Dolphin Day Camp and other Tales from the Field

Tuesday, May 17- Sunday May 22

Well, it's long this week, folks, so hope you're in the mood for reading!

Well, Tuesday dawned wet and rainy. Pouring rain, in fact, so much so that Lucy and Fiona’s house was flooded and they couldn’t even get out! Lucy called and said that they were not going and little Annie was so sad. She had been so excited that she was up early, and then she was so disappointed she was crying. Poor thing. She’s only 4, so it’s no wonder she was upset. Their house was so flooded they didn’t even make it to Taw Saeng that day!

Wednesday I went to TS early to meet up with Orawun to transfer my motorbike into my name. :)  It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would! It took only an hour and we didn’t have to go to two places like we thought we would. We just went to the DMV, got the inspection done and waited for them to call us up for the green book (registration). I showed the guy my passport and work permit, gave him the forms and some money (245 baht, about $8) and he said to come pick it up on Thursday!

When we got back, I headed to the bank to get some more money because I had spent the last of my cash on the registration, and on the way, Lucy called. I was with Ning, so I talked to Lucy for a couple minutes, but then couldn’t really understand what she was saying so I had her talk to Ning. Turns out, she did not pass her test to get into university on the teacher track. I guess here you have to test into the program you want to do. It just breaks my heart because she is SUCH an amazing teacher! She won’t be able to take the teacher test again until next year, so she is just going to try to test into a different program. She is taking the test for hotel management and tourism, which is ok. I think she’ll be great at that too

So, yesterday she finally came and was really sad and worried, so I was like, ok, we are going to DK Books to get you some study materials. This is before I realized that she was not taking the teacher test again. So we spent a while looking at all the different admission test books, most of which were for the high school standardized tests. I was surprised at the lack of college level books there were other than those for English. But, I finally understood that she really only needed to study English for this test, so I got her a couple books with English practice words. We’ve spent a couple hours the past 2 days going over some of the exercises. This does not inspire confidence in me for how she is going to do on Saturday. Oh, well, all I can do is help and pray, right?

I’m also going to have her practice speaking English properly to me. No more of this Thenglish.  I want her to tell me a story about her life and only use English. I’m also going to have her start writing me emails in English so she can practice her spelling and writing that way.

Class was pretty good today (Thursday), we ended a bit early, but that’s ok sometimes. I’m still not sure how much they are really understanding about sounding things out. Last week, I thought they really had the ‘a’ and ‘e’ sounds down, but now I’m not so sure. Today I had them play a game that they had to spell the words out, and they didn’t remember which letters made the sounds when they saw them written down. I’m not sure if I’m just not getting the idea across or if they are just not absorbing it. I don’t really know the problem or how to fix it. I need to have Judy come in my class for a day or two to get her prognosis. Lucy is great to have help in class. LOVE her. She defuses situations because she can speak Thai, and she gets them to pay attention. It’s a perfect situation!

Tonight, Winnie came into class and just hung out with us, which was so funny! She was helping the kids play the game, but she was telling them all the answers! I eventually kicked her out to her own class. We went downstairs after the game so that we could practice our “Let Everything” song on the keyboard. Willow was getting frustrated that her team was losing, so she stopped wanting to play, so I said she was going to play the song while we sang and that seemed to cheer her up a little bit. I think they are getting the song, but we still need to work on the “praise the Lord” part. It’s super cute to hear them singing though, even when they don’t know the words, they still make the noise of the note. Hahahah

After class ended, Winnie found me to help with her English homework. We did her 2 pages of workbook and finally Field kicked us out! I swear we were open til 8pm when we were here in November. Leaving at 7:30 seems so soon! Sunny’s sister/Francie’s mom was late to pick them up (as usual) and of course, Penny forgot her backpack, so Field was going to take it to her house, along with Willow, Peyton and Yvonne in tow, who live on the way to Field’s house, while I was going to stay with the girls til Sunny’s sister came.

 Ning was leaving, and Ben didn’t have his bike today, so I asked if she was going to give him a ride, since they live near each other. She was like “no! He has to drive because I’m still learning.” Hahah. So, Ben gets on Ning’s bike, starts it up no problem, and she pulls on her helmet, jumps on the back and off they go. Twelve year old Ben driving himself home on P’Ning’s bike. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

After everyone had left, I was just hanging out with Sunny and Francie, who are just the sweetest girls. I’ve said it before, but I just love spending time with them. They are so quiet they rarely demand attention like the others, so it’s easy to overlook them. That’s why I like staying late, because it means I get to spend some time getting to know them. Tonight before we all left, Sunny came running up to me and (in Thai) asked how I was feeling: “happy, sad, angry?” (that part was in English). Haha, I laughed and said “chan me kwam soo” which means “I am happy.” She giggled and said “very good!” Then I asked if she was happy and she corrected my grammar (of course) but said she was happy too. So, we were bouncing a balloon back and forth while Francie played with a balloon on the sidewalk, and I asked Sunny who she lived with, where her parents are, if she likes to sing songs, what songs she likes, how many siblings she has and where they all are. I think that is the extent of my vocab at this point. She also asked about my family and where they are. I tried to tell her about Arizona, where my sister lives, but I’m not sure she understood cactus. Haha. Anyway, it was a nice conversation. I look forward to expanding my vocabulary so we can have more in the future.

Earlier today, Lucy went with me to the DMV and was laughing at me the whole way because I’m so tall and she’s so short she can’t see over me to see where we are going. Plus, she was trying to give me directions and they were different from the way I had gone yesterday, so I was like, really? She thought it was funny that I didn’t know where I was going. She showed me where her house is, the general area anyway, and she thought it was so funny that I was scared of the cars. Dude! I feel like they are going to run into me and we will die! Or that I will run into them and wreck my bike! I think a little bit of respect for the larger vehicles on the road is in order. We did almost crash though. Well, not almost. We turned right into a small soi and there were all these cars parked on the right side of the road and just as we turned in, there was a fat farang with no helmet tearing down the alley toward us. I screamed a little and pulled off to the side to let him pass. Lucy was laughing hysterically, like “P’Heather! You drive crazy! Scream at the cars in the soi! Hahahaha” I was like, “stop making me laugh! Don’t tell P’Judy I drive crazy or she’ll never let me drive you anywhere again!” So of course, she told Judy the whole story. 

Friday was a busy day, since Inna was still sick, Marie-Clare had the day off and Em left early so they could go to dinner with some friends. So, Judy took over Inna’s art group and we did a little change around of the other groups. Willlow went into Ning’s class, Billy joined Field’s guitar class and Winnie and Sophie are going to do keyboarding with Yvonne and Amelie. Today though, I just had Yvonne and Amelie. This new arrangement works out great for me, since I was already teaching Winnie and Sophie on the side and I had no idea how I was going to continue teaching them in addition to the 4 kids in keyboarding club. So, I started teaching them Amazing Grace, since Winnie and Sophie already sort of know it. Winnie has been working on it for a week now, but I just taught the first line to Yvonne and Amelie tonight. It was fun to just have them, and they did a great job. I started out just teaching them that every note has a name and trying to get them to learn the names of the notes and where they go on the lines and spaces of the music sheets. I was very proud of them and they had fun.

After club was done, Winnie finally came and Sophie came down and I told them I thought they should be in keyboarding because they are both so good at it and I’m teaching them anyway. I was actually able to convey this in Thai! So, they agreed and now I have a good little class. J

Saturday was Dolphin Day Camp! Fun times! 10 little kids (5-7 years old) and 8 adults. Almost a 1-to-1 ration. You’d think that would be enough, but you’d be wrong. Haha We met at Taw Saeng, got in a song thaew and traveled to the Botanic Gardens. It was really hot, but the kids were so excited! Most fell asleep on the way, and I nearly did too. It’s about a 40 minute journey. We got there and all clambered out of the van into the vast greenery.

The kids started running wild, but Ning corralled them and put them in 2 lines: one to ride their own bikes and one line to ride the back of a grownup’s bike. The littlest kids were riding with us and the bigger kids who have bikes at home rode their own bike. As we were going over to pay for the rentals, I took the little girls to look out at the swans and we saw that one of the swans had 5 babies! Little Francie was SO excited! She was hollering at the other kids to come look so they all ran over. Then they went to the end of the dock and looked at the huge fish in the lake. They were fascinated and excited and just all talking over each other, pulling on me to point to things and chattering away. So cute.

Finally, the bikes were rented, Rob and Judy arrived and we were off to the Herb Garden! I had one of our new kids, Felicity, on my bike and she is the cutest little thing ever. She was holding on to me as I was riding, and saying “faster! Faster!” hahah. Francie was with Marie-Clare and was saying the same thing! These kids are hard taskmasters.

Marie-Clare educated them about things in herb garden, then it was back on the bikes and on to the zoo. They have a few cages with different animals, and I had done some research on the ones I knew were there, so I had a few things to tell the kids. We saw peacocks, more swans, ostriches and deer. The kids were scared of the ostriches at first, but once they saw that there was a bucket of food we could feed them and the deers, they were super into it. I have to say, I’m a little scared of those ostriches myself, but at least they don’t have teeth! We then rode around to the camels and buffalo to feed them a bucket of greenery too. The camels have bigger teeth so are a bit more dangerous to feed, but the kids did great! They had so much fun.

We rode over to the playground for lunch and the kids freaked out at all the space to run and play in. They were all over the swinging pirate ship and climbing gym. After lunch, I asked the girls if they wanted to go see the nam tok, or waterfall.  They were very excited by this idea, so I Francie and Orawun’s daughter grabbed my hands and we walked over to the topiary hedge garden and into the waterfall area. The girls were so excited by the waterfall! I wonder if they’ve been to the limestone one nearby. I haven’t yet, but I hear it’s amazing. Marie-Clare got some great photos of us, so that was fun. She has a really cool SLR camera, so I’m excited to see how those turn out.

After the waterfall, we rounded everyone back up and went to the provincial tree garden, where Field told about the different trees in the provinces of Thailand. Then, we rode around for a while, trying to find the cool topiary Ning and I had seen last weekend that is shaped like hearts. Finally, we found it, but on the way Carrie’s chain kept falling off her bike, so Em stayed with her to fix it, as the rest of us found the heart wall and rose garden. As we waited for Em and Carrie to get back, Marie-Clare took pictures of the kids framed by the heart and then they all had a great time using our cameras to take pictures of the deer. They were so docile; they even let us pett their heads. It was super cute!  

We headed over to where the paddle boats are, but sadly, there was not enough time to go on the boats! Poor kids. Oh, well, they had a full day anyway. We took one final lap around the park on the bikes and when we were about 50 feet away from the bike return, when Ewan fell and hit his head. Blood everywhere, crying, crashed bike, 4 stitches later, he was all patched up. Such a bummer way to end the day! We called the song thaew and piled in again. Francie fell asleep on my lap, Felicity on the other end of the bus, and the boys were pounding on each other the whole way. The back of the bus is open and we were traveling on a highway, so the fact that the boys would not stay seated was a huge safety issue. Luckily, Em and Marie-Clare managed to distract them for a few minutes at a time, and eventually most of them fell asleep.

We got back to base camp and unloaded, then waited for Ning and Ewan to come back. Parents came by and started picking up their kids. I’m sure they will sleep well tonight! I hope Ewan’s parents aren’t too freaked out by his accident to never let him go anywhere again!  After everyone was gone, Em, MC, Ning and I went to dinner at Duke’s, which is a great burger place!  A quarter pound burger and fries for just over $3! Nice. Of course, I was exhausted by the end of the day, so I headed to bed early.

Sunday was a great day! Church with the kiddies in the morning, then lunch at Pantip with 15 kids. The kao soi lady actually knows my order now! Haha. I thought all farangs looked alike. I guess there aren’t many farangs who come in every Sunday with a pack of Thai kids though. Francie wanted me to sit by her, and dragged me over to the video game arcade after lunch to watch the boys play games. Sunny and Molly came over and sat in a corner by the game systems, so I sat with them. Molly has been pretty reserved up to this point, she’s sweet, but she doesn’t talk much to me. Well, today, she was little miss chatterbox! Telling me stories in Thai, asking me how to say things in English telling me how to say things in Thai. So great! Sunny of course, was her usual self, helpfully correcting my grammar when I tried to ask questions and chatting with me too. It was fun to hang out with them.

After everyone had finished, we headed back to Taw Saeng, where I did piano lessons with Willow, Sophie and Winnie, then helped Sophie with her English homework. This is like the best time for me, getting to hang out and give the kids individual attention, getting to know their personalities, practicing my Thai and teaching them new English words. It’s the best part of my week. People keep saying that I’m going to get burned out spending so much time with the kids, but even on my days off in America, I spend my days off hanging out with kids and helping them with their homework, so I still consider it down time. I couldn’t do it with the little ones all day every day, but the older kids are a blast to hang out with. I wouldn’t change my Sunday afternoons for the world.

After I left Taw Saeng I went to see Lucy at the walking street and the poor thing is sick. Oh, no! I gave her my tonsillitis! And she starts university tomorrow too. Man, I feel bad. I talked to her a little about school and whether she thought she’d have time to come either teach me Thai, practice English or help with my class this week. I think we’ll have to see how her first week goes and take it from there. I’m selfishly sad that she is starting school so soon! I was preparing for her to start in June, but the new program she signed up for starts earlier. I’m bummed that I won’t get to hang with her every day anymore. She’s become like my kid sister, and I’m really proud of her for persevering and going to college. She’s the first person in her family to do so, and even though she is nervous, and she didn’t get to go into the program that was her first choice, she’s still going anyway. It’s awesome.

Finally, Jaz and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. It was entertaining. Better than the last one anyway. But, we didn’t get back til late, so I’m off to bed early tonight for sure!

 

Urgent Help Needed!!

Today is Monday, and it is our staff meeting day. Today we found out some crushing news: we only have enough funds until the end of this month! This is for several reasons:  1) our operating costs (i.e. rent, electricity, water) were not properly disclosed to our parent organization at the beginning of the year when we raised funds for rent and electricity and 2) with the legal transition from The Garden of Hope to Taw Saeng, there are funds trapped in an account in America that need to be transferred over by an authorized person, but we have no one in America right now to do that! So, in order to keep our doors open, we need a serious miracle of funds. 


This program is so essential to the welfare of the kids who live in this red light district. Without this program, many of them would be out til all hours of the night selling flowers or in worst case scenarios, their bodies, to get food on the table for the family. Without this program, most of these kids would not be able to go to school, they would not have spiritual support for their families, a few would not even get to eat some days without the dinner we serve. We are the only line of defense for some of these kids to keep them out of trafficking and child prostitution. I shudder to think what would happen if we had to close our doors. 


