Last week our Mercy Boys showed us what it means to play together as family. Eleven Mercy Boys joined in a round-robin football tournament at the New International School of Bangkok, where they put on a clinic in team-playing and scoring, winning three games and losing two, while tallying the highest number of goals of all five participating teams. The standout stars for the Mercy Boys: Tum earned the “Golden Ball” Trophy for most goals scored while our goalie, Boat, kept us in every game throughout the action. Having played together as Mercy boys for over 10 years, Tum and Boat communicate with each other on the field with something akin to telepathy.

Grandma Ngiam is recognized as one of the finest embroiderers and dressmakers in our “70 Rai” neighborhood. She has been creating intricately beautiful embroideries since a young child. Today she helps make traditional Thai clothing and hand-made bags and purses for our Women’s Group. We sell traditional Thai products made by Grandma Ngiam and other group members to local residents and wholesalers as a way to give our members extra income.

On September 8, 2011, The Thai Ministry of Social Development and Welfare, together with the Street Children’s Network of Bangkok, honored three Mercy social workers at an awards ceremony held at the Siam Society in Bangkok.

Here are photos of the everyday lives of our Mercy Boys – ages 2 – 10 – studying, playing, fighting (just pretend), and roughhousing around their Mercy home as young boys do. All photos by Ben Engel.

Do you remember, as a child, making artwork with pens, pencils, and crayons? Most of us, in our early childhood, would come home from school with drawings that we were proud to show our moms, Our moms, in turn, were at least equally proud to keep and display our art - usually in kitchens and especially on refrigerator doors.