Water Project

This is Eileen. We had a chance to visit a water project that is dear to my heart. The Chumphon Cabana is a resort but also a center for people to learn to live harmoniously with nature. They had several water projects that promote natural ways to purify water. Thanks again Rotary for giving me this outstanding opportunity to learn from the Thai people.

Presentation # 2

Wow!!!!!!!!! Another action-packed day in Thailand. Kim here. We started by going to a Hair salon where I had the opportunity to cut the owner's hair. I was then able to watch another stylist cut a client's (Arit - a member of the Rotary) hair. It was very fascinating. The price of their equipment is incredibly less expensive than in Canada. I hope to order some scissors to take home.

Lee helped a chef cook our lunch. He had fun preparing the meal and learning the Thai cooking techniques. The meal was scrumptuous !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the best we have had.

We also did our second GSE presentation today. The Rotary club made up a special banner for us that was posted on the window. The group was extremely nice to us. The District Director of Sawee was our guest. He has invited us to plant mangrove trees in order to preserve the sea life. Apparently what we plant tomorrow will provide life for many sea animals in about 5 years. How exciting to be a part of such an important project.

Our host families have been most hospitable once again. Everyone here is so friendly. It will be difficult to leave.

We went to the Chumphon Cabana Resort this afternoon. They have a totally self contained resort that is run by the environment around them. They grow their own food, purify their water and even destroy bad bacteria. It was incredible to see how much we can do to save our environment. After our tour, it was beach time. What a lovely way to spend our day.

Tonight we experienced cutting our own crab in half in order to eat it. The Thai culture is so fun. We are learning a lot.

Well, I will sign off now. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Until next time.....Sawadee ka. (Good bye!)

Sunday, February 25th

Today was another amazing day. We got up early this morning and went to the Floating Market. We were able to look at the different venders and was able to buy different gifts. I (Brandon) purchased some homemade soap and candles. We were also given some gifts. One gift was a corsages made from fish scales. They are beautiful. Another one of the gifts were our shirts (seen in the picture). We also had an opportunity to ride in an boat along the Floating Market (picture above).

After the Floating Market we went for lunch along the river. Weena (my host sister, also seen in the above picture) ordered some different dishes. Even at restaurants their way to serve the meal is to bring the different dishes to the table and we all share. Instead of us ordering individual meals. The dishes never seem to have a lot of food on it but there is also so much. The food is very good and sometimes really spicy.

Following lunch, we were treated to an hour long foot massage. What an amazing experience. Though their massage technique seem rough, it was really relaxing. The thai people are really in to massage. I look forward to having another one real soon.

Tonight we are meeting the District Governor and a party for us. I am looking forward to trying the food and meeting all the Rotary Clubs. There are nine clubs in the Bangkok area.

Kim's Host Family Employee Party

Saturday was a day full of excitement. After seeing the Grand Palace, going for lunch, then shopping, we had a Thai foot massage. What a treat !!!!!!!!! The Rotary has been very generous to us. They have completely spoiled us.

In the evening we were treated to dinner at Mrs. Seemake's. The feast went on all night while we were entertained by her employees and Bim ( a famous singer here in Thailand). I (Kim) was surprised with a beautiful hand painted pot with lid from Mrs. Seemake. She has been so gracious and generous to me. Words cannot describe how much I appreciate all she has done. She has treated me to many bags from her factory and she cooked me a wonderful meal after a long day.

I am thoroughly enjoying Thailand and I am especially grateful to Mrs. Seemake and all her family for their care and hospitality.

We have arrived....

After nearly being in the air for 23 hours yesterday, not counting time on the ground, we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand at 11:30pm on Wednesday, February 21st.

Once we made it through customs, gathered our luggage (no lost luggage to talk about) and off to the exit to this unknown world to us. We turned the corner and scanned the sheer people to see if we could figure out who was picking us up. But we noticed right away a great big yellow sign welcoming us. As we approached, there were 15 - 20 Rotarians excited to meet us all. Talk about overwhelming and exciting. Pictures, welcomes, hand shakes all around. Funny looks as they gathered our luggage. I think some commented ... heavy.