The saddest part is that the kids LOVE coming here. Every Sunday, they hang out for hours, because there is no place they would rather be than at Taw Saeng. Taw Saeng doesn't just mean Shine. It means unconditional love, safety, acceptance and most of all, hope to these kids that don't have a lot of any of that. If you want to help keep these kids off the street, it's simple. Because of the bank trap in America at the moment, the best way to transfer funds is through Paypal. If you send money to my Paypal account between now and the end of June, every penny will go to keep the doors open, the kids fed and hope alive. Please consider donating today. 

 

Another Week in the Life

Sunday May 8, 2011

Today is Monther’s Day in America. I would never have known were it not for my mom sending me an email! I was up at 7:45 to get to church. I got there but didn’t see any kids so I just hung out on the front step. Field came around the corner and stopped at the clothing store next door. I went to see what she was doing and there were about 5 kids there! This morning we ended up with 12 kids coming with us in all, and 15 for lunch! Let’s see, we had Nat, Sunny, Francie, Naya, Willow, Peyton, Faith, Penny, Molly, Ewan, Yvonne, Gabby at TS and then we met up with Faa, Ning and Bim at church so I saw their kids for a second, then we saw Abby coming with Penny’s little brother Pip. We all went upstairs where we grabbed Sophie and Winnie and headed into church. It was so nice to have all of us together. From end to end it was Field, Abby, Sophie, Faa, Bim, Ning, Winnie.

Faa and Sophie were both so fidgety! It was cool to see Sophie writing down all the Bible verses though that he was talking about. I have to say, I wasn’t really that into paying attention either because he basically was saying the same thing over and over again for an hour. It was a 10 minute sermon expanded into an hour, so I was paying more attention to Sophie and Faa than the sermon too.

After church we all went to lunch, then the kids started breaking off for home. We ended up only taking 5 back to Taw Saeng where I worked with the kids teaching them juggling and I learned a Thai song, practiced my alphabet and played with the kids and hung out with Field.

We sent them packing at 4 and I went to the bookstore where I finally got a book to practice writing my letters in and a book for Faith’s birthday this week. Then I headed to the walking street market and got some more beanbags for juggling and saw Fiona with her cousin, little Annie at the walking street. Last week they stayed home, but today they were there with Lucy and Fiona’s parents. I was so excited to see them!

On Friday, Annie was so sick, poor baby. She’s only 4 and she was crying cause she felt so sick. It was nice to see all the older kids trying to take care of her, but in the end we put her under a blanket on the couch upstairs and I sang her to sleep with the lullaby from Waitress. Haha. Inna came up and sat with us too. I told her I was singing her lullabies in English that she can’t understand, so she was welcome to sing her Russian lullabies that she doesn’t understand as well. Pretty soon, the poor thing was out cold, snoring with her little arm flung over her head. She slept a solid 2 hours!

Anyway, so it was nice to see her up and about and playing today. I ran across the street and she plopped right down on my lap and was playing with me while I talked to Fiona. I always talk to Lucy a ton, so when I came over, she was like “Lucy is in Chiang Rai.” I said I knew, but I wanted to talk to her! I never get to hang out with Fiona so it was cool to spend some one on one time with her today at the market, watching people go by. Her English is not nearly as good as Lucy’s but she knows a lot, she’s really smart. She’s in 10^th grade this year and she was at camp last week with Winnie, so I didn’t see her all week. We were talking about the rain and flooding last week and what she did at camp and I was having her teach me some more Thai today, so it was nice.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Today was a great day. Got to TS early, a little before 9, to meet Lucy for one final English lesson via Switchfoot. Today we studied “Hello Hurricane” and “Always.” I think those are great songs to give to the kids here since they (the songs) deal with trusting in God even when we feel like life is so hard and he’s so far from us. I think Lucy really got it today, and it was really cool. After we did Hello Hurricane we had about 20 minutes and so I asked if she wanted to study another song or read from a book. She was like “song!” The first couple songs were from the mix I gave her, but I thought “Always” was a great song to do since it talks about God always being with us, even though we live in a fallen world and things can be hard. After we studied that one, it was about time to go downstairs for our staff worship and meeting. I was like “OK, I think you’re ready. Are you scared about the test tomorrow?” She said yes, so I asked if she wanted to pray and she said yes, so we did.  I just prayed over her test and her nerves and everything. I don’t even know how much she understood, but at the end, she just gave me this look of utter gratitude and said “kup koon ka” which means thank you. 

Then, we had a good meeting with MC and Em about the upcoming week. We finally went to Airport Plaza for lunch and a movie! My first Thai movie and it was fun to see. It was called Jukkalan and it’s about this girl who is a bike messenger and she beats up all the bad guys with just her kung fu and her bike. She’s kind of bad ass. I like this movie! J Then back to TS where I hung out with Ning as she typed up a letter for Sophie’s school since she starts at a new school tomorrow. Sophie and Winnie came by and I quickly taught Winnie how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb. Sophie wanted to play too, but Winnie was like, “Hey you already get to play guitar with her! I want piano!” haha

Tuesday-Thursday, May 10-12

This week we had a team of nurses come from the States. They are in their final year of nursing school, so are energetic to play with the kids and help out. It’s been great! They did songs, a skit, taught about germs, and have been helping in our classes.

Wednesday, I woke up with my hand all swollen and covered in spider bites, I think. I ended up taking some Benadryl because it really hurt, but of course that puts me to sleep, so when I got to Taw Saeng at 9:30, I was ready to crash. But, Orowan was there to give me a driving lesson, so we did that, then I slept for 2 hours. I was out cold, because P’Bua, Ning and Field were all watching a Thai sermon on the computer and I was sleeping through all of it! I really needed that sleep because Ahna and Jaz’s friend Natalie had been staying with us for a few nights and my door creaks, so when she would get up in the night to use the bathroom or whatever, it would wake me up, so I haven’t slept a full night in days. Thursday I woke up with a sore throat, but it seems to be getting better today (Friday). 

Wednesday evening, as most of the kids had left, I was sitting with Sunny outside and we were chatting a bit. She’s such a sweetheart! She asked me where I lived and I sort of described it to her, and I asked where she lived, and she said she is neighbors with Lucy and Fiona. Then she said, “P’Heather, me kwam soo tee nee mai?” which means: are you happy here? I thought it was such a profound question. Not are you happy, or do you like it here, but are you happy here? I said that yes, I am very happy here. I wish I knew the words to say,“I’m happy here because I get to see you every day!” 

Sunny is so patient with my Thai, even when I say things wrong, she understands what I mean and will either correct me or say that I said it right. It’s so cute. Thursday I was asking her how to say “When is your birthday?” And I asked about the word order so she explained it to me a couple times so I could write it down. 

 

Thursday, I went with Ning to the school of a bunch of the kids. When we walked onto the courtyard, Francie came tearing across the yard yelling “kroo Ning!” (which means teacher). Then she grabbed my hand and started dragging us both toward her class. Then out came Naya who ran over and gave me a big hug and grabbed my other hand. Their teacher wasn’t in the class, so we went upstairs to see Cody’s teacher. He’s in 3^rd grade so they weren’t at recess. We found out that we needed to go see the school accountant to pay for his books, so we trooped back downstairs, the girls still clinging to my hands, and when we got to the bottom, little Annie came tearing over to us. She was so excited to see us too. It was so cute! Now I had 3 little girls clinging onto me. So, Ning led the group up a different set of stairs to the secretary’s office and went in while I waited with the girls outside. There were a bunch of teachers around, and I’m sure they were all wondering what this farang chick was doing with their students, but I think the girls babbled something about Taw Saeng and they were satisfied.

