To paraphrase Scottish Poet Robert Burns "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry," and while my recent plans to visit the sponsored students didn't go sour by any means, they were different than we'd originally planned. I missed spending time visiting with Liz and Lhen, who were called out of town for the four days I'd booked for the kids (as I think of them after all this time, even though they're all nearing adulthood).
The nice part of the surprise was that I was still able to have my visits with the students, the only difference being I had the pleasure of having a different chaperon along who I already knew and who was, as always, fine company. Being that the families are familiar with me they were fine with these arrangements.
The first of three visits was with Tanakorn and Suchip, both on holiday from classes. I had met up with Boonying at a Tesco mall and we only waited a very few minutes until the boys both showed up. As anyone who has spent much time with teenagers understands, trying to come up with an outing as a treat for teens (here in America, anyway) can be both frustrating and costly, but this was Thailand, thank goodness. Normally we'd have lunch and do some simple shopping that would include groceries for their families, but as they're near the age where they'll be leaving the coverage of the charity I've ramped things up a bit the last couple of years. The plan today was for lunch, shopping for some special treat for each of them, and then a visit to the Million Year Stone Park, a local feature both of them knew of but had never visited. Afterwards we do the usual food shopping for their families.
For those considering sponsoring a student, these sorts of things are NOT an obligation of the program... they're a privilege. Your agreement is to help with the child's school fees, which by our standards are very, very nominal on an annual basis. Precious few sponsors have the benefit of making a trip to Thailand to visit, but when that happens the folks on the ground there go far and above the call of duty to help them get the opportunity to at least meet their students for a lunch out. If you ask to do more, they do their best to accommodate your plans.
After some thought I'd figured I'd buy the boys cell phones before lunch and the park, and while they were both happy to have a mobi (they say it MOH-bye) it was easy to see they hadn't expected such an extravagance and were greatly surprised. I gave them each a reasonable budget range, and we plunged into Mobi-land. Thankfully, neither of them have been spoiled enough by the media to longingly eye the top models, but they did have features in mind that they wanted and both found phones within their budgets they were happy with.
To Boonying's (and my) pleasant surprise, the boys chose to have Thai food at a restaurant that had been recommended to us on the way to the park, so we stopped there. Showing restraint that would be uncommon for kids their age here in the U.S., the boys left their new cell phones boxed up in the car. That gave me a chance to catch up some with them and their lives in the year since I'd seen them, with Boonying there to translate for me.
I did my best not to be too much of a parental inquisitor, but I'm always curious to know how their schooling is going, what sports they're playing, if they're staying out of mischief - that sort of thing. As it was, they're both making the most of the schooling my relatively small donations make possible; Tanakorn following a general education path and Suchip specializing in the electrical trade. That was encouraging, because if they can get an education that allows them to make enough to send their kids to school, my donations earn an interest far more meaningful and lasting than any investment I could make elsewhere.
After lunch we went to the Million Year Stone Park and Crocodile Farm, where the boys gamely waited while I enjoyed the gardens and stone displays a bit before heading into the crocodile area, where they had fun laughing between themselves while feeding the reptiles with chicken from a fishing line and seeing the man do rehearsed but unusual acts of bravery with crocodiles who would have undoubtedly preferred to chew his head off. Afterwards they had their photo taken with him before we toured the zoo and had some refreshments.
We'd taken so much time already that out afternoon that our normal shopping was a more hurried affair than usual. We moved quickly through Tesco with several carts, a little like game show contestants allowed to keep what they could load into them in 15 minutes. The boys were a big help here, since they knew what they were used to seeing their mothers cook with at home, so it wasn't difficult to find the "right" kind of rice, cooking oil, anchovies in tomato paste, coffee mix, sugar, fish oil, dish soap, laundry detergent, ramen-type noodles, salt and some perishables (for the ones who have access to refrigeration).
When I pointed towards the nicer toiletries area and suggested shampoo, Suchip - the slightly older and more "worldly" of the two - led Tanakorn to the Nivea stock, where he helped pick out some hair and skin products for the two of them. No matter how humble their lifestyles are ALL of the students invariably keep themselves and their clothes as clean and tidy as possible, and it was nice to see how pleased they both were to unexpectedly have some special grooming items.
While waiting at the check out, it came to me: they'll both come of age this school year so they'll come out from under the protective umbrella of the Pattaya Street Kids Project, which is designed to help needy children and their families only to the age of 18, meaning this may be my last visit as a sponsor for Suchip and Tanakorn. After many years of watching them grow it was a little sad to think I might not have an opportunity see them again like this, but I have years of fond memories of outings like this one. It's been worth every minute, and every cent. Besides, there are many, many others who still need sponsors, and I expect I'll just ask to have a new one assigned to ease that loss.
They loaded their things into the trunk/boot of the car and we went to drop them off at home. Tanakorn's home isn’t a lean-to, but it's what most in the western world would call a shack; a squatter's home, scrabbled together with scavenged materials, sitting on someone else's land. It's very small, but clean, as you'd expect. It was nice to see his family again, and even nicer to think he has a chance to upgrade his life with the tools he's earning in school.
While we were carrying Suchip's haul to the front of their home his grandmother came hurrying out with a large, heavy scarf and draped it around my neck. Boonying said she'd knitted it for me, and wanted to know if I would attend Suchip's graduation from school in 2013. I said I would if I possibly could, and thanked her for her generous gift. I said I'd wear it in this coming winter, and although it's the currently favored "King" color - PINK - I will. Really.
100 Years From Today
It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.
