Thai ’08 Journal 6

It is now Wednesday morning in Thailand. Yesterday was a very long day. We left Mae Sot at 8:30am with our luggage covered with a tarp in the back of the pickup, and headed north for the 5-hour trip to Chiang Mai. Ruth came with us and brought a church member to drive. I also helped along the way. We headed straight to Chiang Mai Adventist Academy and unloaded our things. Lorraine took the opportunity to go and see her sponsoree, Komchan, before we went into Chiang Mai proper for our next appointment.

The LaWa Hostel is the first major project that Rotary of Walla Walla had undertaken as part of its International Service. Our first matching grant for $14,000.00 went towards purchasing computers and furnishing a computer room for the hostel. The next grant for $14,000.00 was in conjunction with Rotary of Tempe, Arizona, to drill a borehole and tower for a well. The funds also purchased a drinking water filter system and some western and Thai toilets. Each year we also give a $500.00 (which we doubled this year), education scholarship. There are about 4 students going University this year. So we discussed a plan for using part of the scholarship for High School and part for University – the same way we do at our Rotary.

It was such a delight to see the enormous developments at the hostel. They noted that in almost every aspect of the development our Rotary was involved – even to the point of the creation of the pond at the entrance. They found some way to stretch the funds of the grants to create a better environment for the kids. I was very pleased. While we were there, the volunteers who teach the kids computer came by, and I got some “posed” photos of them teaching!

We then went and had a lovely dinner at the Eubank’s home. What a delight to see Adele Anderson. Her husband was a professor at Whitman College and a Walla Walla Rotarian before they left for Tempe, Arizona, in the early 1990s. She introduced us to the needs of the Hostel here in Chiang Mai. After that great meal and fellowship we headed for the Night Market for a quick hour of shopping.

This morning while the ladies slept in, I went to speak to the Staff of the Academy for their worship. I missed Michael and Summer Lee (Student Missionaries from WWU). They have family visiting this week and are off for the 2 days that we are here. Today we will take our sponsorees into town for an afternoon out.