Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. Many things have gone on and I have some time today to update everyone. I wish I had my journal in front of me because everyday seems like it was packed full of things and crazy experiences. Since I don't I will have to just go from memory. Last Monday was Buddah's Birthday so we didn't have to teach any English at the schools. I skyped mom and dad and it was really good to hear from them. I think I woke them up but I am glad I could remember mom's cell phone number off the top of my head. The weather is significantly nicer here and it is becoming more and more a tropical paradise. We have learned to just expect it to rain at least once a day and since a lot of our time is traveling from one project to the next, getting caught in the down pour is pretty expected. At least I think it is lol. It will be hot and humid when we get in the car and I may look a little funny bringing my rain jacket. But 20 minutes into the drive when it's dumping buckets I dont look so stupid. We may have about 6 or 9 of us in the back of the truck when we are traveling so we started carrying a large green tarp with us. We are really good at throwing it over ourselves in a flash.

OK so quick explainations

Our Truck needs to be push started every time we go. We are getting pretty good at getting it going in just a few feet. Nat our country director is on the far left, I am the one next to him. Next to me is A-maow, one of the NGO directors. He is the one that works with the hill tribes we are working with. And then Steven is on the far right.

 Here is one of our tarp adventures while it is pouring buckets as we drive. Yes I am the only one prepared witha rain Jacket. My North Face never stops amazing me.

 Here is a few older pictures. (older as in a few weeks ago. It feels like months already). This is us finished carrying Giant cement pillars up a hill to a house that we are building. We need about 275.00 to finish the roof so if you would like to donate, a little goes a long long way here. http://help-international.org/donate-now.

 Just riding an elephant...no biggie. I am about 4 shades darker now than in that first picture haha.

Ronald knows how to adapt to different cultures. Too bad his food is still junk.

So I cant remember if I sent pictures of us building the sink or not but we finished it. Thanks to you and all of your donations, these elementary school children (about 400) now have clean running water at their school. We wanted to take advantage of the new resource and although I wasnt involved with this specific project, some of the other members put together a teeth brushing, hand washing assembly at the school. It was a hit and the sink looks amazing. So thank you all again.  

Here is Nat translating for our other members at the assembly.

On sunday after church, we went for a nice hike near Chiang Rai. It lead us to a beautiful waterfall. More pictures coming soon.

Here are some more pictures of the house we demolished and of us bringing more supplies up to the site. Like I said, we are short 275.00 to finish the roof. Help international alots so much money to the house and the NGO that helped us find and price it can only donate so much. So if we are short we are asked to fund-raise however we can.  http://help-international.org/donate-now. we pushed the wall down with our bare hands....we hope to build stronger ones haha.

 My Keens (shoes/sandle guys) are amazing btw. Best investment yet.

 So on Buddah's birthday we went to the top of the temple and got to see the assembly of most all of our little town. Everyone was so humble and reverent that it was pretty breath taking. They even encouraged us to participate in the worship. So we held incense rubber-banded to a candle and some sage and walked around the temple 3 times (pondering our own "spiritual identity") and then stuck the still lit candle and insence in pot holders to continue to burn out. I felt it was very appropriate and I was glad I didn't miss the opportunity to experience how other people come closer to their sense of self worth.

This ugly as sin creature is Chico. He showed up the second day and is our land-lady's dog. Well one of them. He warmed up to me fast. He chews and bites on everything, barks at nothing. I trained him to sit, Laydown and not to bite. I used the hand signals I learned from jake teaching his pup sarah. It looks like a rat wet and smells just as bad sometimes. Barks at 6:00am everyday. Howls with the rest of the mutts out there. I took him into the shower with me and shampooed him with head and shoulders. Maybe thats why he runs at the first site of a tipping water bottle... anyway hes pretty much good for nothing but he is very entertaining and I have been greatful to have some sort of dog here. I have trained him to attach the giant bugs that gather at night around my room lol! That is one of the best things I have trained him to do by far. Oh Chico. I have also been dubbed "the dog whisperer" here because strays and domesticated dogs alike seem to gravitate toward a friendly hand. I have also named a few other dogs named Ozzy, Mac Gruff and Grandpa. Chico is by far the most pathetic but how could you say no to a pitiful face like that? lol as I was writting that, a dog came into the shop, I patted its head and it rested his head on my lap as I typed and semi-fell asleep haha. dont worry mom, I wash my hands frequently and stay away from the ones with protruding ribs and visible diseases.

