The Dining Sala Takes Shape!
2.09.2010
The dining sala is taking shape! Wonderful news about the progress of 3L’s project to build a dining sala for the children of the CPDC to have place of beauty for meals, activities and fellowship.
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Greetings, all.
First, my best wishes and prayers to Ashley and Pam as they arrive in Thailand for their next adventure with the kids. The one things I have been able to do in the last week or so with Ashley and Pam is put together a movie about 3L Foundation and our project with the CPDC to build the dining sala.
Shakespeare wrote, “The friends thou hast and their attention tried, grapple them to your soul with hoops of steel.” John O’Donohue said of this, “…a friend is incredibly precious. A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.”
I am blessed to have many friends who can be classified this way. Two of them departed my company today to make their way to Bangkok for a well deserved break and ultimately back home to Colorado.
Last night, Pam and Ashley brought a little bit of Italy to the kids of the CPDC. For our last night together with the kids, they brought in lots and lots of pizza for the kids to enjoy. Pizza like we are used to back home is somewhat rare in these parts. But they managed to find a place that does it really well and the kids enjoyed several slices of pizza along with an American-style salad. Dessert consisted of ice cream (not easy to keep cold here) and a little treat I picked up at a local street market, an interesting fruit called a Mangostene. Ashley told me about these rare little fruit gems and I bought some at the market to share with the kids. They are Ashley’s favorite fruit and I can see why. A strange looking little item, cracking open the outer shell reveals a small white bundle of fruit that melts in your mouth. I can’t describe the taste because it is truly singular. Fantastic! They got eaten up pretty quickly and I enjoyed a couple myself. Found only in Thailand and perhaps some areas close by, they grow only in April and May. A real treat.
The Slums – Part I
13.05.2010
Socrates counseled us; “Be kind. For everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
Today, Pam, Ashley and I saw this first hand. We went back to visit one of the slums in Pattaya we visited last February. Those we met today shuffle in discouragement, a battle of desperation…in bare feet. The Thep Prasit slum (pronounced ‘Tepesit’) is an enclave of impoverishment of over seventy people (at least forty of which are children), where the very environment around them exists to extinguish hope and aspiration. A dark energy that affects them so much, it demands tribute be offered to feed it. Leaching them of their will strengthens it and creates a vicious cycle of imposed imprisonment and self-imposed exile from drive to escape. The tax it exacts of a soul is that of dignity, of a body its health and clothing, of the mind is desire for salient knowledge, of the heart its desire for beauty. Here, the text adorning the gate that defines the limits of Hell in Dante’s Inferno would find a comfortable home; “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
Moving Dirt
11.05.2010
Today, we moved Earth. Just three shovels full of it, but enough begin our first endeavor.
Ashley, Pam and I formed 3L Foundation as a vehicle for many efforts to come. But we first saw a need here at the CPDC for a dining sala which called us to come together and be our consolidation of commitment. The kindness and efforts of the kids and mentors of the CPDC and people like Khun Toy culminated in the ground breaking ceremony we took part in yesterday. It was our first ground breaking ceremony for all three of us and our friends here in Thailand made sure it was memorable. With three shovels full of Earth, the seed of commitment that has been in the works for over a year were planted. The transformation of the vacant space to a place of physical and spiritual nourishment moved hope and intent through an irreversible threshold to become a physical expression. We are honored to be here and through the kindness and donations of you, our supporters, this dining sala will be realized. The Earth tilled today will bear great fruit.
Books, Pictures and a camera-shy Fern
8.05.2010
On behalf of Ashley and Pam, greetings!
The last few days have been a whirlwind….just like every day seems to become here. We got in late last night and I need to head out as soon as I can today.
Yesterday was certainly a full day of things to do. Upon arrival at the CPDC, Pam and Ashley distributed books to the kids for them to enjoy the lazy days of their “summer.” April and May are the hottest months here in Thailand and the kids are out of school for a few weeks. So afternoons have some extra time to relax and refresh (as much as can be done when it is this hot). But the books were a welcome gift and all had their bindings broken-in soon after their being handed out, often being enjoyed in the cool share of a protective nook somewhere private.
Happy Birthday, Pam!
7.05.2010
The three of us are together again. Just in time to celebrate Pam’s birthday.
Yesterday, I flew into Bangkok and took my customary hour and a half road trip to Pattaya. I was really looking forward to seeing my friends and the festivities of Pam’s birthday party that awaited. READ MORE
Mark Twain once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
What Mark Train wrote is something already well known to Ashley, Pam and me (Matt), the founders of 3L Foundation. In late 2008, the three of us met at the orphanage in Pattaya and our paths converged to a combined effort. Each of us contributes something to the projects we now embark upon. Pam and Ashley have asked me to provide a blog for our families, friends and all those interested to be with us in spirit and share in our adventures. On behalf of Pam and Ashley, I welcome you to our new web page and our blog as an invitation to carry you across a threshold made of Learning, Laughing and Loving.
The Flip-Flop Project
3.04.2010
The Flip Flop Project is a unique, two part program. It’s a small gesture that carries itself for many miles- literally. Each child that enters the CPDC village to live is given a new pair of flip flops in their favorite color. For these kids, it might be the first pair of shoes they have owned. Most certainly, the first NEW pair of shoes they have worn.
The second part of the project is an outreach program . Many people in Thailand make a living walking the streets selling peanuts, hardboiled eggs, Somtam ( a delicious Thai papaya salad), and sifting through garbage bins looking for anything they can recycle. These hardworking men, women, and children spend each and everyday on their feet, clocking miles upon miles until they sell all their inventory. For them, the bare necessities are a challenge to meet . A good pair of quality flip flops or shoes is seen as luxury, and not viable.
This is where the 3L Foundation wants to help. We will purchase the best quality flip flops available here in Thailand, either Gambol or Kito, and give them both to the children at the village, and throughout Pattaya.
Its just that simple. A small act of kindness.