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My charity BUGraiser in Cambodia (Yes, I really ate all of these crazy insects!)

4/4/2016

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You've seen a lot of fundraisers before, but have you ever experienced a BUGraiser?

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Watch me eat these beetles, crickets, roaches, frogs, larvae, and a bunch of unidentifiable critters from a street stall in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - all for a good cause to raise money for several amazing charities! 

If you got a kick out of this video PLEASE consider donating $100, $25, or even $10 to the charities I introduce below, Connecting Hands, Willow Tree Roots, and the Children's Improvement Organization. These are all charities I personally help out and see first hand the work they do to better a lot of lives.

Thanks - and get ready to be grossed out!


-Norm  :-)


To donate, just click on the PayPal link below and tell me which charity you'd like to help.
​It's quick, easy, safe, and I'll make sure the money gets to the appropriate charity and you get a receipt.
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​25 Facts about Songkran, Thailand's wet and wild New Years celebration. 

3/20/2016

1 Comment

 
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1. While the western world celebrates New Years on December 31 at midnight and considers January 1 the first day of the year, the rite of passage of the changing of the year is done differently in Thailand, and most of Asia for that matter.

2. Thailand’s New Year is called “Songkran” and celebrated in mid April, the hottest time of the year in the southeast Asian country.

3. But it’s not just a one-night affair, as the Thai New Year observation goes on for three full days. While it used to be a floating hotel with dates that changed slightly depending on the year, Songkran is now set for the 13th to the 15th of April.

4. Songkran is quite possibly the most unique New Year in the world, celebrated with a national water festival that’s grown to legendary proportions. Not only do all Thais take part, but also tens of thousands of farang (foreigners) visit the country every year to join in the wet and wild festivities.

5. For those three days, the streets basically become a massive water fight, with every man, woman, and child (but especially teens, young adults, and now, tourists) throwing water on each other unmercilessly.

6. It’s also the longest holiday in Thailand, running three full days, day and night. However, in some parts of the country that are vacation spots or cater to tourists, etc. the water fights sometimes go on for a full week!

7. For weeks ahead of the New Year, you’ll see giant water pistols and crazy, colorful Hawaiian-style shirts sold on the side of the road in anticipation of the antics. Thais will also resort to garbage pails full of water, hoses, and buckets – whatever it takes to soak their fellow man or woman.

8. In cities, you’ll even see big tanker trucks driving around delivering water (or soaking people themselves) and delivery trucks also deliver blocks of ice, deposited in the trash pails so the soaking will be frigid as well.

9. Everyone is fair game to get doused with a bucket of water when they are walking around during Songkran. Tourists who wish “not to participate” better stay in their hotel rooms for those three days or not come to Thailand!

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10. Water isn’t the only thing thrown around, as children and other Thais love smearing others with colorful paste, especially all over their faces. Don’t worry – it’s just colored talcum powder, and considered a good thing or a blessing if they gift you with a handful of paste to the face. The use of chalk during the water festival originated from the practice of monks marking blessings with colorful chalk.

11. Some mischievous Thais even add a little Tiger Balm to their talcum powder paste, which will make your skin tingle a little but isn’t harmful.

12. There are a few exceptions to the water fight free-for-all during Songkran; you should never ever throw water on Buddhist monks, police officers and other officials, or babies, toddlers and the elderly.

13. Where does this delightful tradition come from? Although it’s been a Thai holiday throughout its entire history, the origins of Songkran are from from neighboring Burma. The word Songkran derives from the word “saṃkrānti” which literally means “astrological passage” and relates to movement or change from the bad of the old year into the good of the new.


14. Songkran parallels the rising of Aries on the astrological chart, which is the calendar of many countries in Asia and keeps with the Buddhist and Hindu solar calendar.

