Pilgrims’ Progress

She was so impressed at the children’s determination to save up enough money to go to Disneyland that one of Rob’s work colleagues gifted them a handmade-by-her-husband-elephant-bank to keep their savings in. Thanks Mrs S!
We considered saving the elephant for the *raising money for South East Asia volunteer projects* and sticking with their glass jar with Mickey Mouse ears for Disneyland…….but the kiddos decided it would be too hard to know which jar to put their pickings into. They’re honest, our kids. I’ve even overheard them murmuring together about “should we put our Disneyland money into the volunteer fund? but we really want to go to Disneyland…..but what about those kids who have never seen a book?……but Disneyland would be so much fun…..oh it’s so hard……”
So for now the Disneyland fund remains the first goal (so far it’s mostly been the entire contents of their piggy banks supplemented by coins scavenged from Coke machines). When they’ve reached that goal, they’re going to throw their hearts and souls into serious fundraising for the projects we’ll be visiting. You should see the plans they have!

In the meantime, there’s a thank you card with moving trunk and flapping ear to complete.

No, we hadn’t been planning on going to Laos; in fact, we were going to head south from Bangkok. But a colleague at Rob’s work told him about a project there that captured our hearts. So we emailed, trying not to get our hopes up too much. Our restraint was unwarranted:

Thanks for the inquiry and your enthusiasm. certainly
for the two of you (parents), with your backgrounds,
there would be many ways to help.

The kids could all fit in somewhere, including the
language practice as you suggest, but perhaps just a
few hours a day for the older ones, and less for the
younger ones, so you’d need to think about what they
would do if you were volunteering. (We have a play
time for kids, 5-7 pm weekdays, that would be suitable
for some of them - mostly it’s local kids, about 5-10
years old.)

Looks like we’ll head north before going south.

just time to link to justJUSTICE today...and to reinstate all the links that have gone haywire....grrrr While you're waiting, take a look at this great 35-second idea (don't forget to turn the volume up)

I've been hanging round a bit on the Boots-n-all travel fora, asking my fair share of questions, occasionally having something to add to discussions. I have noticed a bit of an obsession with travel - not surprising, I suppose;-) ... [Continue reading this entry]

Noun 1. The activity of preparing. 2. The cognitive process of thinking about what you will do Verb: prepare; get ready, make ready; make preparations, settle preliminaries, put in order; arrange; forecast; plan; lay the groundwork, fix the basis. The preparations for our ... [Continue reading this entry]