Steamy Thailand

So I've been in Thailand for a week now, and it is definitely the muggiest place I've spent an extended length of time. I came ahead of the cast to help the advance team ready the Community Impact projects... so I've spent the week in meetings, confirming times and details.

The cast finally arrives tonight, and today we've been making copies of memos, buying toilet paper and water, and now we're headed to the temple, where they will spend their first night in Thailand sleeping on mats just like the monks!

They are scheduled to get in around midnight, so we will have them meet their host families tomorrow.

I bike about 20 minutes every morning to our beautiful tropical office, where I sit on a steamy patio, and have to weigh all my papers down with mugs and water bottles, because where the Thai people lack in AC they make up for in fans.

My host family is wonderful- my actual host mom and her husband live across the street. She brought me home and across the road to the house where her mother and two sisters live, along with their two daughters. Five Thai women and me, and they are excited to host Scottie too, starting tomorrow.

They don't speak very much English, but we have fun communicating.

Their favorite game is to buy Thai fruit, and have me try it...
Mangosteens, Durian, Dragonfruit, and something that sounds like "naw". Some are delicious, and one - Durian, the king of fruit, was terrible-- mushy and rotten tasting... I gagged, which they thought was hilarious.

Chiang Rai is in the northern mountainous area, though around the city it is pretty flat, and very green. Lots of mosquitos, and gorgeous flowers. It rains almost every day, and the air feels like its going to any minute most of the time. My first gift from my host family, a long plastic raincoat that I can wear while biking... luckily I've timed my rides so I haven't had to break it out yet!