Baan Unrak is a home of 140 children ages 0 – 20something. The children live in shared rooms either in the big building or in bamboo dorms and huts. Single Mothers live here as well and care for their own child and several others. On a daily basis the children meditate, sing, dance and do yoga twice a day. This time is split between 3 groups, the oldest waking up at 4:30. Once again I am getting up at 4:30 in the morning and resting my body at night on a wooden bed. Typically many children go to school during then day but they are now on holiday and therefore they need activities planned for them and watched over….my job. This was a challenge for me, to say the least. I did not know there names and their language and they did not know me. When the cat is away the mice will play.
I came to realize that the children are much freer here. They have very loose boundaries as they wander around and play. They make games out of shoes and rubber bands, take care of one another, have very few rules and limitations and they are happy and safe although they do not listen very well and they LOVE to eat sweets. It is such a different world here and it took me about a week to surrender to the randomness and chaos of the village and the lack of systems and structure of the organization. Each day I had to remind myself that the children are happy and safe. They know where their bed and food is at the end of the day.
Within the first 24 hours of being here Didi held her first staff/volunteer meeting inspired by her nonprofit/business expert volunteer consultant. IT was a large group from all angles of the place; cooks, farmers, Doctors, sewers, weavers, teachers of all sorts, washers, website builders, accountants, teen leaders, relief workers, head mothers, and so many more….and of course the ongoing theme of several languages and cultures. Everybody now knew the other persons role. This was a LONG meeting to say the least and at the end the task was given to organize activities for the next couple weeks while she was gone. The strangest part about that moment was that Didi and I sat down 12 hours prior to that and started grouping and scheduling everything already. I realized then that I walked into an organization that exists around one women’s vision and ideas and has all been created and functioning from her mind who is completely overwhelmed and nobody has a clue what is going on…..it was Over The Rainbow times 100.
So I took the bull by the horns and went for it and now here I am writing about it 15 days later after a few emotional breakdowns, several volunteer meetings, children coming and going with no tracking system, trying to go with the constant changes and lack of organization, building relationships with the kids, having several volunteer get-togethers, grasping a full picture of everything, surrender to the flow of it all, letting go of my own biases, putting up blinders, keeping my heart open, observing child practices that I do not agree with, having a dance party, letting them eat sweets and watch Barbie movies, hearing heart breaking stories, building beautiful bonds with certain children (I have a few boyfriends here) breathing through scary swim time of 25+ children in a lake and learning not to take it so seriously and work 24 hours a day. We now have a routine of scheduled activities with amazing volunteers and 75% of the children attend and 95% of the children I share moments of heart, joy, smiles, laughter and light and I get a good night sleep and some time to play and enjoy this beautiful place too.
I guess a minor detail I may not have mentioned is that I am living in Didi's room/office where the children come to the door and windows all day long asking for swim, art, and movies while the space also offers a place for adults to digest, decompress, problem solve and just release: a new purpose to the room:)
