Sunday, March 16th Off to Chiang Rai

We were leaving for Chiang Rai so had to hop in the back of a Songthaew (a pickup with benches in the back) to get to the bus depot by10:00 a.m. When we arrived we found out that, as per usual, according to Thai time our bus left at 11:30 a.m. After we passed a few concessions and had some testers, we purchased some strawberries and oranges for the ride. We are getting much braver at trying new foods we see being cooked. We don't always know what we are eating, but we can figure it out after -- lots of chicken and pork.

It cost us 175 baht ( a little less than $6.00) for the bus ride to Chiang Rai, a 3 and a half hour drive from Chiang Mai. We needed to store our 10 bags so we did not have to carry them around -- this service cost 300 baht (about $9.00). It was nice to have an air conditioned bus, but it was a bumpy ride -- some of us had to take gravol. The plan to finish our journal ling went out the window as it was impossible to write. The truck box to the camp was not so luxurious!

When we arrived, in true Thai style, no one seemed to recognize why we were there. Nonetheless it all got sorted out. We instantly got chatting with the other volunteers, from Vancouver, Australia, England, Scotland, Quebec, USA. That has been really neat, hearing their stories.

This reminds us so much of summer camp. An office, some cabins, open play space, common dining room which is actually a cement pad with mats outside with a grass roof, no walls. The kitchen also is more outside than inside. A far cry from our designer kitchens in the western world. they only have 2 free standing burners (propane?) to cook for a whole camp. They chop vegetables only by hand, takes most of the day I'm sure. We eat off metal plates sitting on the floor. Hand washing our own dishes after.

The girls are sleeping in the loft of an old teak 2 story cabin. 13 narrow stairs to carry our 8 pieces of luggage up. Next time we will pack lighter!! We are sleeping on mats that are on the floor.There is one shower/toilet inside and one outside for 13 women to share. We have a resident frog, a noisy gecko, and a spider I met in the night in the bathroom that was the size of a small saucer. The shower is an real shower, but only cold water, and we mean mountain stream cold. Most of us only shower in the afternoon when we are soooo hot that the cold ice water looks good! The toilet is a bucket flusher, and cannot accept toilet paper. Use your imagination. (That s what the bucket beside the toilet is for.)

The meals are so tasty, haven't had anything we haven't liked. Rice for every meal, but its better than our rice at home. The ginger dish last evening pushed the boundary on the "spice" tolerance. Lots of vegetables with every meal, even breakfast, not much meat. But you don't miss it at all. Jamie sleeps in the dirt house with the guys. Not much sleep on the cement floor the first night. He gathered some extra padding after that. He got to meet the night watchman anyway!

Sunday we got the lowdown on how things are done here. Its quite an organization, Mirror Foundation. They have a lot of respect for the hill tribe people, the motto being "we learn from them". The program is way bigger than what we will touch ourselves, ie loan program, citizenship program, rescue program. A person learns to be very open and flexible here. Nothing is in stone. Seldom on time. Missing paperwork. However meals are sharp at 8am, 12, and 6pm.

It gets dark at 6 pm here so we have to be back on the property by then. There is a village 1 km from camp and we walk into it to get cold drinks from the"convenience store". Our water supply here is reliable but room temperature - which gets close to 30 degrees up here.

We are still all nervous as we have no idea what we are expected to do, but are feeling hopeful that we can make a difference, even in a small way.

Thanks for the comments- it keeps us motivated to keep writing- Miss you all -

Tune in for Monday!