Today is our last day in the village. Having already exhausted our work at the school site, we moved onto a single day project of planting trees. Were we working in a village area around a temple. Before we started work, we said a few word about the importance of trees, not only to this area, but also to a larger worldwide awareness about humanity's impact on the environment. This sentiment was restated by the abbot of the temple, who probably had a greater impression on the boy and girl scouts and the villagers who had volunteered to work.
Like other environmental day projects I have participated in, this one required us to clear the area of plants before introducing new ones. I am used to clearing non-native species. Here we were removing shrub and brush that was unable to stop the erosion of the river bank. In its place, we planted fruit trees more able to the task, and capable of providing additional nourishment to the people.
Once again, our intentions were confounded by our lack of supplies. With the large amount of people, the work was being accomplished with alacrity. It was mesmerizing to watch orange-robed monks hack away at the tropical shrubbery. Tools to clear and dig were passed from one person to another. After a few hours, we ran out of area to plant trees. We traveled to another plot, but this area was already cleared so the planting required even less time. Nonetheless, with so many people working at once, it was easy to feel accomplished looking across the areas of planted trees, even if each person only completed a small fraction of that job.
When there was no more work to complete, we said our goodbyes and headed off to visit an orphanage. Thinking back, I am not sure that I had ever been to an orphanage before. From my sampling of one, I can say that they are both wonderful and frustrating places to go.
This one was particularly well-run. A neo-humanist woman from Italy had dedicated the last twenty years of her life to orphaned children, mostly immigrants from Burma. The orphanage held 400 children, most of whom had den-mothers that looked after the children in exchange for food, training in their sewing center, and education in Thai and English language classes. The orphanage had a weak playground, but a great sports field. There were orchards of fruit and an animal center. However, the animals were only keep as companions and as reminders of humanity's interaction with nature. Everyone adhered to a strict vegetarian diet. Additionally, they were building a new meditation center. Why an orphanage would need a meditation center, but I assume it is for the neo-humanist who come here to see the work being done.
To add to all the wonderful work being done, the children looked exceptionally happy. Most people could not resist their laughter and calls to play. As we were being toured around the facility, the children already home from school tagged along. Some were being carried by group members. One exceptionally strong volunteer even tried to carry two seven year old children.
However, I restrained from this, which is part of the frustration of visiting an orphanage. Children look for attention and affection from whatever sources are available. These children were getting a glimmer of this from their den mother and the director, who has been a mother to probably over a thousand children. However, the immediateness of these children onto our arms or shoulders or backs speaks to the need for more personal attention. To give them that attention and then walk out of their lives seemed exceptionally difficult, not just for their fragile knowledge of loving guardians, but for my own beliefs about the sanctity of such things.
Everyone expressed their happiness at being able to visit. The next morning we returned to make some purchases at their store. After visiting sweatshops and places with weak labor standards, it was a relief to be able to buy items that were made in a fair and equitable manner. I bought two ten dollar shirts and a thirty-dollar blanket. Quite expensive for Thai prices, but all the money was going back into the orphanage's operations. Plus, the blanket is amazingly soft, and I have gone to the extent of dubbing it “the orphan blanket.” I even look forward to returning to truly cold climates for the chance to curl up in this blanket.
For me, the orphanage visit helped center the activities that we had been doing for the past two weeks. We came, we did work, and in the end we probably helped some people and did some work that otherwise might not have taken place. However, the work and projects and work was incomplete. Along the same vein, we came to the orphanage, we played with some children and we learned. Likely, the most helpful thing we did was shop extensively in their shop. Still, the help was not complete.
This is the lesson that I take most fully from my volunteer work in Thailand. The work accomplished is necessary, but incomplete. By work, I mean the active participation in the process of development and individual empowerment. I believe this means being an active learner in the world around you, becoming a more ethical consumer and producer, and, on occasion, donating your time and/or wealth. None of these things are ever fulfilled completely, which is discouraging and refreshing at the same time. The thing I will cherish from this experience is the knowledge that the completeness of the work is not as important as its continuation.
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