Catchup

Apologies for lack of posting over the last few days.  Duty forbade the joys of blogging. Wednesday was spent leaving Pattaya and arriving in Bangkok, with an oasis in Lat Krabang at the unique and remarkable Camillian Centre for children with special needs where we met the egregious Fr Giovanni, a man whom fate has decreed should do good things in this world, an opportunity which he has seized.

Thursday saw some very interesting, useful and unbloggable meetings in Bangkok, ending in a truly enjoyable dinner at the British Embassy where our host, the Ambassador, Mr Asif Ahmad, proved both very generous and very funny.  Othe guests, including the former Prime Minister of Thailand Khun Abhisit Vejjaijeiva, showed real interest in our work.

Friday by contrast was spent in a van travelling through Thailand to Mae Sot.  Much of the journey is across the flat centre of the country, fertile aluvial deposit laid down over millennia by rivers descending from mountains in the north.  Then at Tak we take a sharp left and head for the hills, the mountains separating Burma from Thailand.  The road winds upwards through dense jungle, although the most danger in this jungle comes from other drivers.

In the evening we met Sandra, Joanna, and Nobel, jointly representing Room to Grow, our Canadian partner organisation with whom we have been working for three years.

The first appoitment was a briefing on the lunches we have been providing to five migrant schools since July of last year.  Joanna Flint introduced the schools

Then on to Agape School where the irrepressible David Min Naing, Head Teacher, spoke about our lunch programme and its effects on his students. Like many schools Agape teaches children whose parents work in factories, on farms and, uniquely to Agape, from an outlaw community which lives neither in Thailand nor in Burma but on the wide bed of the River Moei which marks te border and belongs to neither. Children at Agape benefit from a school farm which includes pigs and frogs as well as vegetables. Afte nutrition training, the school shop now sells mainly fruit and vegetables instead of more packaged but less nutritous food. David made the point that parents who are working for 18 hours each day have little free time to make up their children's lunch tins, and on 120 baht each day (less than 3 pounds/5US dollars) little money either.

To be continued...