Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Back to the orphanage


Just to update everyone, we spent a couple days in the mountain-region of Chaing Mai. We met with some extraordinary contacts and worked in some interviews there... including with an organization called 'Free Burma Rangers'. They deal with the travesties that are happenning in Burma and have created a few short films. They are doing a marvelous effort and putting their lives on the line for the Burmese people - so feel free to look them up if you feel inclined to.

Anyways, so we're back in Chiang Rai and back to spending time with some of the children. One shy kid in particular really captured our hearts (pictured above). We were able to interview him along with a translator to capture his story. We know that he is from Burma and used to live in a second-story hut built on stilts. When he was very young he crawled near the edge and fell out of the hut and broke his back. His parents could not afford medical attention so his back grew into an extreme deformity (protruding from his spine and chest). He was rescued from a sweatshop recently working 12 hrs a day doing needle point & sewing. Today he's happy and enjoying life as a kid. And of course, he still does needle point sewing... but just for fun. Hopefully, the orphanage will raise enough funds to get him to a medical surgeon to fix his back.

Overall, the children here have blown us away with their work ethic and love. The older children take care of the younger ones (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.). Attached is just a clip I took of them washing dishes "assembly line style" with my little digi-cam.

We are continuing to meet with people on a daily basis, we'll keep you posted.

Thanks for your support everyone.


No comments: