When my team in Bangkok said they wanted to have a "Give Back" day I thought great. What do you want to do? They wanted to raise money and spend time at an orphanage. Then when they told me they were turned down by a couple of places I remembered a Fr. Joe Maier - the "Slum Priest of Bangkok". Sort of the "Father Theresa" of the city. I was made aware about his work at the Mercy Centre by way of one of the on-line discussion groups I am a member of. This was a few years ago. I had wanted to go to Mercy Centre for over 5 years but was afraid to do so alone as this is not the safest part of Bangkok. The Klong Toei district is a rough part of town. It is home to the largest slum in Bangkok. Klong by the way is a name for the many small canals that run thru the area. Thailand used to be known as the Venice of S.E. Asia.
Mercy Centre accepted the teams offer and we raised over $1000 and off we went today to deliver gifts, play games with the children and purchase their lunch for today.
Mercy Centre is a collection of buildings located between Klong Toei and the Chao Phraya River which once could say is the Mississippi of Thailand.
The building we visited had two very large "Green Spaces" which provides the children the opportunity to see nature. Something others in this district may not see.
We donated 50 pillows, bicycles, food, toys and game prizes. One of the items I brought was a desk fan that I had purchased for my apartment. I won't need it back in KC. I noticed that it was one of the prizes selected by a child after she one the 1st game.
Once everything was ready, the children marched in and sat down in rows awaiting the start of the games.
My associates managed the entire process, dividing up the
children into teams to play games.
The games included seeing how many children could stand on a sheet of paper. Then fold the paper in 1/2 and repeat, fold again and repeat..... there were some pretty interesting configurations of kids standing on the paper and on each other.
All of us from the company wore name badges so the children would know who we were. Since we were all older than the children, our name badges began with the word "Pii" which can mean older brother, or sister. Mine name badge said Pii Phil (see pic). The children and Mercy Centre workers got a kick out of that because I was old enough to be everyone's GrandFather.
After the games we all had luch, paid for by our team.
And now for pics of some of the children. All the Children are orphans or their parents are in jail.
Some of the children suffer from AIDS. Many have been at the Centre for sometime. They came as small children. Some however were rescuded from prostitution at a later age. It may take a while for them to regain their smile.
I know I closed this blog yesterday and I thought "could there possibly be something of merit that I could add on the flight back home?" Naw..but guess what. The Purser on my flight (1st class upgrade by the way) looked like Sarah Palin and guess who was flying with me from Japan to Chicago? The Subway dude - Jerad Fogle. BTW: He's a member of the Tribe !
