Blog

IN FEB: One staff returned from her six-month YWAM school and started helping in the bakery.

Another new ladyboy joined our program Feb. 6th named “Hiw.”

Probably 80% of Bangkok were wearing masks daily; sanitizer was available at shop entrances, even on public buses, but sanitizers and masks were often sold out in stores. Several concerts, sporting events, and conferences were postponed or cancelled. We tried to raise funds for the fires and big needs happening in Australia, but no one actually came to our night of prayer and worship besides our own team. (We still raised some funds to send but not as much as we had hoped).

The Women at Risk Conference still came mid Feb. to offer support to many ngos within the city; and a sweet team of three women came to help DN for seven days… We were able to cover more bars and catch up with more bar-workers thankfully, and even took our new students to a science museum one day. We also painted our first floor.
Many Bangkokians started avoiding tourist areas, malls, and taxis, as number of cases increased. Still many seemed more concerned about the bad air quality in Bangkok and not too concerned about catching something similar to a bad flu- not necessarily concerned about being carriers yet. (Chinese New Year was Feb. 12th, and there was definite dread of Chinese coming into Thailand) But, the Health Minister in Thailand made public comments about white tourists being worse than the Chinese tourists because white tourists are dirty and won’t wear masks. Many Thai friends start being a lot more cautious around most “foreigners…”

** TWO students also had birthdays in Feb. and we also had two farewell parties. Our awesome Head Barista Kwan found a good job in Phuket (her husband’s hometown) and her last day was Feb. 21st with us.

We also had a graduation type party for “Edd,” who has been with DN off and on since Sept 2011. This kid went through so much that there were times many of us didn’t think he would make it, but somehow, he has overcome and grown so profoundly.

Feb. 23- List of “dangerous” countries increases and the first rules about 14 day quarantine started happening.upon (Students that had traveled around the Chinese New Year to certain countries had to be quarantined upon returning to BKK schools). Teachers were stretching to adjust.