All God's Beautiful Children

AGBC Vacationeering Trip to Thailand - February 2009

In February of 2009, All God's Beautiful Children will be bringing it's first ever group of "Vacationeers" to beautiful Thailand for a combination of adventure travel vacation and humanitarian volunteering program. Participants can choose to be a part of the abbreviated 10 day trip (including travel days) or, if time allows, the entire 14 day trip (including travel days).

This trip will consist of seven days of "Hill Tribe Living" where we will be working to construct an English Language Learning Center (why building this is so important?) at the school. While staying with the tribe, participants will have their choice of either tent camping or staying as a guest in the home of a tribal family. Please note: this is NOT a tourist attraction, this is the real deal. This is not a village that any "tourist" has ever seen. They are far up in the mountains, a three hour drive from the city of Chiang Mai, and are pretty much completely removed from the outside world.

Once our work is completed, it will be time to play in the stunning playground that is the mountainous jungles of Northern Thailand. Adventure travel options will include trekking, cycling, rock climbing, kayaking, attending elephant training camp or for the more laid back traveler, sightseeing tours around Thailand's most culturally rich area, the region of Northern Thailand. Each vacationeer will be able to customize their own fun adventure, and for those who would rather just stay in the tribe the entire time, this is also an option.

This is truly an opportunity of a lifetime and a certainly a vacation that will always standout as perhaps the most rewarding ever!

Space is limited so if you're interested, please contact Stacia immediately!!

When:
It is up to each participant as to the exact day they choose to fly in, but as a group, we will be meeting in Chiang Mai on Sunday, 2/20/09. Stacia will be staying at the Top North Hotel, which is highly recommend and at only 800bhat / night (approx. $25/night) it has a great pool and is perfectly centrally located. However, if participants would rather stay elsewhere, that can easily be arranged. Please contact Stacia for more information on accomodation.

We will all be checking out of the hotel on Monday morning, 2/23 to head up to the village, where we will be staying for seven nights, returning to Chiang Mai on Monday afternoon, 3/2. For anyone who needs to return home at this time, that is fine and for those who will be staying in Thailand we will be joining Alex of Active Thailand to coordinate some awesome "adventure travel" options around the Chiang Mai area. Our "official trip" will wrap up on Friday, 3/6, but obviously, we're not going to kick anyone out of Thailand. Participants are free to stay as long as they like!!!

Where:
The name of the village is called Baan Kewsua and it is located 95km NW of Chiang Mai and a BEAUTIFUL three hour drive into the jungle mountains of Thailand. No need trying to look for this village on a map, you won't find it. However, if you are looking at a map of the Chiang Mai province of Thailand, you will most likely find a village called Samoeng, which is about the half-way point from Chiang Mai to Baan Kewsua.

We will be riding in really nice air-con vans to a village called Yangmuen, which is the last village before we hit the dirt road. From here we will be meeting some men from the village who will come down to get us. We will be riding the last 7km in the back of their pickup trucks, which is basically the only way to get where we're going. The road is pretty windy so we will be going really slow and this is a perfecty safe ride. However, if anyone is uncomfortable with this, let Stacia know and we can arrange for you to rent your own pick up truck or motorbike to drive yourself.

While we're here, we'll have an awesome group who will be preparing some GOOD down home Thai cookin' for us! We be spending the days working and building and the evenings will be spent having bonfires with the villagers and submerging ourselves a bit into their traditional tribal culture.

What are we doing anyway?
Over the year that Stacia spent living with this tribe, she was teaching English to the kids at the school. When she first arrived, none of them spoke even one word of English and unfortunately, when she left she knew, chances are, that although some volunteers will come and go, for the most part it is an unrealistic expectation that there will be any sort of ongoing English education. They are just simply too remote and it's just too difficult to get anyone who will want to stay full time and teach. So here's the plan which we hope will be a wonderful alternative to having full time English teachers at the school.

During the week we're here, we'll be constructing a small building that will be an "English Language Learning Center". The concept of this is that it will offer a self-guided approach to learning English, so that for the children of the school, learning English is not dependent on, but enhanced by having actual teachers here.

The center will be divided into "learning stations", which will focus on different areas and levels of learning. For example there will be a station for beginning learners where students will learn the alphabet and beginning writing as well as several other stations all the way up to advanced learning and teacher guided stations.