This weekend we are going to go to a place called "the good news church". That is where we were going in the picture with us in the tarp. They are a church run orphanage of 100 kids. It is clean, beautiful and an all around happy place. All the kids go to school and 12 of them are attending college. They built 7 modest homes for 7 widows to live out their lives on and every kid is well taken care of. This weekend we are going to stay the night on Friday night, watch a movie with them, then on saturday we are going to help them with their many chores to keep their complex tidy and then put on an activity day. My station is going to be juggling soccer balls. I have about 11 balls that we will give to the kids. I am really stoked. Other stations include, yoga, zumba, guitar, 4 square, hair dressing and grooming, hand washing and hygene. Just to name a few.

I also plan on volunteering with a local soccer team after school to help with set up and take down and drills. I think the kids are ages 15-18 so I will have to bring my A-game.

Mr. Diamond

Hey Everyone! Here are some more photos of what we have been up to. I still havent been able to upload any of my own. We are getting closer to figuring things out though. Today is Wednesday and so much has happend already. Steven and I went to the monk school about 2 hours away. We werent really sure what we should expect. All the boys were dressed in bright orange and their heads and eyebrows were shaved. Actually when we got off the bus we were picked up by a science teacher named Beck. They are short teachers over at the school so even if you graduate in Biophysics, if you are relatively good at english, you become an english teacher lol. Kinda sad but he was happy that we were going to be there. he was pretty good at English and bought us breakfast. At the school all the kids were shy and nervous to talk to us. Then this spitfire of a woman jogs up to us and starts speaking english at 90 miles an hour! Her name is "one" " the best one" so she says. she was sooooo funny and had all the boys laughing all day. I didnt know that women could teach monks at their primary school but there were a few girls that taugh there as well. We had a blast getting to know the guys and their "nick names".


  There normal names are too long so they all have nick names. haha but they will be random objects. So we met with kids named, wood, boy, monk, sam, woody, timmy, Shy (that kid was 16, 6'1" and about 260 lbs and he was very shy) haha so it made it all the better. We also had a "what" and our favorite "Beer". We really wanted to say "what is your name?" which he would have to respond. "what?" haha then we wanted to say "boy go get wood and beer" lol but of course we didnt abuse the idea. Steven got a Thai name. He was dubbed "gold' and I really didn't want to be silver but fortunately they suggested Diamond. So they all call me Mr. Diamond. on the way back home our taxi driver made about 7 personal stops to mail a package, buy some fruit, chat is up with is elderly women friends. Thats how things go around here and its really nice to not be in a rush all the time. Definately a poly-chonic lifestyle.


over the weekend we went to Chiang-Rai and had so much fun. Mom, we went to the Royal Princess mothers Villa. Think of 2 thousand different flowers in a swiss landscaped mountainside. If you ever make it to Thailand, forget Bangkok or Phuket, come here. It will sweep you off your feet. Ill try to send you a link or something. We split and a bunch of people went to go camping while a few of us, myself included, stayed at a hotel for 10 bucks a night. warm soft and clean beds and rooms, breakfast in the morning. it was great. that night we went to the Chiang-rai night market. It's a half mile long in one direction and then another half mile back the other direction.


This week we have been working on building a house for a local village. It burned down and the husband left the wife and son. To me it sounds like he wasnt the greatest guy to start with. Tuesday we hauled about 2 hundred Cinderblocks up a hill and then 6 concrete pillars. We ended up carrying them with bamboo poles with two people on each side. The village didnt have wheel barrols or anything to help us other than bamboo. Today we went back and cleared the rubble from the first day. a few uf us rocked the standing walls back and forth until they fell over, not the safest method for a 7 foot cinderblock wall, but it worked. This girl Sydney jump-kicked it first and the whole things swayed and the villagers were freaking out haha. We carried buckets of sand and clearned rubble without brooms. we just used our feet. When we asked our translator for the tribal language why others in the village weren't helping only watching he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "it isnt their house" lol.


tomorrow we go back and put the walls up and buy the sheet metal. on our drive back we got hit by rain and everyone in the back of the truck was soaked to the bone. Fortunately we are entering into the rainy season and temperatures are cooling way down. Now it is only around 85 with 90% humidity which feels like Heaven.

