“Hello, gods and spirits of this land, my name is Yoshimi Horiuchi.
We will renovate this house to be used as a community library.
I will try my best to utilize this place for the entire community, so please protect us…”
Yes, I greeted out loud.
The village monk told us that if we wanted our activity to flow smoothly, we need to start renovating this month.
So for the first time in my life, I held an ax in my hand and tare off a part of a door.
Indeed, we REALLY are going to move into a new location!
For 32 years, I have no idea how many times I have my hair cut, but this very day, I have got a chance to touch their scissors for the first time in life!
You see, for blind kids (and grownup kids like me), if we don’t have a chance just to touch, we have no idea how anything look like.
I have always imagined that they must be much bigger scissors.
It may be something so trivial for you who can see, but it’s very important memory for me now.
You cannot imagine how many things around our life I have no idea how their shapes are, like doctor’s instruments, things that are used in professional kitchen, etc. etc., just because we don’t have a chance to feel them with our 2 little hands tongue emoticon
If you know any blind kids, let them feel everything around them! It’s easier to do when they are small–a bit awkward to ask when we are grown up, hahaha.
Today, we opened our third early childhood center, Little Smiles Center, in Mae Waen Noi Village, Mae Waen Sub District, Phrao, Chiang Mai. This will be the biggest center, starting in May with 16 Lisu tribe children and 2 staff. Many people say that the building looks the most gorgeous, too!
The building would not have been here if it was not for the enormous support given by Eco Peace, a nonprofit organization in Japan, who sponsored the entire construction cost for us. We must also mention that this is the result of continuous hard work by Albert and Peter, volunteers from the Dragonfly Community Foundation, who designed and built it as the team leaders together with the entire village of Mae Waen Noi Village. Our British volunteers, Charlotte and Esme, contributed a lot as well, participating in every step starting from brick-making, all the way to decorating the outer walls with delicate mosaic made of broken tiles and glasses.
Since we started this projects, there has been some moments that we thought we may need to cancel the project due to some difficulties, but we could welcome this day thanks to the perseverance and encouragement from many of you.
We will be closed for a week for Thai new year holidays, so please be patient to wait for the other photos of this event.
Thank you so much for your help, and happy Songkran to everyone!
