Tuesday, February 16, 2010

day#4...thailand continues!

For those harassing me about my updates (or lack thereof!), here you go...
{you know who you are MOM!!!} :)

Day#4: Itinerary
Breakfast at local restaurat
Wildflower Home
Lunch
Umbrella Factory
Shopping :)
Dinner
Night Safari


Our breakfast crew!
Mommy's favorite meal of the day--breakfast!
We fell in love with this place...The Blue Diamond.
The served Western food & managed to provide options for vegans & those on gluten free diets!
And the coffee was DELICIOUS!

Abby & her entirely too large pancake! :)
Girlies outside the Blue Diamond!
{spoiler alert: we ate here again!}

this is where Kim spends quite a bit of his time volunteering.
{If you check out their website, you can see him in action!}

Here is a brief bit about what the Wildflower Home provides:

Wildflower Home aims to provide not just a refuge for unwed mothers and abused women but also enable them to rebuild their lives on the back of their trauma.

"Our primary goal is to help single mothers through their crises by providing encouragement and training to help improve their chance of self-sustainability."

We felt blessed to have visited here...
I didn't take pictures of how the children staying there reacted to Abby & Beks.
It was adorable. They were joyful. And laughed more than you can imagine.
Abby was a little freaked out because they surrounded both girls immediately.
Beks started yelling, "MOMMY! MOMMY!"
Then all the kids started yelling, "MOMMY!" while laughing their heads off!
It was so fun. The girls played with them at their small playground for about 20 minutes.
What an experience!
One of the buildings Kim helped them build! Go UNC! :)
This is their kitchen...Thai kitchens are traditionally open air.
Another thing about Thailand I love:
they are all about the outdoors.
Where the girls stay...
two to a room with their kiddos.
It may seem tight, but I would imagine being with someone else provides you with some sense of security.
If you have time,
go to the website & read some of their stories.
Incredibly sad. But, they are rebuilding their lives.
The women all pitch in to help.
They learn skills, and take care of one another.
They will use the animal waste as fuel
An amazing house that they are building...it is made out of mud!

Letting the light in at the mud house...so cool!

Another lunch destination!

Khao Soy. Yum.
We ate mass quantities of this while in Thailand!
{Good news...one of our favorite Thai restaurants right off base has this! And papaya salad.)
Hahahaha.
Need I say anything about this?
HILARIOUS!
{Amanda: doesn't this make Okinawa look tame?!}
Umbrella factory...
They wanted to paint our pants, cell phones, wallets, belts...you name it, they would paint it!


Dinner at another delicious place...
Daddy looking all manly on Pistismai's motorbike!
Fun, fun @ the Night Safari!
Year of the Tiger...
They asked us when we were buying the tickets
if any of us were tigers. Ha.
Mommy J had no idea what they were talking about.
Daddy sure did. AND, he is a tiger. Grrrrrrr... :)
See his cute little free pass?!


Whew. I am slow & this takes a while...mainly uploading the pictures. Argh. So, here's to hoping I get this done soon. You all are missing out on the daily excitement around here! HA.

Bloggy love,

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Day 4 was amazing! The Wildflower Home pictures & info was great to get - sounds like a good place for donations! Do you think the new Thai restaurant in Effingham will have Khao Soy? I'll check it out! Or make sure I get some when Ben & I make our trip. :) Thanks for the update it was wonderful! You did a great job so I won't harass you for a few days!

Amanda Evans said...

Love the moto-bike-stroller pic!