After Ning was done, we went downstairs again and Annie was grabbing onto me and saying to her classmates “Do you know who this is? This is MY teacher. Not YOUR teacher, she’s MY teacher.” It was hysterical! Finally, we left the munchkins outside and went in to talk to Naya’s teacher. It was an interesting conversation. I understood that it was about food, but that’s about it. But, what was cool was that the teacher totally spoke to both Ning and I as if I could understand everything she was saying. I guess I do a pretty good job of not looking confused. I was trying to take my non-verbal cues from Ning, so if she was smiling, I’d smile too, and if she looked concerned, so would I. haha I bet the teacher had no idea I couldn’t understand but 25% of what she was saying.

I asked Lucy to stay and help me teach my class because I’m having a hard time getting them to focus and I think it’s because they just don’t understand a lot of what I am saying. So, it would help to have a person to translate. Lucy is amazing. She is going to be such a great teacher! Those kids snap to attention when she tells them what to do, and she is not shy about taking away points either! It was great to have her explain to the kids about the drama that we are going to do and what they will be graded on, etc.

We have been working on learning vowel sounds and yesterday they finally got what sounds ‘a’ and ‘e’ make! We learned a Bible verse too: Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. We started learning the song too. I am going to teach Willow to play it, so she can accompany the other kids singing it. That will be one part of our drama. They will need to come up with another part for themselves so they can get creativity points! I need to start keeping track of the words they are learning so that at the end of the quarter they can integrate them into the drama and get good points.

Piano club starts Friday, so I’ll have 4 other students in addition to Winnie and Ning. Oy, lots of music!! I never in a zillion years thought I’d be a music teacher. 

Friday-Sunday May 13-15, 2011

Friday was intense because there were only 4 of us there to run the whole place. Actually, Orawun ended up helping a lot too, so 5 for half the day, but she leaves at 6, so the end of the day was just me, Inna, Field and Ning. We have 4 “clubs” on Friday, which each of us teaches. Field does guitar lessons, I do piano lessons, Ning does crafts and Inna does art. Poor Inna, she had 15 kids all by herself! And I was feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t figure out how to do piano with 4 kids and one keyboard!

Some highlights: The past week, Em has been helping P’Bua with dinner every night, so I haven’t really helped at all, which made me a bit sad cause I do like hanging out with her and helping cook dinner. But, today I was like Hey! I can help because nobody is here. J Of course, as soon as Gabby and Yvonne got there they wanted to help me help P’Bua, which is a nice byproduct of being adored by children, haha. So, I put them to work chopping guavas (don’t worry, no knives involved!) Made the work go 3 times faster!

Yvonne was very excited to be in keyboard club that night. But then, when we actually got to club time, she didn’t want to play and was just sitting there while the other kids played with her head down. Eventually, she just went over to sit on the couch and mope. Finally, I went over and was like “Honey, what’s wrong? All day you wanted to play keyboard, and now you are not playing. I’m sorry but if you aren’t going to play the keyboard, you can’t be in keyboarding club. It’s kind of a prerequisite..” I think she didn’t understand what I said, but she got the message that I was sort of upset with her, because then she started CRYING! Great. Now I have a language barrier and moodiness. Of course, with these kids, my mental spectrum goes from “I’m having a bad day” to “something traumatic happened to me” and I have NO IDEA where on the spectrum any emotional breakdown falls. Sigh. So, I just sat with her while the other kids played and gave her a hug, and eventually, she came over to the keyboard with me and sat down and played. I have no clue what it was that got her to overcome her sadness, but I’m glad she did. Ah, teenagers.

Friday night was great because my neighbor Sacha had a prayer night at her house and it was just like WP, my LA Bible study, a bunch of girls getting together to discuss their week and pray for each other. It was very needed and very awesome. We did some worship music at the beginning and then did a lot of praying. Of course, I was up til 1am, but I think it was worth it. Sadly, I have been battling a sore throat for a couple days, so the late night did not help that at all.

Saturday morning I was awakened by the phone ringing and it was Ning. My first thought is of tragedy of some sort involving the kids, like Sophie’s mom being in the hospital again, but it was just that she wanted someone to go with her somewhere and Orawun had just backed out. So, when my heart stopped racing, I was like, OK, Yeah, I will meet you in an hour. When I got to Taw Saeng, I asked her “so, uh, what are we doing again?” and it turns out we were going to check out this place that we are going to for the Dolphins’ day camp next weekend. Fun!! We took a yellow Song Thaew toward Doi Saket and got off at Horizon resort and botanical gardens. We met with the lady there who gave us a map and an idea of the cost and then we walked over to the lake. I was like, “it’s so beautiful here! Now what?”  Ning says: “Now we rent bicycles and ride around.” Seriously? How fun is that? So cool. We spent $1 each for bikes and took our map and were off. This place is huge, it has a zoo, a swimming pool, a topiary labyrinth, a HUGE playground, a stage, waterfalls, fountains, a big herb garden, a rose garden, a conference center, greenhouses, a palm tree garden and a whole section of topiary dinosaurs! It’s so cool. We rode around for about 3 hours and took a ton of pictures and just hung out. It was so nice to spend some more time just chilling out with Ning with no work pressing and no kids. Despite the fact that my throat was killing me, I am really glad I went. At the end of the day, after we returned our bikes, we sat down with our planners and planned our special events for the next 6 months. So now I know all the days we have off and what we are doing each month. Stay tuned for details on that as our events unfold!

Came back, hung out with Jeow and Tara and Jaz (don’t know if I’ve mentioned them yet. Jeow is a friend of Jaz’s and Tara is her baby. She’s 4 months old and adorable! She’s staying with us for a week. For those of you keeping track, yes that is nearly 2 weeks straight of guests. No wonder I never sleep and am now sick.) I called Jane, my friend who is a doctor and told her my symptoms to find out if she thought I should start taking my antibiotics that I brought with me. She said I either have strep throat or tonsillitis, so either way, yes. Great. Just what I need.

Sunday, up early for church, met the crew at TS, got the Song Thaew to church and dropped the kids. Met up with Ning, Faa and Bim and spent the morning in service. Afterwards, we saw Gabby, Yvonne, Sophie and Winnie who had snuck in late, and then when we got the kids, Willow and Peyton had come as well! Now we had 15 kids instead of 6, so we went to Pantip Plaza for lunch instead of the more expensive Kad Suan Kaew, and headed back to TS for playtime.

It’s so funny, now all the kids somehow know that I can’t eat MSG because I’m allergic, so Sophie had gotten some Som Tam, which had MSG in it so she told me not to eat it. At the other end of the table, Field told her to share with me, and Sophie, Winnie, Willow and Yvonne all say “No! No! It has MSG!!” It cracked me up!

I asked Winnie and Sophie what they were doing the rest of the day, and they said nothing, just going home, so I told them to come with us and we’d play guitar and piano. So, they did. It was a fun afternoon, the little kids were playing pretend downstairs, while we kept an eye on them from the second floor windows and did some piano lessons and guitar lessons. Field was working on her life story on the computer. She’s about as prolific as I am becoming.

