The Child and the Starfish.

Once upon a time there was a man who would walk along the beach every morning thinking about how to help the world.

One day as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a figure moving back and forth, rhythmically dancing to the day.

This gave him great pleasure, so he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a child and the child wasn't dancing, but instead was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

When he got closer he called out, 'Good morning! What are you doing?'

The child looked up and replied with simple joy, 'Throwing starfish in the ocean.'

The man looked puzzled and said: 'I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?'

'The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die.'

'But, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!' said the man.

The child listened politely, then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea past the breaking waves and said with a smile...

'... but I made a difference to that one'.

This is a parable quoted in a blog I read just now, which is linked below. I don’t know who wrote it originally.

http://joshtbk.wordpress.com/

You should read this. Some of the posts are long, but all are moving, inspiring, heart breaking, sickening, terrifying. All of them with take you out of your comfort zone, if you really think about them.

This blog was written a man I met while he was in Chiang Mai. He’s trying to be the child.

So which one are you?

Deliberate Distraction.

Spiders and flies is a game we’ve taught to the kids in PE. It’s not stayed there, emerging during mornings and breaks as group entertainment. It’s like tag, but the spider (It) has to stay on a line rather than run around, and flies run from one end of a space to the other, across the spider’s line. It’s great fun to watch.

We’re in the school bus (Recently acquired, and still a vague novelty to the kids.) dropping off the second to last child, and instead of leaving straight away we stay. The child’s mother bakes, a lot, and it’s amazing. All the teachers get bread and pastries from her and Joel’s (The schools ‘director’. Even he’s not sure of his own title. He was part of the founding group though, and is the westerner-in-charge. Cru Ooy is the thai-in-charge. We call her ‘boss’) taking the opportunity to order some. It’s probably also a subtle check-up; she’s recovering from cancer, and has been kind of adopted by the school family. They’re very good at looking after their own.

So, I hop out with the last two kids. Well, fall out. They’re laughing quite a lot, and getting stuck in the seats and dropping bags and I’m finding it too amusing to really be much use. I joke with the second child that we’re going to leave her here. “You’re going to live here now, ok? Really? You will sleep here? Ok!”

Shorts, with a chance of Woolly Hat.

The weather here is starting to, amusingly, remind me of British stuff I’m used to. Kind of. It helps that I’ve adapted to it all, to a certain extent; the heat doesn’t feel as hot now. Makes it feel more familiar.

It’s cold in the morning, for a given value of cold. You get up and potter around going ‘Argh where are my woolly socks!’ before you realise you don’t have woolly socks, you moron, this is Thailand. So instead you forgo thoughts of woollen socks and get ready, maybe having a hot shower; a cold shower is out of the question, if you can help it. You put on a pair of long trousers, consider them, step outside briefly and decide that yes, it’s defiantly too cold for anything shorter, thank you. On goes a top or two, and a cardie or that one jumper you (Your mother) had the foresight to pack (‘Why will I need a jumper? It will be way too hot.’ ‘Always be prepared.’ ‘Fine, fine.’) You have breakfast, and a cup of tea which you warm your hands around pathetically and then suddenly its 7.00 and you’ve got to hop in the van, which is covered in condensation. You’re pretty sure that’s a sign it’s gotten colder. Or that it rained over night. Either way.

Spare Change.

The school has been looking into getting me a work permit and a teachers visa; it’s what the rest of the teachers have, and it more appropriately reflects what I’m doing out here than my current documents. I would have had to get a new visa anyway, as mine runs out in December. At least 4 months too short. We’re hoping that it can all be done in country, down in Bangkok, which would make things a lot easier. But the visa commission wants applicants to have at least 25 days on their current visas, so before I can head south I need to do a border run; go to the border, hop over, get a stamp and come back. It’s part of the Thai visa system, all required for me to remain here legally. So on Wednesday I got on a minibus and headed for Burma.