IDP camp Burma - Novice for Children

With the successful project Novice for Children we went on another trip to hand out goods to people who are in need. This time we went to an IDP camp which stands for Internal Displaces People. If you flee from Burma into, for example Thailand, than you are a refugee. When you get chased out of your house and the area you live and when you than are in hiding within your own country, you are an internal displaced person. Sometimes these people are way worse of than refugees because they are often continuously on the run without any belonging and not more food than the forest has to offer.

Within Burma there are many 'camp' (basically hiding places in the forest with hopefully some huts and plastic) and also there are quite a few IDP camps along the Thai-Burma border. These border camps are mostly part of a army base. This is for them a safer place to live than in a camp more inlands in Burma because they are now protected by the army against the Burmese.

One of those camps we visited a few times and this time we came back armed with the Novices and a truck full of supplies. It was an amazing few days!!!

We had quite some Westerns with us; my parents Fokke and Corry; volunteers James and Jamie from England; Renee, Rosalie and Tette from Holland; Kate from New Zealand and of course Ben and me. We slept in tents from the temple .

When we arrived we were welcomed in the office/ house of the major of the camp for a lunch. Of course we brought our own food! Some ladies did the cooking for us for all our meals and managed to deliver great meals every time.

A groups photo with all the 'falangs' (Westerns) and the novices before we handed out all our goodies on the second day.

We collected money from all the falangs who wanted to join to make the most of the trip by be being able to buy really useful food. We had bought boxes of instant noodles, kilo's and kilo's of cabbages, chillies, soy bean and different school materials for the kids.

Underneath you see the school building. The teachers salary is sponsored by SWAN but the school doesn't get too much used. We were told that the kids from the camp never had any education in their life's so you can only imagine how it must be like for a kid of 10 years old to sit in school banks for the first time. Also some kids no longer have parents to teach them the value of education. I wish I could do something to help the school and these kids!

A happy lady with a new born baby with just received goodies.

The novices handed each one type of food to the people. All people were perfectly in rows.

An old Palong lady with her food.

This boy is soo cute! He was intrigued by the cabbage and wanted to carry it.

Hygiene is a severe issue for the people.

Who can help this kid with a wash and some new clothes?

After the food handouts the kids were collected to join in games and after they would receive schools materials and some snacks. They were orderly put in rows with the youngest at front.

Click on the photo to see these beautiful faces better.








All the farang helped out with the games so for each age group there was something fun! Wow they had such a wonderful time!!!

Renee and Kate teamed up with 'bag hopping' (zaklopen) in all varieties. Tette and Rosalie did a game with soccer with water bottles and James and Jamie had several games for the youngest kiddies. I had the group with the teenage girls to practise some English with games.

The Major and his little girl with my Mum.

After the games all the kids (and parents :) joined the painting activity. The novices had made plaster animal sculptures for everyone and also this activity was a hit!

Even the grandparents wanted to paint a little animal and young and old were happily painting.

The boys were just as into it as the girls. Even older boys who are as tough as anything for their age were painting with their tongue out of their mouth. The activity took a long time because they took it very serious to make it as beautiful as possible. No spot stayed white!

Even some soldiers came to paint! This was rather amazing to see!

On the way home we had some car problems... Because the road was soo steep for too long the breaks overheated or something and stopped working!!! So Charin very simply and quietly said 'I think it's better to go out now'. No one really got it but I started to shout to James, Jamie and Rosalie to jump out, NOW!! Of course the care was driving although not with a too high speed. We all managed to get out without being too hurt. Than it was time to get the car to a halt with Charin still in it! The novices were in the back of the truck and were all bare foot but hang nevertheless on the back bar to slow down the car. Oh what a pain they later had! Charin drove the car for a long time through the bushes to break the speed but it took a while. Luckily they managed!!! It sure was an adventure what could have ended very different....

All in all another amazing experience....

Novices for Children to Wiang Heang

After many weeks of preparation we went off to Wiang Heang district to deliver all kind of goods collected by the novices. Normally the novices don't do much work like this in the Thai Buddhism but it didn't take much to get them to see the beauty of using their position within the village. They asked to villagers to donate different food and second hands clothes as making merit, something they don't hesitate to do. So we had carloads of goodies to be handed out to the poor who needed something extra.

On the trip came as well Rosalie en Blake (guest from Monk for a Month who later volunteered), also came James and Jamie who are teaching in Moung Choum for several months. A good bunch all together!

The trip was also a fun school trip so we had 3 full days to fill with a mix of fun and handing out the things at 3 different locations. We visited some family of some of the boys which was great. So poor but they received us with the most hospitality you can imagine.
Under you see a photo near a waterfall where the novices went swimming. What a fun they had together!! Time to be boys and not serious novices all the time.

In the mornings the novices went on alms rounds and the villagers had a good time making serious merit with all these novices and some monks from the city!

See under a photo of a monk from Fang who traveled among quite a few monks who also came. It sure was a circus parade... farang and monks all packed in cars and trucks... Note the banner with Monk for a Month!

Ben came the last night to join all the activities. We ate breakfast and lunch after the novices and monks finnished. They collected full bike trailers full every day, so much...

Here we finally went to our second destination of handing out goodies. This 'camp' needs it a lot and the people were lining up all exited. Kids came first.

Every kids got one pencil and one colored pencil (among other things) but it shows that you make this kids happy as with such little things.

The parents got different things and the village leader knew who needed more than others. Nice that everyone got what they needed. Next time I wish to have more usefull products but that of course needs funding. Well next year...

The novices were handing out the things and were very happy!

We visited some more sights on the way. This is the monument of the very famous Shan freedom fighter.

Here the novices handed out the last few things to a monastery with mainly novice orphans. Actually our friend used to teach here so we knew very well the need of these boys.

We were received in the houses with meals.

One evening we organised English games and activities for the local students. It was great fun but hard work! Something like 80 kids came and everyone of the westerns helped with having a group and doing the games.

The novices did great work and even monks were right into it! In the end we made many groups photo's.

Last shot of a boy, very dirty but very very content with his fruit juice.

How lucky we are to be meeting all these amazing people all the time! What a world....