My special day with Dad!

Since coming home I’ve been on a mission to get back in touch with my small-town girl roots and, of course, spending more time with my family. For the past year I have been living the big-city and jetsetter lifestyle and now it is time to remember the great times I had growing up in Breese.

My dad recently asked me to go turkey hunting with him in Iuka, IL. At first I was timid about going since I’m not too keen on killing animals for sustainability reasons, but I decided to make the best of it and see my dad in his prime.

The day started off with a nice wake up call at 4:30am, I eagerly jumped out of bed and literally dressed myself to kill. Kate lent me her hunting clothes, so I wouldn’t be out of place in the timber- I wouldn’t want to be an embarrassment. Hunters often act so laid back, but I’ve found that they are just as picky about their clothes and accessories as a high-end fashionista.

Hopping into the truck, dad and I were off for the woods. But first, we had to stop by CC Food Mart for a Clinton County breakfast of doughnuts and coffee. I thought about getting the true CC breakfast (Ski and a doughnut), but I didn’t think my body would be able to handle the sugar overload as I’ve been gone way to long ...that type of intake takes training, ya know!

We made it to the timber just after daybreak – the sunrise was beautiful! Pulling up I was quite nervous, I was afraid I would do the “uncool” thing and scare away all the wildlife. If you know me well, you know I can’t sit still very long and love to chat about anything.

Dad set us up in a pop-up tent in the middle of a grassy field where he believed the turkeys frequented. We sat, made turkey noises, discussed life, took naps, read books, but most of all enjoyed each others company. Although we , excuse me, he, did not shoot a turkey, we did see two deer, a hen (female turkey?), a turtle, and a few frogs. It was a lot of fun. We had to be incognito the whole time…it was so hard for me. I tried so hard, but could hold still. I hope I wasn’t the reason the turkeys didn’t come around.

After our hunting excursion, Dad and I had an honorary Earth and Arbor Day as we planted over 150 tree saplings around his 60 acres. We made such a team - I placed and he dug. Planting the trees was such a refreshing task, especially for a wannabe environmentalist like me.

Observing my dad hunting, walking and four-wheeling around the forest, and planting trees truly reminded me of what I’ve missed while traveling and working in NYC. I am so grateful my dad asked me to go with him, I look forward to more father/daughter excursions.

It's been awhile, but I'm still here!

Hi everyone,

It has been awhile, but I have been super busy since coming back from Thailand and moving James to Seattle. I know many of you are looking for a closing to our trip and I definitely have it. I am working on a piece for the Breese Journal and plan to post it on here as well. I want to give our trip the justice it deserves!

You may have noticed that there have been a few changes to the blog as I have big plans for it. Be on the lookout for new and exciting posts about my eclectic life, which I know you are going to love.

See you again soon!

Sam

Similan Photos!

Click here to view our photos from the Similan Islands. We are having issues with photobucket, so they are not all there.

There is definitely more to come about our "wicked" diving adventure with Wicked Diving

It really did happen - Tsunami 2004

Tomorrow we depart the mainland and will be living on a boat for the next three days. The company we are traveling with, Wicked Diving, specializes in three day liveaboard scuba packages. Hence, we will be diving and completing our Open Water Advanced Scuba diving course. The nine dives will include deep (10o ft), night (yikes), navigation, photography, and hopefully wreck exploration - as well as four fun dives.

Since we are not leaving until tomorrow morning, we had the day in Khao Lak to explore. It was recommended to us to check out the Tsunami Memorial area (Khoa Lak was one of the hardest hit areas in Thailand) and a small beach on the opposite side of town. As you guessed, we did a lot of walking today - getting lost didn't help either.

Since arriving in Khoa Lak we, especially Sam, is having a hard time grasping the severity and damage of the 2004 Tsunami. It is so hard to imagine how it would have been for travelers and citizens. What would we have done if we were here?

The memorial site encompassed a police boat that was washed half a mile inland. The boat has been left as a reminder to all of the horrible natural disaster. The "museum" had an excellent book informing us about the specifics and photos of the event. Laying on the beach today it was hard to imagine seeing a 33 foot wave streaming towards us.


