A Red Carpet Event

7.17.12




After hours and hours of hard work, the HIV/AIDS video was finished and ready to be premiered to the public! ..or at least to the HELP Thailand team. We decided to make it an event to remember and had the other NGO over to our landlady's restaurant to have popcorn and watch the film. We experienced a lot of obstacles during this project--transportation, language barriers, technology issues, funding-- but it all came together so well and we could not have been happier with the result. A 30 minute film written, directed, and filmed by a local NGO who will then be able to distribute copies of the DVD to groups of migrant workers to help them understand, prevent, and get treatment for HIV/AIDS. It was a proud day :)

Bed sheet projector. Oh yeah.

Teachers make the best students

7.17.12

Oh goodbyes. If you do too many at once it feels like you are breaking your heart into tiny little pieces and handing them over to everyone you leave. And boy, does it hurt. Our teachers at Jao Mae School were the first real goodbyes we had to do. They were an awesome group of teachers eager to learn English! We had a fantastic time teaching them and it was sad to see our time come to an end.

 Going over the lyrics to English learning songs. Those expressions are priceless.

We gave our 'students' small gifts from America--pennies and Jolly Ranchers

 And here's what they gave us..Thai culture is so extremely generous!

The principal. He lovvvved us.

Presenting them with their very own CD of English learning songs produced by our group for them to use after we leave.

We love our students/teachers at Jao Mae and we'll never forget them!

Thailand video of greatness!

We took a whole day last week and whipped up a tribute movie documenting our time in Thailand. For our sake (and yours) it's only one song long, but we had enough video footage to make a much longer one. For that reason it's pretty fast-paced, so watch it a couple times ;) It shows the best of our time in Thailand! We also chose this song before it got popular in the U.S..that's annoying, but we used it anyway.

Eventually we'll catch up on all of the blog posts we've missed (...), but a movie is probably more exciting anyway. We sure miss Thailand and the adventures we had there every day, but we are happy to be home with family and friends and catching some summer before school starts up again. Be sure to catch up with us on our regular blog! just-an-adventure {dot} blogspot {dot} com.

Enjoy ^_^

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!

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.

A change in the winds

Please plant faster so we can see all these rice fields filled in!

It's hard to swallow the idea of leaving Thailand! In some ways it feels like we've been here forever, and yet our crazy ride into Thaton at 10 pm during a rainstorm pulling up to our house for the first time feels like just yesterday. There's a lot of reflection that comes with knowing we have less than a month here, and we're definitely prioritizing on what needs to happen before we go home.

HELP International sends board members out to each location, and Janet and Shelly have done wonders for our team. They've met with us several times and helped us focus in on exactly why we are here, what we can do, and the steps that can be made to see a project through. This coincides very well with our careful time management of the next three weeks--we wish they had come sooner!

I've mentioned this briefly on our blog, but I'd like to expound on it a little. Justin and I and a few others in our group have had the privilege of working with a very special group of people here in Thailand. There is a reason why our group is located where we are, and it's not so that we can service Thai people. Northern Thailand is home to many hill tribes and migrant worker groups who are severely marginalized. They don't have the same rights and resources as Thai people and some have left their countries due to civil wars and extreme poverty. This is true of various hill tribes here, and with our remaining time we have split into three subteams to try to gather information, come up with solutions, and create partnerships to make a lasting difference.

It's safe to say we will be changed forever based on our experiences with the group we're working with. As a safety precaution, they have asked us to not post anything about them on the internet because of social and political issues. In a day and age where knowledge is readily given and received, it's a little weird for us not to be able to say much about them. We can't even mention people or organization names because of the fear that surrounds these issues. The world can be so cruel, and yet so many miracles have happened that have allowed us to enter these peoples' guarded lives, get to know them, learn 'hello' and 'thank you' in a language that I had never heard of up until a couple months ago, and open our eyes to what real poverty and lack of opportunity are. Sorry to be vague; it's hard to stay general and yet have so much respect and appreciation to express. It really has felt like we've been moved along by an 'invisible hand', as one of the board members of HELP put it last week. So much has fallen into place and we are all anxious to see where it leads us.

We enter our last three weeks with these thoughts in mind. Work to do, people to serve, questions to ask, and solutions to suggest. If there was no such thing as 'the last minute', we'd never get anything done..right? ;)

Not looking forward to leaving this place!

Build (?) a bamboo classroom

Sometimes projects don't go quite like we think they will. We thought we would be going to a local migrant village to help extend the roof to a bamboo classroom that we were funding. We tore off the roof.. and watched as a team of way experienced bamboo technicians came out of no where and started digging holes, crafting slabs, measuring, and setting poles. We had hoped to be able to do more, but there really is no substitute for local knowledge. It was good to be involved in the project and spend some time with the people! Not what we expected, but hey, that's Thailand!

