Home and Life Orphanage Foundation

The destruction caused by the Tsunami on 26th December 2004 still leaves many people and children in southern Thailand homeless, jobless and hopeless. A huge amount of short-term aid has come in from around the world to relieve the immediate physical, psychological and spiritual needs. The present situation is that many remote Tsunami victim families still haven’t received any kind support from any government or other organizations. No work, no jobs and no income has had an enormous effect on families. Their children have difficulty going to school; this problem leads to other social issues such as youth gang culture, criminal cases, love affairs and drug abuse in the Phang Nga area. After getting enough information, and without any delay, Mr. Bhudit (Root) and Mrs. Rasa decided to build their team and establish a home for the orphans called “Home & Life” in Thaimuang district, Phang Nga province.

“Home & Life” Foundation was officially founded on 15th November 2006. The main purpose of the Foundation was to establish a self-reliant home for the children of some of the survivor families and those who lost their families. There are now 26 children and 6 adult teachers and staff under the Foundation here. Everybody at Home&Life is trying hard to build a home for the children on the rented 1 Rai land. During the daytime the children go to school and after school everybody gathers together to learn entrepreneurial skills, life lessons and participate in normal family activities to help build a solid and stable foundation for the children.

Since it started, Home & Life has gradually raised the necessary funds to keep building and improving the orphanage. The foundation has been able to increase the number of children it can support and look after. The most significant stages of its growth over the last few years have been raising funds to finance construction and maintenance projects and the development of income generated projects such as the bakery and organic gardens. The foundation receives no government funding and relies entirely on private donations. At present there are 26 children and 6 adult teachers who live at Home & Life. There is also an ongoing volunteer programme where volunteers from all over the world come and stay for various lengths of time, helping in specific projects and the day to day running of the home.

It has always been Home & Life's idea and intention to provide a family home full of love and learning for the children at Home & Life. When the foundation began we wanted to offer security and an understanding for the children that were coming here and somewhere that the children could feel part of a family. The adult staffs are treated as older family members by the children. The children are given the responsibility to help with jobs around the foundation and are responsible for keeping their rooms clean and tidy, just as they would if they lived with their parents. They are also taught valuable life lessons such as helping other people, looking after and caring for each other and working hard.

Every child goes to school and Home & Life pays for their school uniforms, books and stationery. The children also have extra English lessons each week with the Teacher Volunteer Centre and are supported if they have other interests such as singing, swimming or boxing. When they grow up and finally leave Home & Life, everyone involved wants them to be able to live successful lives and be valuable members of their communities.

"We are Thai. We have to teach our children the charm and personality of the Thai heart," says Bhudit 'Root' Maneejak, the home's founder. "We help them in the simple practice of the Thai family where the parents are the children's first teachers."

Beyond their everyday traditions and culture, the children are also taught about other religions and cultures. Regional variations are explained when teaching traditional dance and meal preparation. "We have to be sensitive to the cultural variations among our children: some are Muslim, for example, and nearly 40% are Moken Chao Lay, or sea people," says Root. "They have a very different culture, which is based on a life of living mostly at sea. Some now live in land communities and even the jungle. "We have to teach them the Moken values, as well as helping them fit into Thai ways, to make their future lives as successful as possible."

Every child is unique and wonderful - and each needs nurturing in body, mind and spirit. Teaching their cultures and traditions is one way Home & Life does this.

A Message from Manager, Root:

"Home&Life Sawasdee krap” Month by month there is a struggle for food and operating costs. Together with our self-generated income from the Home&Life Coffee Bakery shop, Crafts, etc.

We are trying and hoping to succeed, however are still very far from covering the costs for all expenses; education, food, fuel, medicine, communication, school transportation, pocket money for students, etc. These are the most important targets for the 25 growing children at Home&Life. Eventually it will not be possible without your help.

Please support by donating directly to "Home&Life Phang Nga” foundation's saving account.

Details of Bank account: Siam Commercial Bank, Khok Kloy Branch, Thailand 

Name: Home&Life Phang Nga Foundation (มูลนิธิบ้านเพื่อชีวิต พังงา ) 

Saving Account: 788 -217-213-0 

SWIFTcode: SICOTHBK 

http://www.homelifethailand.com/donateco ntact-en.html

You can be assured that every single baht you donate will directly support the Home&Life children without any administration fees.