After the kids went home, I headed to Thapae to see Lucy and her parents and to get some shoes. I need more flip flops. She was dubious about whether any of her shoes would fit my big farang feet though. Haha. We did find a couple that fit, so I was happy. So was Lucy since she sold 2 pairs at once and I let her keep the change. Her parents were very nice too, instead of just wai-ing when I said goodbye, her mom grabbed my hand and said thank you. She’s so sweet. 

Another full week! When Ryan gets back from the states, I can post some more pictures of the kids because I can password protect them! 

 

Wai Nam means SWIMMING!

Wednesday, May 4 - Saturday, May 7

Well, it seems my Thai is improving despite myself. Today I had several conversations with the kids in my class and I actually understood what they were saying! I learned another 10 letters too. Let’s see if these ones stick in my head. Right now I can write 24 letters and I know the names of about 20 of them. I think I know the order of those 24 pretty well too. I just need to work on pronunciation. So, after today, I have 34 of 44 consonants almost memorized. Then I need to work on the 33 vowels. It’s neverending! I will hopefully know the entire alphabet by the time I leave in a year. Haha.

This morning I printed out some worksheets for the kids to study the letter A today. I have no idea if they are actually going to absorb the concept of the different sounds or not, but I am going to try! I made a list of words that make all three sounds for A, like can, cane and call, bat, bake, ball, etc. I also had them memorize a Bible verse that has all 5 vowels in it and all 3 'a 'sounds. Those kids are good with memorization on the spot!

I played some guitar with Sophie today and she played all the way through a Thai worship song without me correcting her chord changes once! I was so proud of her. I’m a bit worried about the kids Facebook pages. They almost all have Facebook, despite the fact that they don’t have computers at home for the most part. That’s not the worrisome part though, it’s the fact that they have over 1000 friends. I only have about 500 and every single one of those is someone I know for real. I have no idea who these people are that are friends with the kids. Maybe they’re all kids too, but you can never be sure. I want Field to get them all to change their privacy settings to fully private for only friends and to delete all the people they are friends with who they don’t really know. It’s so dangerous to have that many strangers as friends when they are only 11 or 12. 

Today we signed kids up to learn to juggle, so the madness begins tomorrow. The older kids all picked their beanbags today and put them in plastic bags with their names on them. I think I might need to pick up some more juggleable things because I think there might be more kids who want to do it than I have bags for.

May 5, 2011

Today was a relatively good day. I’m not sure how much the kids are absorbing about the vowel sounds. Who knows if they will be able to read by the end of 3 months, but we shall see.

Today began the juggling lessons! Last night I had the older kids pick their beanbags and today they all gathered round and found their names on the ziplocs to get their sets. I started them with just one bag, and they had to throw it 100 times from one hand to the next without dropping one! Even the littlest ones were able to do this successfully. Of course, they probably don’t throw them high enough to really juggle. Anyway, when the older kids came and told me they were done with that level, I showed them how to hold one beanbag and toss the other one back and forth. This time I made them throw it higher than their eye level so they get used to that rhythm.

After the older kids accomplished this, I moved them up to the next level, which is tossing two balls at once. This I think is the hardest level when you are learning. Getting that rhythm down is tough and doing it 100 times without dropping any is super hard! Aaron was the first one to really get it. He’s going to be the first one to fully juggle I think. But I think I could have all the kids juggling by the end of the month! The older girls are really into it too, other than Sophie and Gabby. It’s so funny, Sophie always wants to grab them and toss them, but she doesn’t want to actually learn how to do it. I keep asking her and she keeps saying no and then taking some other kids beanbags! Haha I think of the little kids, Buddy is the one who will stick with it and get it. I don’t think the other ones will have the patience to actually learn it right now, but we’ll see. Maybe they will surprise me.

Today was also fun because I wanted to do a jeopardy game with my class as a review and studying of the letter A but I needed index cards. I also wanted to get some proper Ziploc baggies that I could write the kids names on and not have them wipe off easily. So, Judy decided we should go to Big C (a Costco-like place) and go shopping so she could pick up some stuff too. We brought Lucy and our new volunteer Marie-Clare. Yay! Free Thai lesson day!

It was the funniest thing to see Lucy all excited. She was like “I LOVE shopping!!” When we got to Big C she was running around like a little kid. I was cracking up, like, uh, are you sure you’re 17? She was so excited to see the hula hoop display, but they were SO heavy that it was impossible to use them! She was also enamored of the little inner tubes they had on display and was overjoyed to find a Winnie the Pooh one. She ended up getting stuck in one because she was convinced she could fit in it, which she did, but then she couldn’t get out of it! I had to wriggle it off her. I could not stop laughing.

Then, I fell. Today I was wearing shoes that have no grip on the sole, and the floors there are smooth concrete. So, Lucy and I were looking for Lime Soda in a can for me and couldn’t find it, so we asked someone who worked there. We passed Judy and Marie-Clare twice in their aisle on our quest for the Soda Manou, and on our second pass, Lucy turned the cart abruptly as I was pushing it and I tried to turn sharply, but totally just slipped splat on the ground. It was hysterical. Lucy and I could not stop laughing and then when we got to the end of the aisle, Judy and Marie-Clare almost ran into us while we were still laughing. They were like “We saw you pass and then we heard a crash. What happened?!” Well, we found the soda manou eventually anyway!

 

So, this coming Saturday, Judy and Rob invited my class over to go swimming in their pool. Part of the reason we needed to go shopping was to get supplies for this event. We’ll have 8 kids I think. We got 8 of those inner tubes for the kids to play with since I don’t think they really know how to swim, plus spaghetti supplies and soda and snacks for them all. Lucy is coming to help manage the kids and make sure they don’t drown since she does know how to swim. I am excited; I think it will be fun! I just hope it doesn’t storm like it did today. We went into the store and it was bright blue skies and puffy white clouds and by the time we were checking out, I heard this crazy pounding on the roof and slowly looked up, asking “Uh, is that rain?” Yep, it had turned from a hot, sunny day into a full on downpour in a matter of minutes! By the time we got back to Taw Saeng though, it had nearly stopped. That’s the way the tropical climate is I guess.

This morning, Inna and I went to the guitar shop so she could get new strings and get her action lowered on the guitar she is borrowing from our friend Mint. I asked if she was going to come swimming too, and she said she needs a day off. She said, “I don’t know how you do it! It’s like 24/7 for you.” Which isn’t entirely true. It’s more like 10/7. Usually it’s only 10/6, but this week I will have swimming on Saturday, so it will be a full 7 day week with the kids. Inna said, “I love the kids, but I need a break!” I get that, but I explained that what she had to understand is that there is no place I would rather be than hanging out with a bunch of kids, whether it’s here, America, Africa, wherever. Plus, you have to take into consideration the fact that I am used to working 16 hour days, so only getting to be with the kids for 6 hours a day is like less than a half day for me. To me, it’s not possible to spend too much time with them. I think of it this way: if I were a parent, I would spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with my kids, right? So, if you consider that these are like my kids, then I am hardly spending any time with them. Plus, there’s the fact that there are so many kids and I think they each need individual attention for at least a portion of every day. So from that point of view, I’m really not spending enough time with them at all. Plus, why would you not want to spend lots of time with people you love?

Yet another cute story: Sunny and her little sister Francie, who is super adorable, came back from the mountains today! I was excited to see them because they’ve been gone for about 3 weeks. Just before dinner, Sunny came up and asked me if I was going to teach her class today. Awww, I wish I could say yes, but hopefully I’ll get to hang out with her more during the other times of the day when we are not doing English class.

