The City of Angels: White Oleander

The past 48 hours have been a whirlwind. I've never felt so many intense emotions at once. I'm currently living in a "dorm" sort of situation with some of the older kids that the Mercy Centre sponsors. There are six of us and I live just a 2 minutes walk from the actual foundation and schools. One or two of the girls I live with speak English because they are on scholarship studying in the states- a lot are in the midwest, one is at Clarke University outside of Boston, one is in Portland and another went to school in North Carolina. Most of the girls are just back for the summer and will leave here in August to go back to school. They are so unbelievably kind and helpful. Although, I've already been told by them that I should not leave the house after dark because where we live it is very dangerous. It's hard because I've always enjoyed my independence and I love walking to clear my mind, but come 7pm I am in for the night- and no internet, which slows down the blogging process.

Everyone keeps telling me this is a life changer- already I have attended Mass in Thai with 200 kids, some with HIV/AIDS, others who have been orphaned by the disease and others that are healthy and attend a Mercy school. I have seen kids no older than 12 riding motorbikes up and down the "turn around" street (they don't like to call it a "dead end"). Most taxi drivers in the city either don't know where the Mercy Centre is or won't drive you there.

I've taken over 200 picutes in just the past 48 hours, so I will have to edit them down for this post. I'll wrap this up with a quote my beautiful and amazing sister sent to me today when I was feeling overwhelmed-

"Who am I? I am who I say I am and tomorrow someone else entirely. You are too nostalgic, you want memory to secure you, console you. The past is a bore. What matters is only oneself and what one creates from what one has learned. Imagination uses what it needs and discards the rest - where you want to erect a museum. Don't hoard the past, Astrid. Don't cherish anything. Burn it. The artist is the pheonix who burns to emerge." (From the book White Oleander)

And with that and the love from the kids surrounding this magical place I feel better.

IMPROMPTU PHOTO SHOOT WITH THE KIDS RUNNING AROUND ON THE STREET. I was just sitting on the steps of the Mercy Centre facing the street and they came over to see what I was doing- these and about 120 others are what followed...