Look at all the progress!! Wow! I'm very impressed with your silk screen skills. I'm sooo excited for the kids!!! :lol:

Oh hey!!!!  When Isara starts selling t-shirts, does this mean we get one custom printed by our very own YOU???  :woohoo:

The orphanage has 4 buildings. About 25-30 children live in each building. Each building will get a bike. If there's enough money leftover we'll buy four more bikes. At this time its not possible to give each child a bike and, even if we could, its not a good use of money.

Before you all think I'm cruel and a scrooge, let me explain; Buying things like bikes and computers or anythng that is a major expense is a VERY risky move here. Almost all products are of bad quality. Everything breaks within a VERY short time and is sometimes broken before you even buy it. Of the four bikes one of them was broken (it was completely unusable).

Yesterday we bought a remote control car for a young boy who lives near the school (he has a rare disease and can not walk). The toy was broken. We also bought our carpenter a new wheelbarrow. It broke within five days. I once bought a box of \"Chocolate Choco Treats\". The box was covered in images of chocolate cookies but inside was vanilla treats. Even something as simple as exterior paint is of poor quality. For the school building we had to buy many different buckets of paint before finding one that was \"real\" paint. Last year we donated two computers to a school. Within a week one of the monitors was broken and I'm fairly certain, when we go back next month to check, we'll find both computers are broken.  Yes, products are cheap here but there is no quality of manufacturing so we're forced to buy really bad products. Most likely the bicycles will be broken within a few months so its best not to buy a lot of them. If they do last a long time then we'll buy more.

It's very frustrating and, along with communication, is the most difficult part of every project.

Aren't you glad you read the forum? You get all the unsweetened, behind the scenes stuff, that doesn't make it to the sugar-coated frontpage articles.

Pretty sure you are neither cruel or a scrooge on a daily basis. Maybe once every two weeks when you don't get the chocolate shake you wanted quickly enough, but hey, you are human too.

As for the quality of products, I'm sure it's more difficult for you or other farang, since I understand that in another country you might appear gullible. Plus the general product quality is about what you'd expect if no one was held accountable, and with all the government corruption, and business corruption...well, I'm just grateful that... well... just grateful that you get stuff down anyway.

Agh!! The squirrel's are EVERYWHERE!!

That's a lot of work for those helpers! I hope you treated them to dinner! Oreo's go over big in Nong Khai, I think.

I just have to ask....dont you feel just a little like Santa Claus?  

woohoo!!!  I wanna go!

Oh My!  What an adorable shot!!!  Pk, thanks for helping us to be a part of all this!  My day is starting out on the fabulous side!

Already coloring. I'm glad to see them all enjoying themselves. I'm just curious, are there any girls at this orphanage?

This business of quality control of purchases is common and widespread. For that reason there must be individuals/agencies in Thailand that have experience of circumventing these problems. Any ideas anyone?