You get a toothbrush, and you get a toothbrush!

As a follow up activity to our hand washing and toothbrushing campaign in June, we went back to the school where we built the sink and had another great day of rotations, education, and fun. We had always planned on doing a second activity to reinforce the information we shared at the first activity, but the seriousness of this need became quite apparent to us since our first activity. Since then, we've participated in health checks with the Thaton clinic and seen for ourselves just how bad these children's teeth are. Literally, some of their teeth put the 'cave' into 'cavity'..it sounds terrible but it's true! There is a serious lack of dental care here and we are happy to be able to do something about it.

We had supplies donated by Graf Orthodontics and Crest, and they added a LOT of excitement to the day!

Rob giving the kids instructions before we began

The kids participated in 5 rotations: a flossing demonstration, memory game, toothbrushing instruction and practice, fact race, and hand washing activity. Each activity was carefully crafted to incorporate practice, importance, and of course fun! 

Toothbrushing activity. The kids ate Oreos, examined their teeth to see how dirty they had gotten, listened to some toothbrushing instructions, and then put it into practice by brushing their own teeth. Another look in the mirror and their teeth looked much better!

Memory game. The kids matched each hygiene-related picture to its duplicate.

Flossing activity. I'll add the source later when I find it again, but we got this idea online where paint, a glove, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and some yarn helps demonstrate the importance of flossing. It was probably my favorite activity!

Hand washing station. Green gloop doesn't stand a chance against these kids and their handwashing skills.

A fact race about toothbrushing and hand washing. The kids had to compete against each other to try to put the information in the right place the quickest.

At each station the children earned a ticket which was put into a raffle for t-shirts at the end of the activity.

Rob reading the winning numbers and Justin starting off the hi five line.

Anxiously waiting with their tickets right where they can see them.

The kids graciously bowed when they accepted their prizes.

A duffle bag full of goodies!

Justin handing out toothbrushes as quick as the kids could take them. We felt like Oprah, giving away free stuff and all.

Group pictures with the school and all the HELP volunteers who participated.

These kids love their hi fives!

We had a lot of fun doing this activity, but more importantly we hope it makes an impact on a big problem in school children. We don't want any more children to have to endure the cavernous cavities we've seen in other children in this area. We hope that the exciting rotations and free goodies, as well as the sink, will make a difference for these children!

Once Time in Our Lives

The rumors are true. We rode ostriches.

Once we heard there was ostrich riding in Chiang Rai, we knew we had to do it. Out of everyone in our large HELP group, we were admittedly the last to finally get around to it (not that we waited until our last possible opportunity or anything..) and it didn't disappoint!

We paid a driver to take us there, and once to Wana Farms we were hustled down and in to the ostrich pen by Thai cowboys. It was a strange merge of cultures.. 

I went first. A blindfold over the ostrich's head so it doesn't freak out, and a stool for me to climb up.

They tried their best to explain in broken English to explain what to do: wrap your legs around its front, hold on to the wings with your hands, lean back, and DON'T let go! It's more tiring and weird than I thought it would be. I was holding with all of my strength because other people in our group actually fell off when they came!

Happy? Terrified? Weirded out?
All of the above.

Justin soon followed. Oh how hilarious he looked!!!

Getting the hang of it.

Sometime a Thai man must put his hand on your bum. Essential in ostrich riding.

And loving it. Justin is a natural.

We had absolutely no control of the ostrich's movement. They went wherever. They stopped extremely close to the fence. They ran away from the ostrich man when he chased them with a stick. Oh yes, the Thai people LOVED my screams when my ostrich took off running! It was such a weird experience. Justin loved watching it's teeny head bobbing in front of him as they walked/ran along. Hopefully the pictures do the experience justice..it was the strangest thing in the world.

So many thoughts going through our heads:
'Wow!'
'What??'
'Uhhh..'
'BAHAHA'
'So..strange..'

Just like the sign says!

It was weird to feel every little jolt that goes into an ostrich's strut..

Quite possibly my favorite picture. Same face! hahaha

Justin is loving this

I should have never let them know I would be a squealer. The ostrich man found a lot of humor in chasing my ostrich to make it run, and to make me scream.

Happy to be on the ostrich and not on the ground at this point!

It was actually quite terrifying when they ran!

Justin's ostrich has a sense of humor, apparently

What in the world is going on?

Justin's ostrich ran into mine and he didn't want to get pecked in the face by my ostrich, so it was time to be done!

Unfortunately this experience was not all bright and shiny. We ended up getting ostrich blood on our pants, which sadly meant that most of the tourists here do and the animals get pretty hurt. We're glad we got to try it once, but I doubt I will ever do it again. So really, 'once time in your life' is exactly accurate.

Sorry, ostrich friends!

This feels just like Southern Utah! haha

Only in Thailand.

