Last month you may recall we were "reporting in live" from Cambodia as we visited our STOPstart supplier in Phnom Penh! As we kick off the month of May, we have since returned home, but are eager to share about our visit to our Asian Threads supplier and the Thailand portion of our trip!
Two flights routed us from Phnom Penh to Udon Thani (in northeastern Thailand) via Bangkok, with the final leg of our journey from Udon to the village of Napanat (near the Thai-Lao border) via a lengthy van ride. It was quite a transition traveling from one captial city through a bustling second capital, landing in a provincial capital and concluding our journey in a village ~ all in one day!
Needless to say, the pace of life was dramatically different! "Time"
s-l-o-w-e-d down and with it the need to live life simply and "in the moment." Our days in Napanat were filled with further cultivation of relationships. With this being our second trip, we experienced a simplistic intimacy in reconnecting (via our translator) with our established contacts such as the head weaver Eet and a number of her craftswomen who have been weaving for us for the past few years. Naturally we were guests at the gatherings and communal meals. We were delighted to see the progress the group had made in promoting their weaving heritage through the construction of a traditional Tai Dam home on pilings and the marvelous Tai Dam Cultural Weaving Center.
Throughout our time in Napanat, the weavers would periodically sit at their looms, working on their current projects.
Here is one pattern in particular that caught my fancy!
Our days were spent meeting with the weavers, discussing everything from weaving patterns to short and long-term business goals. It was in these gatherings that the new weavers discovered that we were the "Glenn and Rebecca" who were the famous "Gutter People" from a few years ago. 
(Interpretation: During our first trip to the then-new weaving center with its recently-poured cement floor, we were caught in a monsoon which was rapidly undercutting that new floor. We, of course, had the experience to know what would be the unfortunate outcome IF those monsoon waters could not be re-routed. After a quick consultation, Kingdom Ventures offered to invest in the purchase of a gutter system for the center! The village handyman rapidly arrived and, with tedious hand-soldering throughout the monsoon rains, he created and installed those much-needed gutters! (Hence, we are "The Gutter People!")
We learned about the steps invovled in creating our placemats, transitioning them from a roll fresh from the loom into individually hemmed placemats!
What a joy it was to have the weavers discover that THEIR placemats were featured in OUR professionally-printed catalog, making their products available across the USA!
Of course there were many discussions regarding weaving styles and patterns (some serious and some not-so-much!)
And no meeting would be complete without some much-needed refreshment!
A culmination of our time together was the awarding of individual Kingdom Ventures certificates to each of our weavers. We desired to honor them for being one of our KVI suppliers. The Tai Dam deeply respect their culture and take pride in wearing their traditional Tai Dam attire. Most of them dressed accordingly for the ceremony.
As you might imagine, in this communal society, there was always lots of company gathered to be with us for meals!
What a marvelous time of building relationships, listening to their hopes and dreams, and playing but a small role in assisting them in becoming a reality!