Khoa Lak was supposedly wiped clean because it is so flat and waters flooded over two miles inland. While most of it is clean and rebuilt, some areas off the beaten path are still a mess. The tsunami is considered one of the most memorable natural disasters in history and we all heard about it in 2004. We remember being in high school and having the weekly missions go towards helping Thailand. We never could have imagined being here in the presence of the actual area. Being at home and hearing it on the news causes us to not understand the true aftermath of such an event. Being here and seeing the actual site makes it so much more real. Very similar to seeing the World Trade Center site in New York.

After the memorial, we headed to a small, secluded beach on the other side of town. Even though it took us 4x longer to get there than it should have, the final destination was very rewarding...only five other people we there with us!


--

Because we will be on a boat for three days and two nights we will not have access to internet. We will make sure we update you as soon as we get back. We will be diving in the Similan Islands (top 10 in the world) and plan to rent an underwater digital camera. The photos alone will be amazing!

Best,
Samantha and James

James' Skydiving Adventure

Another day in Railay!

Waking up in our new found paradise at 8am we set out to make our day even more adventurous and memorable than the last. We located a viewpoint and hidden lagoon on the map and headed out. Little did we know it wouldn't be the nice hike we expected, but more like a mangrove and rock climbing adventure. Neither of us have truly climbed rocks before so it was definitely a challenge. The first portion to the viewpoint wasn’t that strenuous, it was the second hike to the lagoon where we had to depend only on the ropes and not rock. The lagoon wasn’t as nice as we expected, but we had fun climbing the rocks. The pictures below do not serve the climb any justice. If we were experienced climbers it probably would have been a piece of cake....but it was super hard for novices!

After the lagoon we ventured back down the rocks, which was much easier the second time, and headed to another beach that was supposed to be even better than yesterdays. We went sure how this could be true, but we had to give it a shot. At the beach we were greeted by huge rocks and emerald water. On the left was a very high cliff and when floating in the sea it was quite zen. Later in the afternoon we decided to grab a beach side lunch from "street" vendors. It is surprising what three dollars can buy you. We enjoyed chicken satay, sticky rice, corn on the cob, watermelon, and the best coconut doughnut ever.


After the beach we decided to take out the kayaks again because we had such a great time yesterday. We did not take any photos because the waters were much rougher and shallower than yesterday. Don't worry though we still had spectacular views - just many the same as yesterday.

We leave tomorrow for the Similan Islands and Khao Lak where we will most likely be living on a boat for three days while completing our Advanced Open Water Scuba course. We are sad to leave Railay, but we are super excited about diving in one of the top 10 dive locations in the world.

Island Caretaker

While in Bangkok, my mom e-mailed me a link to a job posted as "The Best Job in the World". The job description included feeding fish, cleaning the pool, collecting the mail, and most importantly exploring the Hamilton Islands in Queensland Australia (spas, resorts, bushwacking, etc) and blogging about the experience. If chosen, they would fly you to Australia, set you up in a multi-million dollar apartment, and give you a salary of $105,000 for six months of work.

www.islandreefjob.com

Sounds just like the perfect job for me, correct? I love to blog, I love to travel, and I'm looking for a job....so I made it my goal to make the required 60 second video application during my spare time while volunteering. After many hours of work and consulting with Hunter Hempen (Breese's very own movie genius), I eventually finished my video and tried to submit it. Like I expected, it kept timing out because of the internet connection at Mirror, so I sent it to my mom who also tried endless times. Finally it went through but within a few days it was rejected.

Rejected? What, why - it was under 90 mb and was definately 60 seconds. Supposedly they moved the size limit down to 40 mb because they received such a response (seriously?). Because of these requirements and there is only one more day left for application, I am unable to fix my video in time. I could set aside time to do it again, but then I would be missing my time in Thailand paradise. My mom has urged me to post the video no my blog for you to view...I hope you enjoy it. I believe it does showcase who I am and I really think I would of had a shot making the top 50. While I am sad I missed out on this opportunity, I am happy I learned how to make an iMovie. I look forward to making one for my Thailand and Australian excurisions.

A Whirlwind Week!

>Wow – what a week we have had. We have gone from on side of the country to another, both literally and figuratively. We are sorry we didn’t keep you up-to-date daily, but our busy schedule left us exhausted at the end of the day… Besides, we thought it would have more impact if you read the extremes of our week all at once.

Wednesday/Thursday – Feb 12/13

Goodbye Mirror

We knew leaving Mirror Art Group would be a sad, yet important milestone in our two month journey. Since half of the group was leaving the same day as us, all of the volunteers decided to build a campfire to commemorate our time together. It was really great time drinking cheap beer and whiskey while listening to a few people play both self-written and popular songs. Most of the group had started on the same day we did, so everyone got to know each other pretty well. We made some amazing friends from all over the world: California, Connecticut, Canada, England, Wales, Australia, and not to forget Japan and Thailand.

Oh! We should mention that the campfire wasn’t the only way we said goodbye to Mirror… On the 13^th, we were given the opportunity to build a firebreak in a small village. We thought this would be a great way to end our volunteering journey. Little did we know that the excursion would be the perfect way to sum our stay in Chiang Rai. As you probably guessed, there was a miscommunication and we never actually made the firebreak. Luckily it was not an English/Thai miscommunication, but a Thai/Thai one. Regardless, we had a nice time trekking through the hills and a lovely picnic lunch.

Friday/Saturday – Feb 14/15

Chiang Mai, Thailand

After leaving Mirror, we started our long journey to the beaches of Thailand. To break up the numerous trains, buses, and ferries, we decided to stop in Chiang Mai for a cooking class and general sightseeing.

We started off our time by going to the local Monk Chat at Wat Suan Dok. We were able to meet and chat with resident monks and novices, hence the name Monk Chat. Wat Suan Dok is home to the Buddhist University for monks, where many study English and want to practice. During our chat, we learned about the general concepts of Buddhism, mediation, and asked questions. Chatting with the young monks was a great experience that will not be forgotten. Growing up Catholic, it was interesting to learn the differences, but mainly similarities of Buddhism and Catholicism. Buddhists integrate most religions into their own, so many of the monks had a great deal of knowledge of our religion. We would recommend this inexpensive (free) and rewarding experience to anyone.

The next morning we began our cooking class at the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School. Wow – was this an awesome class! While at Mirror we had so many delicious and traditional dishes. The only issue was that we did not know what the dishes were called or how to make them. Alas, we signed up for a cooking class and learned more information about Thai dishes and their ingredients than we ever imagined. We started the day with a lesson at a local market where we had an introduction to Thailand’s herbs, spices, and produce – many of which are special to Thailand. Hopefully we can find them in the States because they make all the difference.

Once we arrived at the cooking school we started preparing an array of dishes. The company we chose was very flexible, so we pretty much made up our own menu and then had the opportunity to taste everyone else’s. Needless to say, we were stuffed by 4pm! Nancy, the owner, also taught us how to carve fruit and vegetables.

James’s Menu
Pad Thai
Cashew Chicken
Spicy Minced Chicken Salad
Hot and Sour Soup
Green curry paste
A green curry dish
Bananas in Coconut Milk

Sam’s Menu
Vegetable Spring Rolls
Coconut Tom Yam Soup
Fried Basil Beef
Som Tom (Papaya Salad)
Red Curry Paste
A Red Curry Dish
Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango

After a marvelous day in the kitchen, we are so excited to go home and test our new recipes. Come over if you are hungry and want to try some new dishes, but don’t expect carved fruit to decorate your plates…

Unfortunately, we thought we forgot our camera, so we do not have any photos to post. Luckily, we went with fellow Mirror volunteers and they took some. Sadly, we found the camera in the backpack later that day….

Saturday/Sunday/Monday – February 14/15/16

Finishing our cooking class, we rushed off to begin our two-day transportation expedition to Koh Tao. The first leg of it was on the night train to Bangkok. This time the night train was roomy and served nice food. The ride was a bit bumpy because we were in the last car and it arrived three hours late, but we made it cheaply! Because we decided to go the cheapest way, we had to spend the day in Bangkok. We had already spent a few days there before and saw most of it, so we weren’t that excited. Fortunately we did not go to Chinatown during the first round, so we went there on the second. The combination of exhaustion and re-culture shock did not allow us to enjoy Chinatown as much as we should have. We spent a few hours wandering around markets and trying Chinese duck soup. The highlight of the day had to be our 10 baht ($0.30), cold shower in the train station.

