Beautiful Lanna style house: Warm Heart offices and orphanage

The Thais call the north “up-country”. This is a region dotted with cozy villages, red-dirt roads, roosters, and unfortunately—a lot of smoke. Every year for three-to-four months, farmers to clear their fields by burning everything. Although hazy, it is beautiful here. Many evenings as I sit in meditation, I can hear a monk chanting in the distance, or the tinny sound of Thai music blaring on a radio. One evening it was so hot that I left my door open and watched night fall, quietly blanketing everything in darkness. 

A group of American volunteers from EF First spent time with the orphans. Below, they are making baskets, weaving them using discarded coffee wrappers (3-in-1 packets)

A Village Funeral

Warm Heart founders Michael and Evelind, and Director of Operations, PJ. They invited me to attend the funeral of a local villager. From the array of dishes and people chatting at tables, it could’ve been a celebration. I had barely sat down when they told me to help myself to the buffet. This funeral had its priorities: First order of business—feed the guests.

Nearly the entire village attended to pay respects.

The coffin will be pulled along the roads to a secluded area to be burned in the forest.

My first English lesson.

Presenting this lesson again acted as redemption for me as I bombed it the first time around during my teaching practice. For those of you who believe Thai children are uniformly respectful to their elders—think again! Children are children, and when they don’t want to listen and also out-number the teacher, guess who bombs out on her lesson?

These were not my students but students of my classmate. I love the hair bows.

Teaching A, B, and C

These are some of my students, brothers A, B, and C. They were found three years ago living in an orchard. A villager brought them to Warm Heart where they have been living ever since. When they arrived, they did not speak any Thai, and obviously no English. It is mind boggling that they are fluent in Thai and also my strongest students in English.

They are amazingly bright, and complete every task I ask them to do without fail—although the other day when I told A we would have English class at 2pm, he began to fake-bawl-his-eyes-out. But at the end of class, he’s the one who shouts, “Thank you teacher!”

They have excellent recall, and when I drill them, they mostly answer correctly. When they don’t, it’s no big deal. However, when their youngest brother C gets an answer wrong, A slaps him upside the head “thwack”—then B slaps him upside the head “thwack”. I fear poor C has dents in his head.

Stop the Smoke

Warm Heart hosted a fundraising event—”Stop the Smoke”—in Chiang Mai, held at the gorgeous hotel, 137 Pillars House.

Founder Michael explained how our nonprofit has been working to get the local farmers to buy-in to making biochar and discontinue slashing and burning their fields. Warm Heart has secured an agreement with a village in which they will make biochar, and Warm Heart will buy it. As Evelind put it, ” We are literally buying smoke out of the air.”

Warm Heart hosted the fundraiser in a gorgeous meeting room.

Life on Campus

Although I have only been here a short while, I can see that Warm Heart brings stability and normalcy to children who otherwise would continue to live in constant chaos. Here, C is riding around a two-year old who came to us earlier this year. B zooms past while the dog trots along on his rounds.

Beautiful Lanna style house: Warm Heart offices and orphanage

The Thais call the north “up-country”. This is a region dotted with cozy villages, red-dirt roads, roosters, and unfortunately—a lot of smoke. Every year for three-to-four months, farmers to clear their fields by burning everything. Although hazy, it is beautiful here. Many evenings as I sit in meditation, I can hear a monk chanting in the distance, or the tinny sound of Thai music blaring on a radio. One evening it was so hot that I left my door open and watched night fall, quietly blanketing everything in darkness. 

A group of American volunteers from EF First spent time with the orphans. Below, they are making baskets, weaving them using discarded coffee wrappers (3-in-1 packets)

A Village Funeral

Warm Heart founders Michael and Evelind, and Director of Operations, PJ. They invited me to attend the funeral of a local villager. From the array of dishes and people chatting at tables, it could’ve been a celebration. I had barely sat down when they told me to help myself to the buffet. This funeral had its priorities: First order of business—feed the guests.

Nearly the entire village attended to pay respects.

The coffin will be pulled along the roads to a secluded area to be burned in the forest.

My first English lesson.

Presenting this lesson again acted as redemption for me as I bombed it the first time around during my teaching practice. For those of you who believe Thai children are uniformly respectful to their elders—think again! Children are children, and when they don’t want to listen and also out-number the teacher, guess who bombs out on her lesson?

These were not my students but students of my classmate. I love the hair bows.

Teaching A, B, and C

These are some of my students, brothers A, B, and C. They were found three years ago living in an orchard. A villager brought them to Warm Heart where they have been living ever since. When they arrived, they did not speak any Thai, and obviously no English. It is mind boggling that they are fluent in Thai and also my strongest students in English.

They are amazingly bright, and complete every task I ask them to do without fail—although the other day when I told A we would have English class at 2pm, he began to fake-bawl-his-eyes-out. But at the end of class, he’s the one who shouts, “Thank you teacher!”

They have excellent recall, and when I drill them, they mostly answer correctly. When they don’t, it’s no big deal. However, when their youngest brother C gets an answer wrong, A slaps him upside the head “thwack”—then B slaps him upside the head “thwack”. I fear poor C has dents in his head.

Stop the Smoke

Warm Heart hosted a fundraising event—”Stop the Smoke”—in Chiang Mai, held at the gorgeous hotel, 137 Pillars House.

Founder Michael explained how our nonprofit has been working to get the local farmers to buy-in to making biochar and discontinue slashing and burning their fields. Warm Heart has secured an agreement with a village in which they will make biochar, and Warm Heart will buy it. As Evelind put it, ” We are literally buying smoke out of the air.”

Warm Heart hosted the fundraiser in a gorgeous meeting room.

Life on Campus

Although I have only been here a short while, I can see that Warm Heart brings stability and normalcy to children who otherwise would continue to live in constant chaos. Here, C is riding around a two-year old who came to us earlier this year. B zooms past while the dog trots along on his rounds.

This is up-country!