Mountain Biking!

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has flown by here in Thailand and I am enjoying it more and more.
Monday I spent the morning re-writing our IRB application form for BYU. IRB is the Internal Review Board which every research project using human subjects must pass through before beginning their studies. I thought that our application had already been approved but when I started pressing Alex about it he told me the it came back with a request for further information. Unfortunately he had waited to tell me this the day our 30 correction window closed. But all is well I took an ax to the application that he had written and polished it up… yes, I did mean to use ax and polish in the same metaphor, I think it is rather fitting for this particular incident.

I also found my spot in Sankampang (the town I am living in). It is a quite little coffee shop that is out of the way on a side street. The young man who runs the shop has made it have a very western laid back feel; it’s just great. Not to mention the hot chocolate there is amazing… super dark with hot cream added to taste. Needless to say I have spent nearly every single afternoon there since.

Tuesday I went to the elementary school and taught English to the 1st, 4th, and 5th graders again. I love these kids. … Okay I love teaching in general but it has been a very long time since I have taught anyone under the age of 18 so the bright faces and high energy levels of the children bring back fond memories of teaching swimming lessons and coaching. As far as research I was able to create a calendar for all of us to use and access so that the research team can adequately communicate about upcoming events, questions that need answering, etc…

Wednesday Alex, Briana, Daniel, and I met to plan out our visits to the various project sites and to organize what we had done, what needs to be done, and what we are currently working on. To decide which of the 38 Royal Project Sites we are going to visit I devised a randomized system so that there would be no bias in the statistics latter on. I discarded two randomly and then divided the remaining sites into six groups of six and let a single die do the rest of the work. Included in the project sites are two on the Thai border; one on the border with Burma and the other on the Loas boarder. We are going to rent a car and buy some basic supplies so that we can stay on the farms for three days or more.

Friday we went out to Mae Jo University to speak with another professor. Professor Somwut was very knowledgeable about the Royal Projects. We talked to him about different aspects of the projects and what type of research has already been conducted on the projects. Alex and Daniel translated some of the conversation but most of it was actually conducted in English. Professor Somwut spoke extremely good English. I took notes during the entire session… I think my typing speed is improving quite a bit.

Finally this Saturday one of the other BYU students and I went mountain biking with the branch president. I was under the impression that we were going to be doing mainly downhill, unfortunately I was completely wrong. We rode up the mountain to a Hmong village and had lunch. After lunch we finally hit some good downhill slopes. The path had some major ruts in it that once you got in were impossible to get out of. I took two pretty nice spills before I finally started slowing down. … I know for me it takes some time for things like this to sink in, but hey I’m getting better. Despite the falls I left without so much as a scratch. I was almost disappointed when I found out that we were going to take a paved road down the mountain, but then I started on one of the best downhill rides of my life. I ended up passing four motorcycles and a truck on the way down! It was great passing people and watching their faces as they realized I was on a bicycle. Oh, the simple joys of life.

Well I will be in Cambodia for most of next week so I will not have much access to the internet. I wish you all well and hope that your summer is going splendidly.

Love,
David