Goodnight!

The early mornings and long days of physical labor caused many of us to find opportunities to catch up on sleep.

On a hammock on the MRI porch.

In the cabin of our pick up truck.

On the floor of the MRI.

At the airport waiting for our flight.

Airport benches are comfortable.

Even one of our host, Ja, was exhausted.

Our other Bangkok host, Elena, catching up on zzz's in the van.

Suzie at the airport.

Me in the hotel lobby.

Day 13 - Last Day

Day 13 - Tuesday, August 1, 2007

For our last day in Thailand, we decided to shop for supporter gifts. We stayed at the Princess Pathumwan hotel, which was joined to the MBK Mall.

Each day began with a cup of coffee.

I love this t-shirt.

Shopping in the MBK.

After an exhausting day of shopping, we had dinner at Cabbages and Condoms. A portion of all revenue goes toward economic and social development activities, specifically the education of safe sex and HIV/AIDS prevention.

The entire restaurant is made of condoms. The way I understood it, cabbages are most commonly used in Thai food dishes. The name Cabbages and Condoms infers that condoms should be used just as often as cabbages.

Myles posing with the big condom.

The beer garden. The restaurant also had a handcrafts store. All items in the store were created by villagers from rural areas of Thailand. All proceeds from the store are used to fund development and social welfare activities in Thailand.

Condom apparrel.

Condoman says "Don't be Shame, Be Game"

We flew back to LA the next morning. Here is our last team picture at 5:30AM in front of our hotel. Nan and Myles will be staying an extra week in Thailand, visiting family. Please pray for their safety.

Day 12 - Udon Thani Vision Trip

Day 12 - Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Wake up time was around 6:30AM and breakfast was at 7:30AM in the hotel restaurant. Ja and Elena from SDRF joined us for breakfast. Everywhere we looked we saw signs of the huge prostitution industry in Thailand.

Sights such as this was very common during breakfast.

After breakfast, the team was off to the Isan Aquatics Farm.

We got a tour of the Isan Aquatics Farm from the director, Khun Mon. My guess is that this farm is about 6-8 acres. This is the first fish farm built by SDRF and it grows talapia, which it sells to consumers and fish breeders. This is the future vision for the MRI fish farm in Koh Yao. On this field, there are about 10 ponds similiar to this one. Each net contains hundreds of talapia, which the farm uses as its brood stock.

The female talapia carry their eggs in their mouths. The man in black goes to each net and removes those eggs from the mouths of the fish.
Some of the eggs.

Ja explaining one of the floating fish farms.

Once they pulled up the nets, you can see all the fish.

The eggs are placed in these baskets where the fish are grown. There are literally thousands of little baby fish swimming around in each basket. There were about 50 baskets similar to these. Talapia are easier to grow.

Here is a picture of a brood stock talapia. These fish are used to breed new stock.

These baby talapia are about a few days old.

The local workers bagging up baby talapia, which the farm sells to fish breeders. Unlike the MRI farm on Koh Yao, the Isan Aquatics Farm employs locals from the surrounding communities thereby providing employment opportunities. My guess is that the farm employs close to 50 workers whereas the MRI farm only employs 4. It is the hope of SDRF that the MRI farm will be fully operated by locals.

The bags in the last 6 rows contain 8,000 baby talapia each whereas the first 4 rows of bags contain 5,000.

At the farm with Ja and Khun Mon, the director.

After the fish farm, we headed back to the SDRF headquarters to have lunch.

Before eating, we got a crash course about "New Buddhism." The man at the head of the table goes by the initials BP and he explained how SDRF is using "New Buddhism" as a bridge to bring Christianity to Thailand. Him and the man to his left have been Christians since they were 16 and 18 years old. According to BP, there are five Buddhas in Buddhism. Four of these Buddhas have been fulfilled and the fifth Buddha is expected to be come anytime. These men preach that the fifth Buddha is Jesus Christ. Once someone is convinced of this idea, BP will then reveal the real Gospel message. Religion is very sacred in Thailand and western religion is seen in a very negative light. Therefore, it's important to incorporate Christ into Thai religious beliefs.

BP praying for the food.

We got to eat talapia for lunch. So good.

After lunch we went to the Udon Language School.

At the school, we met the director, Khun Wan. The school provides free academic tutoring for children in the local communities. The school also provides teaching resources and funds for struggling schools within the community.

Next, we visited the Ban Kaonoi school. This is one of the poorest schools in the area, which the Udon Language School is supporting.

Here is Khun Wan (left) and P'Noi (principal of the school) talking to us about the struggles of the school. Ban Kaonoi is a government school; however, the government doesn't provide enough funds to support the school. For example, the government only provides 100 Baht per day for food to feed the students. The school has about 70 students and it costs about 10 Baht each day to feed each student. In addition, the school does not have enough teachers. The school needs about 4 more English teachers. P'Noi told us that the students get really excited when American students come to teach. P'Noi also told us that at one point, she paid the salary for an additional teacher out of her own pocket. If anyone is interested in teaching at this school, please leave us a comment. For those of you from Newsong who know Sally Park, this is the school that Sally taught at.

Ja translated most of this for us.

Some of the students.

Here are the classrooms.

Here is the nursery for the younger kids.

This is one of the classrooms, it has about 30 desks. They also need more desks.

This is the library.

Here is the nursery.

Here are the kids playing outside the school. After visiting the school, we flew back to Bangkok for our last day in Thailand. We arrived in Bangkok around 6PM and checked into our hotel. Please pray for the school and that the Lord will send workers and funds. If you are interested in helping to support this school, please leave a comment on the blog.

Day 11 - Bangkok Airport

Day 11 - Monday, July 30, 2007

Once again, we woke up at around 6AM and ate breakfast at our hotel at 6:30AM. We headed to the Phuket airport to catch a 9AM flight to Udon Thani (northeast province of Thailand) for our vision trip. With all the traveling, we started to feel like rock stars.

First, we took a one hour flight from Phuket to Bangkok. We had a six hour layover in Bangkok. The guys were tired. Myles was still sick.

We had six hours to kill in the Bangkok airport before our flight left at 4PM.

Once again I find you my friend, mango sticky rice.

Not very exciting airport pictures.

Kio bought about 30 postcards at the Bangkok airport.

And he also filled them out and mailed them the next day.

Fadi checking his email. Wi-fi throughout the entire airport.
I guess he got tired and decided to take a nap.

Suzie taking a nap (she'd kill me for posting this, but she doesn't read the blog).

Finally, we arrived in Udon Thani at around 6PM.

Outside our hotel, we saw this Ferrari. It looked out of place since Udon Thani is one of the poorer cities in Thailand. After we checked into our hotel, our team had a one to two hour prayer and worship session.

We ate dinner at the hotel.

Myles and I.

Another restaurant picture.

After dinner, we took these taxis called Tuk Tuks to a sidewalk massage. Suzie, Kio, and I rode in one Tuk Tuk.

Fadi, Katie, Myles, and Nan rode in the other Tuk Tuk.

Our Tuk Tuk driver let me take a picture riding his Tuk Tuk.

Then he let Kio pose. Don't know what's the deal with all the ornaments on the vehicle.

Here we are getting a one hour Thai massage. Cost was about 120 Baht ($4 US dollar). Once again, this activity was paid out of our own pockets.

After the massage, we walked around the streets to find something to drink. Not a very exciting day today since we spent a majority of the day at the Bangkok airport. See you guys tomorrow.