Joy’s Tales from Thailand 2020

Tales from Thailand (2018) #5

As promised, dear readers, I’ll begin this Tale with my six days at a rural orphanage outside of Kanchanaburi, in western Thailand. I’ve been away for four years, and I was quite pleasantly surprised to see the changes: Some of you may remember my concerns about the martial punishment which was practiced daily, especially as meted out by a couple whom I called “Mr and Mrs. Meany.” I even asked my Thai friend to translate a letter to the director, Maechee Jutipak, about the well-documented negative consequences of martial punishment: The...

Tales from Thailand (2018) #4

Hundreds of retreatants, ninety percent of them women, climb up here to the roof on Saturdays and holidays, at the end of a long slow-walking meditation. The entire roof is a tribute to a Mongolian/Tibetan deity named Green Tara. My teacher, Maechee Sansanee, installed this naked-breasted goddess ten years ago. In Thailand, an extremely conservative group of monks hold the reins, as in most of Asia. Or as in most of the world’s religions, perhaps I could say? Maechee says that women don’t need political power… they simply need to have faith...

Tales from Thailand (2018) #3

Hello again, dear readers. Here I am again, at the climax of my perennial Hit Parade song: Happy birthday to you-ou-ou… Happy birthday to me-e-e-e… Every day we are born, And every day we are free-e-e-e.. Except, it was my actual birthday that evening, having completed seventy-one revolutions around the sun, counting the first year. And I have added a little component this year: after Every day we are born, I now tuck in the line, And every day we die…. before the finale: Every day we are free-ee-ee-ee. (sung with gusto, and accompanying...

Tales from Thailand (2018) #2

I’ll have to choose two among the myriad magical events last week. Both will relate to the great circle of human life, its beginnings and endings. This has been Khun Mae’s (Maechee Sansanee’s) focus for the past decade. Last Sunday (and the first Sunday of every month, for many years), the Serene Mind Project happened again: Many dozens of couples arrive in the morning. All of the women are pregnant. Everyone is encouraged to pay close attention to their mindstate, and how it might affect the growing embryo inside. Even our water-bottles here...

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’.              ...