VW Day 1 (VW -
Volunteer Work)
Its 6am, I received a Facebook message late last night from
Lucy that I can participate in the building of the new dream house, which perks
me up for most people knows I’m the most hand on person, construction site
might not be a place where you can find me but I sure can do what I can with
what I have.
Early in the morning does make me drowsy, but I’m not afraid of
hard work. The excitement I’ve generated last night, does elevate my morning. Wiwat, one of the staff from starfish, picks me up at 6.45am
from P. guesthouse. My first impression is his hip hop swagger, even the t
shirt that printed with fuck you is formed by small little fuck words. Feel
like he has a lot of angst but in actual fact, he is a fun loving and soft
spoken boy. He is from Karen hill tribe, has been working with starfish a year
plus. He loves R&B and Hip-Hop. Quiet but with amicable personality which
is a big contrast from the T-shirt he is wearing.
The Karen
Hill tribe, are an ethnic group originally from Burma who have been displaced
due to years of fighting and unrest. They were one of the earliest people to
reside in Southeast Asia and were responsible for the spread of Theravada
Buddhism in present day Burma and Thailand.
After the violence with the Burmese Soldier, some of Karen villagers
escaped the poverty and violence to Thailand. Therefore, many problems were
happened at the border between Thailand and Burma. Citizenship was no given to
them so no health care benefit or even education is given, which means lack of
many opportunities and prone to human trafficking. There were many groups of
private and charitable organization, Starfish volunteer and Dream house is one
of them. But, the problems are still unresolved till now. What's nice about starfish volunteer is that they provide
job opportunities for the local as well; they have 6 local staffs and 2 foreign
staffs working on the ground.
After picking me up, he continues to pick, Nat, one of the
staff in starfish, Tiffany, Rob and Molly from Canada, UK and Australia
respectively. When I arrive at the land, I can’t believe this empty land has
only 8 people including me working on it.
P Lek is the only professional Thai contractor employed. The
rest is all volunteers. It’ a bit intimidating, knowing there is going to be a
lot of work done. More so, after knowing that, the new dream house has to be completed
by this July. With the Songkran long holiday in April, and without financial
support, things do get very slow in the progress. I doubt this will happen.
Besides, intimidated by the size of the land, I met Brett
and Min, architect and interior designer from Australia. Weather is
so much better than Bangkok, but it’s still hot, as a city boy, I like to get
down, dirty, wet and rough, most people have not seen this side of me before :)
Brett gave us a short briefing on getting the toilet
paneling done, mixing cement with rocks and sand for the boundary post around
the area, we went to look around for scrap woods that are still useful for the
toilet paneling, I found a few good pieces of wood but with nails still
attaching to it, I then pull out the nails with the hammer, reminds me of extracting
wisdom tooth, some are really stubborn.
Rob and Moley cut up the scrap wood into the right sizes, I
then left them for cement mixing with Tiffany and Nat, Trust me, it’s not like
mixing flour and egg, mixing cement, tones and sands requires a lot of effort,
making sure they are properly mixed is not an easy task, the boundary post will
need it to stand still and strong. Nonetheless, with a few runs learning from P
Lek, I got the drift and it seems to get much easier. Bob might be the builder
but Kyle is a learner!
First time working as a construction worker, mixing cement,
pulling out nails, paneling one of the toilet walls does seem easy but it’s
not. There are a lot of mind and physical coordination with the body. Of
course, Nat and I always try to find easiest way to work on our task. It’s
about working smart not hard J Nat is also
from Karen, she has 1 daughter, very jovial and outgoing, loves her energy, and
she always teases the volunteers.
I got to know, Tiffany, Rob and Molly has been volunteering for 2
weeks, 6 weeks and 2 weeks respectively. It’s amazing to see these young people
making meaningful choices and a difference in other people and theirs life.
As the sun rises further up in the mid-day, it is
intolerable to continue working, so we pack our tools and went back our
guesthouses. On our way back, we stop by Blend café, where Tiffany
is obsessing with green tea frappe. That’s where I met Vicky from Hawaii. She
is a researcher, teacher, human trafficking expert. She is working on the curriculums
on prevention of human trafficking to local schools and provides training as
well. She is so gentle, patience and knowledgeable. There is this warmth you received
from the conversation. This also makes me realize there are a lot of unsung heroes in
this town working hard for human trafficking causes.
