Dear one & all

Not really the best of possible news this afternoon, but there has been worse.  The good news is our slum kids are okay. Scared – had to run terrified -  from their burning shacks in the  middle of the night.  The heat of the flames & screaming:  Run  Run  Run.  They did. Grabbed their favorite teddy bears & dragged their old stumbling grannies to safety.  Lots of tears, and hugs, but our  kindergarten kids are now fine.  Yes, scratches & bruises, but no one needed a Doctor, or hospital, thank goodness, because of Covid 19,  there are no open hospitals beds. 

The bad news is that twenty five slum houses burnt to the ground & six more mostly destroyed, but partially still standing, but really, nothing left, you can’t live in them.  Six of our kindergarten age kids who lived in two shacks with their grannies lost everything.  These are the kindergarten kids who grabbed their teddy bears, and dragged their crippled grannies to safety. Grannies ‘complaining all the way: “ now be careful, don’t fall down.”  Kids are staying happily in our school for a while. For them, it is an exciting adventure. There is  always room, & recently some good folks donated some mosquito nets plus  soft floor mats, & blankets, so we ‘are in business.’  Grannies staying  with cronies. 

Yes, a horrible slum fire yesterday morning at two a.m. Horrible because wife/mother came  home late.  Didn’t make enough money at the bar for breakfast money both for their two kids and booze for sleazy husband.  She hid the breakfast money and he went ‘berserk’ as no booze money for him.  Slapped, beat up his wife, setting the house on fire. She  & kids ran.  As the men were fighting the fire, the neighborhood women caught the husband. Beating him with pots and pans. Had him on the ground begging for mercy, & they gave no mercy.  The cops came grabbed him cuffed him, slapped him in jail.  Saved his life really.   

He will spend many years in maximum security prison.  I, Fr. Joe know about this, because besides Slum work, I was the Catholic  prison chaplain for Maximum security once a week for 23 years, but that is a story for another day. 

Arson crimes of burning down slums, drunk or sober, are un-forgivable.   Thirty houses destroyed. The flames stopped, as the wind changed right in front of our school  - been there almost 30 years.  Once again, Our Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of Jesus in Heaven Protects our slum children.  Just over a century ago Our Lady of Fatima told the three children She appeared to:  go to learn to read and write.  And thus today also, Our Blessed Mother wants our slum children to go to school.  There is no other choice except us.  I say this because our kindergarten/kitchen is the real heart-beat of that whole slum.

Of the horrible fire, even though the blaze  started at about two  a.m. this morning, nobody died & nobody to hospital, as because of Covid, the fire victims just camped out alongside the road, or with neighbors.    

Our school is  yes, only smokey, & soot, but not scorched, not burned, & our daily feeding the children continues.  Scrub the pots and pans clean, continue cooking daily,  except now, the fire victims to feed plus the kids, but various organizations are already pitching in & help cooking & feeding. Yesterday, before the fire,  some folks sent us some sacks of rice. Also the municipality has come, to register the fire victims; those eligible for government help as is their job.  As I write this, they tell me the municipality will give each registered  household thirty three thousand Baht within the next thirty days.  Right now, the fire victims are asking if we, Mercy Centre can help with perhaps five thousand Baht per household.  We will do our best, but do need your help – you good folks reading this, anything.

We are doing one more thing which I want you to know.  With the Covid madness, and it looks like formal class room schooling with be closed till at least 31 Dec. However, we have asked those of our teachers who ‘live at a distance & travel daily by public bus etc.’ to move/live  into our kindergartens where they teach,  (so they don’t contact the virus traveling on public transport) to & from their schools in the slums.’ The teachers correct homework of the children who bring it to the school front door daily, plus help cook the food to feed all the children daily. And we improve the inside of the schools to provide somewhat proper living conditions.

This does cost some, but not much. So  maybe you could help here also.  We have asked our beloved teachers to make this sacrifice for safety. Plus we shall add five hundred Thai Baht to their salary each month for added living expenses.  We need to do this for the slum children.  Absolutely necessary, if we want to educate poor kids.  It always costs more money to educate the very poor, and keep the teachers healthy.  

Finally, I am including a couple of pictures of the fire and afterwards to give you a general idea of what I speak.

Please do continue to walk along with us – to take the scars of the streets away & remember that together with the children, the Dreams flow on: as in the song:  The beauty and the music runs along the strings between earth & sky & burnt out shacks of  Klong Toey. 

Be well/ be strong  -  Prayers & Respect   Fr. Joe & all of us