Flood

I'm a terrible blogger.  Terrible.  But I so rarely feel the urge to write this time around.  It's strange.  But, an update is well overdue.  I've been well, and healthy, and all that stuff, but...

Mae Sot has been under steady rainfall for the past few weeks, and is currently mopping up after their worst flood in a decade.  Compasio has been trying to do their part for relief, checking in on the communities we serve and helping with material distribution (mostly food at this point - Feed My Starving Children food, no less.)  There were 24 homes lost in the dump and some 60 people are huddled in a nearby school in need of food and blankets.  Our Muslim shanty towns suffer similar issues - unable to work (farming and trash sorting) because of the floods and therefore unable to put food on the table.  And their roofs leak like crazy.  And the clinic flooded and needs diapers...it kind of goes on and on, and neighboring areas (including Burma just across the border) have had it even worse.

I, personally, am doing just fine.  My house survived, as did the homes of the rest of our staff and the kids we take care of.  The Compasio office didn't fare as well, but we managed to get most things upstairs to the second floor and get trucks moved to higher ground before the water took over.  There will be differentials to drain and some other vehicle maintenance stuff (at least one motorbike used by the Safehouse staff didn't survive) to keep me busy, that's for sure.  We don't have running water at the house since the flood, and with four people living here our stores are running low for bucket showers.  I've taken on the look and smell of a tired wet dog! :)  Thankfully, the power here at the house has been steady.

Other projects are ongoing: the drop in center for street kids and vocational training just moved to a new location (our lease was up), the Safehouse and Grace Home (formerly prison baby home, for kids who's parents are in jail) kids get bigger and more awesome everyday, and the infant home has six little ones now - SuSu, with the rare skin disorder actually turns three in September!  We lose one soon, but it's good:  Plop goes to live with his grandmother in Aug.  We also continue to visit the garbage dump community twice a week for food distribution, building rapport and friendships, and providing basic medical care.  The schedule is full, even without a flood to make things extra interesting!

I say "trying to do their part for relief" because honestly, Compasio is kind of poor right now.  We've got our ear to the needs here, but can't meet them at the moment because all this stuff costs money we don't have.  Our staff took donations and raised nearly $10k baht (around $330) plus bags of clothes and some blankets, and that's a start but the need is great. Would you consider making a donation?  If helping us out sounds good to you, please visit www.compasio.org.  Every bit counts, and dollars go further over here too - a nice dinner of panaeng curry and rice runs me about 2 $USD.

Sorry this ended up a fundraising plea, but there'a a lot of people who could use your help out here.  Thanks for reading.

adam