Footbon anyone?

Things in Thailand are going really well, we're loving it! Last week was awesome, our projects are progressing and we've had a lot of success with two especially. Thursday, all of the volunteers geared up for a soccer tournament with the students at the soccer school where Jordan, Shawn, Blake, and Anna teach English twice a week. Jordan and Ryleigh also teach dance there, and Shawn directs a soccer camp.


So, in the heat of the afternoon we had a huge soccer match, farangs versus the students, who were all boys. They were really good, enough to rival us and our awesome soccer skills. The game ended up tied 3-3. What made it so fun was the turnout of the kids' parents, the music, loudspeakers, announcers, and the halftime show performed by Jordan's dancers. Everyone had a lot of fun playing, so we'll definitely be playing a tournament again before we go home after we learn a few new moves from the pros in the World Cup.

Saturday night we rented two stalls at the Walking Street night market to sell products that kids involved with AIDS Access have made - paintings from our art and marketing day at the temple, and bracelets, keychains, and journals they've made on their own. Our goal was to raise 3,000 baht for AIDS Access and a few of the youth leaders came and helped us sell. We were really excited about it!



We had other activities to help make money, too, like face painting and fishing for prizes, but when a huge rainstorm hit with no warning, the selling, painting, and fishing got x-nayed. The Thais at other booths all ran for cover under umbrellas and tarps, while all the customers found shelter under buildings. We thought our plans were ruined, but...want to know what saved us? Double dutch jump roping. We ditched our tarp, ran out into the rain and jumped rope for our captive audience while some volunteers ran around getting donations from the crowd, who loved us. We got tons of attention because we were the only people playing out in the rain; we made even more of a spectacle of ourselves than we normally do. It made for a cold night (weird in Thailand), but once the rain stopped we got back into selling products and had a little more success.

Even though the night didn't go according to plan because of the rain, we had even more fun than we thought we would because we adapted to the situation pretty well and earned more money than we hoped!

These unforgettable moments are happening more and more often these days :)