We hope to meet you soon!

Words cannot begin to express the place in my heart held by these children.  I love them as if they are members of my own family.  I'm so thankful for Facebook so that I keep up with their lives.  If you'd like to learn more about Home & Life, please click here, or feel free to ask me!

Phuket Town

Though many people pick Phuket, Thailand for their vacation destination, I will be the first person to tell you that if they're in Phuket Town they've probably done it by mistake... like me.  However, it's probably one of the best mistakes I've ever made.  I loved my time there, and by the end of my week and a half, I didn't want to leave.  I was seriously contemplating cancelling my life and staying there to continuing studying Muay Thai (another post entirely).  I made some friends, and even had restaurant owners who knew my order and about what time I'd be by.  It's a small town, but I - surprisingly - fell quite in love with it.

These little guys lived right next to my favorite restaurant, so we became good friends.

Too cool for school.

Big Buddhas seem to be a global phenomenon.

The bay

This man and boy were too cute, out fishing.  The man was happy to bait the line and pass it off to the boy to real in a fish.  Between the two of them, they had a pretty good system going.  The man also was more than willing to teach some other young men who looked like they were on a tour of the area.  He was incredibly friendly about letting me take photos, too.

Flags in front of a temple at the bay

 

Behind the gym where I had my Muay Thai classes, there was a fair going on every night, so I usually ate my dinner there and people-watched.  One thing I realized: kids are kids all over the world.

Me and the motorbike I rented.  Let me tell you, nothing keeps your prayer life in tact better than renting a vehicle you've never before driven and trying to drive on the other side of the road.

Some friends from the hostel and I went to a party at a beach in the woods.  (Actually, the hostel manager went too...)  We had a lot of fun, dancing quite literally all night.

Food.  So good.

We'll be back

I had all these grandiose plans of posting every day while in Thailand. Well, that turned out well... I leave Thailand tonight. Just so you know, my computer finally died. There's a plan to fix it in the works, but no guarantees. I do plan on updating soon, but please bear with me while I try to get settled in. In not even 72 hours I'll be back in the States! Crazy! I'll be seeing you soon!

The Plan

It's about time I told you this.

I have a PLAN!!!

We're still hammering out some details, but I should tell you about it before it becomes so commonplace in my head that I forget to tell you.  Here it goes:

I'm leaving Korea on September 23.

I will be in Thailand, volunteering with Home & Life Orphanage Foundation until the 23rd of October.  But I will leave Thailand on the 27th.

From Thailand, I'll head back to the States (with a 6 hour layover in Incheon, so, Korea friends, help me pass that time!!!), ultimately ending up in Atlanta.  I've got a lot of people I'd like to visit, and I'm thinking about following this path:

View in Google Maps

If you recognize yourself on that map, or if you're not on that map and you should be, let's talk.  I'm going to be needing help with transportation as well, so I'm really, really hoping that you can assist there. 

I'm thinking of trying to fit this all into November and December (ending by Christmas).

Currently, it's looking like I'll be heading back out in February.  My Korean church has asked me to go join their missionaries in India, working at a school that focuses on working with children from the slums.  Currently, we have not set an end date for that.  I will be needing to raise ALL of my own support for that, so, not to worry, you'll definitely be hearing more from me on that.  I may not have definite details until December for that, so I'll probably have a very short time to raise a considerable amount of money.  I'm not stressed about it (yet), though, because I know that if G-d wants me there, He will bring the money in.  I've never had a problem with that before, and I don't think that I will start now.  (Please pray!)

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and I'm looking forward to reporting on my upcoming adventures.

111 Days until I touch down in the U.S. of A.

MOTh: Day 11

3 Gifts of Remembrance

I've been seeing all the Veteran's Day posts go up, and I thought I'd add one of my own.

1. I'm thankful for our veterans.  I may live a life of a more pacifist bent, but I do recognize that these men and women fought so I didn't have to.
2. That being said, I'm thankful for my grandpa, who fought in World War II.  I'm proud to be his granddaughter.
3. I'm thankful for the opportunity I had in Thailand to understand just exactly the scope of World War II.  I felt decently knowledgable on the subject, and, yet, I still had no idea.  War is a nasty thing, friends.  We should be doing everything in our power to avoid it.

