Every child had a different background and I think it's important to go through certain examples to better understand them. Apart from cases where the child had lost both parents, there were scenarios where children couldn't stay with their surviving parents (or parent) because their parents became alcoholic after the Tsunami (this is a common after-effect among victims as they struggled to recover from guilt after surviving from the devastating experience) and had showed tendencies of domestic violence. Some parents may have remarried and thus not in the best position to allow their children (from previous marriage) to stay with them. Last but not least, some children were simply abandoned by their parents (read story of the 2-month old baby in page 2).

I spent a couple of days (though I wasn't able to stay onsite because I am a guy) setting up 4 computers for the orphanage. Frankly speaking, this is hardly considered as hard work as most of the installations were completed in Singapore (thanks David!). When I had free time, I walked around Ban Pru Teaw, a village containing several settlements built (by establishments like Duang Prateep Foundation, Rotary International and Angel Wings) to re-house Tsunami victims who had lost their homes.

It's been nearly 7 years (i.e. 2000) since I last participated in such projects and I often feel uncomfortable talking about it. Afterall, I could only do THAT much and perhaps the quantity is hardly considered as significant. I recalled going for my first expedition in Chiang Rai. Feeling all top of the world, I thought that I could play "god" and make a difference. It ended that I didn't do anything much, and got myself feeling emptier than before. It was certainly the classic case of the higher you climb, the harder you fall.

And just to summarise, the children displayed (much to my surprise) such a strong sense of determination to recover from the frightening experience they had suffered previously, where they could have so easily fallen into despair. All I could feel was the generous portions of happiness that they had served (via the smiles on their faces). They were never ever an intention to charge. This provided me with warmth apparently. And maybe, there is a chance for humanity.