The title makes this sound much more theological or something than it actually is: I realized the other day that I have never given you all a thorough explanation of what I'm doing/how everything works over here. So I guess I should do so.
The organization (for lack of a better word...) that I'm working with is called the Love and Care Project Foundation. It is a Thai foundation started by a married couple; Rodney and Phimpha Wojciechowski.
Rodney is originally from Minnesota while Phimpha is Thai. It is a very small foundation, more like a family than anything else. The workers consist of Rodney and Phimpha, a Thai couple who lives with them (Anon and Dang), and then random volunteers who come and help. Right now, besides me, there are three volunteers from Australia.
The main ministry of the Love and Care Foundation is to take care of children who have no other place to go/no one to take care of them. Right now there are 13 children on the property (which is called the Timothy house). They range in age from 2-16, and there are 5 girls and 8 boys.
The physical set-up here at the Timothy House is pretty simple: there is a building that was originally going to be an office where the children all sleep. There is a dorm building mostly finished that the kids will move into eventually. This building has about a dozen good sized rooms, so there will be plenty of space for the kids. Besides these two more modern/western style buildings, there is an open area that serves as a kitchen/dining room, as well as a couple huts. There is a fish pond in the yard, a garden out back, two cows, a dog, and several chickens. [edit: since I first wrote this, there are fewer animals living here...but we will have beef for Christmas!]
Along with working with the children, there are always other people that need helping. Phimpha is the head of the women’s' ministry with the local church, and random people call all the time looking for help with their problems. (for example...giving people rides random places, moving straw in the back of the pickup truck, cutting rice, giving advice, going with a young girl to the police station to report a crime, taking in a disabled man whose family refuses to take back from the hospital...you never know what a day here will bring.)
Most days I ride in with Rodney to drop off the kids at school in the mornings. Then I either go out with Rodney and Phimpha as they help out people or run errands, or I stay at home and help look after the two 2-year-olds who are the only ones too young to go to school. If I'm at home when the kids get out of school, I get a chance to hang out with them before dinner, and I'm nearly always around to play with them after dinner before bed. It is neat to see how much the kids are like every other kid I've ever met: they love to play and laugh and have fun.
Well, I assume you are all tired of reading now, so I'll sign off. Thanks for reading! :)
so neat to get a detailed description of what you do! :) everything sounds really great! I'm so glad you are able to do this!
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