Why is this so important?
English is SO important for these children to learn. Just simply having the ablilty to speak English, as they become adults they will have so many more opportunities for their future, even if they don't continue on to University. Because so much of Thailand's economy is tourist driven, jobs in the travel and tourism industries are considered some of the top jobs to be landed. However, for children who haven't learned English, there isn't even an option for landing one of these jobs and their futures are limited to working in the fields or small markets where they will earn AT THE VERY MOST 150 bhat / day (a little over $4 / day).

SO, as a group, we will not only be working on building this English Learning Resource Center while we're here, but when we come, we'll be "transporting" ESL supplies, that will be collected by myself and other volunteers, between now and February to stock the Learning Center. Getting any good quality ESL supplies here is nearly impossible so it will be bringing these donations over with us.

If you have any questions about being involved, either as a donor of supplies or as a vacationeer, please contact Stacia!

The First Annual Beautiful Children's Run - November 30, 2008

All God's Beautiful Children will be holding it's first annual Beautiful Children's Run in conjunction with the Seattle Marathon Organization on Saturday and Sunday, November 29 - 30, 2008. We have been selected to be an official charity for the marathon, which means we have lots of great incentives for people to join our team including discounted entry fees and discounted hotel rooms at the downtown Seattle Weston for the weekend of the event.

We are currently recruiting walkers, runners and volunteers to join our team!! This is a NON-COMPETITIVE (no egos please!!) event and is open to runners and walkers of all ages, ability levels and experience levels. The most important thing is raising money to build schools in the tribal areas of Thailand, while joining together for a fun filled day of running or walking with friends and loved ones.

We are working right now on getting corporate sponsorship based on the total number of miles run by our team, so, the more people on our team, the more money we can raise.

Businesses who sponsor our team will have their logo placed on all All God's Beautiful Children banners and posters, which will be placed at the starting line, finish line, water station, recovery station and other various locations on the day of the race, all posters and banners promoting the event before race day, as well having their name printed as a sponsor of the event on our team tee shirts to be worn by all participants and volunteers on race day. If you are a business interested in sponsoring our team, please contact Stacia.

Each of our participants are also encouraged, but not required, to collect "pledges" to help us raise money. As an incentive, we are offering two free admissions to the marathon for the top two team members who collect the most pledges.

Members of our team will also receive many great benefits, including discounts on their entry fees, a beautiful Beautiful Children's Run T-shirt to wear on race day as well as discounted rooms at the downtown Seattle Weston Hotel for the weekend of the event. Of course this is all in addition to all the fun people they'll meet along the way at team meetings before the event, our "carb-lovers" dinner the night before the run and our team celebration party after the event!!

If you are interested in being a part of our fun and exciting team of enthusiastic but mostly just goofy individuals, please join us for our first official team meeting to be held:

Monday, August 25, 2008
Rock Bottom Brewery, Bellevue
7pm

Regardless of whether you plan to run the full marathon, walk the 5K or just want to be a volunteer to help with making this whole day possible, we've got a place for you on our team!!!

If you have any additional questions, please email Stacia!

We'll see you at the race!!!

Fasting For A Fridge Project

Stacia's Notes
This was a project that was initiated by a beautiful woman and very dear friend of mine, Miss. Josie Randles, who spent six very exciting weeks with me in the tribe. Having arrived at the peak of our "buzzing" as we were breaking ground on our kitchen and dormitory projects, Josie was overcome with the desire to contribute in her own way.

One day, after the cooking area of the kitchen had been completed, Josie and I were walking through the streets of Chiang Mai together and we passed an appliance store where something caught Miss. Josie's eye.

"Stacia!" she said to me, "Look at that huge refrigerator! Wouldn't it be great to raise money to buy that for the new school kitchen!"

We sat down for lunch, and our excitement grew as we talked over the best way to raise the money. We decided that since this fundraiser would be something that would ensure higher standards of food safety for the children, that going on a fast until we reached our goal would be an appropriate way to raise the money. We also decided also to capitalize on the "fun" in fundraiser and decided to strike up a little friendly competition between my email contacts and her email contacts.

That evening, we arrived back in the tribe and sent out an email, Miss Josie to all her contacts and me to all my contacts, explaining that we would be "fasting for a fridge", both of us sending out a little "smak talk" to the other's group trying to rally people up. After we sent the email, we went back to my house (aka "the barn") where we proceeded to make a nice big traditional Thai dinner in anticipation of what we thought would be at least a few days if not longer before we might eat again.

