Back to normal life in Fang

WOW!!! What a few months Ben I have had! Me finishing work at Tzu Chi school, finish work with Free Schools, start new work with a very new project, having over 50 people visting us from Australia and Holland for our wedding, honeymoon with the whole family, Ben's bike accident... And that were only the few highlights. So I just don't know were to start!

The wedding was just amazing!!! It started kind of more than a week before when my parents and my sister and her boyfriend arrived in Chiang Mai. We celebrated a special new year and off we were back to Fang to prepare the last things of the wedding. Well, last things is not appropriate here bacause we had actually a lot to do! I wrote before how hard it is to plan something here in Fang so all had to be done in the last week! So my poor family came straight from work into even more work. But we managed to have two absolutely fantastic days with all our family and friends! Unbelievable it all was and really everyone just loved it and that is what it was all about of course!

I can't upload some wedding photo's because they are too big. If you want to have a look anyway please visit our online photo album.

Day 2 - the actual wedding day and visit to villages and school performance
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album-LXCXUACW-Foto's-van-Feesten-Bruiloft.html

Day 1 - the day before

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album-IQRFBKTD-Foto's-van-Feesten-Bruiloft.html

Sunday 6 January, me and my family came to Chiang Mai and we had a last minute emergency shopping (me, my mum and sister) because I had not much to wear for the festive days around the wedding. In the evening we had a dinner with only family. Ben was pretty hangover after his bucksnight the night before.
Monday morning we met all the guests at a hotel were the bus was waiting. We started with a delay of more than a hour because the bus was constantly sent away so some people lost the bus! It was actually a great way to start the day because it was very funny.
We went to the elephant camp on the way to Fang and everyone had a ride. Then lunch and we arrived in Fang in the late afternoon. Dinner was at Ritzy's and with the special cocktails stall and the massage ladies the evening was great!

The next day was the wedding day and we started of to visit a temple. It was not a visit as planned but a whole ceremony! Quite something. Then we we were expected at Moung Choum school were Pui had organised a dance. It was a whole production and just amazing! 4 different tribes did their dances in their tribal clothes. After we went to Huay Chonu (Balong tribe) to visit another show and to give the guest the opportunity to visit the Free School and the village.
Lunch was catered up the lake with a view over the Thai-Burmese mountains.
The actually church part was in the late afternoon and was really nice. We walked to Ritzy's and there we had more cocktails, punch and massage ladies. Tum, Arree, Sa and Pot did a great job managing all this and the evening just flew by. The speeched were amazing and funny and great video messages were shown on a projector along slideshows from my family. The dancing was fun with a lot of Dutch songs and the Loy Kratong balloons were a big hit!

Our trip after the wedding went first to Mae Salong (in the mountains with the anti communist Chinese settlers) with still a large group of family of friends. This was perfect to catch up a bit more and to relax after all the exitement. Then we went to Burma for a day and to Chiang Rai. There we stayed in the resort The Legend what was a special treat... Lazy days at the pool and talking about how just beautifull it has been. Then we went to a Thai resort in the hills what was a absolute recommondation,, huts on stelts above a river and just nature.
Then to Lampang were we were going to settle for a few months for the new project but in the end plans changed... Still nice to have been there. Then it was really time to say goodbye to my sister Rikkie and Joost and my parents. So quit it was the weeks after!

Ben and I started work what was full on from the beginning. What was going to be a laptop project became soon a holistic economic devellopment project. Things have been changing all the time and that is hard I have to say. Big ideas out of an office are somethimes hard to connect to the reality here in the North. We will see how things evolve and we will do our very best to help these great people.

Soon more but at least were updated now..... ;)