Arrived in Thailand

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I arrived in Thailand on March 20th after traveling by car, plane, bus, taxi (truck with seats in the back) and a tuk tuk (motorcycle with seat for 2). Access to the internet is not very easy and I have not taken the time to write much. Each day has been filled with new experiences. The weather is very hot and humid, although I am getting used to it already. I have experienced eating (trying small bites) of many things including octopus which was dried like jerky...just tasted very fishy. We are eating lots of fruit both ripe and not ripe and rose apples, many other friuts and foods that I can not name.

For the past week we have been staying at a center for girls and helping them with English. The girls are aged 14-34 and we have a couple of times during the day when they have free time and we can interact, the remainder of their day is very structured. Yesterday we went for a ride on a small boat around the river with Nung to help explain things and stopped to talk with a women in the water catching very small clear fish in a net that will be used for fish sauce (she wanted us to know that this was a very small catch and usually she caught many more), then saw a young man re-baiting sticks with coconut although we didn't figure out what he was fishing for. After that we walked back thru town and then he rode both mom and I home on the motorcycle.

Another day we had a local family take us around to a Temple, and then to the family farm where we ate lunch and were shown around (I could write a whole page on this ...it was really beautiful and wonderful that they shared this with us), then we went to the beach where the locals swim.

Talk to you all soon. Julie

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