Four Dollars and a Lot of Perspective

Today was our first day of adventures with the Hero Holiday group here in Thailand. After many hours of traveling and very little rest, our group of 13 Canadians had the opportunity to convene together over breakfast and begin the preparation for the next two weeks of exploring and learning! 

After our arrival in Chiang Sen we had our very first Thai meal together overlooking the most breath-taking view of a small river and mountains. As we began to pack up and head to our hotel, our group leader and founder of LiveDifferent, paid for our meals and gave one of the young boys involved in the preparation and serving of the meal a small tip, only to have the boy show his gratefulness with a beautiful smile and his excited skip back to the restaurant. Tipping, which as a part-time server in North America, I am compensated with regularly, is considered pretty customary and almost mandatory nowadays. I have caught myself a few times feeling agitated when I return to a table I have served to find to my dismay, little or no tip. This was my first experience which reminded me of how privileged my life is as a Canadian. I took the time to reflect on the young boys reaction as we drove to our hotel, realizing that I do not always take the time to recognize how fortunate I am to not only have a job, but to be afforded the right to be paid at least minimum wage, while additionally regularly receiving extra financial incentives for the work I do. 

It is incredible to think that at no time in my life have I ever not had the opportunity to be employed, (whether or not I enjoyed my various part-time jobs), but regardless, I have always had opportunity and choice of work placements as well. Accessibility to employment is not the norm everywhere in our world and I think it is important to acknowledge this to be able to process the struggles that our fellow human beings face every day, and perhaps to help us understand why some individuals are almost forced to make decisions that some North Americans view as despicable. Today, our group leader, Christal, told us that many of the children in the facility we will be visiting over the next two weeks have been sexually or commercially exploited. Some of the children have been sold by their families for less than 3 dollars, so parents could feed their families or fulfill their addictions. Many of us find it difficult to wrap our minds around the idea of selling another human being, let alone a family member. As Christal discussed this disheartening information with us, she made an incredibly powerful statement that stuck with me: we need to replace judgment with compassion. As individuals from a developed nation, many of us have not been, and never will be, in situations where we would be overcome by such severe desperation that would cause us to consider selling ourselves or a family member. I have never gone to bed hungry, I have never had several children to feed with little to no income, I have never been homeless, and I have never been stateless.  

I have learned that statelessness is something all too familiar for millions of individuals around the world. As Canadians we seldom take the time to acknowledge how lucky we are to have the option to be born in hospitals, to receive a birth certificate, and to be afforded the right to be citizens of a nation. Someone knows we exist and our lives are protected by law. Millions of people around the world are not born in hospitals and do not have the ability to receive simple luxuries like birth certificates and citizenship due to the financial costs and other hurdles associated with obtaining such important documentation. Although this may not initially sound all that important, as I have always thought of my birth certificate as a little piece of paper, not being recognized by one’s state as a citizen has severe repercussions. If one is not considered to exist, that person is unable to go to school, unable to work, unable to exist enough to survive.

Our group also had the chance to receive Thai massages today on outdoor beds alongside a road overlooking Laos. After getting over my initial shock of my first Thai massage (which was rather invasive, as the woman crawled into the bed with me and used her weight, feet and everything else to relieve the tension in my achy and jet lagged body), I came to realize two things. First, as my leg was stretched over my head, I recognized I am not nearly as flexible as I thought I was and perhaps I need to start doing some yoga. And second, after paying 4 dollars for my hour long massage (and being able to consider 4 dollars an easily disposable amount of money), I realized that I am privileged and my life holds so much power. This power that each of our lives hold as Canadians gives us the ability to make change that is achievable if we all come together.

Today was our first day and I have already been so impacted by the things I have learned, without even meeting the children we will be getting to know over the next two weeks. I am so tremendously excited to meet the passionate and inspiring individuals who work at the children’s home, and to build relationships I will never forget with these children who have been though more than I could ever imagine. I am excited to see what our team can do and most importantly, I am inspired!

~Alli, LiveDifferent Hero Holiday Thailand

Why I do What I do

It is obscenely late. I am in the lobby of our hotel, waiting for the last four Hero Holiday Thailand volunteers to arrive with our staff member from the airport. I haven’t slept more than 5 hours total since Saturday night and it is now Tuesday night on our side of the world. 

