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Carrie McKean

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One challenge we won’t face here…

Posted on September 13, 2008 by carriemckeanwrites

Love and prayers to our friends and family in the path of Hurricane Ike. It is a little weird being half a world away when something “big” hits close to home.

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A year ago this was covered in trees. Now it’s tarps and bamboo and tin... a whole city with a population that’s nearly impossible to count. Some say 700,000. Some say a million. A year ago these Rohingya lived across a river in Myanmar. And now they are here... waiting in lines for bags of rice stamped with the USAID or the World Food Program’s logo. Standing outside the temporary hospital Doctors Without Borders constructed. Gathered around tables at “acute childhood malnutrition” clinics run by NGOs from every corner of the world. Sitting outside their shelters or in little makeshift shops that are low on customers and high on possibility. Waiting... waiting... waiting... we stand at the top of a hill and all I see in every direction are these makeshift homes. I’m still thinking about all that I saw and learned today... trying to make sense of it all and make it fit with the world I know at home. I’m waiting too, I guess...

Like so many cities, Bangkok is a city of contrasts. Lavish breakfasts on rooftop terraces of nice hotels, with orchids spilling out of trees and servers bringing lattes. And whole communities and industries that pop up alongside the railroad track.

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“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”

-Rumi

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