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April 2019 update

Happy (Thai) New Year!

    Our Thai New Year which consists of at least three days of adults pouring water on people wishing them well, to younger people throwing water and talcum powder at each other, and also drinking way too much Johnny Barleycorn, is over. Our young boys have dyed their hair; gotten Mohawk haircuts, etc, and now have to get some hair back before school opens. We had plenty of volunteers to help the kids celebrate. English, Dutch, German, and Swedish teenagers, enjoyed the action and helped keep the kids in line. There always is a fear that a wee one will start out into traffic to throw water at someone, and get hit by a vehicle.
    I have had two of my cousins from the U.S. here as well. Mike and T.J. O’Connor built shelves and made many repairs in several of our houses, and built a work bench for our repair shop. They returned to the frozen tundra of Wisconsin after a three week stay. 
Many of our kids returned to summer school for part of the school vacation. Brother Keng brought in a niece and two of her friends to teach reading and arithmetic to our slow learners. The New Year celebrations ended on the evening of April 15, so it is now time to prepare school uniforms and buy books and school supplies prior to the new school year, which will open early May.
Among our wonderful benefactors is Leon from Holland. Leon started a Dutch Foundation for Sarnelli and comes to check things out about twice a year. This past visit, he worked especially hard on our swimming pool, repairing the filter system and cleaning the pool. After Leon returned to Holland, Fr. Ole took responsibility for the pool. Shortly after that, one of the little lads from the nursery took the opportunity to defecate in the pool. When fellow swimmers understood what was bobbing by gently, the kids literally walked on water to evacuate the polluted pool. Fr. Ole was sending out frantic orders to scoop out the offending turds and add a bag of chlorine to the pool. The Pooper has been banished from the pool forever by unforgiving fellow swimmers.
Ben and Angelique from Holland are back these days. Ben is a physical therapist from a big hospital in Maastricht, Holland. He is here to work with our crippled kids and to work with kids on the Outreach program, and any adults in the area who are suffering, especially from strokes. I was extremely lucky they were here when I was released from the Aekudon hospital last year. My right side was partially paralyzed but the husband and wife team drove me relentlessly to a complete recovery. I shall always be beholden to them.   
Again, thank you very much for your interest and kindness toward our children.   

Fr. Mike

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