For the next 15 minutes, there were a lot of pictures taken and introduction made. We look forward to meeting them all again tonight at our first Rotary Meeting.

We were swept away to our hotel for some much needed rest.

Itinerary

With only a couple of days to go, I thought this would be a good time to post our itinerary for all to see. It looks like it is going to be a packed thirty days. I cannot wait to start the experience.

Thank you to our friends, family, Rotary International, Rotary District 6380 and Rotary District 3330 for supporting this trip and for all the work it takes to pull a trip like this together.

Itinerary

February 20th - Leaving Canada & USA
February 21st - Arriving in Bangkok, Thailand (roughly 24 hours of flying - 3 flights)
February 22 - 26 - Samutprakarn
February 26 - March 1 - Chumphon
March 1 - 4 - Surat Thani
March 4 - 7 - Nakorn Sri Thammaraj
March 7 - 9 - Phuket
March 9 - 11 Mid Trip Break in Phuket
March 11 - 14 - Trang
March 14 - 17 - Hua Hin
March 17 - 18 - Karnchanahuri
March 18 - 20 - Nakorn Prathom
March 20 - Leaving Thailand and living March 20th over again in Canada and USA

Show and Tell Dinner

We had a farewell dinner to thank the Rotarians who are sponsoring us and to show our friends and family our presentations. We picked a date 10 days before our departure so that we are not rushed at the last minute. It was a great evening for all.

Bringing Rotary Flags to Thailand

We're all looking forward to sharing tokens of appreciation and goodwill with our Thai friends and "families" when we arrive. We'll be bringing rotary club flags to exchange with the clubs we visit. Let us know if you have some you'd like us to pass on in Thailand for your club!

Lunch with Maidson Heights Rotary!

I had lunch with my sponsoring Rotary club (Madison Heights, Michigan) on Thursday. It was great to meet Bill Deyo and his fellow Rotarians in person! I want to thank Madison Heights again for sponsoring me and for their generous good wishes and support. Thanks to Jack Salter (who has been a lifelong supporter of the Boys and Girls Clubs) for interviewing me as well. The group meets at Club Venetian in Madison Heights on Thursdays (noon) and welcomes visitors.

January 28, 2007 Group Meeting.

Well, we're getting closer !!!!!!!!!!!!! The team met at Nicole's house in Ann Arbor (here's a photo of downtown) to do some last minute preparations. We are well on our way to a great presentation.

Kim will be emailing Dr. Kunaporn to find out more details on the host families and what our attire is to be at the workplace.

We have our business and thank you cards ready to go. Brandon will be ordering the business cards next week.

The broadsheets are almost complete. We are waiting for one more entry and then we will be putting our finishing touches on them. Everything will be ready for our "trial" presentation on February 7th.

We were very excited to have received our language phrase books and the CD so we can speak Thai fluently upon our arrival. Very funny, I know. But we will give it our best shot. We may just surprise you.

We practiced our presentation. And, though we have some rough edges to polish, we have done a great job. Everyone has interesting points to share. We really do make a super team!!!!!
We haven't even left yet, and we are already discussing the possiblity of sharing our Thailand experience with many Rotary groups. We can hardly wait for the invitations to come. Just to give you a head's up..... You will be hearing from us.

Well, that's all for now. We are looking forward to sharing our presentation on February 7th and again in Thailand. We have been working hard and are expecting our overwhelming enthusiasm to be clearly demonstrated. Talk to you soon.
:-) Kim.

The BioSand Filter

Someone on the team mentioned that I should describe the work that my husband and I do with the BioSand Water Filter. We are working with a Rotaract club in Kathmandu to provide safe drinking water to schools, orphanages and now a village in Nepal. You can learn more about it at this site. http://avisionforcleanwater.blogspot.com

January 13th 2007 Group Meeting

Our all-day Saturday meeting in Chatham-Kent was a very productive day. We were able to accomplish a lot of things off our to-do list with only a month to go before we leave for Thailand.

