Short and Sweet Blog Entry

I am writing this entry to my blog for no other reason than to inform about a couple of events that happened that were not worth reporting quickly. After two weeks of the wood workshop being open, we had only run into one major problem and that was the “wood filler issue.” Since most supplies that you buy from a hardware store have directions written in Thai, I have no idea what the directions say, but it would be the accidental mistake of a few who thought that concrete coloring paint would be okay to use as wood filler. No names will be mentioned, but having painted all the boxes with the concrete paint, I spent another four days going backwards. I noticed something was wrong when I woke up the next morning after the painting had been finished, and realized that when I sanded the yellow paint off the boxes, it was just a chalky substance. I then took the bag to Gap who speaks both English and Thai (Richard Haugland’s translator), and he is the one who told me it was concrete paint. Since sanding alone would not solve the problem, I took the twenty boxes that were painted, and washed them with clean water and after they were good and dry I sanded them once more. Since the wood still had a yellow tint to it, I thought the only solution to the problem was to consult my father, John Frankfurt. He recommended that I should stain all the boxes with wood stain so they would at least look like they were all the same color. After the five days it took me to stain all the boxes, I think everyone in the workshop, including me, thinks the boxes turned out to be better looking than expected. After a week of fixing a “small” problem, the workshop still goes on producing.
The second event concerns the two fishponds that are in the rear of the school property (near the garden); they finally have fish in them. One fishpond has 250 fish that are about four inches long, and the other pond has another 250 fish that are about 2 inches long. After only a week the fish have grown in size by at least 10% their original body size. The fish are amazing because in just three months these fish will be ready to eat. Richard Haugland thought that having two fishponds would be a good idea to feed the children and staff of the school, though Haugland has jokingly told me that with the amount of money it took to build the two ponds, they could have bought fish for much less money! I assume that it will be a few years until the fishponds start to pay for themselves, but either way, feeding the fish is an enjoyable time during the day for me. I only wish I was going to be here to participate in the actual fishing, but I will just have to return with my fishing pole and tackle box in hand.

Where the Children Are From

I have not written much about where the children at the Starfish School come from and the different lives they live, but from what I have been told and learned I hope to have a better understanding of who I am here for in Thailand. The children come from several different types of backgrounds, and each of them was given a once in a lifetime opportunity to come to a school in order to receive a high quality education. No matter if the children are in the classroom or outside they are constantly learning and growing up. Many of the children are hill tribe children, and that is basically saying that they have parents that live inside Thailand, but without a passport or any identification that identifies them as being of Thai nationality. The Thai government has chosen not to give hill tribe people Thai citizenship for many reasons, but one reason that I have heard a couple of times is that the hill tribes are a large tourist attraction for many visitors. The Thai government feels that if they let the hill tribe people become citizens the will start to adopt the Thai culture and lose their culture which many tourists come to see and pay money to see. Since these parents do not have citizenship, that means their children also do not have Thai citizenship. Since the schools that these children would go to, if any, would be minimal and small in size but large in numbers of children that attend, the Richard Haugland Foundation opened the Starfish Country Home School as a place for children in hill tribes or children who would not otherwise be able to get an education, to have a place to live and study. Since the living quarters are next to the classrooms at the school, it is a different and possibly strange concept to take in all at once for a visitor. I only have to wake up and walk a hundred feet to the morning flag ceremony, for example. I mentioned the growth of the children and by all measures, their growth is great, because other than what they learn in the classroom; the children learn a lot about living within a dorm like setting, they learn to take directions from adults other than their parents, they learn about responsibility by doing chores that they are all required to do (i.e. laundry, dishes, sweeping, trash pick-up) and a big important one for a few, is trust in male adults. I say this because most of the children did not have a male figure that was a part of their lives, so when they have Lawson, myself and the other male staff at Starfish setting good examples, it helps the children gain trust in adult males. Without going into too much detail, Thai men (or men in Thailand) are often known to leave their family when times start to get tough, either to move away for good or else they leave and find a younger Thai woman.
There is so much to understand about each child and I still do not feel that I fully understand the individual stories of these children, but I am not here to change their past which would be impossible, I am here to help shape their future. While here, I try to teach something new, make a child laugh, or share an experience with these children because although I feel I have a large impact in the children’s daily lives now while I am here; there is so much more they need to learn. I have confidence that they will thrive and grow at the Starfish Country Home School.