Early in the mornings before work beings, Sydney and whoever else wants to come and I go bouldering at a local resort for free. On the way over we stopped by some cows and greeted their children.

 

 

 Keeping up with some Korean traditions, Su-Jung and I drank the river mountain water. She later told me she just pretended...

pictures from the night market. the random peice of paper in there was the Taxi cab drivers number. He was a life saver and we called him often to pick us up and take us places. His name was "Mr. Oh"

This is a sink that we are working on for a local elementary school. They finished it over the weekend so I will put them up next time. Yes, the sink really is that long. There are 400 some odd kids there so they need a looooong sink.

I know it looks like comb-over man and I are holding hands but we weren't His wife on the other hand, in the yellow, was getting very friendly.

In order to go into the Princess Mothers Villa we couldnt wear shorts or skirts so the place provided coverings.

elephants and paint

Here are some long awaited photos of a little of what we have been doing. I havent been able to upload any of my own pictures but thankfully we have a ton of camera crazy people here who post their stuff onto facebook and tag me in their pictures! So here they are! 

We visited schools before we started to work with them 7 in all. Mondays are nationally declared "english days" so we will be splitting up in 2s and one group of 4 to teach english all day on Mondays starting next week. We loved the kids so much and they warmed up to us really fast. The kids are making a sign the means water buffalo above me and my friend sue jung had to wrestle them to all get into the picture. She helps me with my Korean and I help her with her English. I am speaking more Korean than I have in a long time and its really nice to have someone constantly there to correct your "little" mistakes. A guy named Steven and I wont be going to any of these schools. We have the special honor of going to a Buddhist monestary about a 2 hour truck-taxi ride away into the mountains to teach the new little monks english. we will teach grades 7-12. yes they all have shaved heads and wear bright orange robes.

some crazy elephant wanted my ice cream that I worked really hard for. what you didnt see was my flying back hand to the animals trunk. followed by him picking me up and tossing me into the river....we rode elephants for a half hour which was really neat. The only problem I had was it was super uncomfortable and there arent any "weed" restrictions here so most the drivers were lighting up and offering haha. I did not partake.

Here is just one of the now 3 schools that we have painted their playgrounds. We did this one on a Saturday and on monday came back and watched the kids play a little bit. They were stoked and were happy for our hard work.

Here is the group. Minus the two country directors.

Being so far out in the country forces you to be proactive. Sydney and I (girl in the white) stopped by this little mans house and talked to him about anything he needed us or HELP to do for him. He said he would keep us posted but told us that he was impressed by our sincerity.

The other day Steven, Nat (Country director) and I went to the Monk school and on the way back caught a taste of what is was like to be in rain. the back of the taxi is open because you are pretty much riding in a flatbed with no tailgate and a cabin over you. the water flooded into the cabin as we drove and the we heard a large CRASH. A tree had fallen right in front of us! we all looked at eachother and then Jumped out in the pouring, freakishly wet, rain to clear the road of the tree. in less than a second we were drenched to our underwear and when we got done there were a line of cars honking and saying their thanks. the little boy in the taxi with us russled through his back pack and pulled out a grape gatoraid and handed it to me. service tasted great.

This morning we drove out to the hill tribes and helped a local NGO set up a credit union in the tribe. Today was more of a "see what we do" and next week or in the following weeks we will be setting up more of them and creating a schedual to follow up with them and Audit their entries.

Its hotter than hadies and humid but you really forget quickly how miserable it is outside. So if I look hot and sweaty all the time in my pictures, its because I am.

Hello everyone!

So much to tell you all about what is going on here. First, after 39 hours of travel my brain and body were incredibly out of wack. I didn't know if I was tired or hungry. The flights all went smooth and I slept very little. maybe 9 of those 39. When I got to Thailand it wasn't what I expected at all. I guess I didn't really know what to expect but what ever it is about this place I love it more than what I expected. It's very humid but at the same time I like the humidity. Once you realize that you are just going to be sweating most the day, you start to focus on whats really important. The first thing I saw at the Chiang-Rai airport in the middle of nowhere, in a small airport straight out of MASH, was a diary queen...legit.  We spent the whole day at the local YMCA that consisted of a few old buildings with beautiful landscape and the cutest little kids playing DDR. I tried to upload pictures from my camera but they are being difficult so I will just have this one this time. Taken via iphone. After we got to the YMCA the country directors took off to get more arriving people.  We played soccer with the little kids and went swimming! It felt soooooooo good to get that 3 day sweat off. It was also really fun to pick the little Thai kids up and chuck'em across the pool hahaha. After swimming we went to the little restaurant next to it and had some red curry. Dear Dad, Thai food in Thailand is the best and only way to eat Thai food. I feel a little blessed and cursed because I know the food in Idaho wont be anything like what we have here. I wish you could have some. Oh yea and the same meal that we ate at the place next to our house cost about 3 dollars here...

