Bonding Time

Together with the Thai staff, we ended our busy day and busy week with a Thai-style barbecue. This was an awesome and important event because it allowed us to interact with each other in lax and fun atmosphere. Everybody took part in preparing this event by performing tasks such as setting up the place, grocery shopping, cooking, and borrowing plates and other equipment from the temple. In Thai barbecue a plate/cooking surface is placed on top of charcoal and the rim is filled with a broth. We then would cook the meats and vegetables on the spot ensuring that the food was fresh.

Towards the end of the meal, we began singing songs on the karaoke machine. We all took turns showing off our amazing singing skills. What I really enjoyed was the fact that not only were we singing and dancing with the Warm Heart Thai staff, but also with the local government officials. This can be seen in the picture above. Notice how we are wearing our blue Lanna shirt.

Once again this was an amazing experience. It definitely helped in loosening the cultural and language barriers that naturally exist. I feel and look forward to accomplish a lot more in the coming weeks.

A few updates regarding the project. Tomorrow we will be meeting with local officials and will be discussing with them more details of our project. We will also be visiting the villages that we will be working with and reviewing a census of these villages acquired by the district government.