How to describe Sarnelli? We have been coming here now for maybe six years, and it is just like coming home. There is a warmth here that is special. This is partly Fr Mike Shea, who is nothing if not an excellent host and raconteur; partly it is his wonderful team of people who are happy and confident. Partly it is the magic of the children who are boisterous, noisy and fun. They have the security of knowing that each one is loved and valued. There is a sense in which Sarnelli is a series of homes for children who share one common factor - each one has been affected by the HIV virus in one way or another. In another way it is just one huge happy family.
One of the remarkable things about Sarnelli is that Fr Mike, who was brought up in a farming family, is still a son of the soil. He and his team are farming more than 25 acres of land, which yields in good year about 160 sacks of rice. In a poor year like 2010, when planting was delayed two months by the non-arrival of the rains, they still won 120 bags,. This represents a saving of more than 100,000 baht on the food bill, besides helping teach the children to plant, weed and harvest. A German Lutheran church had given Fr Mike a brand new tractor, which was sitting outside St Patrick's house all shiny and new, as yet unused. Anywhere else it would be an indulgence, but here with Fr Mike it will earn its keep.
Exciting plans to increase the scale of the farming here will be announced later in the year. It is possible that eventually this project will be self-sufficient in rice, and that producing it will provide jobs for one or two of the children who have been too badly affected by the HIV virus ever to go out into full-time employment.
When we were here three years ago we met 'Boy'. He had just arrived, he had AIDS, he was stick thin and very poorly with a disconcerting habit of throwing up without notice, something which has to be treated with considerable respect when the thrower-up is HIV+ He was not a happy little boy, and I think there were a few doubts as to his ability to get well again. Well, here he is today (Boy is the one on the left, on the right is TCT Chair Crispian Collins, less hat and sunglasses) bursting with health, naughty, cheeky full of fun. Boy, that is, not Crispian! Boy will never be free of the HIV virus, but he is a shining example of how children with HIV can thrive and life completely normal lives when properly cared for by skilful people like the Sarnelli team.
It being Thailand, there was a party, on 13th February, for Valentine's Day. Of course the children would be at school on 14th. There was dancing and a special lunch. The home made ice cream was nectar. Sorry you missed it! But later there will be film of the dancing on YouTube when we have had time to clean up the video.
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