A timely visit to a village

The past few weeks have been something of a miracle. As a result of our new found focus, we decided it would be crucial to look at problems in the hill tribes and migrant worker communities, observe villages, talk to the villagers, asses their needs, and with them create a sustainable project that would fulfill that need. Justin and I felt especially encouraged to work fast; our time is ticking here in Thailand! We worked hard with our team to talk to people without needing a translator, ask the right questions, and proactively look for ways to visit a community. This is a lot easier said than done, as many of these migrant workers are immigrants who, because of fears of persecution and deportation, are very closed off to outside help.

There really aren't words to describe how perfectly the past few weeks have gone. We knew a local group here had a volunteer base where a member from each community would step up as the net-worker for each individual village, so when we asked when the next meeting was for those net-workers we were shocked to hear, "tonight!" We dropped all our other plans to meet with the group, listen to experiences, and ask A LOT of questions. Justin was able to talk with one net-worker in particular who was willing to answer questions and eventually said yes when Justin asked if we could come and visit the village. We felt honored and blessed to be given this opportunity, and we really feel that Heavenly Father's hand has been in it, guiding us along. The timing has been too perfect for it to be anything else!

We had an amazing meeting on a bright, sunny Saturday, and discussed the community, their needs, and how we as HELP International could help. We talked about a lot of issues, but finally settled on two issues that we could work with them to solve.

The first problem is water. Many communities in this area get their water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and doing dishes from wells. The water from the wells is often contaminated with pesticides, dirt, sticks, parasite larvae, fertilizer--and that's just what you can see. They don't drink it when it's especially dirty or stinky, but when it's at its worst they don't have any other option.

Prepare to be humbled..

One of the wells in the community

Water from one of the wells. It looks especially bad so this one won't be used for drinking. At least for now!

Here's a shower used by several households. The blue pipe on the left is filled from about 10 feet away near the well. One person will dump some water from the well into the pipe, which runs down into the basin, and is used by another person. Those walls made out of tarps and rice bags offer at least a little privacy.

The rice gets bigger every day! Appreciate the reflection of the clouds in the rice paddy water.

Another shower. This one is positioned over a ditch so the water used in the shower goes conveniently back to the environment.

We adore this view. Have you noticed?

After visiting with this community we were taken to a community who utilizes natural materials to filter their water. They use buckets of sand and some cotton material to make the water safer for drinking. While it does filter out sticks, bug larvae (ew), and some dirt, it still can't get rid of the fertilizer or the stinky smell. But hey, it's better than nothing!

Using this experience as a starting point, we want to find other migrant worker communities who are successfully using nature to filter their water, observe their methods, and have them teach these communities how to successfully do it.  We had heard of one that some villagers used that involved a layer of rocks, charcoal, and cotton balls.  After a little research, Justin found out this actually works! Like the carbon flakes in a Brita water filter, the charcoal actually filters out contaminants.  This project is great because it will be relatively low cost, will bring solutions from one community to those who need it, and will be completely sustainable once we leave. Nothing beats that! As always, there are barriers involved, such as finding a village who is utilizing these methods who would be willing to instruct others on how to do it, determining the effectiveness of the water filter, and time. Oh we are so short on time! As much as Justin and I would love, love, looove to be apart of this project, we don't have enough weekends left to make the Saturday trip out to investigate this. It will be an excellent project for next year, if nothing else. Clean water is so important!!

The other project we were hoping to complete with them is a library/community center. It's main purpose would be to serve as a gathering place for the community, but also as a library, tutoring center, and a common room to have a place where people could meet and belong. We had nearly acquired the funds for this when we learned our community didn't have rights for the land. Drat. We're still looking for a way to make this work!

What an amazing day. We really did feel humbled, trusted, empowered, and hopeful afterwards. There is much work to be done and we have seen the reality of that here. It's sad to be leaving so soon but I know we are leaving a solid foundation for next year, which is comforting.

Oh, and the bamboo classroom is finished :) The hard-working team effort these communities put forth is so inspiring. Now the students can stay dry during night classes!

The design for this classroom is so simple, but it says a lot about the people we're serving.  They don't expect or need a lot, they're grateful for anything they can get, and they're willing to do whatever it takes to better their situation- like learning to read under a bamboo roof after a long day on the rice fields.  Working with these people has been a life-changing experience!

Why HELP International

There are a lot of programs that send kids like us out for the summer to cool places in the world to do some sort of service, but here is a list of reasons why we chose HELP in the first time and have been really pleased with our summer. Maybe some of you are curious!