15. How should you prepare for Songkran? Other than catching up on sleep and taking a lot of vitamin C (since everyone is partying overtime and soaking wet – and the cleanliness of the water can be suspect – it seems like the whole country catches a cold after Songkran,) you’ll want to bring the right things. Cheap sunglasses (or even goggles!), athletic shorts that dry easily, a dry wick shirt, boat shoes or flip flops (though those slide around a lot), waterproof sunscreen or a hat (tourists often forget about the strong sun since they are always wet, often getting a bad sunburn), and DEFINITELY a quality waterproof bag or case for your phone, money, hotel key, etc.

16. With all of the water fight “sanuk” (fun) going on, don’t forget the true meaning of the New Year holiday. Traditionally and still to this day, Songkran is a time for Thais to symbolically cleanse and rejuvenate their bodies and souls to end the year, preparing for good fortune in the new year to come.

17. For most Thais, Songkran is a time to return home to be among family, paying respect to elders. Children pour water over the palms of their parents and grandparents in a sign of thanks and reverence for their ancestors.

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18. Once back at home, children and family visitors alike help the housewife clean her residence spotlessly, as any remaining rubbish or dirt will bring back luck. Any images of Buddha are also washed with the utmost attention and care. Once Songkran start, Thais visit the local temple to pray and offer food and alms to the Buddhist monks, as well as pouring water over them to purify their sins and bring good luck.

19. In most cities in Thailand, there will also be colorful parades in the streets and beauty pageants with traditional costumes where “Miss Songkran” is coronated.

20. Thais may observe their New Year holiday with slight differences based on region. For instance, in central Thailand, Thais often perform “merits” like releasing birds or fish back into the wild, and some Thais even release bigger animals like buffalos or cows to their freedom.

21. In southern Thailand, Songkran is also known as “free day,” and residents make sure to observe the only three rules that apply during the festival: people shouldn’t work and shouldn’t spend money; they should not hurt people or other animals; and they should not lie.

22. 2In the north of Thailand, there is always gunfire and firecrackers shot off into the sky to scare away bad luck. During the days, people prepare food and collect other practical household items and gift them to the local monks at the temple, where they also bath Buddha’s statue.

23. While the intent of the water festival is all fun and blessings, the unfortunate reality is that there are many accidents and injuries on the roads during Songkran due to drunken motorcycle driving more than just wet roads. If fact, police statistics show that the death toll from roadway accidents doubles every Songkran, in a country that already has one of the highest road fatality rates in the world. Be careful and “Songkran responsibly!

24. In 2016, Songkran will take place April 13-15. Instead of just a big party, the Thai government and cultural authority is asking that all people – Thai and farang – focus on the spiritual message and intention of the traditional holiday.

25. Having experienced the Songkran festival many times all over the country, I definitely urge tourists to take part - but also observe the true meaning. Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Chang Mai, and even anywhere in the remote provinces are all great places to experience Songkran. Have fun, be safe, and get ready to be WET!  

-Norm  :-)

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The CRAZIEST sh*t you'll see in Southeast Asia!

3/1/2016

2 Comments

 
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog with the FUNNIEST sh*t you'll see in Southeast Asia and shared it with you. The response was so great that I decided to follow up with a new two-part blog with the CRAZIEST sh*t you'll see in Southeast Asia!

From Cambodia to Laos, Vietnam to Myanmar, and Thailand to the Philippines, there's definitely NO place on earth that will make you sure in amazement and scratch your head like in Southeast Asia, where the wild, hilarious, and downright bizarre are a daily occurrence. 

So enjoy, and look for part 2 of this blog coming soon! 

If you want to read more about life in Southeast Asia, read my new book, The Queens of Dragon Town.

