The
photo is of a new family group to the dump. They arrived (Feb. 2018)
about 1 month before I left. The family was made up of 8 or 9 members
who slept in the little shack pictured, directly on top of the garbage.
The group included multiple young children including the 4 young ones
you can see in the photo.
I am editing a bunch of pictures with
my new iMac at work, hope to print some of these pictures larger (13x19
or 17x?) next week. I might be able to get some of the color photos
into the gallery in Penticton for the coming exhibition. I will at least
get them into the artist talk PowerPoint presentation. I need to tell
the story of this family to the gallery visitors.
The good part
in all of this is that because of you all I was able to help this family
more than most. Gave 2 members of the family each a 300 baht money
donation (thanks S) and was able to give multiple, headlamps boots,
rice, medicine, toys, etc. because of the bigger donations by you all,
done earlier. The life of this family became a tiny bit better for at
least a short time. We got to do what we can do. Everything done, even
the small stuff, is a good thing.
I wonder what has happened to
them in the 5 months since I left them for my easy life in Canada?
Hopefully they have moved off the garbage to a cleaner environment in
the surrounding area and now live in a better house.
But how many families have replaced them? How many families have no help at all?
Note* You can see the families work from the day-night in the photographs foreground, plastic bottles from the garbage dump.
Update* Imagine living like this and with Covid. My life is a lucky joy in comparison.