Everything is cheaper here, i bought a watch for 60 cents and it has indiglo, stopwatch, digital, the works. Our house is amazing. clean, hot water. The girls sleep in the rooms with the AC but I dont mind because I feel like I am a missionary again, sleeping on the floor on a yo, with nothing but a fan on me. Today we did odds and ends stuff to get ready for the coming weeks. They are letting us settle in for a while before we are called upon to make more sacrifices. We jumped into the river next to our house and it was really warm. We floated on our backs through lush green jungle and watched the long fisherman boats pass by. We could see rain coming but didn't pay to much attention. Our country director, Nat, yelled out, " We are floating down a beautiful river in Thailand jungle! What are you doing?!" haha it was perfect and we all felt a little closer. Between riding in the back of pakced pickup trucks trucks, hiking to see gigantic Buddahs, eating amazing food that hurts so good and making deeper relationships with the members and people of Thaton, life is great. 

On saturday we are going to start on some projects that Nat and Robert have layed out for us. We actually aren't in Chiang-rai. We are an hour outside of it, less than a mile from Myanmar. we are going to be working with  schools in the country side teaching english on mondays. we are going to live in teh deep forest for a few days and help this professor build project pieces for the hill tribes deep within the jungle. Im really excited for that. I guess he is 4'11" and full of fire. and that is just a few of the things we are doing.  It's so safe and pure that it makes you want to just stay here forever. With touches of Modern world everywhere, you never really feel in the past, but those are just things. the people are what makes this place so great.  Again, sorry for no pictures but I will figure it out soon.  

the first video is the drive to get where we are. I couldnt hear the guys talking so just mute it. this is where we are staying.

This  river runs right behind our house and it super warm. Its really clean. Because of the rain it kicks up really really fine sediment. We are going to do Yoga (cuz two of the girls happen to be instructors) in the morning and swim against the slow current in the evening after work is done.

OUR HOUSE IN THAILAND

Our house in Thailand taken via our country directors

 view from back porch! Awesome....

5 days and counting

A panoramic shot of the house we will be staying. 

            5 days and counting! Through some wonderful miracles and the sacrifices of many many people I will be heading to SLC/Provo this weekend to then be on my flight to Thailand. I go from SLC to San Fran. Then San Fran to Korea! I'm really excited to stop in Korea for even a few hours. It will give me enough time to stuff my face with as much Korean food as I can before getting on my flight to Bangkok. I then have a 9 hour, over-night layover in the crazy Bangkok airport. Fortunately I will meet up with a few other HELP members that will ride over on the same flight. Then it's nothing but Thai-life! I'm half packed, half believing I am going so soon. But, I am ready to give all I have to anyone who wants it.  

More Art

 Words cant describe how awesome this picture is....

Ok. So I went to this guy's website and found some other AWESOME pictures haha.

Visa. Check.

    Hey everyone! My visa for Thailand came in on Friday! I wasn't expecting it so soon but I was more than happy to receive it. I was really worried that I wouldn't get it in time because I had heard, from the others going, that it had taken them a few weeks to get theirs back. I sent mine in on a Friday with about 14 business days leeway. I knew it would come down to the wire. I was thinking I would get it the Friday before I left lol. So I was surprised to have the doorbell ring so early in the morning to have me sign for my package.
    I can't say that I am on the edge of my seat to leave just yet. It's coming, slowly. I'm betting it will be one of those feelings that hits me all at once as I get onto the airplane. Maybe it will hit me when I am caught in a tropical rainstorm and have to wrestle a tiger for my project supplies back. Only 16 days left! The next thing on my list is setting some good goals that I want to reach the first month that I am there. I'll let everyone know what I come up with so you all can keep me on my toes about getting them done.

P.S. I want a picture of this framed in my house. along with this one....