-Norm   :-)
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In Southeast Asia they put cobras and scorpions in liquor bottles and let them ferment in there, with claims that drinking it will give you the animals' power.
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Who needs a barber chair when you have freaky mind-over-matter skills.
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In the west, they have Missing posters for cats, dogs, and maybe stolen bicycles, but in Asia, they're trying to track down that lost flip flop.
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No stretch limo? Just weld a couple of mini vans and station wagons together.
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I call "Not It" being the guy playing with power lines with a stick up his ass!
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If expensive sex change surgery is out of the question, there are easier and faster (but probably a little more painful) ways to get it done.
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Hell NO I'm not stepping foot inside the "Zippa Ripper" bar.
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Well you can't argue with the name of that bar.
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One of the NASTIEST things you'll see/eat in Southeast Asia (and that's saying something) is Balut - or semi-fertilized duck embryos. They walk around selling them to beer drinkers and it's like a delicacy .
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Just a random Korean tourist de-pantsing while standing on a bar in the middle of a crowd. No big deal.
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If your psychiatrist is named Dr. Meth...chances for a full recovery are not good.
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Wait, you said it's the black wire?
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Interesting name for a drug store, no?
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Is that a grenade?
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Well that's one way to attract customers.
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No. You. Didn't.
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Does anyone else find it super creepy that the spokesmodel for a sweet condensed creamer is a super-Arian blonde haired white kid...in Asia? Huh?
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My question isn't so much about this establishment that sells pre-rolled joints, marijuana-topped pizza, or Indian food...but why they have a photo of me tacked on above it. Seriously.
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It floods so much during the rainy season, that even this classroom in Thailand was underwater. No joke.
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We have our "Type AMEN and share to bring good luck" memes, and they have their weird cobra religious stuff going on memes.
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Now THAT'S my kind of gym!
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Most kids I grew up with went to soccer or science camp during the summer, but urology camp? Sounds like a blast.
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Either you're going to be preparing a lot of rental agreements, or they're promoting promiscuity.
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This is actually brilliant, as riding a moto or even a car through water in the rainy season will stall it and could permanently mess up the engine...unless you have a "snorkel."
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A "phone booth" in the Philippines.
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"Honey, do you want fried dwarf sperm with oyster sauce for dinner tonight?" "No, I had that last night. How about pizza?"
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I know it's someone's name, but it's funny that this accounting firm is named "Socheaty."
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This isn't a real image of course, but what's shocking is that people from Southeast Asia aren't quite sure at first...
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...because they really do pack every spare inch of every vehicle with as many people, boxes, and even animals as possible!
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Like this motorbike thats carrying a wide load (I like how the driver is on his cell phone instead of concentrating!)
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...or this van.
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When was the last time your mattress was delivered by a puny moto?
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Even animals are "transported" in close quarters. (Sorry, vegans.)
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Any place that's reasonably flat and in the shade is a good place to sleep.
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You see people wearing surgical masks everywhere in Asia because of pollution and fear of germs spreading/getting sick. But I've never seen a person wrap themselves completely in plastic on an airplane.
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...but I have seen a guy wearing a full-body mosquito net suit in the airport!
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Was the architect drunk?
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With SO many people living in close quarters in Asia, the burden on infrastructure like electrical lines is insane. It's not uncommon to see fires break out on the circuit boxes high up on the electrical lines. Fearing the fire will spread to nearby buildings and burn the whole block down, proactive citizens climb up and start throwing buckets of water on the fire (and the electrical box!) or start throwing water at it from their apartment windows. Insane!
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Pepperoni, pineapple, or scorpions pizza toppings?
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I have no idea but it's funny.
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There's nothing like a nice painting of a Chinese opium den to warm up your office waiting room.
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The electrical grid isn't the only thing that sucks in many parts of Asia, the Wi-Fi sucks, too. In fact, in many remote areas or on the islands (and especially in the Philippines where the telecommunications system is so corrupt), people take matters into their own hands by constructing these homemade Wi-Fi extenders for their phones and raising them high into the trees!
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Or sometimes you just have to get create your own Wi-FI signal!
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I have no idea. I really have no friggin idea.
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In Southeast Asia there is a common practice called "coining." When someone is sick or just not feeling well - no matter what the ailment - they take Tiger Balm and load it into the cap of the jar and scrape the shit out of their backs. They swear that it helps make them feel better. Tiger Balm does contain small amounts of aspirin, but it might be a lot less painful just to take some aspirin!
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The faces of child poverty in Asia.