The graves of Allied soldiers (POWs) who fell in Thailand.

Just a little life update... for once.

I don't think I've given you an actual life update since I got to Korea... maybe some snarky pretend life updates, but I'm going to buckle down and give you an actual one.  Why?  Because my other option is lesson planning.

My trip to Thailand really opened my eyes to
how mixed  Buddhism and Hinduism have become.

We kicked off this week with Buddha's birthday.  Now, a lot of my Christian friends have been pretty fired up about this, justifying celebrations as not being about Buddha and so forth.  Here's the thing, though.  Plenty of people who couldn't care less about Christ have no problem celebrating Christmas and Easter.  Not to mention, Buddhism had absolutely nothing to do with religion until it mixed with Hinduism.  Before then, it was just a lifestyle about peace and unity with the world and yourself.  This does not in any way, shape, or form negate Christianity.  Buddhism now?  Yes, it does.  What Buddhism was meant to be? No it doesn't.  And if you really want me to ruffle your feathers, I can take that a step further and say that Christianity now negates what Christianity was meant to be, too, so there's a whole lot of negation going on here.  Like I mentioned before, I didn't spend the holiday doing much of anything special.  I took the bunny to the animal hospital, then laid around on Monday, working on some editing for my story.  Pre-bunny adventures, the bun and I attended a cookout on the roof of our apartment building, which ended with a not-so-happy manager kicking us off the roof.  The general consensus is that, yes, fireworks are legal in Korea, but perhaps we should have taken them to a beach or something.

Writing writing, writing...
Also... I'd like to paint my nails that color again.

Tuesday was the usual post-long-weekend duldrum of wanting more vacation.  I need to hurry and get this "being a writer" thing moving... I think I'd really like that, to be honest.  It wouldn't matter where I lived or what else I did, so long as I met my deadlines.  How can you help me? (Because I KNOW you all want to help me... haha.)  Tell people about the blog, and watch for my name on a fiction series a couple years from now.  When you see it, buy it.  :) hahah.

Tuesday was also a flurry of preparations for the series of Skype calls that my 6th graders are doing.  Right now, they're studying how to hold phone calls in English, so I figured that this was a wonderful way to let them practice.  I had to make sure Skype was installed on all the computers, cameras and mics were working, and my callers were up-to-date and ready to go on info.  Even though I knew things would still glitch, I wanted it to be as glitch-free as possible.  What I didn't bank on were thunderstorms on the East Coast AND in Korea (no-thunderstorm central).  I guess that's how these things work, right?

The project that started it all: my fourth graders Skyping
with Jaimi and Sam.  (No, you didn't miss it.  I've just been bad
about keeping you updated.)

Today was the big kick off of the Skype calls.  It was definitely interesting.  The 6th grade girls couldn't get over having an American young man on the screen, so I'm a little tentative about how tomorrow is going to turn out on that front.  Of course, the men tomorrow won't have blonde hair, so it'll probably be a bit easier to handle.  Either way, I'm seriously considering a women-only policy for my higher grades.  I don't think that'll cause any stirs, since the boys aren't hormonally mature enough for that issue.  All-in-all, I think the kids did okay.  They certainly had some room for improvement, but my Thursday classes tend to be better than my Wednesday classes, so we'll see how that goes.  (Hopefully, I'll remember to snag some pictures on the sly tomorrow, too.  Maybe I'll ask someone to do some screen shots on their end for me?  We'll see.)

Today, lunch was incredibly good (and even came with cheese sticks!), except for this rice ball that made me nervous.

I ate this with my lunch today.  Look carefully.  Those little black dots are eyes...
apparently of fish that look exactly like worms.   I had to close my eyes to do it,
which one of my co-teachers noticed and may or may not be offended?
I don't know.  Either way, the fish/worms show up enough at school
that I should probably learn to eat them wide-eyed.

