on the border

Sawasdee kha from Thailand! I cant tell you exactly where I am out of risk of exposing the crew that we are working with here. I'm along the Thai / Burmese border and it is crazy monsooning right now as I write this while drinking my tea. When it rains here, it is nothing like California - it poors and it's all you hear. A woman just drove by on a motorcycle holding an umbrella, and the banana leaves are blowing with the wind.

Since I left Sri Lanka, we flew straight to Chiang Mai and spent a few days there shopping, eating, getting massages and swimming. The night market is so much fun - and I definitely shopped til I dropped. My new love in Thailand is Chiang Mai - the air was clear, the mountains are beautiful in the distance and the rotis are oh so yummy!!! But Bangkok will always be my true love.

Sunday, we headed out to where we'll stay for the week. Yesterday we visited the sites where we'll be doing our Kid's Club program - a school put together privately for Burmese children who have no rights in Thailand, and a garbage dump where Burmese families live. We had to walk through the most muddiest of mud to view the dump and houses and we giggled as we tried our best not to slip in the mud. Thankfully the wind was blowing, so there wasn't the terrible smell that I was expecting. One of the ladies, slipped while crossing a make-shift bridge and fell knee deep into watery garbage. It was like when Princess Lea and everyone was stuck in the garbage dump in Star Wars... I felt so bad for her, but she trucked on. We then played jump rope for a little bit with the kids. It was a surreal experience to be there...

I'm not too educated on the situation in Burma but have learned A LOT in the last few days. We also visited the border and learned all the ins and outs on the trafficking that is taking place there... trafficking of drugs, people, and mainly children sold into the sex industry. It was an emotionally hard day to take it all in. Looking over the river on the border into Burma gave me a feeling of hopelessness, and such a ginormous respect for the people we have connected with who are rescuing children from the sex trade. The trafficking is a very tricky, corrupt situation that many are involved in, including police because the money is so good. A Burmese parent will sell their child for as little as 500 baht ($25) with the false belief that their child is going to a better place. The child is then transported to Bangkok to begin work in the brothels. They begin by selling flowers and must sell a certain amount each day or else they are beaten. Then the next steps are to service customers. The trafficker makes a lot more money than the parent does. We passed one along the border... well, i'm pretty sure we did.. he was holding a cigarette, had fancy jewelry on, and grossed me out... he just had that feeling about him.

When I get home, I'm going to read up more on the conflict in Burma, but it was incredible to see that living at a garbage dump is a preferable life than to live in Burma. The Burmese living at the dump sort the recycables from the other garbage and get paid 20 baht (75cents) a day for this. They are illegal workers in Thailand so every few months, the Thai police round them up and take them back to Burma. We actually were behind a locked up truck of refugees being sent back to Burma. You could see their faces through the bars. :( An Australian group has built a school at the dump for the children, and every afternoon we are doing our Kid's Club program there.

Kid's Club is 5 days of a 2 hour session of hot food, music and 2 crafts which teach the children that they are unique, special, and made by God and have a purpose on this earth. Jake and Julie have been doiing this program for tsunami and war victims in Sri Lanka and the whole goal is to give the children just a moment of light in their desolate lives. The goal is for them to be happy in this moment. We did the first day today with 420 kids. The 2 crafts were to hold a mirror and draw a picture of themselves (some have never looked in mirror) and the 2nd was to make a sock puppet. I laughed and laughed today as we did this with the kids. We had so much fun. It was so sweet.

Well, its time for bed but i'll try to add more soon... i wrote this quickly so i hope it makes sense!!! Comment if you have any questions!!!

xox, G :)