6/6/2015

0 Comments

 
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As I travel around the world, I see so much poverty that it can become routine, a kaleidoscope of suffering always spinning in the background. But when I stop for a second and talk to these children, the beggars and hustlers and vendors on the streets who approach you for change or try and sell you a bracelet or bubblegum, I see their big, eager smiles, the glint of hope that hasn’t been burned out of their eyes quite yet. And when I chat with them you realize they’re just as funny, imaginative, and bursting with energy as our children here in the United States.

So I’ve compiled a few photos of poor street children from my recent stint living in Cambodia and the Philippines, two of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. This is just a very small sample of the children I’ve encountered and happened to shoot photos of. Every time I do so I ask permission, and/or give some money or food to them. Most of the time they’re thrilled, and want to look at their own photo in my phone or camera. I focus on helping children because they haven’t done anything to warrant their circumstances - they're not guilty of making bad choices. Instead, they’re born into the curse of poverty, and can’t fight for themselves. 

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There are far too many children in the world who eat like this - rooting through the trash to try and discover a few edible scraps that aren't too rotten, fighting off the rats and insects and sometimes, other people, for their supper. 

In fact, more than 1 billion children are living in poverty, according to UNICEF. 1 in 5 children around the world don’t even have clean drinking water, and around 1 in 4, enough food to eat. An alarming number of children don’t get the proper immunizations and die of easily preventable diseases like malaria, measles, and diarrhea – the three biggest killers of children that end about 500,000 young lives each year.

The statistics go on and on, but if we only quantify child poverty by numbers and statistics, our perceptions tend to slip from compassion to calculation, and we start defining them as problems, not people. So let’s focus on a different statistic: one. The number one is the only way to define each of these children. Each as their own person, their own mind and spirit, just like you or me.

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90% of the children affected by food insecurity end up suffering the effects of malnourishment, on both their bodies and minds. So some of these kids look like they’re 8 years old and then I’m shocked to hear they are 13, or something similar. They are lucky if they get one meal a day, usually a ball of rice or some mango or enough scraps to fill themselves up with 1,000 calories or so, and a sit down dinner with utensils and plates might be a very rare and special event.

I try not to give out out money to street kids. Too often, they’re sent out by gangs or even their own parents. The kids are forced to walk the streets to sell things or beg all day and night, only to turn over the money. Handing over money to kids who are sent out by adults only perpetuates the cycle.

So I ask if they are hungry and offer to buy them some food. Usually they agree happily, and point out the closest food vendor on the street or corner store. But I even have to be careful buying food, as the kids will try to run game on me. Inside the store, they ask if they can buy these big cans of condensed milk formula. At first I thought they wanted it because it was so nourishing, but I found out that bring the cans of milk back to the store later on for a refund, walking away with the cash after all.

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When I go in a corner store or mart with these kids, I make sure they buy food that they’re actually going to eat. I usually tell them they can get one thing only, because if you buy more than one thing for one, all the rest want the same . The most popular choice is a big bowl of instant noodles, followed by ice cream. Kids all over the world love ice cream, no matter where they are. They always try to sneak a can of Coca Cola or Red Bull up onto the counter for me to pay, but I make them buy a big bottle watered or milk to drink, instead. 

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It goes without saying that these kids are homeless, sleeping in public parks, bus stop benches, or right on the concrete of the sidewalk. They have no blankets or pillows, only a piece of cardboard, a sweatshirt, or the curb to rest their head. They wash in the sprinklers at the park, in an unused hose at a store, or in putrid water from an irrigation line. They own one pair of clothes and bathe and make their toilet right on the street; there is no modesty in poverty. 

