At the end of April we loaded up the trucks with everyone’s luggage to take a trip with the girls and staff. Altogether we had 38 people. We were going to Chiang Mai, about a 3-and-a-half-hour drive away. Sadly they are very busy working on the road making the trip longer than normal but the result should be worth the currently long trip. The first day we went to the zoo. It is a huge zoo that is constantly being developed. This time the aquarium and the panda enclosure were open, which 2 years ago wasn’t the case due to a power outage.

It was really hot at about 40 degrees Celsius causing us to seek shelter from the heat in a big mall in the area. The girls really enjoyed looking through the shops and buying food.

The next day we went to the royal gardens which was really beautiful. Next up was an amusement park with a toboggan run. For some of the girls this was a bit scary but once they got going they really enjoyed themselves and it was a small victory for them. That afternoon we went to a waterfall to cool off. It was a really beautiful area and the waterfall had multiple layers in which you could play. It was quite busy there as everyone was off from school and work and it was pretty hot. But the amount of people couldn’t deter us from having fun.

The last day we went to church and sang a song in front of the whole church, after which we stopped by the mall again before starting our journey home. Everyone had loads of fun and was therefore a successful trip. We want to thank the sponsors for making this trip possible!

At the beginning of the year we started creating a vegetable garden. Step by step we are planting more and more and we’ve already had a first harvest of radishes. Before we started planting we asked the staff of each house what they needed for their house. String beans, cabbage, tomatoes, chili peppers, herbs, cucumbers, etc. It’s already well on the way to looking like a real vegetable garden and we are already starting to see results. It would be nice if this helps us to be more self-sustaining.