And This one........

and there is one more with George Washington and prisoner zombies but I think I might lose the battle on that one with my future wife.

HELP!!! HELP International

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been as updated as I could be about getting ready to head to Thailand coming up here in May. I just want to send out information on how YOU can help fund some of the projects that we will be doing for the children and people of Chiang-Rai. 

Take a look at what Help International did last year and how donations have helped them! It's a touching vid. Don't be intimidated by this girls expression. She means well.




You can donate as little or as much as you like! Everything helps! You can also donate anytime between now and August 20th. The sooner the better ;)


Here's how : CONTRIBUTE!!! CLICK ME! CLICK ME!!


1. Click on the link.
2. Under number (1) of the "Paypal" instructions click "Donate"
3. Enter in amount and update total
4. Click the Destination and put "HELP Thailand 2012 Jonathan Lerma"
5. Select payment method and all the jazz and then click "Donate"
6. Sit back...Relax...because you did something great!




Follow me on my blog regularly to see how your generous donations are helping us give our time, talents and heart to those in need in Thailand.
Thank you so so much for everything you all have donated so far and to those who will donate in the future.

I'm a Mormon!!!

My link to my "I'm a Mormon" page!

Combined activity

This is some sort of flower I made out of a gum wrapper during my capstone class. It wasn't that I was bored or not paying attention, I just felt like there was a little flower that needed to be created out of my cool mint gum wrapper. 

 Last Saturday we had a combined activity with the relief society at a stake high counsel members house.  He let us use his ATV's and his BBQ. naturally I clung to the grill and cooked all the hamburgers and some of the hot dogs for those who didn't want to make theirs over the fire pit.  The guy on the bottom right of the picture is my home teacher and I am his home teacher lol and he actually wrecked one of the 4wheelers  and broke his collar bone in 4 places. That next Sunday morning I picked up his pain meds from Walgreens. I felt bad because he is such a great guy and now he has to go home to Cali to have pins put into it. He probably wont be back until next semester.

 These are some of my roommates, the two on the right are engaged and they are a ton of fun.

At work this is the warning symbol for the washing machine lol I had to take a picture because this is what you would feel like if you were stuck in an equilateral triangle. Not a good day...

Please Vote for me

            In my Chinese class we were asked to watch a documentary done by the BBC on a class election at an elementary school. I was amazed at what I was watching. These kids were just amazing. There are three kids. Cheng Cheng (Chung Chung) Luo Lei (loo-wo lay) and a girl. lol the spelling on her name didn't come to my mind instantly so she is just "the girl".

            They are sooo funny and make some really startling points on elections, politicians and debates. I think that the point it was showing was that China is ready for democracy. Part of me says "yes" and part of me says "No" if you want to see what I mean just watch these. There are 5 parts and each part is 10 minutes. Tell me what you think. I really want to know.

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Part 3

 

Part 4

 

Part 5

                                                Cheng Cheng

                                       The girl, she's a sweet heart. It ends really really well.

SGU

After further investigation, I have concluded that the reason for my planetary dreams is due to the rapid pace my roommate Scott and I have been watching Stargate Universe....

dreams and snow

          Has anyone seen 12 Angry men? Not the one with Tony Danza but the black and white one. We watched it in my organizational effectiveness class and it was very interesting to stop every 15 mins and evaluate what was going on, who had the influence, who was over reacting or speaking with bias. Our teacher told us that he had to watch it for a psychology class and had to evaluate all 12 of the men for a final project. I think there is a lot to learn from that movie.
          Rexburg is dumping snow now and it feels more and more like March. I bet we got at least 4 inches in 24 hours and its still coming heavy. I am really grateful for a car that drives. Not that it would be harder to walk to class and work and dating life would come to a halt but the fact that I don't trust other people driving in snow haha. I would rather get hit by a car in a car than to get hit walking. My internship is coming up fast! I am half way through the semester and about 2ish months away from jumping on a plane and feeling the country for a few months.
         I think that Thailand is on my mind more than I realize. Over the last few weeks I have been having recurring dreams of two things. 1. Rain and tropical landscapes 2. Planets and night time. specifically I am looking up into the night sky to see HUGE planets or the moon. Most of the time I am not scared or amazed at how big the planets appear. Or i am not uncomfortable by the rain or the landscape but I just thought it was interesting that they are occurring so often.