night before and informed me she'd be showing up with transport at 8:00 a.m. and she was there at my hotel right on time. She was very helpful in preparing me for the visit as we drove about an hour to the local PLAN office for the Quang Tri district.

PLAN is very protective of the sponsored children and families. They have every sponsor who wishes to visit their SC read and then sign an agreement stating the rules they wish the sponsor to follow in regards to the visit.

A representative from there joined us. I had requested they take me shopping for things for the family, so they took me to a local market. They suggested the things for me to buy for the family, practical things. I bought detergent, tooth paste, tooth brushes, towels and shampoo. I also bought a soccer ball (called football here and in the rest of the world except for the USA) for Quy. We bought some candy for the kids at the SC's family house and also bought some for children at a primary school we would be visiting later in the day.

Another PLAN representative met use at the dirt road leading to the SC's family home and led us to and introduced us to the family. The father and mother were very warm and invited us in for green tea. The house was a single story home build of concrete. They have electricity and (thankfully) fans were running to help keep us cool. I presented the gifts to the family and the soccer ball to Quy. Many of the the family's friends and relative had come over to visit us as well.

Quy is 11-years old and quite shy. I think my visit was a little overwhelming for him. I'm thinking that his parents and relatives had expectations of him in meeting me and that he was just too shy to perform the things they expected. I understood completely. I've been there...

Quy and a friend went out shortly to play with the soccer ball and I joined them in the front yard. We played an informal game, two of them against me. Fortunately we didn't keep score because they did quite well against me. The family and relatives watched me playing and smiled and laughed. My T-shirt was soaked in sweat after we finished and they put a fan directly on me both to cool and dry me off!

The family invited me to lunch, which I gladly accepted. We started with a toast of rice alcohol that they had made themselves. It's quite strong (60% alcohol). I had tasted similar home brews in Indonesia and Malaysia and have gotten to enjoy small amounts of it. We had rice with toppings of pork, egg omelettes, and a vegetable and meat soup. It was all qutie good. I had spinkled on some of their hot peppers as well. I think the translator was quite concerned for me eating the peppers, but I had no ill effects during or afterwards. They did have a nice kick to them!

After lunch the family showed me their garden and their livestock.

We came back for some green tea and I spoke some with the family and relatives through the translator. Two of the older women that were visiting learned some English during the Vietnam war and we spoke briefly in English. Later on I just enjoyed being with the family as they talked and laughed with each other without needing to have everything translated.

Quy's father and mother work primarily at rice farming. Quy's father also gathers honey from the forest. He was kind enough to give me a bottle of honey he had gathered as a parting gift. I tried some before I left and it was quite delicious! I even managed to transport it back to Bangkok with me!

Quy's father held my hand and walked me back to the PLAN vehicle after I had said my goodbye's to Quy, his brother and mother. He invited me to come back for another visit in the future. I am looking forward to it!

Wang Pla Do Village, Khon Kaen, Thailand - Visit my foster child's family

I had supported a foster child in Thailand, Manaschai Pimsri, from when he was age 12 to age 18. After age 18 he was no longer eligible for the childreach program (in Thailand called "The Plan") program. Manaschai is now an adult at 25 and I wished to visit he and his family. I first called the Plan in the USA about 6-weeks ago. Because of my mother's illness and passing, I did not have time to speak to them again until a few days ago. I explained the situation and they said they would do what they could to arrange a visit with the family on short notice.

They gave me the number for the Plan office in Khon Kaen. I spoke to Pu at the office in Khon Kaen and she was very helpful in helping to set up an appointment to see the family on short notice. Manashai, my foster child, was now living and working in Bangkok.

I booked a flight on Thai Airways and made an early morning hop to Khon Kaen, arriving at 7:40 a.m. The Plan hired translater, Bee, met me at the airport and Oud, the Plan driver, took us to the Khon Kaen Plan headquarters. Pu was very helpful in showing me the operation and explaining what the Plan was doing and how they worked in a cooperative manner with communities and other agencies to help out the children and the families.

The process for handling letters and gifts sent from children sponsors to their sponsored child turns out to be quite complicated and time consuming. The letters and gifts must be sorted and inventoried. Each letter much be read by one of the senior staff to ensure that all the language in the letter is appropriate for the child. The letter is then sent to an outside agency for translation. This may take a couple of weeks. When the translated letter arrives back, it must be read again and checked for accuracy by one of the senior staff. If they find it is well translated, it is re-macthed up with any accompanying gifts and is thensent to the child.

After the tour of the Plan office, the translater, Bee, the driver, Oud, and I headed to the market so I could buy some non-perishable food items for the family. It was a local market and we picked up a lot of Thai stables familiar to me, fish sauce, rice noodles, soy sauce, cooking oil and such. We also picked up some candy for students we would be visiting with later in the day.

