Joy’s Tales from Thailand 2020

Tales from Thailand (2018) #1

Hello again, dears. Thank you for your best wishes and your interest in my journey. I myself haven’t more than a vague clue about what will be unfolding here. But all of my adventures seem to be grooming me for the same life lessons: 1. Nothing, nothing (!) is ever awry. 2. Be patient (5555**) and alert 3. Keep an open and refreshed heart, known here in Thailand as “jai yen.” (cool heart) I don’t need to go charging toward my goals like a bull rhinoceros in heat…. Alternatively, I breathe deeply, and return to lesson #1, above. This Lesson...

Tales from Thailand: A Prologue

Greetings, dear readers. Thanks for joining me on this journey. Some of you are new readers, and some may remember my last Tales From Thailand, 2014. But very few folks know the context of this return to Thailand, four winters later: Four years ago, I asked my spiritual teacher and guide, Anna Cox, a question. . . “What is going on with this child? I love so many children at the orphanage, but she seems to have stolen my heart in a unique way.” Click Here to view/download pdf of Tales: A Prologue newsletter

Joy is in South Africa for the winter 2016 and will be reporting on her life and work in a small hermitage set aside for developmentally disabled children, in St. Helena Bay, Capetown, South Africa. Scroll down this page to read all the Tales as we post Joy’s newsletters on this blog.

Tales from St. Helena’s Bay #2

Greetings, dear readers, from my current home here at Island House. Do you ever have the feeling that you are at the zenith of your life… that all your prior experiences have prepared you for this precise one? That’s exactly how I feel, most mornings here….

Tales from St. Helena’s Bay #1

My friends Fakier and Tim and I drove north, up the western Cape, through many national preserves, which were mostly ocean-side chaparral with a few ostrich and springbok and flamingoes and ibis.. Everything is dry and it looks like yet another drought year coming, to the farmers’ dismay. Finally, after a few hours, we found Eiland Huis (Afrikaan, for Island House), outside of St. Helena’s Bay.

As my American friend Jimmy Whitfield, who spent several decades as a missionary all over sub-Saharan Africa, wrote me: Truly that part of the Continent is one of the most beautiful places ever created.

So what is a sporadically funded non-profit home for severely disabled children, many of them indigent, doing on a piece of fabulously beautiful beachfront property, you might ask?

Tales from Capetown #1

Greetings, dear friends. And welcome to my initial peek into the world of Cape Town and this year’s adventure….( read about Joy’s first week in South Africa and her discovery of her place of service ….”In St. Helena Bay, a little village three hours north, with no transport other than by car, is a small hermitage set aside for developmentally disabled children (Polio, Down’s Syndrome, Birth defects) who can’t speak and need to be fed.”

Prologue to Tales from Capetown

Hamjambo, marafiki (kiswahili for howdy, friends)! I know that many of you are patiently waiting for this second year’s installment on “Tales From Tanzania” – And I had my air ticket, my visa, gifts and clothes for the kids, lunch dates with friends in Dar Es Salaam and Mwanza….. when I heard from Sister Helena that: “the Busega police are very angry with you…they say that you are a spy..” And, from a certain perspective I guess that is true: I am a photo-journalist. And, at Sister’s request, I did report on the political...

Tales from Tanzania #10

Above is a combination songfest and talent show. The kids voted on who should accompany Sister Helena to a government conference in Mwanza last week. Contest categories included: Volume, Clarity, Behavior, and Endurance…since the field trip would be a twelve-hour day, without food, or naps…. Click here to read the full Tales from Tanzania #10 including Valentines Day project, Nehma’s story, and the farewell songs and blessings for ‘Mama Joy’.              ...

Tales from Tanzania #9

And how do I leave these exquisite children behind me, when I have a personal little tradition or a special sound or a clap-game or a memory that only we share? Friends who know me wondered how I could leave the orphanage in Thailand last year, knowing I wouldn’t be back. Or Cancer Village, in the north of Thailand, or my Buddhist community in Bangkok? Usually there are tears involved, on both sides…. and my profound belief in “annicca” – the Buddhist principle that everything is always shifting…whether I stay or go….....

Tales from Tanzania #8

Remember Beheveh, who ran away from his schoolwork in the last Tales? He has spent many hours here, in front of the the numbers chart, reciting…. early morning, afternoon, and evening, with someone to monitor, assist and support him. Some evenings, Sister Helena will collect pens or plastic bottles, and he will count those instead, to make the numbers three dimensional. Beheveh can now count to twenty. The first time he did it, without help…..the kids intoned one of their favorite chants: Yes! We can! We are people! We can do it!...

Tales from Tanzania #7

Everybody over two years old shares the work, here at the Center. Tasks are done very, very carefully. While watching Habi fold clothes, I realize how sloppy I am, … Each fold has to be perfect. Sister Helena is demonstrating and teaching the children perfection, speed, and endurance. Survival is not assured here in the bush, and Sister wants these children to succeed! If someone over two years old falls asleep, they are advised to stand, and jump up and down. The children will help each other to stay awake. Their day starts before...

Tales From Tanzania #6

One of our recent rituals is pictured above: Sister Helena is passing out a hunk of raw ginger, dipped in salt, for every child to eat. The kids are sick, because one child returned from the holidays with a cold. As Sister said recently, There is no escape…. We don’t have running water or, of course, kleenex or toilet paper, and all the kids blow their nose on the same crusty rag and wash their hands in the same bucket of water before and after a meal. But kids still want a hug, of course, and tiny children are not interested in the...