On October 20, 2007, we finally got round to visiting the MC Sisters of Chom Chao – "HOME of PEACE". I called Sr. Karol, a Singaporean, to arrange for our visit. There are 48 children (1-16 years old) with positive HIV AIDS in their home. I prepared some candies and snacks for the visit.
It so happened that we had Fr. Jim Noonan, a Maryknoll priest at tea the day before our visit. Fr. Jim is very active in the AIDS programs, especially the LITTLE SPROUTS. When we shared about our upcoming visit to the sisters, he told us to go visit the brothers too as they were just next door, a mere ten minutes’ walk away.
Chom Chao is 45 minutes from where we are and thank goodness, we booked a car to take us, as (instead of the tuk-tuk) National Route 3 is a busy road with heavy trucks. The locals know the Home of Peace as "PET INDIA", which means 'Hospital India'. They do not run a hospital, per say. They operate a dispensary on Saturdays. It was very crowded when we got there. Sr. Karol did not have much time to spend with us, as she had to help at the dispensary.
Sr. Lily, the superior of the house gave us a mini-tour of the home. Thus when we reached the wing of the children's home the children surrounded me immediately, as I was the only one with a bag of candies in my handbag.
I guessed the children could "smell" the candies. I had little hands digging earnestly into my bag and Sr. Lily had to help me to restrain some of them. As we went along the corridor, we had more kids coming up to greet us, and reaching for my bag. Some children made another beeline for my bag. They asked me for more sweets but I had to tell them that I had to keep some for the rest of their friends. Cheekily they told me, "MUI" and showed me their little finger ‘only give me one please'. There was this little boy who had one candy in his hand and when I pointed that out to him, he immediately unwrapped that candy and popped it into his mouth, and he got his "mui" candy.
These children stay in the home 24 hours seven days a week and the sisters take good care of them. Some of the older ones go to the local school and are integrated into the classes but only the teachers know their history, as they do not want the children to be ostracized by their classmates.
Frances and Theresa even managed to feed two toddlers their lunch for a while before we were informed that Brother Barnabas was waiting for us to visit his community. What Fr. Jim said about the distance was completely out of reality. It was a 10 minutes drive to the home! The HOME of HOPE is very different from the Home of Peace. The home occupies four acres of land and the community consists of four members. The home also takes in mentally challenged individuals, besides HIV positive and AIDS patience.
The Brothers also have a "little" school, with one teacher teaching Khmer and English. There are a couple of government schools nearby and thus only those who cannot afford to send their children to the paying school come here. However, the English class is extremely popular. More students turn up for class and some even turn up as early as noon, even though class starts at two in the afternoon.
We enjoyed our brief tour of both the Home of Peace and the Home of Hope. It has been heartening to see that the less privileged are well taken care of. We do hope that we can be of help to them too.
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