Christmas?????

How does one settle in to the Christmas season after experiences which are so outside one's realm of being??? I'm finding it very hard ... we picked our tree and decorated it today - but I am only going through the motions. Our family arrive in 5 days to celebrate Christmas - but my mind is still in Thailand ...

How can you forget an exceptional day like the one we spent with Suwanna, and the other 199 children at the Children's Centre in Chiang Rai???

I first met Suwanna 2 years ago when I visited the Children's Centre with a friend who volunteered there, in the very north of Thailand. It's a huge complex run by a wonderful Italian Catholic priest and a small group of Thai nuns. These children are all from nearby Hill Tribes, and are sent by their families to live at the Centre 10 months of the year so they can attend the local village school, and hopefully educate themselves out of a life of poverty. Suwanna had only recently arrived when we first visited, she was 5 years old then, and her personality and spunk immediately attracted me. She became an easy choice for our family to sponsor ... and we have been sending money ever since to pay for her food, school uniforms and other extras. It was so wonderful to see her again ... and Br. Gianni met us in a large van with 10 of the youngest girls from the Centre and drove us to Suwanna's village for a visit with her mother.



Her mother was very sweet, and Suwanna showed Ray and I her hill tribe home, her little brother and the other members of her village. She was so proud of it all, and we were so overwhelmed ... Each member of the little village came and shook our hand, and in their own way thanked us for helping one of their children. We saw red chillies and peanuts spread out to dry in the hot sun, chickens running freely in the dust, sacks of rice piled up in her one-room home, older women carrying their grandchildren on their backs, and bare foot toddlers everywhere.



Back at the Centre we watched Suwanna and the other 199 children eat dinner on the concrete floor, and she showed us her 12" by 12" cubby hole which was all she had for personal possessions (how was she to fit all her gifts from Canada in there??) but all too soon the time came for us to say goodbye and return to Chiang Rai.

Suwanna clasped my hand on the drive back to our guest house, and as she had all day long, she did not let go. We had not exchanged a single word all day, but we had communicated continually - our smiles and mime gestures had said it all. Suwanna kissed me on the cheek when we parted, and I tearfully wondered how long it would be before we meet again.

I'm finding it so hard to get excited about Christmas ...