The Silk Factory in Chiang Mai

Today Peter and Ochie took us to the silk factory in Chiang Mai. Saw the whole process from the moths to the caterpillars to the cocoons on to boiling the cocoons to removing silk threads and spinning threads and then using looms to make the patterned material. Quite lovely. And then guess what? We shopped at their store, really beautiful garments - 100% silk.

Then we went to another type of mall, an outdoor 3 story, the first floor was mostly food items, the second and third floor were mostly clothes - everything was packed in so tight you could hardly walk through it. Eli made a fine purchase and shared with Phil and Anna, he bought an assortment of creepy, crawly worms and insects, etc., etc.,etc. All the younger girls bought some cute outfits.

After lunch we drove to the Agape Orphanange to do some painting. First, Kathy their nurse, took us on a tour and explained about the HIV+ babies and children staying at the home. I think we were all pleased with the set up. The building was built by Agape so it was set up the way they needed it. The team spent the afternoon washing walls in 3 rooms, removing mold, washing screens and preparing the walls for paint. The school director and founder said they make school bags for Samaritan's Purse and they really needed more help with their sewing. The team volunteered me, because of my abilities and Mary Alice joined me. Who would believe I would get to do this in Thailand. I loved it! God is really blessing this ministry, we left a donation for the purchase of all of the paint. Please pray for these children and the staff -80 children.

After supper, we went to the Night Safari. What a beautiful park. We rode a tram through the park to see the animals, some came right up to our tram. We saw lions and bears and tigers, oh my. Afterward, they had a beautiful light show with wonderful music.

Another full day...wish you were here - Pat Smallwood (team member)