Willow's House Building Project
I have mentioned Willow in
several earlier posts, as she is one of the sweetest kids at Taw Saeng and one
of the best in my Penguins class last year. Her family is extremely poor and
she lives in a tiny little shack about 2 blocks from Taw Saeng. She lives with
her grandpa and younger brother because her mom works in Bangkok and sends
money home. Last year, I saw Willow be disappointed over and over when her mom
would promise to come see her and then just not show up. However, her mom has
started to be more involved in Willow’s life. Willow was able to spend about a
week in Bangkok over the summer holidays and just went to see her mom again
during the October break, so I think her mom is starting to realize she needs
to make more of an effort to be a part of her kids’ lives.
Anyway, that’s not the
point of the story. The point is that Willow, her brother and grandpa all live
in a tiny room not much bigger than most people’s kitchens in the US. It had a
solid cement block front wall, but the side walls and back wall were abysmal.
They were basically scrap metal nailed and duct taped together over the years.
The bathroom didn’t even have a door, and the “room” that the family slept in
was made of mosquito nets draped on nails in the wall. The staff had been
wanting to fix this house up for a long time, but didn’t have the funds to do
so. A team came from Minnesota and one of their desires was to do a building
project in the week they were here. The team only had 3 people, and the two
women headed up to our safe house on the border, while the man stayed to help
with this house. We enlisted the help of some local families who also have kids
in Taw Saeng and they got all the supplies and things together to fix the
house. They built a back wall, put up a door on the bathroom, and finally put
up walls to create a real bedroom for Willow to sleep in. The grandpa is pretty
handy himself, so he enjoyed helping to fix up the place as well.
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