At the beginning of each Hero Holiday that I have been a part of since we did our first trip in 2005, I have often been reminded of why I do what I do. The memories, the feeling of being a part of something bigger than myself and even the love to meet and make new friends. But it is about more than that. It is actually about what motivates each of us at the core of who we are.

Life is just as messy in my world as anyone else’s. Maybe even more so at times. Yet each time I come back to this country to be a part of one of our Hero Holidays, I am reminded that we are all part of a much bigger picture. We actually can’t be separated from each other, no matter how much we may like to believe the contrary.

The children that we will be working and playing with over the course of the next 12 days are part of the reason that this trip exists. They have survived exploitation, trafficking and even slavery at times, and yet they still trust, hope, and laugh. Their resiliency is addictive in some ways for me, because my own life can get so complicated that I need people like them to bring me back to the bigger picture. 

But there is another part of this picture that is just as exciting, rewarding and valuable: the volunteers that join us here. Their circumstances may be worlds apart from what we are about to encounter together, but their hearts  are the same: they want to give and receive love and allow the power of hope to change their lives as well. 

And this is why those of us in LiveDifferent would say that we are blessed to do what we do. We can be facilitators of hope and agents of change, simply by being here to walk arm in arm with both sides of the equation of freedom. In short, we get to be a part of the raw elements of life every day. 

For those of you who support us and the people that join us on Hero Holiday, thanks. For those of you who work with us to get into your schools and communities with our message of hope, thanks. And for those of you who continue to live out hope each and every day, no matter what, thanks. This is why we should each do what we do. Because we are all worth it in the end. 

Mother’s Day in Thailand

Today is Mother’s Day in Thailand, and our team had the incredible experience of sharing it with some of the kids from the children’s home. The children all go to one of four local schools (where they are allowed to attend but not use any of the government subsidies like all of the other children). Often in school, they are referred to as The Poor Burmese Children, or the Foundation kids, or any other litany of hurtful names. Almost all of the children are orphaned or abandoned. Some of them are in the home because their mothers that are too strung out on drugs that they can’t care for them and keep trying to sell them. All of them have a painful story that led them to this place.However, today was about honoring mothers in Thai society and we had the privilege to come to one of their schools and represent their moms for them, so that they wouldn’t feel left out. Allie was one of the girls on our team who came a represented being a “mother” for the children at their school’s special program. These are her thoughts on the experience:”Mothers. So many shapes and sizes and colours that there is hardly a simple definition for the word. She is the one who made you the nest inside herself, protected by layers of her own flesh. She is a woman with beliefs that rub off on your own. To scold you when you need it. To praise you when you need it. From a cut on your knee, sealed back together by the needle and thread of her lips, to someone stealing a piece of your heart as she presses your head in the fissure between of her breasts and reminds you to keep breathing. A Mothers life to me was like my grade five science fair on marigolds. They’d nurture us while they stood back and patiently watched as our bones stacked up and our heads popped up from beneath the soil. But now the word that was once so structured seems to have changed, replaced by a new set of eyes instead of the sleep covered ones I had in the early morning as I removed my shoes at the doorway and prepared myself for three hours of non-English speaking chaos. It was my first time seeing the kid’s at school in an environment outside their safety net and I didn’t know what to expect. We waited outside, a fair distance from the school,  until a man dressed in a lint brown suit, sporting a toothy smile and air of great importance waved us to come forward. He ushered us into a room packed with a swarm of mothers old and new, animal calls coming from the throats of adrenaline dosed children in bright dresses and smart high socks barely clinging to their tiny bodies, only competing in volume against the whirring from the tired fans above. We were able to squirm ourselves to a small recess way in the back and as the speeches were given I sat amongst the woman fussing to create masterpieces on the tiny heads of short, black hair, scraped into impossible twists and running sloppy lines of red lipstick to each corner of a moving mouths. Suddenly I couldn’t help but feel like I was part of secret group as I watched the kids I hugged and laughed with and cried for perform with their classmates. It was something I could only describe as pride bursting inside me while their cheeky, plump faces showed signs of concentration on the dance steps and constant distractions of flashes from cameras. For the last couple minutes of the assembly we were called to centre stage. Without looking I knew my white skin had tinged a darker shade, as all eyes looked me over as if I was a duckling thrown into a circle of swans. Though none of it mattered as our kids ran into our arms pinning each one of us with a flower, fake and cheap and LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute)ly the most wonderful thing I had ever been graced to adorn. I had beenthe mother to those children. The one normal childhood experience intheir anything but normal life. The sniffles of runny noses could be heard on either side of me and I squeezed the little tribal girl in my arms harder before she could even clip the pin into place. But while the pin kneaded me under my shirt I didn’t think of the tears stains to come from the children’s glittered cheeks. Nor did I ponder on what their life once was. No, I could just think about the kids mothers still living. The Mothers scrounging around in the filth of humanity, in search to feed their ever starving addictions more important than their own blood. The Mothers who walk out the door completely when their husbands or boyfriends seek the sound of skin meeting skin, who leave unspeakable scars that tag along with them to whatever semblance of a life they fight for. Or the Mothers who missed their children’s make-up caked faces in their school performance, the kiss they didn’t press to the cut on their knee, the sounds from their breaking and healing heart. And I feel sorry for them. That they’d chosen to miss out on something so beautiful. Their children survive on.”

