$500 deposit due ASAP to hold your spot on the trip.
Remaining $1835.00 due by September 14, 2018 or full payment if no deposit.
VOLUNTEER WEEK:The Karen refugees we’ll be working with escaped persecution in their native Myanmar 20 years ago. Since that time they have been living in a UN Refugee Camp in Thailand, close to the border. The UN provides a protected space for them to live and a bag of beans and a bag of rice for each person, each month. Anything else they need is up to them to obtain. They have no electricity and no running water. They are able to raise gardens and they have been able to find a little work, occasionally, at very low wages. It has been a very difficult time for them. And now there is a whole generation of young people who do not know their homeland. Things in Myanmar have improved now, and they plan to return home, but they expect that it will take 4 or 5 years for them to get that move accomplished. Moving 4,000 people is no easy task! We taught them how to build water filters for their families in September 2018 and we will continue that instruction when we return. In addition, they have asked us to provide any other teaching or education that we can assemble. They are feeling an urgent need to find ways to re-enter their social fabric and to be able to keep up with new technology. They are eager to establish new businesses and to learn how to do the most basic of things, like understanding proper nutrition, food preservation, and family wellness. If you have a skill that you would be willing to share with them, please join us!
TOURIST WEEK: During our second week in Thailand we have a number of special opportunities planned for you. Perhaps the most exciting thing we will do is to spend a day working with retired elephants and learning the details of caring for them! We will get to feed and bath them, and, yes, clean up after them, working closely with the mahout who is the primary and personal caretaker for an elephant. Because of their incredibly close relationship, the mahouts understand these animals more thoroughly than most of us can imagine. During your time there you will learn more about elephants than you ever imagined possible and will develop a deep love and appreciation for these intelligent and compassionate creatures. In addition to our elephant education we will have opportunities to spend time in some of the most significant parts of Thailand. We will visit places like Ayutthaya, the ancient and historic capital of the kingdom of Siam. We will see the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun), and take a boat ride on the Grand Canal in Bangkok. We will see the Jim Thompson House where his amazing silk empire began after WW2, and the “Ancient City” theme park with scaled-down replicas of many of the most important landmarks from all over Thailand. While we are in Kanchanaburi we will be sure to walk across the Bridge on the River Kwai and visit the Death Railway Museum and the cemeteries. Of course, we would not leave out plenty of opportunities for shopping – we certainly do not want you coming home without an adequate supply of souvenirs.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Japanese
Spanish
Thai