10 Futbols to Thailand

Hello, Wilson.
You may recall that in December I said I had two countries in mind for distributing more One World Futbols. Well, One of them (Cuba) is on hold, and the second (Cambodia) has been put on the back burner for now. But a third -- Thailand -- emerged as a possibility, and in January it became a reality. Now 10 more One World futbols are being kicked around in Thailand courtesy of our newest Team Wilson member, John Phillips.

I met John a year ago last August when I accompanied a medical team to the Central Highlands of Vietnam and he was a veteran transition specialist for Seattle Central Community College. The team had a couple physicians, a nurse, medical students and laymen (including me) and we  conducted clinics in three villages under the auspices of Seattle Colleges' Global Impact program.

John was our team leader. I took along nine One World Futbols. This was the first time that John had seen them, and a year later, while preparing for a trip to Thailand, he decided he wanted to be a futbol ambassador as well. Here's a photo of him presenting a ball to some locals.

My friend, John Phillips, presents a One World Futbol to representatives of a Thai village.

You'll probably notice that John is wearing a military uniform. John spent seven years in the Marine reserves, recently shifting over to the Army reserve. He has left Seattle Central to join the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs. John was part of a team of civil affairs soldiers from an Army Reserve unit assigned to Joint Base Lewis McChord, right next to Tacoma, WA.

If you are wondering who those other military people are in the photo, that's a good question. John was participating in Cobra Gold, a joint military exercise that has taken place in Thailand since 1980.

Cobra Gold is a month-long "combined arms exercise," meaning that military units from several nations take part. Represented in the exercise were India, Thailand, the United States, Malaysia and -- interestingly enough -- China.  And there was a humanitarian civil assistance dimension to the exercise. In this case, engineers were helping construct multi purpose buildings on six  school sites in northeast Thailand.

The Thai youngsters play soccer, but they hadn't seen a ball as durable as a One World Futbol.

Some parts of Thailand are quite developed. But in this case the team was traveling in rural communities where buildings could vary from ramshackle wood and aluminum siding to concrete, and not elevated. John's team visited two building sites and six schools. Several hundred families were served by the schools. Four schools received two balls each, and two more received one. The balls were presented to the school directors, with a boy or girl receiving the ball on behalf of the school.

Presentations occurred at all six schools.

Afterward, the unbreakables were field tested by some of the end users.

Well, Wilson, so far your campaign has resulted in balls being sent to  12 locations so far: Ecuador, Mexico, Vietnam, Burma, India, Peru, Morocco, Zambia, Thailand, China (via Hong Kong), the Crow Indian reservation and Italy (refugee camps).

I'm still studying the possibility of taking futbols to Cuba and Cambodia, and perhaps a third country. I'll get back to you on those.

Love,

Robert