Lost on Earth

This morning Kham Chuen and I drove 25 kilometers outside of Mae Hong Son to oversee the project that we have been working on with the IRC. Two of our staff members are conducting a training session (for four days) to members of the community to teach them about child nutrition, development, and health. The training is going well...better than planned, actually, since there was a span of about four days when I thought that the whole thing wouldn't get off the ground.

On our drive back from the training we stopped at a very small community of huts which was accessible only by a narrow, slippery trail that snaked innocently off the highway. Three of the children at the shelter came from this "village", and after seeing where they used to live I feel that I understand them a little better, and also Kham Chuen's relentless desire to give these kids proper food and education.

The first hut we saw belongs to OPC. When Sa Zeng's mother was dying of AIDS she stayed in the OPC hut which is a bit larger and newer. That is where she died, and where six year old Sa Zeng, also infected with HIV, stayed while the members of the community refused to touch him for fear of getting infected as well.

Next to it is the hut where LaTeng's family lives. It is about the size of two dining room tables pushed next to each other. Two blackened tin cans are what they use to cook food over an open fire. Laundry hangs across the ceiling. Five people sleep in there.

Across from LaTeng's hut is the hut where the brothers Zawone and TuVing's lived. It is a little larger than the rest, but beer cans are stashed in the corners - physical reminders of the presence of their alcoholic and abusive step-father.

The village was deserted except for one old woman who looked as creased and ancient as a banyan tree, and one young woman with her small child. The child's (boy? girl?) head was too large for its tiny body. Although it could walk it's hair was thin and fair, instead of dark. "Malnutrition" Kham Chuen told me. Then he asked the mother how many times she had eated today. Once. What did she eat? Rice and some chili paste. How often does she have meat? Once a week.

Most of the people in the village work from 7 in the morning until dark in the rice fields. They earn 50 baht a day. To give some perspective, this evening I had one bowl of soup at a restaurant (50 baht) and a pot of tea at a different restaurant to scare away the cold weather (40 baht).