on a journey: workin' hard

I decided to post a photo blog this week, so you can see for yourself what a week looks like for our team here in Mae Sot, Thailand. We volunteer at 3 locations: a SafeHouse for kids, New Day elementary school, and construction sites (we've spent our first 3 weeks building a playground out of used tires, and are currently building a bamboo classroom at New Day school - pictures of the bamboo classroom should be up in a week or two). A pictures worth a thousand words, right? Enjoy!

These are the SafeHouse kids, Ali and Jamela. There are 6 kids from Burma that live at the SafeHouse now, but during the day all are at school except for these two. They are the most beautiful, energetic kids, and have been growing so much since they moved in with Compasio just one month ago.

New Day is an overcrowded elementary school full of Burmese kids from across the border. I spend most of my time there with the preschool students playing, singing, teaching English and helping feed them. Their energy is contagious, and at times pretty chaotic, but it's so fun to be there and fall in love with all of these kids and learn each of their unique personalities.

We have been working with a guy from Australia named Marcus, brainstorming and creating and tearing apart tires to make a playground for an elementary school. After weeks of sweating, bolting, painting and drilling tires - the playground is just about complete with a marry-go-round, swing set, climbing pyramids, a 3-part see-saw, a sandpit, a tunnel dome and a flying fox. The kids are already showing up each afternoon to play and challenge their imaginations.