The next morning I woke up to Miss. Josie, who was up before me and had already been to the school office to check our fundraising progress on the internet, coming squealing and running down the dirt path to my house. She bursts into my room screaming, "Stacia!! We blew right past our goal!!!"

As it turns out, thanks to so many wonderful people's support, we were able to raise a total of over $950, $100 over our goal, in less than 12 hours. We didn't even have to miss a meal!

The following weekend, we piled into my friend Koon Chantip's 20 year old beat up Toyota pickup truck and set out on our journey to bring back, what to these people was, the worlds largest refrigerator. With the additional $100 we raised, we visited a local restaurant supply store where we purchased new pots and pans, utensils, cutting boards, knives and a new drinking water cooler for the kitchen. It was a great adventure, especially on the journey home through the hairpin turns on the rugged dirt mountain roads, but finally we arrived back at the tribe where we were greeted with stunned faces and looks of wonderment of what could possibly be in this enormous box!

It took seven tribesmen to unload the enormous thing from the truck and get it through the kitchen doors to it's new home where it now sits working away keeping our children's food clean, safe from critters and unspoiled for eating.

Thank you Miss. Josie Randles for being the amazing inspiration behind this project and for just being the wonderful woman you are!

Kewsua Dormitory Project

In September 2007, after seeing that the school dormitory was literally falling apart, infested with rats and spiders, had unsafe electrical wires hanging over the children while they slept and with the inside flooding from daily monsoons, Stacia began trying to raise money to build a new dormitory for the children of the small hill tribe school of Kewsua. After making a video on her tiny digital camera and posting it on Youtube, the only thing left to do was to sit and wait, with much anticipation, to see if anyone out there might be willing to help this cause. She had NO idea that this little video would be reposted and reposted on sites all over the world reaching radio stations, nonprofit organizations, schools and volunteer organizations around the globe who wanted to help.

Stacia's Notes:
We broke ground on the dormitory back March of 2008, and even though I'm not much of a crier, seeing the culmination of so much love coming together from all over the world to make this happen, really did bring tears to my eyes. I have no way of counting the number of people who donated because there were countless groups of people joining together to make contributions, but I can say with confidence that there were literally hundreds and hundreds of people who helped make this a reality.

It was only nine short before that I posted a video on Youtube asking for donations for this project. My original goal was to raise $10,000 so that we could rebuild the dormitory, bathrooms and a small kitchen for the children. Thanks to people from NINE countries: America, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, France, Japan, Australia, England and Thailand (that I know of) we were able to blow right past our goal, raising over $16,000, enough to build a brand new 6 x 18 meter building for the kitchen and eating area (complete with full size fridge... thanks Josie!!!) and a 16 x 8 meter dormitory building and we even had enough to purchase 24 bunk beds and mattresses to furnish the dorm. None of these children have ever slept on a bed, can you imagine?

I also want to point out that nearly half of the money raised (approx. $7500) was in donations under $30, so for everyone who sent emails apologizing for the "small" amount they were able to give, I find it a beautiful thing to see how all those small things really do add up. Please PLEASE remember this the next time you think a small contribution can't make a difference in the world. It can, it does and it will.

Aside from all the "superficial beautiful" aspects of this new dormitory, the true beauty of this dorm being built lies in the new opportunities for education that it has created. Previously, the school was only able to reach out to four surrounding villages. Now, however, Kewsua School is able to reach with outstretched arms to six villages, offering children, who have never before had an opportunity for education, to commute into school and have a warm and safe place to stay during the week while they study. Last year, our dorm was only large enough to house 18 students and that really was WAY beyond capacity. The new dormitory is now home to 32 students and has the capacity to sleep nearly double this amount. This year alone, we welcomed 14 new students who wondered into school on the first day with wide eyes, unsure of what to expect.

So really, what does this all mean? Perhaps we'll never know what the effects of this dorm being built will be. Perhaps we will never know what these children, who would otherwise never have been educated, will do with their lives and with their new found opportunity for education. I can only hope that the world will be a better place because these children, and the children of the future, will now receive something that probably all of us have taken for granted as a basic human right: education.

None of this would be possible without the love and support and the LOVE that was extended from so many people to make this dream a reality. I could repeat the simple two words of "thank you" over and over again for the rest of my life and still it wouldn't come close to expressing the gratitude that I, and the people of my village, hold for each and every one of you.