Novice for Children project in Wiang Haeng

Written by: Rosalie Hertsenberg - 19 February 2009

Blood Foundation invited me to come to the ‘novice for children camp’, just a few days after my arrival Fang. Obviously, I really wanted to go with them. What a start of my stay in Fang! The purpose of the camp was two-sided. On one hand, the main purpose was to hand out goods to the people in a refugee camp, to the boys from a temple school and to the people in one of the villages.

Ben and Jildou had been in these places before and came up with the idea of collecting things (like clothes, blankets, toys, medical equipments) and give it to them. But on the other hand the weekend was also a trip for the novices from Wat Sri Boon Ruang in Fang. The novices helped with the collecting of goods so it was nice for them to see where the goods were going and they got a little of English education also.

Day 1 , Friday, the 16th of January, the first day of the camp! We had to be at the temple at 8.15 am; all the goods needed to be stored in one of the cars. It was a four hour trip to the temple Wat Huay Kray where we could stay for the nights and we had over 30 boxes, 15 novices and 4 ‘teachers’ (I came as a teacher also) to get into 3 cars. But we managed to create a place for everything and everyone; an hour later we were ready to go!
On the place of destination we were friendly invited by the monks who live at Wat Huay Kray.

After unpacking the cars we got on foot into the nearby village, the home town of two of the novice boys. So there we went, 15 orange dressed boys, three white 'falangs' (foreigners) and Khun Charin (the teacher who knows people in the village). On our way, we were invited to come into the homes of the families in the villages. I was happily surprised by their hospitality and by the smiling faces I saw everywhere we came! We visited the parents of one of the novices. His mother was severely disabled due to a car-accident. She can`t walk or do anything by herself. So she`s just sitting/laying in a little brick shed all day with nothing in it; no blankets, no radio, just nothing except a lot of pain. The family doesn`t have enough money to take good care of her. After this impressing visit we got back to the temple.
In the evening we went to some festivities of Shan people nearby. After a long but very exciting and impressive day we fell asleep.

Day 2 started with preparing games for the Saturday evening. We heard there were 108 children coming to the temple and there were little activities planned. So we had a brainstorm session thinking about fun games with some English education in it as well. We had no idea if the children could speak English at all and, if they did, at which level they were. After a while, we came up with all kinds of ideas and the novices were also helping by making beautiful drawings of animals which we could use in the English teaching. In the afternoon we went with the novices to a waterfall nearby. Everybody had a really good time and one of the boys even dared to jump into the cold water! Soon there were more boys going for a refreshing swim. Once we got back at the temple we were invited by friends of Khun Charin to have dinner.The family had offered to prepare our meals for whole the weekend, so nice of them! They even offered us a place to sleep, but of course we had our simple but good place at the temple. That evening, the children from the village came to the temple.

There weren’t 108 children, that’s for sure, but still there came approximately 80 kids. It appeared that the children could speak a little bit of English, so that was a nice surprise! Jildou introduced each `teacher` to the group and invited us to tell something about ourselves. At that time we had a group of 6 teachers: James and Jamie (2 English volunteers who are teaching at a school nearby Fang), Blake (an American volunteer), of course Ben and Jildou themselves, and me. The kids were divided in 5 different groups and then it was game-time! Although the kids were a bit shy to speak out loud, they were really enthusiastic to learn English and we had a lot of fun. At the end, some older girls even dared to try to teach me some Thai. But, I don’t need to tell, that was not a great success…! After a good group photo we all rushed ourselves outside because in the meantime a massive bonfire was lighted. For the children there were some more games and the others were just enjoying the fire. It was another good day but now it was time to sleep because tomorrow was going to be an important day: the actually handing out of things to the people!

Sunday, day 3: today is the big day! After breakfast we had to divide all the things in three parts, because there were several locations where the handing out was going to happen. Some things were destined for a settlement camp near the Burmese border, the other destination was a nearby temple school. The third place was the village where we stayed. Our first visit was to the refugee camp. Most people living there are Shan, originally Burmese people who have fled from the terrible regime in Burma years and years ago. Nowadays there are 137 families living in the camp and all together there are 236 children! After arrival we first had a look at the place where they weave scarfs. Ben and Jildou are facilitating the selling of those handmade and beautifully coloured scarfs to help the Shan people to earn some money. Of course we bought a few scarfs. On our way trough the camp we were friendly greeted by everyone we saw. At the handing out point all children rushed themselves to be the first in line. Everybody in the camp came out to have a look. And then the actual handing out began. First the children got some little things. After the children the contact person had a list of families who needed things like blankets the most. After hearing their names the people came one by one to receive some of the goods. They were so happy with whatever was given. It was really good to see that all these collected things were going to a place where people really need it.

The second destination, the temple school, was not far away. We did a little bit of sightseeing first. We visited a monument of one of a well-known Burmese freedom fighter. This place was really close to the border. We saw the soldiers walking with their big weapons and the fences in the piece of no-mans-land in between Thailand and Burma. It was really weird thinking of what happened in that country behind those fences. I was glad that I heard a little bit of the history of those forgotten people before going on this trip. It made me more aware on what grounds I stood and by which people I was welcomed in their homes.

Once we got back to the temple, it was time to head home again. But before we got on our way we decided to go by the disabled mother of one of the novices (day 1). We brought her a blanket to lie on. Then, it was finally time to leave and return to Fang.

Needless to say, the whole trip made an unforgettable impression on me. If you take the history of that area in consideration it was a really special experience and I’m grateful I could participate in it. I’m learning more and more about the Burmese history of and I’m getting more and more aware of how much help is needed here.