Thailand Mission and Cultural Trip 2015 - Journal 17

Today was the “thank-you’s” and send-off for our teaching team. We are certainly going to miss Nuny Mooton ​and all the teachers and students at the Elementary school. They gave us a wonderful send-off this morning. They are anxiously looking forward to our return next year.

We completed our work on the farm. All the pepper fields were weeded, and we even had to beg for more work to do for the last hour.

In the afternoon we headed to the Chocolate Factory and then to “Cabbages and Condoms” Resort and Restaurant for our traditional expedition and meal, as well as attempting to cross the lake on a single rope bridge!

Those of you who have followed my blog over the last 5 years know what this restaurant is all about. It is part of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA). On their website (http://pda.or.th/) they mention that the organization’s goal is to reduce poverty and facilitate health and socio-economic development through family planning and agricultural development that is appropriate to the local community. The website mentions that their efforts have contributed “significantly to the decrease in the annual population growth rate from 3.3% in the mid-1970s to 0.6% in 2005. During the same period, the number of children per family fell from 7 to under two.” Earlier in the week the folks at the AIDS Hospice praised their work in reducing the spread of the disease.