We woke up with the sound of the boys getting ready for school this morning. We rode with the boys in the pickup truck to school. As soon as we walked outside the ones in front jumped in the back of the truck and opened the door for us, while signaling to get in. I guess we did not start walking today after all. We brought the boys to their school and then the truck drove us to Mercy.
We finally met with Si Jai and made our schedule. It looks like we are going to be teaching every day from 8 am to 8 pm. Saturday and Sunday we will only be teaching 3 hours each day, but we still need to figure out how that is going to work.
Breakfast this morning was Kow tom (rice soup).
It was incredibly salty, and Misty and I could not stomach it. Lunch was not much better, but at least we could just fill up on the plain sticky rice and watermelon. Something about the texture and smell makes it all difficult to eat, but I guess we are going to have to force ourselves to get used to it, or we are going to be just skin and bones.
We spent most of the morning teaching one of the girls to help her to prepare for school in Norway. Mostly we just engaged her in conversation, and did some comprehension exercises. I think I also debuted in my acting career.
We spent some time in Galong in the art center. He is around 40 years of age and has special needs. Every afternoon he goes to the art center and draws the same picture. He showed us hundreds of copies of the same picture. Sometimes he adds more detail, and other times he doesn't. It takes him anywhere from one hour to two hours to do a picture, depending on his mood. I also helped translate and proof some of the name tags that are going to Australia with the children's work, for an auction.
We also visited the children on Mercy 6, the children's AIDS ward. We played with some of the children. Most of them were excited because they were getting pet fish. One of the little girls is blind, but she always has a smile on her face, it just breaks my heart. Another little toddler is always hopeing to get out of his crib. It is hard to understand why these children who are so young and so full of life, have AIDS. And these same kids are the happiest children who seem to be so full of life, that I have ever seen.
Misty and I ended our day at Mercy by visiting some of the adults on the AIDS ward, as most of the children were still in school. One of the men I was talking to Saturday laughed when I showed him how many mosquito bites I have. (when I first met him, he was swatting at mosquitoes with a electric swatter). Even though we cannot really communicate with the patients using language, we have a great time acting things out.
Another one of the patients is making us bracelets. She was so happy to talk to us, as we were her. Most of the patients in the far ward expressed in English how they could not speak English, and they especially enjoyed me flipping through the pages of my phrasebook, trying to communicate back.
Seeing these patients is very emotional. May of them are just skin and bones, laying in a vegetative state in their beds. The only expression they show is the smile on their face when they are touched. Many of them communicate to us that they are cold, and you can see that some are just holding one. One male in particular looks like a young boy, and he flinches when he is touched. But yet, all of these adults have smiles on their faces and especially enjoy when we try to pronounce their names. One more bed was empty today, with a sign on the end saying "Admitted to the hospital." It is hard to look at these adults and imagine what they were like when they were healthy. One man in particular, you can still see there is hope and happiness in his eyes, hopefully his only turn around is to get better.
We ended our day at Mercy on a happier note. Two of the younger boys in our residence walked us home. We had some good laughs, singing, and clapping on the way home. When we were crossing over the busy highway, they grabbed our hands so that we all ran together. The taller of the two is almost blind, and it was really nice to watch the younger one guide him home. They had a good laugh when we took their hands and started dancing in a circle to the music from one of the street vendors.
( SaiChum & Pon) (When children are born here they are given a Thai name and a nickname which is usually a fruit or vegetable)
When we arrived back here, one of the new boys came running over for a hug. He only came two weeks ago. From what I know he was living alone in the slums. Someone then recommends them to the police who then makes the call to Mercy and they go out and find them. He wanted to have his picture taken with me.
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