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.
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.
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
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