We then headed towards the village where the family lived, about an hour away. I enlisted Bee to help me learn to pronounce some Thai phrases along the way. She has a voice that speaks Thai very clearly and I could distinguish the five tones, essential in determining the words meaning, much more easily from her than I could from most other Thai speakers.

We met Manaschai's mother and father and several of their relatives. They brought us some cold water and shrimp chips. They asked me about myself and my family. They showed me pictures of Manaschai and his sisters. They told me Manaschai works as an engineer with computers at Nestle in Bangkok. One of his relatives also said he likes to drink beer. He had been home only 4-days earlier for mother's day, as were his two sisters.

Manaschai's father showed me a basket for storing rice he had woven and then proceeded to have me try weaving one. It was not as easy as it looked! The final products he made were quite handsomeand sturdy.

One of the relatives, a woman whose name means "superstar", volunteered to show us around the village. She showed us live silk worms, the cocoons the silkworms create, and told us the cocoons were boiled to obtain the silk thread. She also showed us a loom with silk in place being weaved into cloth.

They took me to a rice paddy that was being worked and I volunteered to join in. At this time they were taking sprigs of closely growing rice and replanting them with several inches of space between each sprig. This makes the rice itself a lot better. I pulled out a handful of sprigs, knocked as much of the mud off by banging the roots against my foot and then stuck them back into the mud at widel spaced intervals. They didn't let me screw up their rice paddy for too long. I'm glad too, because it's hard work!

They took me to a new Bhuddist temple (callled a wat) that the village is building, which is mostly completed. It was quite beautiful. They also showed me a white stupa where the ashes of those that have died and been cremated are kept. The families visit the stupa to remember their ancestors on special occassions.

We were then invited back to lunch at Manaschai's family home. The food was plentiful and delicious. There was payaya salad, spicy sardines in tomatoe sauce, fried noodles, egg omelets and rice followed by a dessert of cut up melons in coconut milk with sugar.

Their home is made of concrete, has a tile floor, electricity, fans, lights, refrigerator and a Thai stye bathroom with running water. It is quite nice. The custom is to remove shoes before entering and to sit on straw mats laid on the floor. They also have a motorbike and a cell phone.

They made a call on the cell phone to Manaschai while I was there and I got to communicate to him through the translator. He says he doesn't speak English, but my guess is he speaks a little bit and maybe quite a bit more. I gave him my email address and he said he would email me.

In the afternoon we went to visit an elementary school. We got out the candy for the children, and in spite of the candy, they all had frightened faces when I approached to give it to them. It made for some pretty interesting photographs! "Plan" had helped build part of the school building and had helped with supplying some of the other material and supplies that were needed.

My impressions of the schools were that the principal and teachers were good at their jobs and cared about the kids and that the kids appeared to enjoy themselves and learn.

Later we went to the middle school. The kids there were quite wary of the foreigner (me), called "farang" in Thai, as well. I had bought candy for them as well. The principal had them line up, like in the military, and a student reprentative received the bag of candy. Bee suggested I have a photo with them. I finally got them to loosen up when I made sweeping gestures like I was parting the Red Sea to join in the middle of them for the photo.

After visiting the schools we returned to the parents home and talked for a while. They asked if I could return over News Years to spend time with Manaschai and the rest of the family in the village. On leaving, the mother presented me with a large piece of silk cloth as a gift. She, her husband and three other relatives also performed a simple parting ceremony, each one tieing a piece of string around my wrist. I had a wonderful visit with this family and hope to visit them again.

Siem Reap, Cambodia - Acres of Temples and other stuff...

Wow, there sure are lots of ancient ruins in Siem Reap - John and I have been spent the last three days visiting them.

Angkor Wat, the most well-known and hyped of the ruins, was a bit of a disappointment for me. I guess I had just heard too much about it from others and had built it up in my mind to a point where it couldn't live up to my expectations. I did get some great photos of it at sunrise.

Some of the other ruins were more interesting. Especially the ones that had been partially taken over by the jungle. For detailed descriptions of them, please check John's blog. I'm going to divert a bit here...

We drove outside of Siem Reap to a stream in the countryside that has carvings hewn in the rocks in the streambed to bless the water that flow over them. It was a long, slow trip over a very bumpy dirt road, but we got to see a lot more of the Cambodian country life.

People along the way were doing all the things we human beings do, working, eating, buying things, selling things, playing and resting. I wonder about, "What are the differences in quality of life between living as a person in a "1st" world nation, like the USA, versus a "3rd" world nation like Cambodia?"

In terms of hardship, I think there are two major ones. These people have to work a lot harder than we do. In the cities people often work seven days a week. In the countryside it may be less hours, but much harder work. I didn't even want to try working in a rice field. It looks very hot and backbreaking.

The second major issue is the level of medical care available to them is very limited. If they are healthy and don't sustain any major injuries or illnesses, their life will be infinitely easier than if they contract a serious disease or are injured.