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The little things that you and I take for granted are unimaginable luxuries to these kids. These little street girls in in Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, were amazed to see their own reflection in a car mirror, and giggled embarrassingly at their own vanity when I snapped a photo of them.

In poor countries, there are no government programs to help; no social security, food stamps, welfare, free medical care, or anything else for the poor. So these kids don't get the simple vaccines and immunizations that our kids enjoy. They are rife with worms and malaria and infections.
 
They hope for the charity of NGOs, orphanages, schools, or community centers that receive foreign aid or are set up by great, caring individuals. But corruption is also rampant among international NGOs, and even the good ones can only help a few.


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They live in the trash, some in communities that are built right on the city’s garbage dumps. There they walk barefoot, climbing piles of garbage and human waste, picking out metal or glass or things they can recycle for a few coins – or food to eat. Every year, tens of thousands of children around the world die in these dumps.

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Drug abuse is rampant. Too poor to buy proper drugs or alcohol, these kids starting sniffing glue, gasoline, paint thinner or other cheap toxic substances. It gives them a quick high and suppresses the hungry ache in their bellies, and is probably the only thing that gives them a break from the suffering in their lives. I see kids huffing rags or out of Baggies all the time, sometimes with their mothers doing it right next to them. Often times the kids are working the bar streets where tourists party, so they’ll drink the alcohol left in discarded beer cans. Eventually they graduate to Yabba, or ice, a cheap and deadly combination or meth, speed, and other horrible shit.

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They’re also starving for affection from parental figures, as most of them are raising themselves or their parents are off working all day and night. 

This little gangsta of love on the right is a homeless toddler who followed me about 4 blocks on my way walking to the riverfront to exercise, pestering me to pick him up and carried him the whole way. I thought we were looking for his mom but he brought me to the soda vendor because he wanted a drink. He then hung around through my workout and terrorized me afterward, whacking me on the head with a water bottle until I lifted him onto the jungle gyms repeatedly. I don't think you adopt kids in southeast Asia - they adopt you! 

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Too often, I see 6-year old children carrying around and raising their baby and toddler brothers and sisters, still expected to beg for money in traffic on the hot, polluted, and dangerous streets. 

If you happen to be up at 3am in any of southeast Asia's cities, you'll probably see more little street kids out hustling and working than you would at 3 in the afternoon.
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There is no shortage of schwag with these kids, as they try to emulate popular culture, or even their favorite hip hop fashions. These girls in the Philippines were doing their own impersonation of Tupac, complete with tongue rings (I scolded them and told them to take them out but of course they won’t) though they just looked like little kids again when I bought them ice creams.

They give each other nicknames like my little homie, Michael Jackson, in the Philippines and talk about “their style” when they see foreigner’s clothes and haircuts and glimpse the occasional YouTube video on someone else’s phone.



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They wear whatever they can salvage from the trash or what they find discarded, often with hilarious, comical, or in the case of the little girl to the left, beautiful results. 

Little kids often don't have any clothes at all and just run around naked and dirty, and most kids go barefoot unless they're lucky enough to find a pair of old flip flops.
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They’re amazing salespeople, striking up a conversation, pitching their product, handling objections, closing, and gaining commitment with the acumen of a 50-year old used car salesman. Whether they’re selling little hand woven bracelets or chewing gum, they’re real goal is to get a customer to buy something but also tip them generously, so they know how to look cute and make you laugh. I really think Fortune 500 companies from the U.S. should send their salespeople over to the streets of southeast Asia to observe how these kids do it.

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One consistent thing is their humor. Just because they are poor, these kids are no shrinking violets. Quite the opposite, they are bursting with personality and spirit. More often than not, they have me laughing like crazy at their wild antics and hilarity. They love it when you joke around with them, just like any youngsters.
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These street kids are vulnerable to some really bad shit: violent gangs, sexual exploitation by adults who force or sell them in prostitution from young ages. So most of the time, the kids don’t walk around and beg or dig in the trash  by themselves, but work the streets with other kids in little hungry packs. So when they one kid finds food or gets a donation from a tourist, they all can eat. There’s also safety in packs and frankly, being among other kids is more fun for them than being alone all day and night. 

