Globalteer

What was happening? Mayhem and madness, that's what. Not enough chairs to sit on, not enough bowls to serve lunch, 4 single files on the dining room floor instead of a lovely big circle, no order, lots of chaos, no one learning a thing but everyone playing everything. All of a sudden headquarters had been inundated with an army of pint sized enthusiasts. One
mum even dropped off 4 kids under 6 in front of the gate and bolted to go play cards... almost overnight we had become a crèche! 

A few too many non-beggars had also slipped through the gates. Almost ALL our bigger street kids had suddenly stopped coming, scoffing baby, small, small. This wasn't a good thing. Overcrowding, mixed backgrounds and kindergarten ages had also instigated a dramatic decline in the quality of teaching, order and sanity in the place. And while the kids were having a hoot we were starting to miss the mark on what we were here for. 

We needed to scale down big time but how? We needed to focus on our target group (as they say in NGO circles) but how without ostracizing/rejecting the other kids completely? After all, It's hardly their fault their parents
have jobs!
 
Plan of action was swift. We divided the week into two. Mon-Thurs for hard-cores with organized classes and activities AND Friday for the free-for-all open day beggars, non-beggars, big, small, loads of fun, games and rice giving - but no classes. Almost a month into it, It's WORKING A TREAT! Sanity, order and learning (not necessarily in that order) have steadily been restored well almost.   

Coinciding with this new found stability was the generosity that gushed gecko's way. A Singaporean group of students donated their time and money to build a much needed rain and sun shelter (70% complete), 2 sisters from Houston (we never met) are having a photo exhibition and donating their proceeds to the project.  Gecko volunteers that not only gave so much valuable time and energy to the kids but handed over hefty wads of cash to top it off. One UK volunteer ran a horrendous marathon in the Thailand heat to raise money and that was even before he met the kids! It's been surreal.

My teenage cousin and her girlfriends are beating the philanthropic drum in her high school (raising both money and awareness) for the plight of those not so fortunate, 7 lovely Irish backpackers came laden like Santa's with toys that blew the children's minds and a bride-to-be has added the gecko bank details to her wedding gift registry! Our webmasters have offered free web-hosting for our very own gecko site and better than mates rates from them and our graphic designer for designing and building it. SO EXCITED!
Professional photographers offering their craft, performance proposals, cash from one wonderful woman saying she would only have spent in on beer otherwise (yes, she is Australian:-)), our continuing charity quiz nites at the Funky Munky and more. Where does all this beautiful energy come from?
Once again we have been humbled and overwhelmed by people's hearts, benevolent creativity and consciousness.  Thank you, thank you, thank you! 
 
Sadly with these dramatic highs, Rem and I and our family experienced equally dramatic lows. During this same period we had the tragic and sudden loss of Rem's father, Pook. A healthy vital man complained of a sore knee and blurry vision, was diagnosed with bone marrow aplaysia (complicated by tuberculosis) and died in hospital less than 4 weeks later.  It has been a shocking and sad time for the family as one can imagine. We had a monks blessing for him at the centre with all the children the Friday after he died. The ceremony was very moving and the children behaved like angels, knowing the ceremony protocol much more than I did.  We all prayed for Pook and sent him blessings for his next life.

Also in the month (as if we needed to fit anything else in) someone celebrated a significant birthday, ok it was me. This event inevitably brought much glee to the kids as they prepared my surprise party, blew up balloons, made me a beautiful giant poster-card and sang happy birthday in English. When it came to cake distribution, they floored us with their decorum it was definitely a first where food is concerned! 

And finally following on from past gecko goss, here is a little update of a few of the girls you may remember.  Sieng (our glue girl) still manages to grace us with her presence every week or so, for some food, shower and hair combing. Mong (the little girl who was abducted last year) comes almost every day and is joining in class. Sunly (the 9 kilo 5 year old who has AIDS) has made a wonderful turnaround, has piled on the weight, can't stop smiling and comes to Gecko regularly for fun and games. Every day angels like these remind us of the reason behind the dollars, sweat and tears.


Tania and Rem and the kids xxxxxxxxxx