Tai Ming and I

Tai Ming is a little girl living at Wat Opot with her mother.
Tai Mings mother has AIDS and Tai Ming has HIV.
Tai Mings mother walks very slow with a walking stick around the grounds at WAT OPOT and she doesn't communicate with or smiles at other people much. She lives in her own world now.
Tai Ming doesn't talk much either and doesn't attend school, she also lives much in her own world.
Tai Ming has not put on the anti viral drugs by the doctor; Wayne doesn't know why this decision hasn't made yet, because she is not well and she gets reocurring skin infections,like herpes and she is very thin.
Cambodia is not New Zealand,a western country with all the medical services at our fingertips, but a developing country were decisions are sometimes not as clear cut.
The first time I met Tai Ming was very special.
I arrived at WAT OPOT and felt very unsure of what would happen at WAT OPOT and if I could stay there for five weeks.
We had lunch with Wayne and the other volunteers and after lunch everyone left and did their own thing as you would.
That afternoon the New Zealand volunteers organized games for the children and after the rain the games went still ahead in a slighty muddy way!
I was watching the children and volunteers and felt very lonely and far from home and asked why am I here?
Then this little girl came over to me and looked at me with her big eyes and climbed on my lap and nestled herself against me.
She wasn't the most beautiful of the children and her clothing was not the cleanest and nicest either, but when I think back at that moment tears well up in my eyes.
Tai Ming looked deep into my soul and all my fears subsided.
I knew at that moment God send me to WAT OPOT and that my life would never be the same again from the moment Tai Ming climbed on my lap.
The time I have spend at WAT OPOT Tai Ming became my special friend and every morning she came over to the volunteers quarters to see me and say hello.
Tai Ming could say my name Marijke very well and repeated my English perfect.
I loved being with her and she is a very bright little girl eager to learn, we did painting together and reading English picture books.
The day before I left Tai Ming spend a long time with me, cuddled against me as if she knew I was leaving.
The day we left I didn't see her, she wasn't there when we said goodbye to the children,teachers and Wayne.
I hope to see her again,my little soul mate Tai Ming.