Newsletter #1

As promised, an update on all things GV#10433...

First a few reminders:

1) Payment: Full payment or a request for a deferral were due yesterday. Thanks to those who have taken care of this. If you haven't done either please get in touch with us ASAP and let us know what your plan is.

2) Airplane: Book your flights! Send us your flight info for your flights coming into and leaving from Bangkok if you would like us to coordinate travel to/from airport for you on April 3 and April 17.

3) Passport: Hope everyone has taken care of this by now. Note that your passport needs to be valid for 6 months beyond the travel date.

4) Travel After Habitat: Those interested in traveling to the beaches of Phuket for a few days with Duncan, Susanna, J.B. and possibly other team members yet to be determined should email Duncan right now (drrussell525@gmail.com) -- last call to be involved in these plans!

5) Shots and Pills: Everyone should be thinking about what immunizations (including possibly Malaria prophylaxis) they want/need for the trip and make plans to see their doctors soon if need be. Once again CDC recs are here: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/Thailand.aspx

6) Bios: Thanks to all who have submitted bios. If you haven't please write one whenever you get the chance and either email them to us or post them yourself (you should have all received invitation to be co-authors of this blog which allows you to make your own posts and write comments about existing posts -- so blog away!).

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And now for some new info!

Unfortunately we don't have quite as many details at this time to share with you as we would have liked to... Communication can be slow at times, but we are in the process of confirming our reservations for lodging in Bangkok and Udon Thani. We will forward those locations as soon as we can. But we can offer you a peek at our tentative itinerary which I just received from Habitat Thailand (?s are things we need to clarify with our local coordinator).

Tentative Itinerary

April 3 (Sat) - Arrival in Bangkok; Team dinner and hotel room provided
April 4 (Sun) - Travel to Udon Thani by plane; details to follow
April 5 (Mon) - WORK DAY; AM visit to a completed Habitat house; Welcome dinner with local staff ~6:30pm
April 6 (Tue) - WORK DAY
April 7 (Wed) - WORK DAY
April 8 (Thu) - AM Visit to Sarnelli House (home for HIV-infected and abandoned children, http://www.sarnelli.org/pages/sarnelli.htm?sp=en); Work in afternoon?
April 9 (Fri) - WORK DAY
April 10 (Sat) - WORK DAY
April 11 (Sun) - Free day! (Sleep in, possible R+R/cultural activities?)
April 12 (Mon) - WORK DAY; 1pm House Dedication; 6:30pm Farewell party with homeowners and local Habitat staff
April 13 (Tue) thru April 15 (Thu) - Songkran Festival (Thai New Year): Our local coordinator in Udon Thani is still working on our plan for these days; it will be difficult to work a normal schedule so these days will hopefully consist of some work in addition to a R+R/cultural program; more to follow..
April 16 (Fri) - AM Flight back to Bangkok; PM Free Time in Bangkok; Final team dinner and hotel room provided
April 17 (Sat) - Departure from Bangkok

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Typical Work Day

7:30 am - Breakfast
8:30 am - Leave hotel
9:00 am - Arrive at construction site; Begin work
10:50 - 11:00 am - Break
12:00 am - 1 pm - Lunch
2:30 pm - 2:45 pm - Break
4:30 pm - Clean up work site
5:00 pm - Leave work site
5:30 pm - Arrive back at hotel
TBD - Daily team meeting
TBD - Dinner as a team
Evening - Free time

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What is the Songkran Festival?

This is the Thai New Year, where traditional religious activities are held in the morning and involve showing respect to elders and sacred temple images by sprinkling water on them. Apparently in some (many?) parts of the country (Chiang Mai and Bangkok especially from what we've read) this devolves into huge water fights later in the day. For more about Songkran check out:

http://roujakthai.blogspot.com/2009/04/songkran-festival-history.html (a fairly useful looking site in general; poke around if you have time/interest)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran

http://www.thailandlife.com/songkran/index.php (another cool looking site)

So this should be an amazing time to be in the country. Everybody be ready to get wet!

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As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns; alternatively feel free to post questions or comments to the blog in the "comments" section and we can address them for the entire group.

Cheers, J.B. and Susanna