Hey Everyone! so this is a video that one of the girls on our group put together of the first 6 weeks we have been here. She did a great job and it will be a fun insight as to what great things we have been blessed to be apart of and also the fun we have been having here.

You wanted pictures.....Well here they are! I figured out that uploading from my camera into the team computer, then, onto my thumb drive, then, to the internet cafe was a lot faster.

Yes I have a beard. This is my team for the first wave. They are all so great and we have all been getting along just great. I couldn't have asked for a better and more diverse group of hard workers. The tall guy on the far left is Rob. He is one of the country directors and the other country director is Nat, just above my shoulder. we are heavily out-numbered.

 More pictures of finishing up the sink for the kids.

 At the end of the day, it's really all about the kids. Clean water, education, clean living, freshly painted toys. If they aren't smiling, then we aren't doing what we came here to do. Then again, these kids are some of the happiest kids i've seen. So getting them to smile more than they do is the real challenge.

 This is a picture of the water pipe system that the HELP group did last year. The blue pipe is what is left after just one year of rain and land erosion. The village was able to fix it a bit but we are working on a better filtration system so they don't have to have such a long pipe over uneven ground. Lol it looks like I am running away from a collapsing hillside but I think I was just in mid power-walk.

 In the same village was this rope swing. I tried it out. It was a little intimidating. More pictures to come.

 One bucket at a time. I was at the top of the hill so one by one I emptied the buckets. I think at this point we had been working for 30 minutes straight and we were less than half way through. lol.

 So remember the drugged up back yard BBQ? Here are some more pictures from that.

 I think that this picture says it all about what we were thinking while we watched old people take hits on the ol' opium pipe...

 This is a fruit. A what? A fruit. OH, its a fruit.... the inside is just a grape, dont get your hopes up.

 Some awesome lunch that cost about 30 bhat. So thats about 95 cents?

 Bet you can't guess what this is?

 These were sooo freaking goood! Think of a waffle cone, real whipped gream and different gummies with chocolate syrup.

This is the orphanage where we stayed this last weekend doing different activities. We did everything from Yoga, to face paint to soccer. We are working to raise enough money for them to have a better and more efficient water filtration system.

 yeah, well, see there was this cat...

 My first Thai massage. 6 dollars, 1 hour. Just can't beat that.

 Here is that swing. That kid was a pro and the hardest part is not to swing in a circle.

 I think I did alright. Its about a 20 foot drop over the side if it broke but for what it is worth it was so fun.

 So Mom here are some of the pictures of the flowers at that place I told you to come visit. The princess mother wanted everyone to experience the flowers of the world so she brought as many flowers from around the world to one spot. It was beautiful.

 I't pretty sure this is a bug catching one.

 Thailands version of garden art. Little monks. My favorite was the one with the juice box in the middle haha.

 These are their smoking warnings....nuff said.

 Sometimes it's just better to ride in the cab. They just haven't learned that yet. They went from dry to wet in about 3 minutes.

 The view from our pad most nights.

 More pictures of working at the house. We havent been able to finish it yet because 1. we dont have enough for the roof yet. and 2, its harvest/planting season for corn so we wont have a contractor until the end of the month.

Steven and I spent a lot of time in these guys. They are called Song-tows (like cow not toe). we ride 4 hours round trip every monday. It's just a flatbed truck with seats in the bed.

 Steven played How Great Thou Art to a few classes of monks at the monk school. They didn't know what the song was about but for him and I who did it was very moving. I also got video of part of it.

 This is my buddy. Just giving him a banana.

We found a bunch of middle/highschool guys that play soccer every night at 6. So we played on Thursday night and had a blast. This picture was at a local school when we were meeting with them to initially set up our meetings.

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.