Joy !

C'mon ! Let's go !
Never have I seen such energy as you during a Home Hak evening party !
Now the rest of the time, you're a model of peace, quietly helping out and loving your big and little brothers and sisters... I even heard sometimes you fall asleep at school !

But when we PARTY ! I actually wear out before you do when we dance together !

And this last photo : you seem to say once more, « P' Pah, c'mon and play ! »
... Wow !

Flouk

Well, Flouk is a surprising name, isn't it ? My sister used to say that with the right rythm and ordering the names well, you could make a great rap song just calling the names out one after the other.

Flouk Faloo Nam Pao King Gai
Deng Kao Am Paak Nat Tee Mai

Well... it's what my sister says, anyway. But it's fun !

People use only their nicknames to call each other. "Real" names are only relatively recently necessary for administrative paperwork. Before that, each village was small enough to not need the "official" names !

God within a smile

I'd like to explain a bit what's behind this image. We put it in the "oratory" - an extension to the big wooden Sala that we had built last year with the scouts. In it we kind of made a little prayer area, as it has the advantage of being slightly off the beaten tracks of the Munithi, which means it's a bit more quiet than usual... And on top of that it's also across from the forest, so Nature is present to help one meditate.


And so the image hovers above an inclined plane of ceramic tiles - the same that serve as roof tiles for buddhist temples - and water trinkles down on it from above, through a drilled bamboo pipe. The hoverinng invokes air, the tiles earth, the water speaks for itself : Nature as a whole is present to lead the praying person to contemplation. And the image itself is pretty straightforward : in the House of Love, both people referring to Christ and the teachings of Buddha work hand in hand for the children and adults with Love as a basis for all actions.

Back home

Well, all's well that ends well ...

After a year and a half of living at Home Hak, my mission drew to an end. I now am back in France, rejoicing with my family and friends, and preparing the Christmas feasts.

For those who followed on my adventures, I'd like to thank you for halving helped me have this opportunity to give love and care to children.

I'll keep on posting every now and then; when news of Yaso pops up...

Smile !

This week we have two very special guests : Pi Sophie and Pi Mangkon (Dragon) ! And these two friends are very special, they came to donate time and a very precious competence : they are dentists ! So for the past few days, a children's nightmare, they've been wrenching old teeth out, filling in cavities, sanding tart away... and now kids smile like crazy, full of confidence and joy in their smiles !

Boxing Frenzy

What's the best way to get a flurry of hyperactive kids under control ?

Ready for BOXING, anybody ?

Pao gets a kick out of the duffel bag

Phyak ready for action

Boxing Frenzy

Djele punching his soul out

And Ben the Batterer looking mean...

Lui the artist !

Lui came by for a month and gave the children much love and attention. He came a while ago now, many days have since gone by, but I just recently found a great drawing he has sketched of little En... before giving to En for her to save preciously in her own personnal folder, she allowed me to take a picture of it to put on the internet. This is to show not only that Lui is an artist, which anybody who gets to know him will soon learn, but also that his presence here is symbolic of what we perpetually aim to be : a friend, and to just play and share love with the children. It is one of the mysteries of Home Hak, one of the simple magical things that set smiles on all these little faces, regardless of their past and not withstanding the fears about the future.

Lui comes from Japan, a country greatly helping the Foundation through the double blessings of sending volunteers regularly and also helping out materially : the japanese embassy has offered the first "real" building called Home Hak, and last year offered the new "Home Hak Bus" which drives and picks up the children from school, and brings us all to week-end outings ! Before Pi Lui, we had many volunteers : Tengmoo, Som... but Lui is the first to stay a whole month ! And the cherry on the top is that Lui will be coming with us to Doi Inthanon !

Here is a photo of Lui, on the right, together with Pi Djee, another "one-month big brother" at the foundation.