Mark and I started the day by going to the Coffee Seed for our Americano coffee. We have been every day this trip & love the girl that works there. Then we left with Boots to the local tennis center to donate all the racquets that our friends in Tyler, Texas donated. The coach was so appreciative he actually cried. Next year we want to get him a stringer so they can string their own racquets. It's amazing what a difference things we normally throw away can do...

Today we officially finished the habitat house! We mortared the last brick in place around noon. All that is left to do is finish digging the septic tank hole and some clean up. After lunch today we drove to the local elementary school where they welcomed us with a program of traditional dance and music. We then entertained them with things we had brought. Mark threw balls and played catch with them and then we did the Hokey Pokey which they loved! Then we spli...

The last 2 days have been more of the same routine. We have almost finished with all the block and mortaring. They say we will probably finish the house by Tuesday at this rate. I'm becoming more and more Thai- I have gotten really good and fast at balancing on the "squatter", I'm eating rice at every meal and I've learned about 10 good Thai phrases! The culture here is so different from America. 90% of the population ride mopeds without helmets, children and ...

We are starting to settle into a routine now. Early morning walks, breakfast, ride in Yoyo's truck to house, work, eat, work, eat... Starting to get more of a feel for the people here with us with habitat as well as the Thai people. Two of the ladies who came here alone are continuing to travel in Thailand and neighboring countries by themselves. One young lady is going to travel to Laos and Cambodia before going home by herself. It just amazes me how she can do ...

Today was a long day! We started at5:30 am with another 2 mile walk to the market through back streets of town. Mark bought some rice rolled up in banana leaves to give to the monks who have to beg for their breakfast. Since it was his birthday they gave him a special blessing. We left for the house site and today was an especially hard day! We mixed concrete by hand in buckets and basically poured a 900 sq ft slab today! It was back breaking work mixing the sand...