Demolition work 

These roofs are more waterproof than you'd expect! 

Best building material around 

 Bamboo can also be eaten! It's not exactly delicious though..

Meal from the locals. Hand full of sticky rice + oily meat and veggie mixture + spicy paste. No utensils.

Stephen and Justin obviously over-exerting themselves. 

Beautiful views on the way home. Rice fields are wonderful!

Neung, Sorng, Sahm, Action!

After weeks of preparation we had our first day of shooting for the HIV/AIDS awareness video!

The purpose of the movie is the provide members of a local migrant community with correct information about HIV/AIDS: how and how it is not transmitted, where they can go for help, etc. We worked with a local NGO on this project, and while we as HELP volunteers supplied a lot of ideas, the local group had the insider cultural knowledge what was going to be most effective for them. HIV/AIDS is a problem in this community and there is a lot of misinformation, and it was decided the facts would be best conveyed through a story.

After weeks of planning and meetings to come up with a script that was both entertaining and informative, we put our funds together to buy a video camera and tripod, and the NGO found actors and a location. The only people available to give up so much time to film are teenagers.. so yes, fifteen and sixteen year old kids are acting as these presumably older characters! They were really excited about it and brought a lot of enthusiasm for acting, which was helpful. We met everyone on location for filming, and after showing doing some really basic how to on the camera, we were off!

The location was awesome! That's baby rice waiting to get big enough to be planted in rice paddies.

Beer bottles. A surprisingly easy prop to find! They're filled with water, of course.

These guys had never made any sort of movie before, and their excitement reminded us of the movies we used to make with our siblings when we were younger!  We were there to give little pointers, but they really took charge of this project.  It was so fun to see!

Because of the political turmoil in neighboring countries, we are not allowed to post any pictures or videos of the actors’ faces.

Lunch break! Noodles with plenty of mix ins. It was unlike any of the food we normally eat here because it was made by the migrant villagers. It tasted a little like spicy spaghetti!

We finished the scenes that need to be shot at this location and will continue filming at the health care facility next Saturday, and editing can begin during the coming week! We won’t be able to post the final video unfortunately, but we’ll definitely have more updates as the project progresses. The most amazing thing about all of this is that members of this NGO have wanted to do a video like this for a long time and just haven’t had the time or resources. Cue us coming to Thailand as volunteers looking for any kind of service possible who have time and resources, and something that started as just an idea can finally take hold. With the equipment and skills we have provided we hope that a mental health video will eventually be produced, too!

Even after six hours of shooting we still could not believe the scenery!

Mosquito nets, diabetes, and lice

On Wednesday we jumped right back into working and went with the group to a local housing facility for kids from hill tribes who live in town to go to school and learn Thai. They leave their families for the week and stay at a run down house with other children to help them assimilate better into Thai culture. We dropped off a load of mosquito nets to hang over their beds to keep them from getting bites during the night.

The girls snatched the pink mosquito net right up!

We’ve been working with the health clinic here in Thaton on several projects, but when we heard about their diabetes screenings we asked to go and observe. We woke up at 5:30 am to be there by 6 am, and rode with the clinic workers on their scooters to the screening at an outdoor community center. It was really exciting to see an actual public health program in action! Volunteers for the health clinic are assigned to 10 households each and were responsible for making sure everyone from their assigned group came to the clinic. Everyone who was to be tested had to come fasting to make sure their blood test would give an accurate reading. People were given numbers, weighed and measured, and asked to wait their turn. Two public health officers took blood samples that would be sent to the Mae Ai hospital for a cholesterol analysis, and finally their fingers were pricked to measure blood sugar levels. If anyone had high blood sugar, the clinic referred them to the hospital for follow-up testing and treatment. Awesome to watch! We were hoping to be able to come up with a project based on observing the screening procedures, but as far as we could tell the clinic was doing a great job.

Next we went with public health officers to the school that Justin and I teach English at for health checks. The clinic visits each school in the district once a year and checks the kids for lice, ear problems, eye abnormalities, dental caries, gum disease, iodine deficiency (which appears as a lump on the throat known as goiter), and skin diseases on the hands. The first graders were especially lucky and received two immunizations for protection against tetanus and other diseases, and also got drops taken by the mouth to prevent polio. Since none of us are certified to give shots, we helped by giving polio drops and doing the health checks for physical problems.  Doing the health checks reminded us that this area really is in great need of help! We found lice, skin diseases, gum disease, and TONS of gaping cavities.  And that was just for one small school!

Afterwards the 5th and 6th graders got booklets about how to stay healthy.