The morning started off with an interview with the Chatham Daily News for an article on our opportunity. The reporter asked a lot of great questions. The article was published on Monday, January 15^th. They also took a group photo for the paper.

We then had an opportunity to sit with Max, 2006 Team Leader of the GSE Team to Peru, and ask questions about his team’s trip. It was a great opportunity to ask questions on what we should expect everyday, how much money should we take and things we should look forward to. Max had a lot of good advice. Thanks Max for your advice and good stories.

We were then back to the tasks at hand on our to-do list. We tackled the broadsheet. This sheet is designed as an introduction of us to the Rotarians at the meetings. It will be in English and Thai for easy reference. Great work Nicole on putting that all together.

We finished up other things like our uniform selections, business cards, thank you cards and talked about the presentation. Our major task at hand is finishing the presentation for the next meeting. We are not far from having it all put together.

Well with only one month to go, we are getting excited and cannot wait to meet and see some many new things. What an exciting time and the anticipation for each us seems to be growing every day. I am really excited to share this experience with this team. We all get along amazing and lines of communication are open.

Til next time….

Koy Nuttikan Prasoppokakorn is an exchange student from Thailand who is visiting our district. She gave a talk at the Troy Rotary and is now helping us to translate our information. She is a big help! She went with Nicole and me to dinner at a Thai restaurant and then to a lecture at the Buddhist Meditation Center in Ann Arbor. She said is was similar but not quite the same at Thailand.

January 3rd, 2007 Group Meeting

Our Wednesday, January 3^rd meeting in Windsor was a great opportunity to check out our to-do list and check things off as we went. Our group and individual pictures were taken as seen above. Lee and Brandon shared their initial 20 minute presentation layout. It was great to have so much done and an opportunity for everyone to review it and make changes.

With the arrival of our ID badges, Nicole and Kim had an excellent idea of attaching a ribbon. This ribbon would allow us to attach any collected pins along our travels. Neat idea.

Other things discussed included an additional causal uniform, a single group business card and a single black and white page introduction summary on each member. Who knew that time could pass so fast and still so much to do. As of January 3rd meeting, our countdown is at 48 days with our tentative departure date of February 19th.

Rotary International in Italy and Switzerland

Here's a picture of the Rotary Club on the little island of Capri off the Amalfi Coast in Italy. It was great to see evidence of Rotary work while I was abroad in both Italy and Switzerland. In Switzerland, for example, I met several women who were working on a bake and craft sale to benefit underprivileged children in Zurich! I'm looking forward to meeting Rotarians and seeing Rotary projects in Thailand!

"Official" Group Meeting Minutes Available Online

If you would like a summary of our group meetings, several group members have been kind enough to publish them to this blog below. Anyone who is interested in viewing the detailed/official meeting minutes in outline format may do so by following this link: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg7tms5f_4gqc4h4

Our Wednesday, December 13^th meeting in Windsor was fun and exciting to see our trip to-do list take shape. Our meeting started out with the announcement that Nicole Rohrkemper (an alternate member) will be joining the GSE Team to Thailand. Welcome to the team Nicole and we look forward to getting to know you.

We were off to the races hoping to accomplish as much as possible on our to-do list. Who knew time could pass so fast. As a team we put some ideas together for our presentation, which Lee and I said we would set up the initial layout as our take away. We then finalized our uniforms, ID badges and a possible social event.

