Blog

At the beginning of April, more closures went into effect, such as the public and national parks closing on the 2nd. Curfews were daily from 10pm to 4am. For our team, Chompuu & Nan were able to return to work after being sick for a week; then Steve & Chanelle were sick for a week… Students continued isolating at home and our team slowly adjusted to a new routine of teaching daily classes through phones and video chats. Our full time students of course wrestled with boredom and food, as many live in tiny one room places, without kitchens or refrigerators. On April 8th, the Thai school term, which usually re-starts was pushed back from early May to July. The Thai Government even delayed the annual Water Festival (SongKran); banning alcohol sales in grocery stores to make sure people don’t “party anyway.” April is always the hottest month of the year and there were forest fires in Chiang Mai, where several rural villages and hill-tribes were being shut off from medical care in the cities, while also trying to fight forest fires, sometimes on their own. Wearing a mask is common, expected, yet feels so much hotter now with this heat.

Our team was still trying to assess all the varied needs and continued to send food & care packages to shut-ins; even sent cash to several bar-workers as they needed help to cover their April rent. There were numerous stories of people being kicked cruelly out of their tiny apartments, becoming homeless overnight, but there were also a few stories of landlord’s showing grace and reducing costs. Pictures, phone calls, and messages flooded in, from sex-workers’ worried about families’ survival- either with a picture of a small, broken village home or a slum room, with a fragile grandparent and toddlers in diapers… if you are the main bread-winner in your family, there’s a lot of fear, pressure, desperation constantly weighing heavy on you. Two of the guys that attend our English class in the bar had asked for help and then asked to meet us in person, having lost their jobs and income on March 18th. (They hadn’t even been paid for their work from March 1st- 18th) We planned a day to talk in person. One guy brought his roomie and all three males joined DN on April 3rd. “Kick” was so excited to see the building and programs, as he had been telling us since January that he hated his job of sex work. (He’s shy and in early 20’s, even though he looks 15).