THAILAND - and a service project

1 hour and 40 minutes from Singapore to Phuket, Thailand. 1 hour and 40 minutes to a new country, a new atmosphere, a new people. On the plane I thought about December of last year. 3 hours and 40 minutes from our Michigan home to family in Salt Lake City. Still haven't wrapped my head around this, but we all quickly learned how to say a Thai hello, "sawa dee!"

View Phuket Thailand in a larger map

The boys loved the red tuk tuk trucks. Some of these taxis had flashing lights, others music.

David and I loved the green curry, pineapple rice, and pad thai noodles. And the prawns! Can we get it to go please? I am eating mine on the beach.

On the way to and from we saw lots of colorful fruit stands, shops and restaurants. Every business and home had a Buddhist shrine in the back or respectfully off to the side, some were even peppered along the road. There were also lots of pictures of their beloved King Bhumibol Adulvadej, which reminded us that Thailand is a monarchy, and this king is the longest reigning one. Impressive, especially if you remember that Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that was never colonized by the Europeans.

Our first morning there we headed to Phuket Town to do some shopping. We brought our little jar of money we'd been saving. A coin here and dollar there. That little jar got us piles and piles of shoes and a stack of school books, which we brought to the kids at The Sunshine Village. Where 120 kids live who lost their families and their homes in the tsunami of 2004. (If you're looking for a project, they are always in need).

We wanted the boys to watch those pennies go into our jar at home, exchanged into baht, given for supplies, and passed onto those kids. They saw. But mostly they wanted to play on the playground and talk to the kids as they went off to school. Will they remember?