In terms of happiness, I don't know. I think in all of the "2nd" - "3rd" world countries I've visited, family and community has been very important to them, often their sole means of survival. There are many places where there is one significant income earner in a family to support 5 to 10 or more family members and relatives.

I think the effect of this is that I don't think that most of them are as lonely as many people are in the USA. I think they feel they are part of a family and part of a community. Despite there being families in America as well, of course, I think there is a lot of lonliness and alienation within them.

I will seek to explore these issues more as I continue my journey.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - JCA Orphanage
On seeing a opportunity to visit an orphanage, the note was in the menu of the Gecko Restaurant in Phnom Penh, I decided go. John opted to join me. What we found was totally different than what I expected. It was one of the best times I've had while traveling.

The Gecko restuarant provided a transportation to the orphanage at 6:00 p.m. The orphanage offered a show by their own orphans of traditional Khmer dance and the accompanying music. Afterwards they would provide and eat dinner with us and then show us how to do some of the traditional Khmer dance movements.

The kids were incredibly friendly and outgoing from first encounter. As soon as they seated us for the show, a litle girl about 4 yo took a liking to John and his camera. She was all about him and his camera toy for quite a while, even getting to take a picture of him with his camera.

The orphan orchestra was wonderful. It consisted of two wooden xylophone type intruments played by two boys, a 12-14 piece bell set played by one boy alone, a traditional drum set, and a violin-like instrument played by two other boys. They were very well synchonized and professional, never losing the rhythm or where they were. After the performance began, they were good enough that I never thought about the quality of their playing again.

The traditional Khmer dancing was peformed by boys and girls rangeing in age, I would guess, from 8-12 yo. They were in beautiful costumes. Their poise and expressions were focused and professional, yet they did not appear to be strained or tense. You knew they were proud and enjoying what they were presenting, but they never left the character they were portraying.

The range of dances seemed to express important aspects of their culture. A dance that the women performed appeared to be to bring offerings to their gods. A male dance expressing some of their bonding rituals, and finally a joint male/female dance in which aspects of courtship are portrayed in a humorous way. The male suiter, originally rejected, examines his looks and tries again and again until he finally pursues and gets a resistant, but somewhat interested female.

After the show, a young boy grabbed my hand and led me to one of the food tables and had me sit down. I don't think he was even old enough to know how to talk. There were about 10 of us sitting around this quite small, round table, plate to plate. A boy next to me, Bantah, welcomed me and asked me my name and where I was from. He had only started learning English a year earlier, but communicated quite well.

The meal was the "Real McCoy family style. We each had a bowl of rice and then there was a central bowl of vegetables and another of chicken bone soup. You served yourself and replished with your own spoon from the communal bowls as needed. It was quite good. If we were reticent, the others would fill our plates from the central bowls.

Afterwards the girls and guys led us near the dance area to learn some of the traditional steps in their dances. I must say, my new friend Bantah was quite patient. Eventually I did manage to learn one out the many step sequences quite well.

The music was loud and and their Brazilian soccer coach (a volunteer) started teaching them a "hip-hop" type dance for the first time. It was amazing how fast some of the kids picked it up! We all had an awesome time dancing, however we danced. Later some of the kids demonstrated some of their break dancing moves. They were quite impressive and having a great time to boot!

It's absolutely amazing how happy, polite, friendly, brotherly and sisterly these kids were! They also loved us being there, several came outside to say goodbye to us when we got in the van to leave. I'm planning on extending my trip by another day so I can visit the orphanage again.

Cambodia has had a very dark history, but I think the memory of these kids will always give me hope about Cambodia's future.

This orphanage, JCA, operates solely on donations and volunteers.

What follows is a description of the project I found on the web:

"The Jeannine's Children Association was founded in 2002. It is named after the wife of the founder and current manager Billy Barnaart. For many years she supported his inspiring work in Cambodia with AIDS affected families, orphans and street children. In 2003 this new centre was opened in the Tuol Kork District of Phnom Penh. It has been partly funded by the British Embassy.

At the time of writing there are 80 children and numbers are increasing. They are looked after by a small, dedicated team of Khmer adults. The children are aged one to eighteen. They receive normal education at a school in the neighbourhood, housing, food and medical care. Some of them are unable to attend school in which case they receive lessons at the orphanage. In their free time they are trained in traditional Khmer dances to enhance their self-discipline. Other activities are handicrafts, art, soccer and other sports

It is expected that in the next five years around 350 000 children will be orphaned because their parents have died of AIDS related diseases. JCA try to motivate communities to take care of these young people. Only when there is no other option are they placed in the orphanage which is an integral part of the community. Care for them is based on love, warmth and an understanding of the needs of children. Land (2.5 ha) has been bought just outside Phnom Penh on which to build a children's village. The construction of this is under process. The planning is that by the end of 2006 all children have been moved to this new place."

"The first steps have been set but many more are needed to guarantee a safe environment and honour the rights of every child."
Billy Barnaart. Advisor to Director JCA