Dear Friends:

I have been gone, my mailbox filled up, so if you tried to contact me please send again, many mails bounced.

I have just returned from two weeks in Burma contacting the Akha there and looking into the village situation.

Some things better than in Thailand, some things worse.

The road to the China border should be greatly improved by the end of this dry season so we can expect RADICAL change in the region again.

I am still pressing sore on to get the printing press here, and need any help that can come in. We still have just under $1000 to go.

Please contact me if you would like to know more about this project or like to help.

The rice crop is good in Burma this year, but the Akha rice crop in Thailand is down by 50% in many villages due to lack of rain and a very large weed bloom.

For most of the Akha in Thailand the rice harvest is over.

Ginger prices are down this year also, though there was a much smaller crop due to "fever" that wiped most all of the giner out. Ginger with fever turns yellow and the root goes bad, readily visible in September.

Currently the truck is out of service due to a bad clutch, frame cracks, brake lines, broken spring shackle and such.

Not sure when that will be back up, all a matter of the same common denominator.

I was able to get some cotton bales down from Keng Tung to help at the cultural center to encourage the move in the direction of the Akha weaving project there and do hope that this eventually takes off.

I do believe that we have enough to begin weaving once spun, and I hope that leads us to the dying process as well, which will restart a good cloth dying project for the Akha in Thailand which is not common here any more.

I also ordered cotton seeds from Rangoon, which I will be able to plant next season.

Matthew