Up til now, I’ve really been showering the girls with more love and one-to-one attention than the boys, but today, Nat was giving me hugs too. Such a sweet kid. He’s almost as tall as me, so I keep thinking he’s going to just pick me up one of these times! It’s pretty unusual for middle school boys to give hugs at all, so I thought that was pretty cool. He’s also going to be one of the kids that learns to juggle first I think. He’s got it down!  

 

Friday, May 6, 2011

Good day: Pouring rain when I went with Ning to order the t-shirts. Had a great talk with her, got her short life story, talked about the future of Taw Saeng, what we can do to make it stronger, plans for the future. Good stuff. I would really, really, love to be able to stay and run this great ministry with her. I think we would be an awesome team. Well, after ordering shirts, we went to get lunch at Wawee Coffee, which is the name of the mountain where Ning grew up! As we were walking there, it started raining, which turned into a deluge and then a flood! It was pouring like I have never seen; the water was so high that it was about half way up the tires of the cars parked on the side of the road. We finally got a Song Thaew and they pulled right up on the curb so we could pull ourselves in by the ladder and into the bed of the truck. It was crazy! I wish I had my camera! 

 

Also great to see the kids worshipping and singing their little hearts out. Since it’s Friday, we don’t have English classes, so today they sang some songs before dinner and then we all ate together. The middle school girls are wanting me to eat with them every day now, and it’s funny because I used to sit on the steps with Inna and the other volunteers, but since I teach the Penguins English class, the Tigers kids are always wanting me to hang out with them at dinner time and free time. So, most days, someone like Inna or Judy is trying to ask me a question, and a 12-year-old is dragging me over to sit on the floor with the kids. I mean, I think it’s great to hang out with them, and it certainly helps my Thai, because they just speak to me in Thai constantly and expect me to understand. I’m about 40% right now of being able to work out what they are saying, but I can’t answer in Thai yet, still only English. 

Tangent:  Miriam came back today! I haven’t seen her since I got here because she has been in the mountains at her grandparents for the summer, but she’s back just in time for swimming tomorrow! I ran down to say hello and she was like “uh, who are you?’ but then Willow and Faith reminded her of when I was here in November and she was like “Oh, yeah!” I remember her being hard to get a smile out of back then, so I was excited to have her come swimming so we could get some bonding in. J But then I found out she had to do something with her parents and couldn’t come. Bummer! Oh, well, I’m sure I’ll get to know her in class.

Then, song time. First, we sat around in a circle and Field played a song while people passed around a plastic ball. When she stopped singing, whoever had the ball was out (theoretically) kind of like musical chairs. So fun. I sat with Gabby and Nat and sweet little Nat was patting my knee keeping time with the music. Sophie came and sat with me too. 

Then, we actually sang a song I know from when I was a kid! It’s the one about building your house on the rock and not the sand. It was super fun to do with the kids because of all the hand motions. Some of the motions are different so I was cracking up watching and participating in them. Finally, we sat down in a big circle, everyone together, and sang songs in Thai. (Well, I didn’t sing, I just listened). Little Francie came over and crawled in my lap and just cuddled into me. I love when little kids do that. There is nothing better than just loving on kids and giving them the attention they crave.  

Oh, I almost forgot! I bought a bike! I found it on the CMCC Classifieds and when I called this morning, it was still available! So, now I am the proud owner of a Honda Wave, bright red, kickstart manual scooter. Now, I just need to learn to drive it. And get the papers transferred over. Details. The lady who is selling it is from Ontario and has been teaching English to Chiang Mai University students for 4 years. Now she’s going back to the States to go to school for her Master’s. Got a much better vibe off her than the British dude who was selling the Dream for 10,000. I am happy with this one and it looks and runs awesome!

 

Before worship this morning, I met with Lucy for our “Thai lesson.” I didn’t tell her, but today I planned to help her study for her test on Tuesday. She has one more entrance test to get into university and it’s on Tuesday. I looked online for some sample math questions because she said she hates math and isn’t good at it, which is all the more reason to practice it! I figured she was pretty well versed in the basics, so I found some algebra and geometry questions. We went over them for a half hour, and then I had her practice her English reading for a half hour. Last week, I gave her a cd with a mix I had actually made for another friend, but I can just make another copy, so I let Lucy have it. When I asked if she liked it, she was like “Yeah, but it’s all in English and I don’t know the words.” I laughed, because of COURSE it’s in English. I don’t speak Thai! Anyway, I asked if she wanted me to print out the lyrics for her and she said yes, so I did. She wanted to know if any of the songs were Christian songs, so I starred the Switchfoot and Toby Mac songs. Today, I thought “Only Hope” would be a great song to practice English with.  And yes, I am aware that it was co-opted by the Mandy Moore movie. That does not mean that the original version is not awesome. 

I had her read each line individually and then explained what it meant, translating the words that I knew into Thai. I found out that I knew more Thai than I thought, and Lucy was actually understanding it. She was so excited when we got to the chorus because it’s repetitive, so she was like “I know this part!! I didn’t know what it meant but I know the words!” I love that song a lot, because it’s about finding your hope in God when you feel like giving up or that your dreams are too hard to attain.   OK, so this is going to sound super cheesy, but there was a moment in there when I was explaining the lyrics and how they referred to God and his plan for our lives, it was as if the Holy Spirit was right there in the room with us. It was palpable. It was kind of amazing actually. It was then that I really understood what Judy meant when she said I’m not there to teach English, I’m there to share the love of God. I know Lucy is a Christian, but we’ve never talked about God or anything spiritual before, so it was a pretty cool moment. 

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Finally, swimming day is here! All week the kids have been talking about Wai Nam, or swimming. It’s so cute. But then, out of the blue the other day, Willow announced she wasn’t coming. I couldn’t pry it out of her why, so I took her away from the other kids to Judy and made her tell Judy why. Turns out, there is a kid who is friends with Faith and he has been picking on Willow so she didn’t want to come if he was coming. We assured her that no matter what, she would come, even if that meant this other kid couldn’t come. He’s not even part of the program, so really, he wasn’t even eligible. But then, last night, he got sick, so this morning he wasn’t able to come because he had a fever. Anyway.

Luckily, I woke up to beautiful blue skies! I figured if it is going to rain, it will happen in the afternoon, so we should still have a fun time. I stopped for some fruit at the market on the way since we had only bought junk food for the kids the other day and I think they are probably fruit and veggie deficient. I caught a song thaew quickly and as I pulled up to TS, the kids surrounded the car and were shouting “P’Heather! P’Heather!” It was quite the welcome wagon. J

It was only 9:40 but they were ready to go!  Willow, Faith, Peyton, Elliot and Bastian were there already so we just had to wait on Flynn and Lucy. Much to my surprise, I saw Flynn’s mom come around the corner with Miriam in tow too!! Yay! I was not expecting to see her today. I was like “I’m so excited you got to come!!” and gave her a big hug and actually got a smile out of her. Success!

Well, the last one to arrive was Lucy and finally Rob and Judy pulled up as all the kids ran screaming to the pickup and piled in the back. Lucy and I jumped in with them to make sure nobody fell out. It was SO hot but it was nice driving down the highway with the wind in our hair. It was “Sabai” according to Lucy.

