Mercy Centre Celebrates Mother’s Day
-
August 23, 2023Last weekend was Mother’s Day weekend in Thailand. All of our Mercy Centre/Kindergarten kids dressed up – fancy party ‘prancing/dancing beautiful’ – in second hand best high-class rags.Our fabulous ‘of an age’ sewing lady sews up the rips and patches.
We wash all the donated throw-away and used stuff twice. Washed, pressed and ironed they are pretty good-lookin’ rags for our dance/music kids party.
But even the best used clothes, patched and cleaned, can’t ‘stand in’ – take the place of – a missing mom. Even a wildflower picked by a slum pathway – borrowed from a shrine and placed where your momma dumped you that horrible day. Where she left you standing alone, telling you, “I’ll be right back. You wait right here.”
In front of an abandoned building. Along the railway tracks. Wherever… But horror of horrors, over half – almost fifty kids – came alone to our party: no mom in sight anywhere. In fact, no mom on the planet. Really. None at all. My eyes filled with tears for so many of our kids. Kindergartners especially really hurt without a mom to hug, to give the blossom of a wild weed – pretty but also like an orphan growing alone, along the slum pathway.
But you make do with what you can. Like our nearly six-year-old Miss Kao Fang (Brown Rice), shown above. Not the prettiest name on the chart, but who cares. She is nature’s beauty: untouched – never heard of cosmetics, no perfume, no powder, no none at all, but beautiful Thai-Lao complexion. Only one set of clothing (that she is wearing) pretty, like you would want her to be. Named after a single solitary rice stalk – sturdy – in a field alone.
She saw ‘my sniffles’ and told me she barely remembers her La mom abandoning her when she was almost five. Kissed her goodbye, then got in a boat, crossing the river back to her home in Laos. Her mom saying, “I can’t take the cruelty from your father anymore. He made me HIV/AIDS sick and I have no way to care for you except to beg on the streets of my hometown in Laos, and I am afraid you will become sick as I am because we have no medicine.
If I leave you – like that stalk of brown rice, you will not die, the angels will find you and get you medicine and make you healthy. I named you Kao Fang – and that’s all I can give you – your name, and my love. Your name came to me as a dream when you were born, alone there along that abandoned roadside. But I was strong then, and you were a strong and healthy baby. My beloved daughter, we shall probably never meet again. I, your momma, am already sick. But I shall die knowing you my baby, my ‘brown rice, are well and cared for, like in my dream.
Miss Kao Fang (brown rice – single stalk – solitary) was found by a police man. Sleeping along the riverbank. First thing she said: “I’m hungry.” She is nearly seven years old – never been to school. Teachers allow her to hold a pencil as she likes, not forcing her fingers into position. Never wore shoes – never had any new clothes – liked by other kids – small in size (under-fed). Abused … abandoned more than abused – no not sexually abused, but beat up … bruised … by dad who is dying of HIV/AIDS of the brain (never took medicine – now it’s too late).
A great girl – sleeps well on the pavement – pillows are strange objects … Doesn’t like stray dogs, although they like her – guard her automatically it seems when anyone comes around. Keeps herself clean – washes herself in the clothes she wears, which are allshe owns, in any available faucet.
All for now. Blessings to all for Mother’s Day here in Thailand and everywhere. Our Miss Brown Rice is doing fabulous. Come and meet her when you are in town.