Arriving in Koh Tao we were greeted with a beautiful view of the island and its beaches. Stepping on the beach, we were whisked away via songhtaew to Big Blue Diving Resort. There was some slight confusion with the room situation, but we had it all sorted out and we were able to start our relaxing and rewarding four-day stint in Koh Tao.

Monday to Thursday – February 16/17/18/19

PADI Open Water Certification and Koh Tao

As we stated, the class included four dives: The first, at Mango Bay, was solely for skill assessment and we only saw sand. Sam was bitten by a fish though – how exciting! The second dive was held at Twins where we dove 12 meters and saw an array of fish. This time the skills were a bit harder, but we managed. We were both successful in fully suiting up in the water and mask removal and replacement underwater.

On Thursday we completed dives three and four, which were at much deeper dive sites. At Chumphon we dove 18-20 meters and saw 1000’s of fish. Our favorites included the barracuda and a grouper the size of James’s cousin, Ian. The site also had limestone rocks/coral beds that housed beautiful corals, fishes, and other sea creatures. Although there was not much color, we enjoyed the big fish and clear water. Lastly, we went to White Rock where we completed our Open Water course. This site was very similar to Chumphon, it just didn’t have as big of fish. While under water we played games that tested our buoyancy. We are happy to announce that we were the winners of the underwater horse race, perfected our Matrix fighting skills, and can break dance (i.e. spin on our heads) underwater.

Unlike the ex-pats in the North, we doubt the ex-pats in the South know much of the Thai language. While volunteering we learned a few key phrases that helped us get around. We were sad we were not able to continue practicing them. James would try to ask a question in Thai and the natives would only answer in English.

In addition to diving, Koh Tao is also considered a party island. While we didn’t go full crazy every night (we were exhausted) we did find some ways to have fun. Whether it was watching the sunset while sipping the best fresh coconut smoothies ever or eating tasty BBQ, watching flame throwers (both old and 9-years old), or having a nice cocktail by a beach campfire, Koh Tao definitely knows how to show its guest a good time.

(Right photo: the boy could not have been more than 10 years old)

Even though Koh Tao didn’t seem as if it was a part of Thailand, it was truly a beautiful island and we were sad to leave. We had such a great experience diving; hopefully the rest of our diving adventures can be just as fun, if not more.

Thursday/Friday – February 19/20

Nightly Travel

Before leaving Chiang Rai we had a general idea of where we would be going after Koh Tao, but it was never set in stone. After learning more about the area we decided to travel towards Krabi for some more island activity. We learned that the cheapest and easiest way to get from Koh Tao to Krabi was via night boat, bus, then water taxi. Our parents will be happy to read that we spent the night on an old fishing boat with 120 other travelers. We will state that we had no clue it would be like this…we were imagining bunk beds similar to that on the night train, instead it was two floors lined with tiny mats and a sheet with people lying shoulder to shoulder. Basically we were packed like sardines in a can and felt as if we were being smuggled illegally into the country. We did have a fan by us, so that was nice. We could not stop giggling during the trip because it was the most random situation. The night boat was truly an experience we will never forget and plan to tell the story for years. We did pack sleeping pills and swiped the eye masks from our Australia flight to help us get through the night. Besides the constant swaying, it wasn’t too bad!

Disembarking the boat in Surat Thani we hopped on a van for two more hours to Krabi town and then on a longtail boat (think fishing boat) to Ralaey Beach. After 15 ½ hours of traveling we finally made it to our room at Rapala Bungalows, where we are finishing this long blog post on the mattress that is lying on the floor. Thailand is definitely about budget, not luxury, which allows us to spend more on activities instead of accommodations we only use for sleeping. The breeze whipping through the room is definitely the highlight.

After a quick lunch at an overpriced resort, we decided to check out the Railay West beach (we are staying at Railay East for budget reasons). Lonely Planet claimed Railay West is their favorite beach in Thailand and boy were they right! This beach is absolutely stunning. We are having troubles finding the words to explain it, so we will let the pictures serve it justice. In addition to laying on the beach we rented kayaks for an hour. Railay also houses some awesome rock islands with tunnels which we could weave in and out. We would like to consider it kayak spelunking because it sounds much more exciting!

