Page 5
Everyone gets up at 5 am every day, before the sun comes up. They assemble in the main room for morning worship. Ruby plays the ukulele that I brought in 2 years ago and they sing beautiful worship songs. He then reads a devotional and Bible verses. When I heard the sound of Ruby tuning the ukulele, I quickly dressed and slipped into the living room. Rick was right behind me. Neither of us wanted to miss out on this very special time of worship.
The Bibles we were able to bring in will be well worn by our visit next year. We also had brought in copies of Our Daily Bread and the Upper Room daily devotionals. Ruby was thrilled to have them for their worship time. I gave Mi Nge a copy of "Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul" and she said she would treasure it. They do not have access to books. I look at all the books I have and all I have given away and feel so blessed.
During the morning worship I looked at the children huddled on the floor with their thin jackets or sweaters and wished I could bring in warm coats for every one of them. I noticed one of the little ones, Po Po Lay, wrapping a piece of cloth around his cold bare feet. Mi Nge had written to me about this little guy and I have inserted it here just as she wrote it.
Po Po Lay has no brothers or sisters. His father was a villager who was killed by Burmese soldiers because he was accused as a KNU soldier. When Po Po Lay's father died, we was only 1 year old. After his father died, his mother got married with a young man. This man he didn't like Po Po Lay. Because of Po Po Lay, his mother and her husband are always quarreling and fighting to each other. Day after day his mother didn't care for her son and he became weaker and weaker. Later he was seriously sick and nearly die. After that his mother and her husband didn't live together. But his mother loves her husband more than her son. She didn't want to lose her husband. And she didn't want her son to stay with her. When I heard about Po Po Lay story I was so sorry for him, his father was my cousin. I asked his mother to come and bring her son to me. Po Po Lay arrived to my house in the month of March 2010. He is unhealthy. When he was one year old he was suffering TB. He had to take medicine for 9 months treatment for TB. When he arrived here we showed him to a doctor and checked TB sign. TB is completely cured. But now he looks good. After he was not with his mother, his mother and her husband are living together again.
My heart went out to this sweet little boy. Rick and I observed him and he seems to be doing very well. He plays happily with the other young children in the house and the older children look after him. Mi Nge told us that sometimes he cries out in the night for his mother. When she asked him if he wanted to go back to his mother's, he told Mi Nge "My mother doesn't love me". All of the other children living in this home love and care for him.
After worship, we sat up a photo taking area. Rick took most of the photos of children sponsored or waiting for sponsorship while Mi Nge and I verified the information on their cards or made new cards. It was a time of seeing old friends for me, and for Rick to meet all my Karen families that I have grown to love over the past 18 years.
We heard many sad stories from families struggling to survive. There are a lot of Burmese spies in this camp and their primary purpose is to disrupt family life by selling their drugs to anyone they can. Life in the camps is deteriorating; many of the men and young people are now using drugs and alcohol. Three of the young teen age girls we have been sponsoring have gotten pregnant and married, some as young as 15.
One of the girls brought her young baby to register him for a sponsor. She said her husband does drugs and drinks and many times doesn't even come home at night. Her mother has taken her and the baby in and is caring for them along with 3 other grand children and 2 of her own. My heart goes out to this family and I pray I can get several of the children sponsored. I recently received a letter from the grand-mother telling me of the problems her children are having and thanking us for getting sponsors for 2 of the children so far.
On a happy note, I was re-united with a young man, Eh Mwee, who I had found living with the soldiers in a jungle camp in 1993. We took him with us when we left the camp and got him into a Thai school in Chiang Mae. He did very well in school and when he graduated, he went back to the camp to try to help in any way he could. He has married and proudly showed me his 2 month old baby, Eh Blessing Moo. Rick and I will add him to the children we are sponsoring. In lieu of Christmas presents for some of our grand children and step children, we sponsored children in their names. They were thrilled to have these children instead of a regular gift. Our hope is they will develop a relationship with these children and correspond with them over the years.
Food rations have been cut and it's a struggle to get enough to feed everyone. Mi Nge told me the border consortium that used to supply rice, yellow beans, salt, cooking oil and fish paste, have now cut out all yellow bean rations and salt is only given every other month. Without the yellow bean and rice combination, they no longer have a perfect source of protein. Ruby told us it costs them 3 baht a day (10 cents) per child to buy the beans from the camp shops. That comes to $5.60 a day, which is a struggle for them with only their meager teaching salaries. Mi Nge said that every 2-3 months they buy enough eggs so that each child can have one egg. When I think of the terrible waste of food in the US, it really is heartbreaking. The boys in charge of cooking the daily rice had built a roaring fire in the cooking area and had a huge aluminum wok filled with water and rice cooking over it. They got the fire too hot and burned a hole in the wok and lost all the water and rice. It broke my heart to see them trying to re-start the fire in the water soaked fire pit. IAG provided Mi Nge with enough money to buy another wok. This young couple's having a tremendous impact on all these children's lives and need all the help we can give them to feed all these children.
Our time in their camp came to an end all too quickly. We were pressing our luck by spending the night in the camp and knew we needed to leave before noon to meet Rudy and Tay in Mae Sot. The children had made us breakfast of rice, beans and vegetable. It was hard to eat, knowing they have such limited rations. After eating just a little bit, we packed up and said our good -byes to those who couldn't accompany us on the hike to the gate. People came out of their homes as we hiked out to tell us good-bye and thank us for coming.
We waited outside the gate for a line bus back to Mae Sot. One stopped for us that was packed so full there were 5 men hanging off the back! Rick said "There's no way we can take this one" and I just chuckled, because I have been on ones even more packed that that one. The bus driver got out, yelled orders, people got off the back, two people gave up their seats on the wooden bench in the back of the truck and she insisted we get on. Everyone then piled back on and I counted 25 people! We were fortunate there were no pigs or goats on board as I had experienced in the past! These are memories of life on the border that I am so thrilled that Rick got to experience with me. He may not want to "experience" a 2 hour ride on line bus again, though!