I took the red truck to work all by myself today. YEH!!! My director finally trusted me to not get lost :) However she did call me in the middle of my trip to see if I was on the right truck. She is exactly like my mother at home and I think that's perfect.
Anyhow, today was again, another great day I would say. I did the regular office work and then worked with the kids. At dinner however, our chattering led to me saying that I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand (try saying that in Thai. How do I know Thai? I don't.). The kids thought I was kidding and I had to show them a picture of me when I was a young boy in Thailand. They were stoked, or at least I think they were because then they wanted to know about my life story... Actually I already told them my life story on the first day that we all met but I spoke in Hmong (that's my native tongue) and perhaps they didn't understand what I was saying.
My director said that my story instilled some sense of hope for these kids but I'm doubtful. You see, these kids come from very unfortunate backgrounds. I mentioned this in the e-mail the sent out but it's worth repeating again because these number bring forth a reality that we often don't think about. All the kids on the BRJ Project site have been affected by drugs and of course poverty. 10 of the the kids are orphans because their parents passed away from drugs. 17 of them have parents that are in jail because of drugs. 15 of them have at least one family member currently addicted to drugs and they themselves are in high risk of selling or using drugs. With so much taken away from them, I think, more than anything, that it was just good to hear the story of someone who came from a similar background. In any case, I'm glad I was able to share my story with them.
Dinner in their dinning hall. The other kids are on the other table
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