Vantage Point

Here in Thailand, our team is experiencing life in a whole new perspective. As our eyes are opened to what is going on in the world that we are currently immersed in, our hearts are being broken by the obvious exploitation and pain of poverty that is stealing so many futures, hopes, and dreams. This is what Vicky saw when we were at the Burmese border, working with the VCDF street team:“When you see a tourist, you would normally think that they were there to look at the city and its surroundings. As I watched dozens of people traveling through the border into Burma I wondered where their travels might take them. Only letting my imagination think pleasant thoughts, I wondered whether they might be going to shop in the fabulous night markets or perhaps experience an exciting tuk-tuk ride. When I heard a group of people talking, I looked over my shoulder and saw  about 15 Caucasian males , some in early thirties others in their forties taking photos in front of the Mekong River, which seemed perfectly normal to me.  There was one female in the group so I assumed they were not there for exploitation. A little while later a few hero holiday participants and I were walking along the streets preparing to leave when we saw it. One of the Caucasian males, who I had seen earlier taking photos in front of the river, was holding a girl about seventeen by her thigh.  My pleasant thoughts turned to nightmares and I knew that tourist was not there to browse the night markets or ride tuk-tuks. That night that teenager, who was my age, had been sold to man old enough to be her father.”Vicky and the rest of the team are a part of something exciting – something that is bringing hope to hundreds of stateless orphans, young mothers, and their children. It is called safety and it comes in the form of a group of people who are committed to seeing them get off the streets and out of sexual exploitation and into a life of freedom, education and knowing they belong. We are honored to work alongside of them on this Hero Holiday.

I Loved You Before I Knew Your Name

Tons of smiling faces ran towards the van as we hopped out. Friendly smiles, giggles and laughs, and hugs were given to me by children I had never met in my entire life. I instantly fell in love with them –  before knowing their names, their stories, or anything about them, I knew I loved them and would never forget them.No one could ever guess these beautiful kids had grown up in anything close to a harsh environment. They have so much to cope with and to deal with and they take it all with grace. Nothing in the world could wipe the smiles off their faces. A seventeen year old girl living at the home said something to me that is now etched in to my memory and will never be forgotten. As I left, she looked at me and said “I see your eyes, I see you, I see you are good heart.”To be quite honest, I don’t know how this makes me feel; I feel honoured that such an amazingly strong young woman would have something so incredibly complimenting to say to me, but at the same time I feel unworthy. I see her, I see she is strong and very brave. She LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute)ly amazes me: her eyes tell such an incredible tale, and she seems to have a wise soul.Although we don’t speak the same language, these children have taught me so much. They have taught me that hope is there – no matter how unreachable it may seem. They have taught me what strength really looks like, and – most importantly –  the people here have taught me compassion. I am so excited to keep learning from these amazing people, and to play with them, seeing the world through their eyes.~Brittany, Hero Holiday Thailand Participant

Sawa-dee-ka from Thailand!