Our time ran out with the kayaks just as the sun was setting..as you can see it was breathtaking!

Have a great weekend! We will be thinking of you all while we are lying on the pristine beaches of Thailand.

Best,

Sam and James

Tuesday Night's with P'Moo's Family

For the past two weeks we were invited to privately tutor three amazing Thai boys in Chiang Rai. The boys are nephews, we think, of P'Moo who is one of the founders of the Mirror Art Group. When we were first asked to tutor the kids we had no clue what to expect, all we knew is that they would feed us and the kids were very bright. Little did we know, our private tutoring lessons would be one of our favorite responsibilities while at Mirror. We are sad it only lasted two weeks.

Uno, Ingvy, and Lavin who are 13, 11, and 10 respectively, are probably the smartest children we have ever met. Not only are they book smart, they are also able to speak fluent English, and possibly Japanese. It was very hard for us to find things to teach them, especially Uno, because their skill level is so high. To compensate, we found games at Mirror and taught them about special topics, such as sports in America. A Mirror volunteer donated a game to Mirror called Headbandz - to play, you choose a card and place it on your head and then ask questions while trying to guess the object. Through this game we were able to evaluate how smart these boys actually were. They often guessed the object within four or five turns with questions such as Am I Alive? or Do you eat me? Sadly, it takes us seven or eight rounds.

While at the boy's home we were treated to the best dinners, ice cream cones, and entertainment. After lessons the boys pull out their musical instruments and perform for us. Not only are these boys smart, they also are musical! Uno plays the piano, Imwee plays the guitar, while Loren sings. The songs range from beautiful Thai songs, which we do not understand, to popular American tunes such as Linkin Park's Numb, Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girl, or our favorite - Love Me Tender.

Even though we had only spent a short time with the boys, it was very hard to say goodbye. We had so much fun spending a few hours a week with such lovely, bright men. They will definitely go far in life. Spending our last night with them is the start to a lot of goodbyes in the next few days, it is going to be much harder than we expected.

Makha Bucha Day- February 9

Makha Bucha Day is a religious festival celebrated by Buddhists in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos on the full moon day of the third lunar month, which happened to be this past Monday. Thai language as Makha (Pali: Māgha). Bucha, also a Thai word (Pali: Pūjā), meaning to venerate or to honor. As such, Makha Bucha Day is for the veneration of Buddha and his teachings. It is customary for Buddhists to go to the temple to perform merit-making activities.

Alm's Giving
To perform our merit-making activity, a group of volunteers woke up at 5:30am to give alms to the monks. Because monk's only source of food is from donations, we packed 100 small bags of garlic, rice, sugar, and salt for them to use. Usually we would be able to pass out the food to all 100 monks, but since there were so many donations, we gave it all to one monk. Women are not allowed to touch monks, so the men of the group had to present the alms. After a special blessing each volunteer received a yellow bracelet from the monk. We are not sure what this bracelet protects us from, but the orange one we received in Mae Chan wards off evil spirits or snakes.


Mae Sai, Thailand
Later in the day we were given the opportunity to go to Mae Sai to assist Child Life - Mae Sai in the building of a new road. Childlife (or "Baan Nana" in Thai) is a grassroots organization, providing direct intervention for children at risk in Maesai, Northern Thailand at the border to Myanmar (Burma). Baan Nana works to prevent the increasing numbers of street children and crime in society through its programs. The organization provides emergency and long term shelter, including education, medical care, food and clothing for 180 children. They are encouraging children and their families to imagine a future beyond a life in the streets, to gain experience working together for a better future.

During the rainy season, the road to Baan Nana is completely impassable because of large ruts that are a foot deep and wide. As a preventive measure, the volunteers put together their money and bought rock and laid it on the road to help prevent the issue come April.

We enjoyed going to Mae Sai and helping another organization. It was interesting to see the differences in NGO's throughout Northern Thailand - the kids were super cute and helpful too! They worked just as hard, if not harder, than the volunteers. They all put on the gloves and carried bags of stones from one side of the road to the other. Too cute!

