crossing to BURMA

Well Sawatee Kaaaa everyone! What a busy little day we had here in Thailand. Today most of the group went up to Mae Sai because the teachers at DEPDC left the school to harvest the rice fields. Yep that's right. They all just LEFT. SO no one was at the school to take care of the 140 children left there during the day. Most of the group left at 6:40 in the morning and then Puya, Hudson, and I left at around 8:40 because I had to go to...Burma today. Yep. I have been here in Thailand ILLEGALLY for the past 3 days. I know right? LAST thing I wanted to do was get in trouble with the Thai government. I had no idea that when I went to Laos two weeks ago....it foreited my THAI visa (which was good for 60 days) and I had to start all over but they only gave me a VISA for 14 days. I had no idea. So technically my visa was up on June 24th...and every day that I am staying here in addition to that...I have to pay 500 baht every day. So today Hudson dropped me off at the border. SCARIEST THING EVER may I mind you. I always say...I love to travel. I do. It just so happens I am always traveling with someone else. Never have I been sent across a foreign border by myself where no one speaks a lick of English. My heart started to beat so fast and I started to sweat immediately upon crossing the border. I was SO nervous that I wouldn't be able to get back across to THailand and I would be stuck there and thrown into the Burmese prison never to be found again. I just followed this white man and when I found out he was from France, I asked him if he was planning on renewing his visa and going back to thailand right after. If he had those plans, I planned to follow him the entire time. Then I started seeing all these signs that said, "you MUST have 20,000 baht in hand when crossing the border". This is obviously to ensure that if something happens to you, you have the money to get yourself out of a bind, or perhaps JAIL BOND! I was so nervous. Luckily they did not ask me to show them any money. I was so relieved! I literally crossed the border as fast as I could. I was even too nervous to pull out my camera and take a couple photos because Burma apparently has no "freedom of press". I know videocameras are strictly forbidded in the country so I wasn't going to take any chances.

After crossing the border Hudson, Puya, and I went to lunch. Then the rest of the group picked us up in a sawng tow and we went to DEPDC. Krystal and I were in charge of the "glitter name tag" station. We had the kids make name tags and decorate it with "glitter". IT WAS A MESS! The kids were so cute though. I practically melted when little "SAM" decorated his name tag and then wrote "I + LOVE = YOU" on the bottom of his name tag and then gave it to me. These kids come from really hard backgrounds and they are at high risk for prostitution. Many cross the border from Burma every day to come to school because they have no other school to go to. DEPDC is losing 70 % of its funding from its major donors and so we are trying to come up with a plan for them to be able to be self sufficient. It's an on going process that will need to be finished once we are all gone from HELP. It was a nice day at DEPDC. It was crazy and hectic but it was fun to work with the kids. I love it when they come up to you at the end of the day and give you a big hug and look up at me and say, "kap kune kah". It makes it all worth it!

Back at the house, Puya, Amy, and I went walking to look for mangos. They bought a lot of them. They love the mangos here. Then we ordered Pizza and picked it up because it was Paul's birthday today. We had cake too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL! Tomorrow we are going up to DEPDC again to help out because the teachers will be gone again.

I got to skype with mom tonight. I sure do love and miss her. I also called my sweet little Grannie to let her know I was thinking of them. I am glad they are all having such a good time with the family there (from Japan). I sure love them all!