Just another week

Meet Deem.

We call him Sam. He was born about five weeks ago, though he was three weeks premature and weighed only 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds) at birth.

Both of his parents are HIV positive. His status is still unknown. The little family lives in a small shack composed of wood and tin nailed together. It doesn't even have a proper door. For the first few weeks of his life, he lived there with his parents but he was still in-and-out of the hospital and the neighbors were concerned for his life because he wasn't being properly cared for. His mother is just too weak and sick and without have the knowledge or the energy required to take care of a newborn. But at least she was trying. However, this past Sunday night Sam's father came home in a drunken rage, telling his wife that Sam wasn't his son and making her condition even worse, so on Monday morning, our friend Pam took the baby to her house where Meredith and I helped look after him for a couple days while his fate was being decided.

Me and little Sam

Don't be fooled; he's a boy!

On Wednesday a lady from England that runs a foster-care system (ish) out of her house took him and I guess she will take care of him until a more permanent situation can be arranged. I'll miss the little guy. I hope he can overcome the unfortunate circumstances he was born into and grow up to live a full, happy life.

Friday night I was supposed to teach English at the children's home, but things fell through with the kids' school schedule and so I had to stick around the center because my host family participates in a Christian prayer group there on Friday nights with some other members of their church. I was kind of bummed about not being able to teach the kids, so I had a semi-negative attitude toward sitting through a "prayer group meeting"--whatever that meant-- all night, but it ended up being a great experience.

We all sat in a circle (I made Ning (Yai's daughter) sit next to me so she could translate) and Bua played the guitar as the group belted out a few Thai hymns. And when I say belted I mean belted. They aren't quiet about their hymn-singing in the least. Check out this video I took. I love it.

After singing Bua asked if anyone wanted to share an experience they'd had with God that week. Ning didn't translate the experiences that were shared, but afterward everyone had the opportunity to ask the group to pray for something or somebody in their lives. Meredith's stomach aches, Bua's brother, somebody's aunt, somebody else's finances. Everyone chanted their prayer out loud, in Thai of course. It was beautiful. It was even spiritual. I could feel how much God loved and cared for these people.

Then we did some bible study, some more singing, and some more praying, and the whole time I was thinking how glad I was to be able to participate. These people have amazing dedication to God and an impressive knowledge of the Bible. And they care so much about each other. The whole thing was fascinating to me. Missing out on English teaching just may have been a blessing in disguise.