Saw wa dee! Hello everyone from Bangkok! Our mission part is complete and we are now awaiting ability to safely go home. From working with the foundation to improve lives to meeting with the the Red Cross to supporting tsumani relief to helping the blind to teaching English to sharing about Buddhist-Christian relations and learning how similar the human race is despite differences, we have been enriched and blessed in ways words cannot describe. The friendliness and compassion of the Thai people will be with us forever. Our new friends: Mamme, Pi Pi, Fa, Santee, Jok, Enu, Jenn, Pong, Ting, Mot, Gui, Su, Nokur, and Nung have given to us as we have tried to give to them. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences with you very soon. Please pray for safe travel. We will be back with you soon! Love you all!

1. Hello from Suankaew Foundation. There are SOOOO many stories to tell but our time is limited on the computer. Thai people have been so overwhelmingly nice to us. The work here at the foundation does great things. We’ve done everything from making fire and charcoal, to working the garden with (lovely) wild boar to hanging out in the nursery with the children. They are adorable and such happy kids. They are excited just to see us! This experience is so new that it’s hard to even put into words. Our work with the fire and bamboo was really challenging and for sure puts some things into perspective but am so grateful to have done this. Rich was attacked by a wild monkey and almost bit pretty bad but escaped with just a scrap. Pretty scary but funny after wards! It wouldn’t be a normal trip without Jill getting a round of food poisoning so spending a night in a Thailand hospital and an injection (of something…oh my..) was cure for it all. All is well now but no more Thai food for this stomach! Only American food is crackers and Oreo’s so I raided the 7-11 store for the duration. Hilarious now that I’m not sick anymore.
   Unfortunately, there is also some bad news. The protests in Bangkok are getting violent and we are awaiting word on our flight information. The hotel we were to stay at is now closed due to violence and we’re weighing our options and getting advice from locals as to what to do next. There was a car bomb and some shootings but information is not always easy to understand. No worries – we are tough! All is well!
   Miss you all from Thailand!

Destination Thailand - Status Complete!

What an amazing journey. It's 4am here in Bangkok and we just finished our Thai Pad and "special" Thai drinks. This place is GREAT! Tokyo was nice since we got to have lunch with Rich's old friend Nori, from college. We were stopped by the Japanese police officiers - do we look that touristy?? I guess so. The taxi from the Bangkok airport to Khao San Rd was interesting to say the least but the hanging chickens and flattened rats for sale made up for it all. Khao Rd is our home for the night and it's famous for backpackers from all over the world. We've met some very kind people from Burma to Twaian to Canada.
Our work begins tomorrow and we'll try to update again later.
We're so grateful to be here right now!

Jill and Rich

And we're off to Thailand

We’re heading to THAILAND! Our flight departs at 7am tomorrow morning.
Louisville - Dallas - Tokyo - Bangkok

THANK YOU ALL for the overwhelming support. We truly do have some great friends and family!

We’ll try to update this blog with stories/pictures when possible so check back on us.

We are so excited to get there and begin.
LOVE YOU ALL!!!