Hello:

I am an American who has been married into a rural Thai family for 14 years. I live in the United States (Massachusetts) with my wife. The rest of the family is in Thailand.

We try to make a trip back to Thailand to visit every year.

My brother-in-law is a remarkable young school teacher who raised money to build a school in a very poor area that was not serviced by its own school. He is now the Principal of this school and has held fundraisers to build a soccer field, buy bicycles for the children so they can get to school, get donated computers, etc.

These are all the children of farmers and they are naturally tied very closely to agriculture, farming and gardening.

My wife and I are currently collecting (purchasing) a great deal of different types of seeds from plants that these children are not likely to encounter in the course of their normal lives in rural Thailand. Our plan is to give these seeds as gifts to the children at our brother-in-law's school as well as the school my wife (now 40) attended as a little girl in her own village.

We are seeking donations of any and all kind of seeds, however we are particularly interested in plants which serve a function (ornamental, medicinal, food, toy, flowers, fragrance, etc.).

These are wonderful kids who will genuinely appreciate these gifts and give these seeds more respect than you could possibly imagine. You can be assured that any seed you donate will be distributed to a kid in Chaiyaphum Province in Thailand in June or July of this summer and that the seed will be planted and (if successful) will be grown to fruition - and if possible cloned or reproduced through its own seed production at the end of its cycle.

So we are seeking seed donations from people like the readers and posters here. Anything you think might be of interest.

Don't concern yourself too much with climate concerns - the Northeast region of Thailand is cooler and dryer than the rest of Thailand - it is by no means tropical, although it is indeed hot.

Donated seeds need not be unusual - we are accepting any and all donations.

If you are interested, please send me an email at adam@cieloherbals.com or simply mail seeds to:

Adam & Wichan Stanhope 36 Wapping Rd Kingston, MA 02364

Thank you very much!

Adam Stanhope Kingston, Massachusetts adam@cieloherbals.com

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure I should point out that I am in the "entheogen" and medicinal herb business. This is not a sad attempt by me to collect seeds for my business - every seed collected will be donated directly to students and their schools. You may contact me for more information if you wish. Thanks in advance!

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002