Sunday, March 05, 2006

sunday

went to the burma border this morning to renew our visas.

went to the 'house' (bamboo barn-yard shack) of one of the kids from the migrant school this evening. his mum had invited all the teachers over for a thank-you dinner. the shack (one room. 3 1/2 walls) was in the middle of about 50 acres of veggie plants (owned by thais. worked, as usual, by burmese). we could see puppies and chicks scurring about through the cracks in the bamboo floor as we ate our banana flower curry.

they told us that their 12 yo son and his 15 yo friend (both who attend our school) will be moving to Bangkok tomorrow to work - they think in an orchard, but no one seemed quite sure. Bangkok is about an 8 hour bus drive away.
we've heard horror stories of girls being sent to bangkok to work.

as the sun set the candles came out (no electricty or running water at this place). the 2 boys sat in the middle and all the teachers prayed for them. the principal offered a few finals words of advise, 'don't take drugs, don't steal from or lie to your boss. Jesus loves you where ever you are, call on His name if you ever get into trouble.'

the familily is buddist but seemed happy for us to be there. the 12 year boy old had his little 3 year old sister on his back. i wondered what she is thinking this evening.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the posts guys. It's great to have a reminder of how tough some people do it, even if it's by proxy.