First Day in Ban Niang

Today we ate at the European Bakery down the street. They didn’t really speak English, which was somewhat surprising because we live in what used to be a tourist town and it’s a European Bakery- thought they would’ve spoken English.

We walked to the beach in Ban Niang. It took about 10 minutes from our house. There is a lot of reconstruction taking place- some huge resorts and some smaller houses along the beach. We walked up to the ocean and I could sense a little bit of fear, possibly a sliver of what the tsunami victims must have felt last December 26th. I wonder who hired the construction guys to build. Are they friends and family members of those who died in the tsunami? My guess is yes. So, wouldn’t that be hard to be working right near the ocean everyday, having a daily reminder of the loss you’ve suffered from such a tragic natural disaster?

Weaw drove us to a town called Tap Tawan. There is one highway that goes through all of the nearby towns, so it’s not really confusing. There is a group of teenage girls there that are getting sponsorship help to build a restaurant and to sell Batik, a type of artwork we were privileged to have the girls teach us today.



The girls look so young (12-13), but we found out they were all around 18-19 years old (see what you think from the pictures). They are very talented and fun loving. One of the girls, Ana, who asked what our names and ages were, has a wonderfully contagious laugh. She randomly began cracking up a few times while we were painting and even though we had no idea why, we couldn’t help but join in with laughter (not unlike my mom and her 3 sisters).

The girls have been asked to do the Batik paintings of the tsunami. They already have an order for 200 pieces like the one pictured above and I think they will be able to earn a lot when tourism picks up again. I guess this is supposed to be tourist season, but the foreigners we see tend to be volunteers. There are several volunteer organizations and programs being run to help rebuild the communities affected by the tsunami, which is inspiring to see.

We begin teaching classes at the Ban Lam Pi school tomorrow, so tonight Carrie, Jessica and I planned our lessons for tomorrow. I hope we can have a positive and lasting impact on these kids.

There is discrimination even within this “Land of Smiles”. There is a group of people called Morgans or Sea Gypsies, who lived on the water, but were pushed to shore during the tsunami. They are now moving onto land and are being discriminated against by the other local Thai. How can we show these children the importance of equality and peace?