We need each other

Early last Sunday morning, I was going to the cathedral for mass and I came across this whole team of women cleaning the footpath.  There were so many of them on one simple task.  They were working along Silom which is a major street.  With all of them on the footpath, you had to revert to using the road to walk.  What first struck me is that this is how Thais best operate - doing things together.  So I took the photo thinking that this so typifies the Thai approach to life. 

What I did not realise was that this was a precursor to my week which featured a three day regional workshop run by UNHCR.  It is because this workshop was all about partnering - partnering between UNHCR and all those agencies and others helping refugees.  The bottom line presented was that the refugee situation throughout the world is at a crisis level with UNHCR acknowledging that it cannot go it alone as it lacks a budget and resources to meet the need.  So they now turn to their partners in a special effort wherever and whoever they may be to work closer together for the good of the world's refugees. 

The ideal of working together remains the optimal way to go in all things as it shares resources and more importantly builds up relationships.  In our world ideals often become more a reality when the bottom line tells us that something is wrong and something different has to happen.  Our world can be so short term focused that we sacrifice good ideals which then come to the fore only when needed. What is worse is when I see ones using ideals as a way to get their own message across.  What I hate is the boss who proclaims teamwork but then acts to divide the team to get his own way.  I see this in church so often.  Working together is hard work and demands commitment and patience.  It is the way to go as I know only too well that I can't do it alone.  That is the truth. 

As I met ones working with UNHCR and other agencies from throughout Asia responding to refugees, I was struck by their simplicity and humility and their passion for a population in dire need.  In this group, there was a lot of skill and goodwill.  I was impressed. 

I look at the Thai women in this picture doing a simple and menial task and I can see how they have a real message for me.  Being there, I knew they were enjoying doing their work as they were doing it together.  They were getting the job done with a degree of enjoyment.  There is the lesson.  Whatever we do, it is more enjoyable and rewarding and more productive, when done together.