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Hello Everyone,

I appologise for not blogging lately.  We have been really busy.  We arrived in Taiwan about two weeks ago and are trying to get settled in.  We have had a tough time finding a coffee shop with wifi, that is open before noon (and that has a power outlet plug in).  We have mainly been going to a gammer internet cafe, so we haven't been able to use our laptops as much.  Once we get settled in and get internet of our own, I will be able to put up some new pictures and blog some more. 

Thank you for your prayers.

Take care everyone and God bless.

Phil

Queen's Botanical Gargen 1

The top of the Queen's Botanical Garden overseeing the hills.

Tan and Gai, they live with us at Danny's house.

Queen's Botanical Gargen 2

Queen's Botanical Gargen 3

Queen's Botanical Gargen 4

This was a really cool structure made of bamboo.



Nolan, wanted to destroy the pillars, but they were built too tough, sorry Nolan.

Queen's Botanical Gargen 5

Nolan drinking out of the water jar. Families used to have these outside their houses for people to drink out of when they walked past.





These leaves are huge, about 4'x3', wow.

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and Laos meet.

Jonathan and Nolan...photo shoot.

A huge Chang (elephant) and Buddah

Akha Roaster

Danny and Nicol (the roaster and owner of much of the coffee trees)

Nicol's new roasting facility, it is still being built and setup.

Akha Food and Coffee Roaster

This is the Akha food we ate, it was delishious. We had some kind of lap, vegetables fried in garlic, pickled vegetables, a meat soup dish, some fresh fruit and other amazing food. Our rice was cooked in banana leaves and they had this amazing spicy paste (which is my favorite in Thailand so far) that is made with peanuts.

When we first arrived to the village they served us coffee grown in the hills. They harvest a large amount of coffee and sell it around Thailand and probably world wide.

Steamed rice in Banana leaves with lap. Spicy sauce on top with some garlic vegetables.

A couple pictures from deep within the hills at a coffee roasting facility.

In the hills visiting the Akha tribe

Me at the top of Doi Chang (elephant mountain).

The first fruits of the harvest. It is a huge festival (Much like Thanks Giving), the ceremony lasted about 3 or 4 hours. There were about 300 people or so at the event in this building, we got to sit in the front row...we felt very welcomed being the guests.

Funny little kids.

Many fruits, vegetables, spices, chickens and other kinds of food.

Akha School | Part 1

We visited this Akha hill tribe school, where the kids live away from their families in Chiang Rai, they eat, go to school and learn about Jesus here. We got to play soccer, eat and worship with these kids...it was awesome.

These are all the kids.

Worship with the kids was awesome. They would sing (scream) at the top of their lungs, it was really fun.

This dog felt compelled to come up and greet me during worship. For some reason it felt like it would be okay to jump up on the bench with me. He stood for a while and after trying to push him off discretely a few times I decided to let him stay and I made him lay down. He tried to switch angles a couple of times and almost slipped off, haha.

Akha School | Part 2

This is a school in Chiang Rai where Akha hill tribe kids from the mountains live, go to school and learn about Jesus. Some of these kids don't have parents or just one that is around the family (in the hills). We got to play soccer with these kids, eat dinner there and have worship...it was pretty cool.

Boys dormatory.

Some kind of swing contraption, it wasn't setup.

This is one of the two dogs they had on the grounds.