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They are smart, yet they don’t go to school. Most of them haven’t spent even one day inside a classroom, but their school is the streets, and they are apt pupils. Quick witted, razor fast and perceptive, I encounter little kids all the time who speak three or four languages conversationally, just so they can try to engage foreign tourists and fill their bellies. In developing countries, even public schools aren’t free. You have to buy a uniform, schoolbooks, transportation, food at school, and bribe the teacher, who is paid miserable wages, to show up. It’s actually quite a costly affair, a luxury just for the rich and small middle class, so poor children are raised working the family job right alongside with adults – or in the streets.
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Poor little girls, especially, are kept out of school and put to work, picking mangos in the field, farming rice in the hot sun, or helping out with domestic tasks. Whether out of necessity to help feed their families or out of greed by an exploitative adult, these kids are sent out in the most dangerous and unhealthy of conditions: to sell flowers in busy traffic, shoeless on the hot pavement, to pickpocket drunk foreigners, chew up razor blades and juggle fire for the tourists, and walk the streets late at night going through the trash for empty beer cans. 

They even engage in scams, distracting a bar patron so another kid could steal his iPhone off the table, or sending a fall guy to get caught trying to steal a drunk tourist’s watch so others can rifle through his pocket.

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Indigenous people get the raw deal, no matter where you go in the world. Whether these Ati children in the Philippines, Aborigines in Australia, or Native Americans in our own U.S.A., the most ancient cultures in the world are abused and thrown away like garbage. In southeast Asia, like many parts of the world, there is also extreme prejudice based on skin color. Darker skinned people are considered lower class because they have more indigenous blood and might be dark from the sun from doing manual labor outdoors. A beautiful woman is called ugly and teased because no man will ever want to marry her just because she has brown skin. Asia’s terrible obsession with skin tone is big business, as you can barely find a skin crème, after shave, or lotion that advertises skin-whitening benefits.

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Once you treat them like any other kid – having fun and joking around but also laying down clear boundaries - I’ve found them to be incredibly polite, appreciative, and respectful. They want to eat, but they want to be your friend, too. Once I help them, they see me coming way down the street and run to say hi as if I was Santa Claus, high living and recounting the details of our meeting with surprising accuracy. Of course they want me to buy them food again, and of course I don't say "no." But they also want someone to look at them like human beings, not dismiss them as gutter trash.  Just like any mischievous, fun-loving kid in the U.S., they think they’re little superstars, just waiting to be discovered.

I tend to agree with them.


-Norm   :-)


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The long road home.

5/29/2015

1 Comment

 
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Last week in the Philippines, I was talking to a local friend over dinner. We got to talking about our families, and she told me this touching story about her childhood: 

“I grew up very fortunate, living in the countryside in the province. Our village was right on the side of a mountain and my dad was a miner so we did well. He made enough money that my mom could open up a little store and we had plenty to eat.

But others in the village were very poor. They’d come to my mom’s store and ask for a bag of rice or some medicine for their children, but they wouldn’t have enough money to pay.

“Please, I will pay you tomorrow,” they’d say, and she’d give it to them, even though she knew they couldn’t pay tomorrow, either. But she carried medicine at the store even though she made no money on it, and ay sundown when she heard the babies and children in the village crying from hunger, she’d always give out some rice. I had everything as a little girl, plenty of food and clothes and gold necklaces, and never had to be sent to the mountain to work like the other kids.

But when I was eight years old, things went bad when my father met another woman in our village. She was older than him and very rich, with many houses and gold since she owned the mine. They started having an affair, and soon my father left my mother. My mother was crushed, but I was too young to understand that my father wasn’t coming home anymore. I grew very sick with a broken heart.

