Christmas in Yaso

I was feeling kinda woozy at the idea of having a first Christmas far away from my family – even though I’m 26, this will be the first time I’m not with my bro, my sisters, my parents and of course all the exceptional cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles I have. I didn’t know what to expect, on top of this the planning for the week-end had been prepared by the thai people only, we were running errands without having the big picture.

And Christmas Eve was yesterday, Christmas morning has settled down, and I thank the Lord for having given me such great people to celebrate with. Thanks for your prayers, dear sponsors, for surrounding me with such a great team ! The thai staff led us through mass and a show by the kids, ending in a huge party at the village church with all the other parish members. And Claire, Ben, Pi Bua and Pi Linchi were simply perfect for the night, when we all played Santa Claus and went to give presents to each of the children, setting little games in a hand-made bag at their own name on their flip-flops at the foot of their beds… and on top of that we had made presents for each other, and the better part of the night was pure laughter we had so much fun !

Short flashback on the highlights...

Pai and Tonreng climbed up the X-mas tree, pretty cute, no ? We spent an afternoon to have the kids make the decorations, now that was what you call messy. And we only lost 3 pairs of scissors ! Note for eventual donators working in the electronics field : equipping scissors and glue with GPS beepers would be a great investment, financially we’d balance out in less than a month, whatever the price of the GPS…

Jane is still as beautiful as ever in front of the little nativity outside… somehow in Thailand they just have to put fluorescent neons everywhere. Just tell yourself that this a rather sober one…

Duang is as last year the virgin Mary, but this year she wears a pink shale instead of blue.

Paan has arrived just two weeks ago at the center. Now Nen has a virtual twin ! She is also very sick, in two days on the 27th we go to the hospital to retrieve her first CD4 status, which will help the doctor prescribe the right medecine. But she's coming along fine at the center, eating well, and guess what : Nen was actually jealous of her at the beginning, since Nen wasn't the only center of attention ! Now they're fast friends and brought their beds next to each other last week.

Khun Po Tenaud kept us all to attention during the mass, which as it is in thai is still not very easy for me to follow.

Top Tep was disguised as one of the pastors, he overdid his hairdo a bit though.

Khim and Kratey pose in front of the Nativity which was in the chapel.

No comment on Ung-Ang's capacity to transform his looks to the most... today, I present to you the Unidentified Flying Ung-Ang !

Couldn't resist putting this smile, Satang radiates joy these days.

Ah ! Now we get to the interesting part : we spent at least 100 man-hours preparing the presents for the people of the Munithi, each one of our kids ! 42 Bath gloves to keep them clean, which we filled with little games and the likes, we had alot of fun preparing them once the @#$%^&* gloves were finished. Here I am with Benedict giving out a thai massage to keep me going.

42 gloves ! And we didn't do any for the teens, but got them good presents anyways... boys got a special treatment : Equipe de de France football posters thanks to Peng, the scout who can't seem to have enough of Yaso - they were really happy, and I expect to lost a roll of tape soon once they start taping them to the wall !

And while the kids clean their shoes and put them at the foot of their beds for Santa Claus to find them...

... we're having fun stuffing the gloves with presents ! Helicopters, telephones, shampoo and hairgel will be the new fashion here before long...

Cute, no ?

Now I just gotta tell you how great the other volunteers are : we laughed our heads off for half the night as we celebrated after everyone was in bed our own little christmas. For all of us it was the first far from our families, and boy were we lucky to be together to celebrate it ! So here we are, me laughing uncontrollably, and then Pi Cara wearing one of her presents...

Left Pi Bua (Lotus) and right Pi Linchi (lychee) holding little Khaw Niaw (sticky rice), a fish that Ben got for christmas... I got a little turtle dubbed Som Tam (spicy papaya salad), but Som Tam ran away last night, I spent an hour calling after it this morning to no avail - not a very talkative turtle, we decided to go find a Som Tam Song (idem 2) tomorrow, like a friend's grandpa used to say, "Faut pas s'laisser abattre !"

Ah well all is well here in Yaso after a moment so filled with joy, the children are peacefully blaring their telephones in our ears and shooting flying helixes all over us, using their bath gloves as handbags, dirt bags, cookie bags (the kind of cookies that make lots of crumbs, mind you) earmuffs, or socks, so we're gonna have to tell them one day how to use it, preferably before they get lost in The Great Myterious Vault Where All Missing Things Go of the Munithi, somehow the scissors didn't fill this crummy vault yet. Don't worry, the kids are working on it...

And so I wish you now a merry after-christmas, and a happy new year, as well as a good night's sleep, I certainly need it ! God bless you and guide you, and give you as much love as is worldly possible, I'm telling you here I'm just starting to feel how much that really is !