We got to the house, got the kids set up with swimwear and Lucy and I hid the Easter eggs my mom had sent that I had stuffed with candy and baht coins. Well, the plan was to hide the eggs, get the kids in swimwear and have them find the eggs so the candy didn’t melt before they went swimming. Somewhere along the way there was a communication breakdown because by the time we finished dressing the girls, half the kids were swimming already! Rob thought we should just let them all swim and find the eggs later. I was unsure of this plan, but there wasn’t a lot I could do to drag 5 kids out of the water to find eggs, so I jumped in! Then it was an hour and a half of swimming lessons, diving lessons, and just playing in the water. It was so nice to go swimming in this huge pool with just us there. The kids had a blast and so did I. I even taught Lucy to dive and do handstands underwater. All the kids wanted to swim with me and practice their stroke or just hang on my shoulders while I swam under water. Miriam was so cute. She wanted to swim, but she just sank like a rock! Bastian is the best swimmer of all of them, but Elliott and Faith are pretty good too.

Then we got out for lunch and had the kids find the eggs before we ate. Disaster! All the candy eggs had been devoured by teeny tiny red ants! The poor kids found them and opened them only to get bitten by ants. L All the candy was ruined and even if not for the ants, it was all a melted mess and not salvageable anyway. Oh, well, another day without knowing what Reeces Pieces taste like is not going to kill them. They were happy with their other eggs full of coins anyway.

We traipsed back to the pool area for lunch of spaghetti and fruit. Yummy!! After lunch the kids jumped right back in, so I did too. That whole “wait an hour after eating to swim” is hogwash in my opinion. We played in the water for another hour and then Judy brought ice cream and cake over to celebrate Faith’s birthday, which is this week. Judy made a banana cake with chocolate chip frosting! Soooooo good.

It was about 2:30 and I had told Flynn’s mom we’d be back at 3, so we tried to wrangle the kids and get them back in their clothes but were rather unsuccessful. Then I noticed a HUGE storm cloud headed right toward us. After the rains of yesterday, I didn’t want to get caught in that and I couldn’t imagine fitting 11 people in the cab of the truck, so I was trying to get the kids to hurry but they were so into swimming! Meanwhile, the thunder and clouds were getting closer and closer. I was sure it was going to storm on our way home. Most of the kids wanted to ride in the back because they got motion sickness, so we grabbed blankets and tarps and stuck them in the back with the rest of us up front. Unbelievably, it didn’t rain until we got back to Taw Saeng! A miracle.    

Thankfully, as the rain started to pour down, Rob and Judy offered to drive me home. I was glad I didn’t have to walk home from the song thaew station in the pouring rain, that’s for sure. Of course, it poured for about 30 minutes and is now beautiful with the sun setting over the mountains.

 

Goooo Penguins!

Monday, May 2, 2011
Forgot to write about Saturday! I went hiking up high in the mountains with my friends Dane and Ben. Dane is working with people learning how to grow and distribute coffee for poor farmers. Ben is working at an orphanage teaching English and learning Thai. We drove on motorbikes way up Doi Suthep (Doi means mountain). Past the zoo, past the palace, past the Buddhist temple. Some amazing views up there. I could literally feel the climate change as we drove. It was so hot and humid at home, but nice and cool up at the tip-top of the mountain. We hiked through the woods, and it smelled so much like Seattle! Downside: it was very wet, so there were leeches everywhere! It was so gross. We’d walk like 5 steps and be covered in them, so we’d brush them all off and 5 steps later do it again. These were teeny tiny leeches so they didn’t drain us of blood or anything, mostly they just got stuck to my sneakers and socks until I could pull them off, but still. Ew.
In the evening, I met up with Gabe and Kristen from church. They had brought me a wonderful care package with treats from the states! Of course, now that they’ve gone, I can think of a hundred things I could have asked them to bring for my classroom, but I’ll just make a list for the next care package. ☺ I took them to the Saturday Walking Street and we got some food, they tried some new fruit and meat on a stick and we did a little shopping. Well, them more than me. Still waiting for that money transfer to hit.
Today got up early to go meet Ning at Wararot market so I could go visit her house. We had breakfast and then met Faa, who was buying food for the week for all the kids at the house. We loaded up the truck and headed out to the house. They live in a massive house with a big backyard and swingset. On the first floor is a tv room, dining room, kitchen, Faa’s office, and the boys’ room.
The second floor has a play room, Ning and Bim (the helper)’s room, and both girls’ rooms (3 girls in each). The 3rd floor has Faa’s room, a guest room, a huge wooden porch swing and a wooden table and chairs. Like, carved out of solid wood, not like we have in the US. These things take a lot of strength to move. We had lunch and I had a long talk with Faa and then with Ning about the history and future of The Garden of Hope, what it looks like, what needs to happen, what Ning’s vision for the kids and Taw Saeng is, etc. It was really great to spend some quality time with them and talk in depth about this stuff.

It was super fun hanging out with the kids and seeing their rooms and playing with them. They are really sweet and fun kids. Another American couple came to talk to Faa about setting up a children’s home through their church. It was nice to talk to them too.

The kids seem really happy there and they love Ning and Faa. I am really glad I got to spend the day with them, now I feel like I have a better foundation of friendship with them, and I know where they live so I can go visit again and see the kids. I just love their kids, they are the sweetest things. I would never guess they came from such hard backgrounds of abuse and neglect. Faa is really doing God’s work there and it’s amazing to me that she is only 29!

Bad news, though. As I was driving with Ning and Faa to the house, Ning got a call from Field about Sophie’s mom being in the hospital. Ning and I were just talking about going to see her tomorrow and then this! She’s at the Mae Rim hospital outside the city because she is hill tribe and it’s too expensive to go to the city hospital. I have no clue what is happening with Sophie during this, if she is staying at the hospital or at home or with friends, who knows? I know she is really tight with Winnie, so maybe Winnie’s mom is watching her while her mom is sick. Ning and I are going to see her tomorrow morning at the hospital I hope. It just breaks my heart thinking of that little girl all alone while her mom is in the hospital fighting for her life.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

OK, I was a little overly dramatic last night, it seems. They let Sophie’s mom go home last night so Ning called me at about 9:30pm to tell me to meet her this morning at 9:30am to go pray with Sophie’s mom at 10. Ning rode her motorbike today though, so she was a bit late with traffic and we ended up heading over about 20 minutes later than planned. It didn’t really matter that much though, because when we got there, Sophie’s mom was up and about, running around cooking! Here I thought she’d be laid up in bed, but nope, still making food just like any other day. Today, Winnie’s mom was there helping and they were tearing up banana leaves to make rice pudding.

Field showed up about 2 minutes after we did and sat down and started ripping up banana leaves! I was like, OK, I want in on this action. So I pulled myself over on the mat and started tearing leaves too. I had to use a leaf that Field had done to match the size, but it’s not too hard to tear leaves into pieces, so I did a fair job of it. Then Sophie ran over with some other chairs and disappeared again. Ning said the kids were all watching tv over at Winnie’s house, so I went over with her and saw the other kids and met Winnie’s little brother who is SO CUTE and has the longest eyelashes! He looks exactly like a male version of Winnie with big eyes and a sweet smile. We came back to Sophie’s house and watched the girls help their moms stuff the leaves with rice pudding to cook in a big pot on an open fire. Quite the cultural experience. All this time, Sophie’s mom is still walking around cooking and doing things. Inna and I said she should be resting, but Ning said that hill tribe people can’t just lay and do nothing, they always need to be busy. I know that feeling. I HATE being sick and not able to do anything. Even when I had a 105 degree fever with dengue fever, I still tried to watch tv and cook food. That did not go so well for me, but Sophie’s mom is a strong woman!