Hey Everyone! We are here! After leaving Vancouver, flying to Shanghai, transferring to Bangkok, staying overnight, flying to Chiang Rai and driving an hour to Chiang Saen, we are finally here! And, we are excited to see what kind of adventures and incredible moments we are about to be a part of.This week we will be working at the VCDF children’s home (www.yourbuddies.org), helping to construct a kitchen and build a recycle centre at a home that helps to take care of over 130 orphaned and rescued kids ages 1-16. It is a place of hope and we are so honored to be able to come and work alongside of them and learn about their lives.Stay tuned for all the news on how our projects are going and all of our adventures as we work and experience this incredible area of Thailand called the “Golden Triangle”, where Thailand, Laos and Burma all converge together at one point along the Mekong River. Sawa-dee-ka!

From Thailand with Love

Hello all! We are here, we are hot, we are working hard, and we are loving every minute of it! The children’s home is in need of our help on many different projects such as the new water tank facilities we are digging for their washrooms, the new floor on the clinic that has just been donated by an American friend of the foundation, and some clean ups, repairs, and other building projects.Our Hero Holiday participants are making us proud and we are so honored to have them along with us! As one of the girls, Allie, said at our debriefing last night, “This trip is already changing my perspective, as I am realizing what heroes each one of these kids are in their own way.” Many of these kids have overcome extreme poverty, sexual exploitation, some have lived on the streets, many were abused, and yet they choose to love and trust again, and we are all in awe of the gift that each of them is to us and to the world.We will be posting some photos within the next day and will have the participants posting their thoughts as well, so please stay tuned for more Thailand adventures!

Thailand Tales….

After what seemed like endless hours, days of travel we finally landed in Bangkok. I felt like l had returned to visit an old friend.The site of her brings a smile to my face and the smell of her brings a flood of memories. I really do love it here!My name is Erica, and I am from Newmarket, Ontario. I am volunteer with LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute), and I am really excited to be back in Thailand with such amazing people once again. I have been able to see some of the children that I met last year and see that they are thriving under the care of an incredible woman who gives of herself in a manner that I, in my North American attitude, can not grasp. As I catch up with old and new friends, I inquire about children that I can remember and have been concerned about, and I am especially relieved to learn of the safety of a little boy I met and shared lunch with at KFC. (yes they like their KFC here!)Although this has only been my second time here, I feel I have a slight advantage to a few of the team members yet miles and miles to go before I have any understanding of the culture here. The people here are kind, gentle and soft spoken (certainly a contrast to me!), yet what happens here to people in Northern Thailand is almost unbelievable.For me the hardest thing to grasp is statelessness. It incredible to believe that as you play with a group of children, as you hug them and hold them, as they sing to you and give you a necklace made of flowers, that according to the government and the international community, these children don’t exist. Legally they cannot attend school, they cannot get medical care, they cannot work. It’s unimaginable to my Canadian sensibilities that someone doesn’t exist.I hope that I will never understand how statelessness happens and maybe that will remind me to keep telling you about these children. As I tell you and you tell others maybe then they will exist, maybe not as a citizen, but maybe as a encouragement, maybe as a reminder of the courageous, as a reminder of a survivor.Now YOU know of a group of children in Northern Thailand that don’t “exist” yet they do!, You know that they sing songs, that they are courageous, they are survivors. Will you let someone else know that they exist?–

Upcoming Hero Holiday Application Deadlines

Here are some upcoming application deadlines that you might want to take note of:

• November 1, 2007: Application Deadline for Thailand Spring Break (Mar 9-24, 2008) Hero Holiday
• November 15, 2007: Application Deadline for Mexico Spring Break (Mar 1-11, 2008) Hero Holiday
• December 1, 2007: Application Deadline for our Student Leadership Program
• If there is enough interest, we are considering running a Christmas Hero Holiday Trip in Mexico, for families and individuals. Please email our Hero Holiday Director, Charles Roberts, as soon as possible  at charles@heroholiday.com, if you are interested in the opportunity to do something significant this Christmas.

Please visit our trips page more more information, or visit our applications page to apply

Message Zone

We have just made a special page for parents and supporters to leave comments to our participants. It is the messages page. If you want to just leave a note for a holiday Hero, use that page instead of commenting on a random blog post. If you want to make remarks about specific blog posts, please continue to comment directly on those posts.