Morning of Day 1: Our Adventure Begins (July 28, 2014)

Amber, our niece, dropped us off this morning bright and early. We left the house at 5:35am. Now we are sitting at the airport waiting for our first flight to start our adventure.   We had to unpack all 10 computers and the projector that we will be donating to BGET and Grace Garden in Thailand as well as our personal computers. Each had to be in their own bin while going through security. Luckily we were rather quick at it and there wasn't a large line yet since we arrived pretty early. Hopefully we will not have to do that again. Probably in customs before heading to Japan. We just had breakfast once we were checked in and all took our Malaria meds. Caiden and Zenna went with Mark to take a photo with our pilot. Caiden was going to interview them but got too shy so settled for just a picture.  We should be boarding soon!

Paradise Indeed! August 12,13,14

We are happily enjoying the sun, sand, and the fanciest resort villa that we've ever seen.

The past few days have been a mix of playing in the ocean, riding the waves in, gathering creepy crawlies and shells, and a couple of new family fun experiences. 

Yesterday we went a little south of our resort for a really awesome Elephant trek. They are such enormous, beautiful animals. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to ride on our elephant's neck and feel his skin and ears and give him some love. When we finished we fed the baby elephant a basket full of bananas. That little guy had such a personality! We all wanted to bring him home. 

We are on a boat now heading back to shore after spending the day, for our fist time ever. scuba diving. 

The girls are feeling whooped from all of the fresh air. We did two dives after receiving some good but quick instruction and everyone did fantastic. Zenna is feeling some ear pain and pressure now so hopefully she will feel better soon.

Aug 10,11th

We said goodbye to Noh Bo yesterday and made our way back to Mae Sot. Along the way we stopped at a friend of Jabwa's. He had her make me a beautiful Karen sarong skirt and she presented it to me. I'm so honored and humbled by these beautiful, giving people. What a lovely surprise. Again we had all of our luggage inside the truck to stay dry along with Kara driving and Zenna, who was feeling very sick sleeping in the passenger seat. 

We were very happy to check in at The Picture Book Guest House and couldn't wait for a shower. Our first in 4 days. 

We all put our dresses on and I got to wear my new sarong while Kara took us to get mani/pedi's. Boy did we need it after slopping around in the rain and mud for the past four days.  Mark biked to get a Thai massage while we got our nails done. 

Afterwards we picked up Mark and went for a meal at the most magnificent resturaunt I've ever been to. It had orchids and waterfalls and pathways and wonderful twisted trees. It was a rainforest wonderland. And the food!!! In so glad it was family style so we could all share the wonderful dishes. 

August 11

We had to say goodbye to Kara and Northern Thailand today to begin the next chapter of our journey.  We are heading south to Phuket for some sun, sand and from what we've heard a little bit of paradise. 

Missing you already Kara!  Wish you could' v fit in my suitcase!

August 7th 8th, 9th

We spent the past few days with some incredible people in Noh bo Thailand.  First of all our favorite person in this entire half of the world is Kara.  She has been an incredible host and we are so grateful to her.  If I would have known all along that we would have her with us for most of our journey I would have had a lot less anxiety before getting here.  She will forever be part of our family.  It will be hard to say goodbye to her in a couple of days.

Next is Jabwa.  He is one of the teachers here with Kara at Grace Garden and he takes care of a lot of things like making sure we have cooks to make our meals during our last couple of days of class with the students from Noh Bo Academy.  He brought us tea and snacks last night when Kara went to take the students back to the boarding house and he sat with us and taught us some Karen words.  Karen which is pronounced like (Kah-Rin) is the language/ethnicity of a lot of the refugees here from Burma.  He is so happy all of the time and always a wonderful friendly face.

We spent the 7th and 8th teaching the kids from the Noh Bo academy about the 7 mindsets.  For those of you who don't know, they are the 7 mindsets that the 300 most happy and successful people share.

They are ways of thinking to help achieve your dreams no matter who you are or where you are living.

These kids were so bright and so much fun to be around.  Caiden, Syler and Zenna did such an awesome job helping by leading games and helping the students learning some new computer skills.

Today, August 9th, we went to Grace Boarding and picked up 15 kids, piled them in the back of the truck with us and went an hour down the road to Blessed Home Orphanage.  These kids are so beautiful and it was such a pleasure to meet and hang out with all of them for the day.  The kids played games together and we were invited to have dinner with them.  

Tomorrow if it's not raining we hope to climb to the top of the mountain behind us to the Pagoda.  Then it is back to Mae Sot for one more evening before we move on to Phuket.

August 7th

First of all- Happy 21st Wedding Anniversary to the love of my life. I hope we will get to share many more adventures like this one. You make me a better person.