Today, I also got done at work early.  Apparently, on any month that has a fifth Wednesday, the teachers take off early to go hiking.  I was all set to go, but it was drizzling, so they opted against it, and everyone just went home.  Wouldn't you know it?  As soon as I got dropped off, the rain stopped.  Personally, I would have enjoyed either one, but they probably made the better call.  I'm too used to non-acidic rain.  But, I'll count it as a win for the home team.  You know what else I found out?  We don't have school on Friday; it's my school's "birthday."  I'll take it.

Day 01. Selfie.  No mirrors... just a fancy iPhone4.

Finally, I have opted to start the Summer of Blimey Cow Photo Challenge.  I'll be posting my shots on here, but I would love to see yours, too if you opt to do it, so find me on Twitter, where I will also be posting my shots.  (Or you can ALWAYS post links and things in my comments!)  We'll see how long I stay dedicated to this... and/or I'll just have some days that I'm posting a bunch of catch-up pictures. It is my blog, after all, so I can really just do whatever I want.

Have a lovely week, enjoy working on Friday, and pretend like I'm not actually mean enough to have just rubbed that in your face. ;)

Crazy Love: Jungle

"When Jeremiah voices his hesitation and fear, G-d - the G-d of the galaxies - reaches out and touches his mouth.  It's a gentle and affectionate gesture, something a loving parent would do. Through this illustration I realized that I don't have to worry about not meeting His expectations.  G-d will ensure my success in accordance with His plan, not mine.

"This is the G-d we serve, the G-d who knew us before He made us.  The G-d who promises to remain with us and rescue us.  The God who loves us and longs for us to love Him back."

                                             From Crazy Love, by Francis Chan 

I feel like I'm finally coming awake after a long hibernation.  I'm learning this idea that G-d desires to be close to me, just as much as (and more than) I want to be close to Him.  I feel like I knew this in my brain, but I'm just now starting to learn it in my heart.  It's a very cool thing.  I'm not used to feeling wanted.

It's already changed the entire timbre of our relationship.  I'm not feeling like I'm chasing after a G-d who's marking out a path, ambivalent to the fact that His steps are so much bigger than mine.  Rather, it's much more like Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the sistine chapel, with G-d stretching so far to reach me.

If you follow that painting to the moments after what is depicted, you'll see G-d, finally deciding it's so much easier to reach us if He topples off His cloud and comes some place lower - like when you're trying to reach something under the couch while you're still on it; it's so much easier just to roll off and reach under the couch for it.

Here's another example: It's like when I was in Thailand, hiking to find the Rafflesia Flower.  I was keeping right up with Teak, our guide, at first, even thought the path was quite hard.  But my blood sugar quickly crashed from exhaustion and the unexpected exertion.  I honestly wondered if I would be making it off the mountain.  But Teak did not leave me sitting there, nor did he keep his fast pace, letting me fall further and further behind.

Instead, he took my bag (read "burden," in case you're not good at analogies) from me and slowed to match my pace, letting me lean against him, balance against his shoulder, use him for support, and even went so far as to desperately beg me to let him carry me over the most dangerous parts of the hike.  When I refused, he went ahead of me, positioning himself at the bottom of the steep, muddy slope, between its base and the sheer drop-off at the edge of the path, so that if I slipped, it would be him who toppled over the edge, not me.

This is what G-d is like.  I've been straining my eyes, trying to see Him somewhere far ahead of me, unable to see Him, because he was standing next to me, hands halfway raised, ready to grab me when I slipped.

And it's not that we're discovering this path together, because G-d, like Teak, knows this path like the back of His hand.  He spends as much time as He can deep in this jungle, because yes, it is dangerous, but it is here that true beauty is found.  His people are pushed beyond what they thought were their limits, they discover what they're made of, and He begins refining it.  He knows all this going into it.  He knows each and every dangerous moment of the hike before we ever leave the starting point.  He knows each branch-off and how to find the rare, hidden beauties that can only be found in this jungle.  He knows where to take a few steps ahead of us, so He can position Himself between us and the mud ramp into the abyss.  He deliberately brings us onto the path for which we are totally unprepared, because He wants us to better understand ourselves, Him, and the wonder of everything around us.

Stop straining to see Him somewhere far ahead, and start figuring out what it is that is propping you up in your weakness, because, right there underneath your weary, weary arm is the hand of G-d Himself.