Sustainable farming is a go!

Great news! so we met with A-mow today and went to the village where they want to do the sustainable farming. we listed our terms and conditions and after some back and forth, came to an agreement (pretty much A-mows original plans) and we figured we have enough to fund 4 families with the works. They will each get pigs, chickens, fish and stuff to grow seeds. We pay the money upfront for the 4 families for the supplies and in one years' time, when the next HELP group get here, each family that received this year will give half of their goods to another family. In one years time from then, the next HELP group with over see the next families and so on. Pretty sustainable if I do say so myself. If things go to plan we will buy the stuff we need this Saturday and start building on Monday. Our goal is to have everything set up and finished by the time we leave. A-mow will oversee the progress of the families. Another plus is that the 4 families are the village preacher, the village leader, the woman's organization leader and another leader. So it will be good to see how they progress next year. Anyway this is just a quick update we are all pretty excited about.

some of what the pig stalls will look like. 

Pigs have two litters a year of anywhere from 8 to 12 piglets. 

Here A-mow is explaining to us about how his NGO has done sustainable farming in the past at the village where we will continue it. 

I think he was showing us random plants we could eat.

This is a garden that will be replicated for the families. 

update 2nd wave

This is my beard at a month. The next day I shaved it to a nice mustache. 

This is a shout out to my Dad and uncles pictures. Can you see the resemblance?

These guys were actually pretty easy to ride. They have a really flat back and if you ever wondered about what it felt like to ride a giant chicken, or a raptor, this is about what it feels like. 

So you hold onto the wings and they put a bag over its head and then when they pull the bag off you just start flying haha.

This is a cute Karen girl from the long neck tribe. 

A karen woman. Really nice but not what we expected. We wanted to see their village and talk with them. Not shop for row after row of scarves. On a side note I nearly bought elephant tusks...for 10 bucks...is that worth life in prison? haha

This is a picture of the scouting trash clean up we did

We were presented at the monk school with some pretty cool stuff. This is a bag with the princesses emblem on it. 

The teachers in the uniforms are government workers and the other teachers are either volunteers or were hired by the school.

does it really surprise you that this is a boys room. monks or not, boys are still boys. 

Just a taste of how tan I am really getting haha. this was a waterfall that we went to after church one Sunday. 

At 9-cool with Sujung. they sell different desserts there like cake and creme brule.  

This is a children's rights outreach that we participated in with 6 different schools. It was pretty much a stay in school program. It was really cheap and really effective. 

Hey mom! I was cast as the sunshine background!!

The Artists house we stayed at. His house is in an interior design magazine lol. 

He took us to visit all his other artist friends who are world renowned. 

Stephen and I always had a matching problem. 

my favorite picture of his friends artwork. 

then he took us to a temple and we saw more of his other friends stuff. 

another friends ceramic village. He just had tons and tons of stuff.

this guy is the most famous artist in Thailand. He bought me breakfast. His stuff is mindblowing. 

The great hall. Those are anaconda skins on the tables.

the whole floor was covered in alligator skins

just so you can get perspective on how big the monster in the middle of the room was, this is how big each shell is to my foot. 

Our fourth of July parade!!

A-mow taking us to different villages to see their pigs and how they farm. we are planning on helping other villagers start their own farms.

this rooster was wrapped in suran wrap. lol it was falling asleep so i had to take a pic. 

my last day at the monk school!