After lunch we had one hour to walk around the Mae Sai Market. Once you've seen one market in Thailand, you've pretty much seen them all, so it wasn't all that exciting. Although, the gun and hunting selection was far superior than that in Chaing Rai or Bangkok. James claims they were pellet guns, but who knows. It wouldn't surprise us if they were real.

We heard that border control between Burma (Mynamar) and Thailand was pretty tight, but the only thing we could see separating the two countries was this small barbed wire fence and a creek. Supposedly if you want to cross illegally this isn't the place - you cross in the lush northern hills late at night. Emwee, one of the Mirror interns, who is originally from Burma, looks a little nervous standing so close to the border!

Candle Ceremony

After a quick shower and dinner we climbed back into the saungthaew to celebrate another Makha Bucha Day tradition - the candlelighting ceremony at the Emerald Temple. In the evening, each temple in Thailand holds a candle light procession called a wian tian (wian meaning circle; tian meaning candle). Holding flowers, incense and a lighted candle, the monks and congregation members walk around the temple clockwise three times - once for the Buddha, second for the teachings of Buddha, and the third thanking the monks for their service. Not knowing all of the Buddhist teachings - or anything about Buddha - made it hard for us to capture the full experience. Luckily we were able to enjoy the nice scenery, beautiful flowers and candles, and witness yet another Thai tradition that many tourist are not able to.

Sam eats another bug!

Although we promised ourselves the bug eating was a once in a lifetime experience, Sam found herself not only eating one bug, but multiple this weekend. With each new group of volunteers, there is an unofficial initiation of eating bugs. Sam wanted to join in to video the experience for a project she is working on. She claims the feast of bees, silkworms, and bamboo bugs were much tastier than the large, scratchy grasshopper.

Friday was our last time going to the Chaing Rai Night Bazaar - one of our favorite pastimes while volunteering. It's not only a favorite because of the change of scenery, but the combination of food, music, and most importantly, the people. After shopping, we all come together and sit at the yellow tables order tons of food, tubes of beer, and enjoy each other's company. The music is pretty good too! Being the last "night" in Chiang Rai, it probably was apporpriate to finish with the feast of bugs.

People may ask how we can eat bugs, we honestly didn't think we would do it either...but hey, when in Rome you do as the Romans do - or Thais in this matter!

So we've heard a lot about Mirror, but who are they?

As the days go on we learn more and more about the ways the Mirror Art Group helps the surrounding communities and how our roles as volunteers contribute.

The Mirror Art Group operates several projects; Hilltribe Project, ICT, Citizenship Project, Anti-Human Trafficking, second hand shop, hilltribe craft store, Mirror Art Guesthouse, and Hilltribe school education.

The Hilltribe Project consists of a group of adults whose main objectives are to help the various hilltribes adjust to life in the modern world while still preserving their cultures and beliefs.
The ICT group, similar to IT in the States, is responsible for maintaining the ebannok website. Not only do they provide technical support, they also design both Thai and English websites.
While all of Mirror’s projects are important, the Citizenship Project is probably considered the most influential. When the borders were redrawn between Thailand and Burma (now called Myanmar), the people who suddenly found themselves in a new country did not have any claim to citizenship, and their previous citizenship was void. Unfortunately this meant these people were not eligible for any benefits provided by either government; mainly healthcare and education. These non-citizens can’t even travel to cities such as Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai, because border patrol stops along the way check all Thai passengers for citizenship cards, while Farangs (literal translation means white westerners) are not even looked at. The process for obtaining citizenship is complicated and requires a lot of paperwork – this is where Mirror comes in. Mirror’s goal is to get at least one family member citizenship because the law states that if one member of a family gains citizenship, any blood relatives will be included as well, as long as the family can afford to pay for blood tests to confirm relationship, but sadly most have a hard time affording such services.

Sadly there is a heavy presence of human-trafficking in Thailand. The anti-human trafficking members work to prevent hilltribe women and children from being kidnapped, shipped to other cities or countries, and then forced to work for no pay. The older women are usually forced into the sex industry or sometimes into the restaurant and housekeeping industries. Children are pushed on the streets to beg for money. Mirror stresses to never give money to begging children, no matter how much they look like they need it because it is only supporting this unfortunate industry. They have done observation studies and found that at the end of the day the begging children are forced to relinquish their earnings to the gang or kidnapper. If you are going to give something to a child, the best thing would be food, although even that might get taken or the child may refuse it all together.


