<p>I won’t do it justice. I can’t. Not even with the finest vocabulary in all of the land.</p>
<p>Neither will a camera, especially not my point and shoot. And since my feeling is that the government here would make it difficult to upload unscreened videos, I will do my best with words from the images that my starving eyes have consumed: (cue an Enya song for dramatic effect, go ahead, youtube that ish!)</p>
<p><img src=”http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l6ynxla4kJ1qbu90x.jpg” /></p>
<p>Rice fields stretch for miles, gingerly plotted green grids dotting sanctuaries of water that perfectly reflect and mirror the blameless, rapturous clouds of felicity sauntering along tree lines bordering dignified ancient mountains. An occasional unassuming farmer is harvesting the crop donning the conical paddy hat while dirty kids ride rusty bicycles along the crude muddy road. But I don’t care how dirty they look, there is still a polished air about them where no frown has ever crossed their determined faces. The looming mountains that form a bordered frame around this scene laso in all shades of green. There is no other color in the spectrum that contends for real estate here. Unadultered, the only adjective that belongs is ‘lush.'</p>
<p><img src=”http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l6ynuthsap1qbu90x.jpg” /></p>
<p>But this scenery is only a back drop. Weaving in and among the rice fields, we made our way over make shift bridges hovering on top of cat fish farms to a clearing of bamboo huts and cement buildings that comprise Child Life. Precious children of all ages call this place home, sans parents, only a handful of volunteers drift around like elementary school lunch room monitors.</p>
<p>And these children are precious, believe me, but they are also especially clever. These are the ‘Artful Dodgers’ of Asia. These are the street kids that hover on the border of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) and beg. These are the kids that are notorious for their habit of pacing around, rarely without sniffing a plastic bag of glue attached to their faces. Its a lose-lost situation. They are starving, dirty, and wandering the streets begging, but you give them money, they either sniff glue with it or have to hustle it off to the older kids that run the network of gangs. It is beyond an unsafe life for them.</p>
<p><img src=”http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l6yp79I8321qbu90x.jpg” /></p>
<p>The glimmering light of hope is the safe haven tucked back deep in the rice fields where Child Life has harbored these children and given them survival and an education. But when you talk about ‘invisible children’, these kids are absolutely elusive. The biggest problem is they can’t belong in their home country (usually Burma) because of the oppressive militant government and injustice of poverty, but Thailand doesn’t want them either as they bring their misfortune and poverty into their country. So where do they belong?</p>
<p>I see it as one world. Erase the borders and see that we are all just trying to pursue life. Who will claim these prodigal footloose children?</p>
<p>**the photos used in this blog are not mine, I had to borrow until I can upload my own.</p><br>
