Time continues to fly over here in Asia and I can honestly say that each and every day I spend exploring this part of the world gets even more interesting and rewarding. This past week, I was lucky enough to be invited to spend some time at a Karen Orphanage on the Thai-Burmese border. What an experience. The intent, of course, was to go help out the kids however and wherever I could and to see what needs they might have in the long term, but the warm smiles and palpable hugs they extended to me by the vivacious, sweet children made me feel like the truly lucky one.
To get to the Orphanage from Chiang Mai, you must first hop on a steamy, rickety old bus for about 4-5 hours (the full duration of the trip depends solely on the driver's haste and discretion in terms of toilet breaks...) to a town near Mae Sot. When you finally arrive and you gain feeling back in your legs, you must get a hold of a sturdy off-road-worthy truck or jeep and a fearless, experienced driver capable of navigating through sheets of heavy rain, deep, muddy potholes and ridiculously steep, windy dirt roads in the heart of the northwest Thai jungle (think Avatar-style). Not really an easy task nor for the faint of heart. After about 2 hours into the bumpy drive, you'll go through a Thai-Karen IDP Camp, where petite, colorfully-clad, brown-skinned elderly women carrying baskets of freshly picked bright green chilies nearly the size of them will walk the dirt roads, slowly making their way back to their village. Out of respect for these hard-working and admirable people, we pulled over to give a few of them a lift and some fresh bottled water and were happy to be able to cut out a few kilometers of their arduous trek in the pouring rain after a long day working in the fields. As they sat gracefully bouncing on the back of our jeep, I turned back and marveled in wonderment and admiration at their intricately furrowed eyes, perhaps representative of years of onerous navigation through a difficult life...they passively yet confidently exuded a certain wisdom and experience and I realized I'd probably never be be able to fully wrap my brain around what those eyes had been exposed to and where those slender yet able-bodied women had been.
Continuing on past the camp, the road gets increasingly muddier and trickier to navigate, especially when the ferocious rainfall is at its strongest. I held my breath and closed my eyes several times hoping we would get there soon. Luckily, we made our way down to the other side of the dense mountain where the quaint orphanage, a collection of modest little block houses conveniently protected by the surrounding trees and brimming with love on very low-lying, wet land. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a young man, Nikhom, who I later learned was raised there as an orphan and now has become one of the few regular caretakers there. He showed me around and we chatted via broken English and elaborate hand gestures, wading calf-deep through the muddy, flooded grounds (the flooding situation is a huge concern there and I'm currently trying to raise some funds with a friend here to help out with potential infrastructure improvement). I then wandered off and started snapping some shots of two precious little boys waving and pointing at the random white girl roaming around in the rain with a big fat camera. Their simple, genuine smiles and innocent giggles completely stole my heart. I walked into the house they were waving from and was overwhelmed to see a handful of rambunctious children, perhaps ages 2 - 6, playing alongside their narrow wooden bunk beds and before I knew it, I had a darling little girl clinging to my leg whilst another sat me down with an intense mission to Barbie me up with elaborate 80's-style make up. To see how full of love these little guys were was just so touching...I can hardly find the words to describe it. And to know that they have had to endure some pretty horrible situations and have senselessly lost their parents is simply heart-wrenching.
I also had the chance to spend some time with the admirable Karen woman who runs the orphanage and has been doing so for over 20 years, Tasanee. She unfortunately lost her father at quite a young age and then had to experience the loss of her own children's father, a village leader who was ruthlessly murdered many years ago, and has since harnessed her sorrow into creating and maintaining this loving solace for these innocent children. Truly commendable.
I will be returning to the Orphanage next week to bring some much needed supplies and am extremely excited. If anyone is reading this and is interested in any type of donation - please do not hesitate to reach out. A small amount will go a very, very long way. 
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