An Abundance of Riches!

Just returned to site after two days in BKK. Visited Books for Thailand, an ngo that distributes books in English to schools and libraries throughout Thailand. You have to go to their office and they help you find appropriate material. This was my second trip. While I like and appreciate the concept, it seems to be a bit of a dumping ground for American textbook publishers. Lots and lots of textbooks from throughout the United States, but really Florida Geography probably is a stretch for a Thai school. I picked up 18 books and I’m afraid I did a little greng jai-ing myself. Khun Amorn is so helpful and is so pleased with herself when she finds what she thinks is the perfect book, well sometimes you just have to go with it.
The real benefit of the trip was the Soroptimist International Club of Bangkok, an international group of women dedicated to improving the lot of Thai children through education. There are about 50 in the group and about half were at the luncheon. They were from Thailand of course, but also America, Canada, England, and India. They invited me to speak about PC and about the library for which they had been collecting books. I’m still in putting the books into my system, but I am sure there are over 100 very nice books. I presented a slide show and then fielded lots of questions. I have suggested that PC and Soroptimist get to know each other better, starting with a visit by the gals to the PC office. Hope it happens.
It was fun! Reminded me of what I used to do for SOS – speak to a group about something I truly believe in. And I am their guest at their fund raiser gala in October, very excited about that. I miss those events with the great food and fun auctions and guests sharing a common purpose.

Voralak, on the left, has been my contact and amazing supporter, sending boxes of books she has been collecting. Dawn is the President of the group.