Yaso Fever !

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Yaso is running around full of activities ! Next week, the last of the children will go back to school, on the 1st of october. So far, kindergarden and the teenagers have started already, but we still have all the 6-12 year-olds playing, cooking, helping out, generally noisy and nosey like kids like to be... which makes for alot of fun !

We have a french doctor for the week, and already have done check-ups and prescriptions with about 150 patients, coming from neighbouring villages, and today like yesterday we go to other foundations we're friends with to do the same. It's alot of fun, we get to meet new kids and also take with us all our sauna and massage techniques, which not only heals the ailments of so many aged persons, who have been growing rice for the past 60 years, and who complain a little about back and hip aches – now that's a surprise, I didn't think staying bent over for hours a day could lead to that, could it ?

Pi Tiou brought 10 of the kids (10 to 13 years old) from our foundation to participate in a youth camp, where about 200 seventeen to nineteen year-olds from many horizons, from drug-addicts to child abuse to high society, coming together to share experiences and learn about one another. Pi Tiou is a visionnary in this respect, acting on the knowledge that through education and opening kid's minds we can change the future for the better. That's for sure ! And so there were ten groups, each of our kids participating in one of them, listening to the older ones share their past, debate over the present, and plan for the future. Everybody learned alot, and of course our own kids as juniors were the little mascots of each group, the older ones taking good care of them and cuddling and offering candies and in the end everyone were fast friends – some knew our kids had aids, most didn't, Pi Tiou had left them free to talk or not about their problems. So on the last day, a stage was set up, where each group kind of summarized all that had been lived and discovered during the camp. And a special moment was when our own little ones were invited to share what they had thought of the work done during the week. Little Mai almost crying saying she was overjoyed to have experienced so much friendship with the teens. Nong Nam held a moving testimony – "When I grow up, I want to study to be a nurse. I want to be able to help people to live long and well. But will the government let me have a job... if I have AIDS ? "

Everyone quiet, fighting tears back. Most didn't know our kids had aids. Disbelief, as they confronted the image of sick weak bodies in their minds with the bright strong kids so full of life they had spent the whole week cuddling and playing with. Needless to say it was a strong moment, how is to learn that a friend you thought healthy is actually fighting a losing battle ? This silence, this emotion and the will to still remain friends after the camp, are as many signs of hope in this society : there will be things done to recognize the hunger for life of aids-infected children in this country ! Maybe not today or tomorrow, but in some time a society so closed to these kids will open up !

Two weeks in Europe

My visa running out, and my plane ticket reaching its six-month limit, a return to France for a short while became necessary... and was also a great opportunity to share with as many persons as possible a few of the great discoveries I had made here in Yasothon !

Seeing my family again was a great moment, hugging my little sisters, laughing out loud with my Bro, and pleasant conversations with Mom and Dad really recharged my batteries for the year to come ! Yes, initially I was considering a 15 to 18 month mission. Now, I decided for 18 months, just under a year from now. This will enable me to take full advantage of my growing thai skills to learn and help ever more !

Meeting friends was also a very important point, because it's only through discussions with friends that I can really learn from my experience. If I don't have anyone to talk to that knows me for a time, then I can't understand sometimes why I feel frustrated or elated at times. And I even got to meet and talk all about Yaso with one of the scouts who had come two months ago ! Talk about long discussions to give an update of the situation there, it was cute and felt good to talk in Europe with someone who knew what I am living.

Finally, it wouldn't have been complete without meeting two journalists ! One wih whom we prepared a TV project – sadly, it won't run as they couldn't free the budget fast enough to be able to shoot scenes while I was still in Europe, so nothing will come out of that one. But a second journalist I met wrote an artical in La Vie, a catholic magazine, about Missionaries. Since one of the many aspects of my mission is based on living out my faith, I contributed also ! But contrary to the impression you will get by reading, I am NOT on my way to becoming a priest... this is just a little tweaking of words to better suit the aim of the article, courtesy of the journalist, it surprised even me ! You can download the pictures here (.zip file with scanned images in it).

See you soon, with more news from Yaso, finally after periods of thought and action, I'm back with energy for alot more !

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