We drove 2 hours to get to Grace Garden yesterday in the back of the truck, in the rain, with a whole bunch of produce to make meals for the next few days for us and the students. Our luggage road inside the truck so all our clothes would stay dry. We were all completely soaked by the time we got here. It was so much fun! 

Once we unloaded we found our room in the staff house and began claiming our spots on the floor. Then we began to hang mosquito netting.  I slept with Zenna and Caiden last night on a couple mattresses pushed together. Mark had his own mattress and Syler borrowed Kara's hammock and strung it on the porch and we hung netting over that.  For as much as we've heard about how horrible the Mosquitos are here, their numbers are pitiful compared to the many we have back home. 

For dinner went to Stuart and Trish's home in the village.  They are teachers from Australia who are helping out here.  It was so nice to meet them and hear their snake stories.  

Nope I'm not scared at all.  I'm sure my fancy mosquito netting will protect me.  Or not! :/

Leaving the cushy hotel for rural Thailand (August 6th, 2014)

We had wonderful meetings yesterday with Lynn at Khom Loy Development Foundation.  He is a very inspiring young man who told us about the many facets of the work they are doing with the refugees here in Mae Sat. 

They work with women through SWC at one site to teach them a trade to make money and also have their doors open for drop in counseling sessions. (We bought a lot of their jewelry)  In another location they teach 4-5 year olds a Montessori style education and in yet at another location they have a farm and are teaching the people how to raise pigs for food or sale etc.

We also visited the Mae Sat clinic so the girls and I could get some perspective. Wow! It is unreal. The hospital beds are wood tables. And nothing anywhere is sterile. Even where they do surgeries the street dogs just wander in and out. They have a wood shop where they make wooden legs and feet for amputees. Most of which have lost limbs from land mines. It has brought much gratitude from all of us about how good we have it back home. I will never complain how long the wait is at our own clinics again. 

After the clinic Kara thought we should experience another of the many street markets here so dropped us off. There were buckets of live turtles, eels, frogs and fish, fried cockroaches and many other treats.  YUCK!  We did find some really good fresh carrots. :) I'm a vegetarian.  Thank goodness.

Kara met us at the end of the market and brought us to a restaurant that supports young artists called something like Casa Mia. They had a mix of American like and Thai food so Zenna was happy. The fries were great! Mark and I shared a spicy Burmese dish.

We just finished packing and are getting ready to head with Kara to the rural No Boh village where Grace Garden is located and the place that Kara runs. We are excited to leave the city. We are country folk at heart after all. 

An amazing experience thus far...

This is Mark again. I guess I should preface that since Karman has been the prolific blogger thus far. I mean to do it, so we can let everyone know what is going on and so we don't forget ourselves, but the days go by so fast that by the end of the day, I have no energy to write. That, plus these first two weeks are focused on our service work in that we are doing trainings, having lots of meetings with organizations, doing tours of their projects, etc.  For these, I've needed to prepare for with background research, creating curriculums, documenting ideas, sending follow-up emails, etc.

It has been quite the whirlwind and the days have been flying by, but they have all been amazing. I'm hoping to do some catch up on the blogging when we get to Phuket (pronounced poo-ket) for the last leg of our trip, which is focused solely on some R&R and fun (and some blogging, too).

We have now done one two-day training, and met with about 8 NGOs (non-gov't orgs) that have been inspiring and a pleasure from which to learn. It is incredibly eye-opening to see first-hand what is happening in other areas around the world that we are either unaware of, or we forget that we have heard about previously. From labor-trafficking (essentially slavery), exploitation, extreme poverty, hunger, sex-trafficking, an epidemic of street animals that are routinely poisoned as a form of control, lack of health care access, lack of education access, suppression by military (Burma) that burn villages, lack of electricityplumbing/etc. that we take for granted, lack of economic opportunities, lack of communication/language skills, etc. The list could go on and on - and that is just in this one area that we are staying right now along the Thai-Burma border. By the way - Burma was renamed Myanmar about 20 years ago, but for the locals, it never stuck and they refer to themselves as Burmese.  That confused me for awhile.

It is quite daunting to think about all these issues in their totality. However, it is wonderful to see all the great works of the many NGOs that have targeted these issues in ways that really address the root of the issues as best they can - education, gaining productive skills, access to healthcare, etc. - that go well beyond hand-outs and charity, but rather empower these people to improve their lives and their communities in the long-term. They are really good people (with some bad apples, like anywhere) that want to work hard and create a good lives for their families, but they are just part of a system that is broken in so many ways. They can't leave (not allowed to, or the alternative is going back to a violent situation), and they have few options to get an education or job, so they are stuck. The NGOs here are their best hope and are making some good progress, and it is wonderful to be a part of it, even in a very small way.

I'll share more about what we've learned and our plans for Wildfire's role going forward in my upcoming blogs.

Best to you all!
Mark