My mother had no more money from his mining job. The store didn’t bring in much because she gave food to those who were hungry and medicine to those who were sick, even thought they could not pay. I grew even sicker and I stopped eating. I only wanted to see my daddy. For months, I didn’t eat anything but liquids and I grew so thin that even the doctors thought I would soon die. My mother tried to take me to more doctors and buy me medicine, but she had no money. And there was no medicine for my broken heart. My mother sold everything in the store and then the store itself and started selling our furniture just to keep our house and enough food. But I did not eat. I only watched the window every day, lying on my bamboo matt on the floor because I was too weak and sick to even sit up, waiting for my father to come home. There was nothing more my mother could do because I refused to ear, and she was heartbroken, herself.

The rich older woman was in love with my father, and wanted him to come to the big city. She had a beautiful house there where they could live with servants and always be comfortable and he would never have to work again. He agreed, and they took their things and went to the bus station to travel to the city.

But once they got there, he couldn’t stop thinking of his children and his family. Their bus was leaving soon so he told the rich woman that he had to go to the bathroom. He left her side and all of his suitcases but instead of going to the bathroom, he went to the ticket counter and bought a ticket for the next bus back toward our village. He never went back to her, but got on the bus and left.

I was so sick that there was nothing anyone could do and my mother was waiting for me to die, but I wouldn’t eat. I had such a bad fever sometimes that I would say crazy things and see things that weren’t there. Sometimes I’d call out to my father. My mother had no choice but to ignore me after a while.

But one afternoon, I thought saw someone walking on the long dirt road that ran into our village from the main road, where the buses ran. I was dizzy with fever but I thought I saw a man walking towards us. I knew I was sick so I thought I must be seeing crazy things again, because it looked like my father. But I watched him walking, and even thought he was still far off, I could tell it was my father.

I cried out to my mother that my father was walking home, but she dismissed me as having feverish dreams once again and went back to doing the wash. I called out again when he was closer, but my mother just swept the floor. Finally, when he was so close that I could see his face and I knew it was actually my father and not a dream, I cried out to my mother again.

My mother turned around and dropped her broom with what she saw. It was him.

He walked up to the home and came inside. He saw that there was no furniture and his daughter was very skinny on the floor. He hugged me first.

“Is everything Ok?” he asked my mother.

“No, everything is not ok,” my mother said. “We have no food or medicine and our daughter is very sick. She hasn’t been able to eat rice or solid food in months. She just drinks. She is going to die and the doctors don’t know what it is.”

He hugged me again, and then hugged my mother. He apologized and she hugged him back and they both cried, because she knew he was home for good and her heart opened up to him again.

“Mommy,” I said. “Can I have some rice? I am hungry.””

My friend told me that she ate well from that day on, and grew healthy again. Her father moved back in and her mother forgave him. He tried to go back to work but he couldn’t work in the mine again, and they didn’t have money to open the store, so they were poor. But the people in the village remembered that the family had been good to them and shared what they had. Things were not easy, but somehow, there was always enough.

Her father and mother never left each other’s side again, and lived the rest of their many years together until he passed away around Christmas, the year before. 



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    Norm Schriever

    Norm Schriever is a best-selling author, expat, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. He travels the globe, telling the stories of the people he finds, and hopes to make the world a little bit better place with his words.   

    Norm is a professional blogger, digital marketer for smart brands around the world,  and writes for the Huffington Post, Hotels.com, and others.

    Check out South of Normal his Amazon.com best-selling book about life as an expat in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

    Cambodia's School of Hope explores education and empowerment in impoverished Cambodia, with 100% of sales going to that school.

    The Book Marketing Bible provides 99 essential strategies for authors and marketers.

    Pushups in the Prayer Room, is a wild, irreverent memoir about a year backpacking around the world.  

    Follow Norm on Twitter @NormSchriever or email any time to say hi!

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Norm Schriever

Email:     [email protected]