The second hand and hilltribe craft store bring not only support the foundation, but also the community. As you probably guessed, the second hand store sells clothes to local hilltribe people. Many of the hilltribes have a traditional dress but many are started to dress in more modern clothes because of social pressures. Often new, modern clothes are too expensive. The second hand shop give the hilltribe members the opportunity to buy the clothes they want at a reduced rate. The ebannok store sells local handicrafts and gives the money back to the designer. Majority of sales come from online sales to other stores for resale. Volunteers are asked to use our contacts to connect the ebannok store to other store owners. The items available in the store are truly beautiful!

Recently Mirror opened a guesthouse in Chiang Rai, uniquely named the Mirror Art Guesthouse. We usually stay at the guesthouse on Friday evenings. We both love the guesthouse because it is always clean, has a hot shower, and most importantly 10% of the fees go back to the Mirror Art Group, or back into the community. How cool is that? We haven't found a better guesthouse in Chiang Rai yet!

Lastly, Mirror has a heavy presence in the Hilltribe education system in Chiang Rai,. The Hilltribe schools are somewhat primitive, but seem better than the ones in Belize. Mirror has found that the best thing we can do for them is teaching them English because it will help them in the future. For the most part the children, ranging from three years old to sixth grade, seem as if they are eager to learn. Even though it may be more interesting to work with some of the other projects, the education program is generally where volunteers contribute the most. Most of the other projects are run by Thai speaking people, with volunteers just helping out where they can. Teaching English is what we are qualified to do, even if we have never taught before. We also take the time to tutor the ICT workers. Most of them speak fairly good English and know a lot of vocabulary, but English grammar and sentence structure are completely different from the Thai language. Most notable are the absence of articles, conjunctions, and other small connector words that English uses but Thai doesn’t. Words like “a”, “an”, “the”, “but”, etc. aren’t used in Thai and have no direct translation. This is why most people that speak relatively good English here still have a problem forming correct sentences. You can converse with these people and generally have not much trouble getting all points across or from them, but the flow isn’t there. Teaching these adults consists of having conversations with them and improving their skills, usually covering whatever topic the students want. Another group tutors the Hilltribe workers. This group has a lower speaking ability, so most of the time is spent learning new words along with basic grammar and sentence structure. One lesson we did was learning how the words get rearranged when asking questions, such as: “Your eyes are brown.” turns into “Are your eyes brown?” The last option for teaching English is tutoring Top Kids which is an after school program for the children living right around Mirror


---
As we have said before, Mirror does so many amazing things for the Chiang Rai community. With meeting we learn about many of the success stories caused by the organization we are helping. Another intern was telling us that the Mirror Art Group was actually voted the best place to volunteer in Thailand. We are so lucky to be paired with them randomly. We would recommend this wonderful organization to anyone!

Best to you all,
Samantha and James

from elephants to bicycles, oh the transportation methods in Thailand!

Elephant trekking

On Thursday morning we left for our two-night home-stay in the hill tribes, a weekend trip that all volunteers get to do at some point during their stay at Mirror. The 20 of us all piled into a couple of sawngtheaws and headed off. On our way up, we stopped in a town presumably for a snack, but soon found out that we were there for an elephant ride. It was an unbelievable experience to be on top of an elephant, but it was also quite scary. The seat on the elephant was very unstrudy and we couldn’t help thinking what would happen if we fell off! The movement from land to water was probably the worst part. Our elephant was very short and I feared we would fall in the water with all of the elephant poop floating by. FYI, elephant dung is enormous. When it hits the ground it sounds like a brick falling. After the trek we had the opportunity to feed the elephants; I preferred this to the riding.

Banana leaf lunches and waterfalls

After the elephant ride we were dropped off at a nearby waterfall and enjoyed our Thai version of bag lunches; instead of peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches there was sticky rice and fried chicken, instead of yogurt there was chili sauce, and instead of a brown paper bag it was all wrapped in banana leaves. From there we began our 3 km hike up the only road to the first village where we were to stay, which doesn't sound long but, because of the heat and the incredible incline, felt like a serious trek that was never-ending. James has never seen a road this steep anywhere, even in the mountains near Yellowstone. Without exaggerating, the hill probably had a 30-degree incline.