As excited and dedicated as we all are, we understood that Christmas and the New Year is quickly approaching and we will meet again in the New Year to keep plugging away. To all of you from the GSE Team to Thailand, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Update from Nicole

Hello again,

I have returned to the States from my recent travel and had a great time meeting the team earlier this month! I wanted to post an update since I am no longer an alternate, and am officially a team member at this time. I'm getting prepared along with the rest of the team to go on the trip in February. I'm enjoying the work we're doing together to get ready, and am excited to contribute.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell everyone a little more about myself. Right now I'm exploring work with local and national non-profits, including two human/civil rights and anti-discrimination organizations in Michigan. I hope to bring my experience with the legal system to the non-profit sector where I can really make a difference working for cross-cultural understanding, tolerance and equality. In college I worked with several social action organizations. Some of my relevant coursework includes comparative politics, world religions, international economics, and philosophy. Most of my travel has been in Europe and North and South America, but I'm looking for opportunities to travel to less familiar locations. I am scheduled to study beginning Arabic at the University of Cairo (Egypt) in 2007. In the last few years I've been privileged to attend services at christian churches of a half-dozen dominations, at a Muslim mosque, zen temple, and Buddhist center. I've also walked labyrinths dedicated to the sacred feminine, attended an African-inspired spiritual drum circle, and participated in a Native American cleansing sweat lodge ceremony honoring our ancestors. This year I have been studying Buddhism and meditation at the Jewel Heart Center in Ann Arbor, where I live. I hope these cultural experiences will make me all the more prepared for our trip, and that I will get the chance to deepen my understanding of both Buddhism and Islam while we are in Thailand.

Sunday of the Weekend

December 3rd was the final day of our retreat. Since we might visit a Moslem family, we invited Imam Salef to join us and discuss what we might expect in a Moslem home. He told us that they stopped to pray five times a day, women should wear a scarf when entering a religious area, and said we will see many women in places of power equal to men. Imam Salef talked about the Koran and the similarities in Western faiths. He recommended a video titled “Legacy of a Profit” http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/ and gave us some phrases to learn that would please our host families. After the visit, we worked on our presentations and completed the day by shopping for our uniforms. It was a very successful weekend!

Saturday's Minutes

After a great sleep we the day started out with a hearty breakfast to get us prepared for a long day of team building, education and bonding.

Jeannette Saquet, PhD brought about our first challenge of the day. We were faced with identifying our own personality type using “The Sixteen Types” by David Keirsey. This opportunity offered an insight into our selves as well how to act and respond with each other. This will give us the ability to understand the thought process of fellow team members. Jeanette kept us moving along with a simulation to test our survival skills. The emergency situation took place in northern Quebec after our plane crashes. This simulation proved our skills working as a team were stronger than our skills on our own. Good to know for adventures that await us in Thailand.

The next few items on our agenda we were able to move through rather quickly. We set the dates for our future meetings to work strengthen our team as well as finish of the projects needed to be completed before our departure.

Kim took the floor next to present us with our uniform options. Well let’s just say there were a lot of styles and colours to choose from. It will be a very daunting task to choose the one right for our team.

Eileen informed the team we have funds available for our use towards language education. Brandon took on the task of finding the right program that meets our needs. As well Brandon has volunteered to take our photos for the business cards and brochures. Speaking of brochures team members were reminded to begin preparing the write up they want used for their profile.

Presentations were the next hot topic on the agenda. The will consist of two presentations to be shown in Thailand and one for use upon our return. The two for Thailand will be made up of one long, approximately 20 minutes and one short, approximately 6-7 minutes in length.

After these issues were dealt with our guest speaker arrived. We were given the opportunity to meet with a Buddhist Monk who revealed some insight into the Buddhist way of life. We learned the main fundamentals were made up of three ideas: 1) not to do bad, 2) to do good, and 3) to purify the mind. Buddhists believe in respect for other cultures, people, and every living thing and by doing this you will get far in life. He extended an offer to visit his temple to expand our knowledge of the Buddhist lifestyle. A big thank you for the insight which we were provided with.

Our final event for the day brought us right up to the evening hours, a wonderful Thai dinner with a rebound exchange student, Nolwazi, who spent a year in Thailand. Nolwazi gave us some hints and tips to make our adjustment into the Thai culture a bit smooth and seamless. Along with her wonderful stories, trinkets and souvenirs, she educated us on culture and language. Thank you Nolwazi for your tips as well as the Thai phrase sheet you prepared for us.