APRIL 1, 2018 | SABAI
Hello family and friends of the Sabai group!
This past week the group headed to our friend Sandot’s permaculture farm in Thung Chung, Thailand. Permaculture farming is a style of sustainable farming that is able to use its surrounding areas to its advantage. This enables the farmer to interact with the farm as minimally as possible (once it is established). We learned so much on the farm.
The first day we had an amazing lesson on the basis of permaculture followed by a walking tour around the farm with our instructor Jake, from the Netherlands. Throughout the remaining of the week, the group took in all parts of farm life. We spent an entire day on one patch of land to plant seeds. We realized how much work went into planting after burning charcoal, gathering manure, breaking apart the ground, fertilizing, sowing the seeds, and finally mulching the ground. It was a lot of work! Other activities included making various items out of bamboo, building stairs out of bamboo, and making bamboo sticky rice. Did I mention there was a lot of bamboo here? This week of agricultural learning provided insight to just how much work it took to operate a farm. All of the students have learned so much this past week and we are very thankful to Mr. Sandot (the owner), Jake (our instructor), and Remi (our French friend) for our stay at the farm.
Then we were off to Bangkok! After a 12-hour bus ride, the group arrived at our hostel on the river, exhausted. The following morning the group embarked on a walking tour throughout the vibrant city led by our fearless leader, Jon. We took a boat tour, rode the Skytrain, saw beautiful markets, a huge temple, and most importantly fed fish. The following day we headed to a Muay Thai match as a group. It was AWESOME. Throughout the days here, the group has had a lot of free time here to explore the city and all of its vibrancy. Tonight is our last night here and we are all headed out to Wat Po which has a gigantic reclining Buddha. Tomorrow morning we head to Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the crack of dawn.
Hope everyone reading has a good week and we send our love to everyone!