• My favorite thing about HELP International is that it focuses on sustainable solutions to problems. Many humanitarian groups walk into places with poverty and just pour money or resources in, and after these are used up the people are still in the same situation as they were earlier. Instead, we work to develop projects that will not only alleviate a problem, but that will also carry on after we leave at the end of the summer. Help the people help themselves! This model constantly has Justin and I asking ourselves, "Is this project going to last after we leave? What needs to happen to keep it going? What individuals from the community need to be involved?" We don't have all the solutions, but we have skills and knowledge from various educational backgrounds, some resources to offer, lots of passion and manpower, and the desire to serve. We work with members of the community to develop culturally savvy projects that fit the needs of the community, address the problem, and provide a solution. By involving the community it ensures that we aren't way off-base with our Western way of thinking (which, believe me, it is way off sometimes), but we are able to give them fresh, innovative suggestions that may or may not fit with the culture. It's long and tedious but it's awesome! Connecting with local NGOs is another great aspect of HELP, and the use of these partnerships also help projects to last longer than our stay here. In this way we really do "fight poverty and empower people".
• HELP International cares a ton about its volunteers. Yes they want us to help the people here, but they are just as concerned about us as individuals. They want us to be able to develop the critical thinking skills, innovation, and diligence to observe, create a project, and implement it, which is why there are no 'cookie cutter' programs that we are just plugged into.  It's like they actually want us to LEARN something while we're here..weird, I know! ;)  From the very beginning they stressed SMART goals to improve our time here in every aspect, from culture to projects to personal life.  Also they sent two board members out during the summer to give us feedback and answer questions, and they were extremely helpful in keeping us on-track. They are invested in the success of their participants and programs and are anxious to improve anything possible. I really admire this about HELP!
• Having taught English before, that was an obvious opportunity for us to consider to travel abroad. BUT we are both in health related fields and wanted some exposure in that area. It's been exciting to explore project options in this area, and although we weren't just 'plugged in' to these types of programs, we have been able to find opportunities to serve in this area.
• There is no better way to get to know a country's people and culture than to actually live there. It was important to us going into a summer-long trip that we would be able to spend more than a couple months making a difference. HELP International sends people out in three waves (six weeks each), and you stay for at least one and any other consecutive waves you want. All for the same price! We stayed for wave 1 and 2, and even though we got a lot done in 6 weeks we were glad we could stay for 12! Development work is sometimes slow and requires a lot of planning, networking, waiting, brainstorming, collaborating, contacting, and then finally action, and we definitely needed wave 2 to deepen our efforts. Basically we never want to spend just a week anywhere again because you can't do an awesome place justice in that amount of time!
• We didn't want to miss any school, so May to August is perfect for us.
• We put in full days and get evenings and weekends off. So much free time! We also have days off that allow us to see a ton while we're here.
• They love spouses: one of us got 1/2 price on our program fee. Which is great because everything costs double for us!

No NGO is perfect, and HELP would be the first to say it's a refining process every summer to make tweaks to make the experience better, but we're so grateful to be involved! We've loved our experience so far and would definitely recommend it! It's a great way to get a foot into development work, build a resume, and experience an amazing culture for 6-18 weeks. We are more than happy to answer any and all questions so please ask away!

And for any who missed the chance to donate to our trip before we left, it's not too late! We're continuing to do a lot in our last month and there's a lot of good to be done in this area of Thailand. Click here to find out how you can contribute to our experience! 

We appreciate everything our friends and family have done to get us here!! I hope you can imagine yourselves right along here with us, riding elephants, building a sink, teaching English vocab words, getting to know the migrant villagers, filming a video about AIDS prevention and treatment--because it would NOT have been possible without you! Thank you for investing in us so that we can invest in a better future full of life-changing solutions for the people we have come to love in Thailand--Thais, hill tribes, and migrant workers alike.

And we'll save you a Google search-- click here for HELP's website.

Burma Round 1

When we applied for a visa to enter Thailand, we only applied for one that would last 60 days. Well, no one told us that it was going to be cheaper to purchase 2 entries, so we get to cross the border into Burma a grand total of twice to get it renewed! This will get us 30 extra days here and cost us less than being fined if we stay here longer than we are allowed. It's important to follow rules when you travel, you see.

We rode two song thaews (truck taxis), a bus, and another song thaew to get to the border town of Mae Sai. Phew!

Waiting for the bus. We were only about 85% sure we were in the right place to catch it.. 

Crossing into Burma 

 I mean Myanmar?

Gross market selling mostly cheap knock-offs straight from China. Oh and men in skirts try to sell you cigarettes and pills. Real classy, I know. 

Heading back to Thailand. We turned in our passports while we shopped and were anxious to exchange our little booklets back for them!

You so welcome.

 Streets of Mae Sai, Thailand.

Beautiful mountains on the drive back to Thaton! The whole trip took us about seven hours total. Oy...

Moral of the story: purchase more than one entry if you will be in Thailand over 90 days! It will save you time, money, and a Saturday!