Lahu and Akha Homestays

There are about 7 major hill tribes in Northern Thailand and surrounding countries (as they tend to have more of a sense of tribal allegiance than nationalism). Each tribe has its own language, completely different from Thai, and unique dress and culture. Any Thai that we have learned while at Mirror was completely thrownA major goal of Mirror is to preserve these self-sustaining cultures while helping them to survive globalization. One of the ways they do this is with hill tribe home-stays, which gives more income to the hill tribe families (who sell their hand-made goods to their guests) and gives them an incentive to preserve their way of life.

Lahu New Year

Our first night of home-stay was in a Lahu village and happened to coincide with Lahu New Year, a 10 day festival of dancing and sacrifices. The Lahu believe that every new year they must make sure to give the gods many good things in order to secure a good year - in the center of the village there was a sacrifice altar with different meats and a pig's head for the spirits. The festival didn't start until the night so we spent the day hanging out in the village, trying to communicate with our host, and admiring the houses and roaming animals. Completely made of bamboo, the houses we stayed in were elevated on stilts and we could see (and hear all night long!) the animals, which live below the house, through the floor slats. Each house is made up of one big kitchen/living room/dining room (which is just an empty room with a fire pit inside) and another sleeping room, and the entire thing is rebuilt every seven years.
At night, the festival got started and we all danced around the sacrifice altar to the pounding of symbols and drums. We went to bed at 10pm with the hope that the party would die down soon, but the Lahu villagers continued partying, blasting karaoke and shooting off firecrackers until 7am! It seems as if the real party began after the farang went to bed.

Akha Village

The next morning (an hour after finally falling asleep) we woke up, had breakfast with our host and hiked about 5km to an Akha village, which looked similar, but was slightly more developed than the Lahu village (a few houses were made of cement and cinder blocks and some of the younger women wore jeans and t-shirts in place of sarongs or the customary Akha outfit). Before settling down with our host families, we were taken to a field where we helped (really observed) a few men from the village make a meal of rice, soup, chili and tea for all of us using nothing but nature and their machetes; they cooked all our food in large bamboo shoots over a fire, laid out banana leaves for all of us to sit on, and offered us tea in cups they cut from bamboo.
That night, we all got the opportunity to dress up in the traditional Akha uniforms and follow along in their dances around the fire (of which they have many). In return, we taught them the closest thing we have in our culture: the Hokey Pokey. The Akha women and children definitely had a good laugh.
--
Despite falling down the steep hill and not getting any sleep, the homestay was definitely our favorite aspect of the trip thus far. Not only were we accepted into local homes, we were also able to see a different side of Thailand that many “normal” tourists will never experience.

Another fun aspect of the Akha village was that we were able to meet a product of the Mirror Art Group. The male in Sam’s homestay spoke decent English, which we found out he learned by taking classes at Mirror. Although we had never taught him, it was good to know that our organization is truly helping others.

Cycling to the White Temple

We returned back to Mirror on Saturday with the goal of riding bikes to the White Temple. Thellie, one of the coordinators at Mirror, claimed it was a simple 12k bike ride that would take about an hour. Three hours and 25k later, we finally arrived to the White Temple. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere…

Even though it was a long haul, The White Temple was well worth the sweat and sore muscles. Walking up to the temple it first resembled an ice palace, wandering closer it was actually a huge temple made out of plaster and mirrors. Once inside the temple we approached the Buddha and a fake monk. The Buddha mural was absolutely stunning – turning to exit the temple we were faced with another mural representing all of the evils in the world. Although the White Temple was gorgeous, the Mural of Evil was a personal favorite….or the most interesting. The paintings of Bin Laden, bombs, and war were definitely understandable, but the Matrix, school buses, George Bush, and the NASA space-program were heard to grasp. I wonder who or what standards these were chosen. James also found the painting of the F-22, the plane he will work with at Boeing, on the wall. Perhaps the rest of the world doesn’t find the plane as necessary?

Photos...finally!

Click here to see our recent photos from the homestay, elephant rides, and tribal dances!