After the pudding was on to cook, their Akha pastor came over, along with about 8 other people from their little community and we sang some Akha songs. It’s cool, Akha is written in English letters! I think this is because when missionaries first came to Thailand, Akha was only a spoken language, not written. When missionaries wanted to translate the Bible into Akha, there was no language to do it with, so they just wrote it down in the characters they knew. I read that this is how the Hmong written language came about, and since they are also a Thai hill tribe, I think maybe the same thing happened with Akha people.

Anyway, we sang songs for a bit, then everyone sat around Sophie’s mom and laid hands on her to pray for her. It turns out that what is happening is kidney failure, and she has to get dialysis twice a week at the hospital. This costs 2000 baht per time. This is about $67 per treatment. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but for people who are living at this level of poverty, it could be a month’s salary. Imagine spending that twice a week for the rest of your future. Of course, dialysis is not a cure for kidney failure, it’s a stop-gap measure. What she really needs is a kidney transplant. This will cost much more, but it will ensure a longer life for her.

After we prayed for Sophie’s mom, someone went to get Sophie and we all prayed over her too. I am just so worried for this kid. I’m really glad we all prayed over her. I don’t even understand a small amount of Akha, but I think it really affected Sophie, since that’s like her heart language. You know how when you are fluent in another language but it’s not your first? If someone says they love you or asks how you are in your second language, it means something to you, and you appreciate it, but if they say I love you in your first language, that hits your heart in a whole different way. I think the same is true for prayers. When our team came in November, I’m sure just knowing we were praying was a big help to them, but hearing someone pray for you in your own language is so much more powerful.

On the way back to TS, we stopped for lunch at a dim sum place. Yummy!!! I got a call from the guy whose bike I want to buy, so I set up a meeting with him at 12:30 and then called my buddy Ben who knows about motorbikes to come meet me and take a look at it as well.

We saw the bike and it’s a British guy selling it, but he’s lived here for 30 years and is now going back to England. He’s selling it for only 10,000 baht, which is a pretty good price for a Honda. It equates to about $333 US. Even if I have to get some stuff fixed on it, it will still be cheaper than getting a really expensive bike. Ben took a look and thinks that it’s enough to get me around the city for a year, but I probably won’t be able to sell it for much at the end of the year. Still, I think it is better to spend a little and not recoup it then to drop a bunch of money on something newer. I think I’ll look at it once more and take it for another ride before I commit for sure. It does feel like a God thing. I mean, Inna just happened to be at the bike shop when this guy happened to be selling exactly the kind of bike I want to get for exactly what I want to spend. Then, he didn’t call me until my money had gotten transferred from the US, so it seems like all these things are falling into place for a reason. Plus, I really need a bike!

Today was day one of phonetics, but I didn’t really do anything with it yet. Instead, the kids made a sign that says PENGUINS! That is our class name so we are embracing it full force. Field had the kids make up a little motion for their group name and it was adorable. The little ones are dolphins and they make a diving gesture with their hands and all JUMP at the same time and dive into the floor. My kids are not sold on the idea of penguins yet, so they don’t really have a motion yet. We’ll work on that. The older kids are all about their tiger name. They love doing the tiger motion, especially Sophie, she was the one to really get the other kids to follow her in doing a big tiger motion.

Today I only had four kids! Wow, what a difference from 10 to 4. They are so good and quiet, I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. We are working on memorizing a Bible verse but we are also starting to work on vowels, so I am going to have them circle all the vowels and we will learn all the different sounds that vowels can make. Should be interesting with my limited Thai to try to explain this. Dude, English is hard! There are so many rules and almost as many exceptions to the rules. We will see how it goes. I also have to keep in mind that I need to come up with a drama for them to do at the end of the quarter to show that they have learned what all the letters sound like, so that will be a nice test of my teaching skills as well as their learning skills, haha.

Summer's End

April 25-May 1

This was the final week of our summer schedule. The kids will be going back to school next week or the week after, depending on if they are in private or public school. This means that we are doing a bit of restructuring as well. I will lose Elliott from my class, because he only comes during school breaks. I am sad because he’s one of the best kids, he’s usually really well behaved, he listens and he’s really smart too. He’s just a fun kid to have around. We actually saw him today (Sunday) after church when we were eating lunch, so I’m sure he’ll be around. Actually, it was really sweet. I went to give him a high 5, but he came in for a hug! Such a sweetie.

Because Cassie is going to live with Ning, that makes her ineligible for the program, and we also have 2 kids graduating, so we will get 3 new kids in. I think I will have 2 of them in my class, but we will see.  I’m also losing Gabby, which makes me really sad because she is such a sweetheart. She doesn’t come every day, but it’s nice to have her when she is there. She’s older though, so Field decided she should move up with the older kids. This means that Inna will have all her kids, plus the 2 high school girls, plus one of my kids. It will be a big class! I think she will be glad to have Judy co-teaching with her. Meanwhile, my class is shrinking by 2 (though I may get 2 new kids, so that could end up staying the same.)

We are also switching up the curriculum, and doing 3 month sections. Field wants the kids to learn to read English, not just recognize words, so we are doing a 3 month phonetics section, then 3 months about their home (families, rooms of the house, kitchen, etc), followed by learning about their school, and then their city/country. I’m going to have to do some research on that one since I don’t know a whole lot about their country to begin with! 

Stories of the week:

**On Friday, I was walking toward the Thapae Gate on my way home and was talking to my friend Ruth on the phone. I usually see Naya and her mom sitting at the end of the street selling flowers. I wasn’t really paying attention today, though, since I was in the middle of a conversation. I was waiting for the light to turn green so I could cross the street and one of the ladies who was selling flowers was pulling on my arm. I was like “No, I really don’t want flowers,” but then I realized it was Naya’s mom. I got off the phone and asked what was wrong. She said Naya hadn’t come to find her, and she didn’t know where she was. I said, “She’s not here?” and started to get worried. Earlier that day, I had seen Naya start to leave alone and I stopped her because I didn’t see her mom, but then I never saw who she left with, so her mom asking me where her kid is was a bit scary. Luckily, I had Field’s number so I called her and had Naya’s mom talk to her. It turns out her uncle or someone had picked up Naya and taken her home. As I was walking away, I thought, “How cool that her mom knows me enough to recognize me from the other farang around and knows that I would be able to help her figure out where her child is.” And, it was the first time I had had a conversation in Thai with someone who doesn’t speak a word of English. And both of us were understood!

**Saturday night, I walked with Gabe and Kristin to show them our building and as we were walking, ahead of us was a couple of Thai women and ahead of them was an older white guy holding the hand of a little Thai girl, about 5 years old. I always wonder what the deal is. Maybe he’s her grandpa and she’s adopted. But maybe something more sinister is going on and I don’t know how to feel out the difference. I don’t want to jump to the bad conclusion, but that’s usually my first thought when I see stuff like that. 

We also saw Naya’s mom again, and she said hi to me. I asked about Naya and she said that she was home sleeping, so I’m glad it all turned out ok. :)

It’s weird walking around in this area that is so heavily populated with tourists. Sometimes I almost don’t want to make eye contact with people because I think to myself, “I’m not one of you. I’m not just some tourist here for a cheap vacation or to do something nasty with a bar girl or (God forbid) a kid.” But to all those other white people, I look just like them. I don’t feel like them though. There’s something different about really living in a place that just shifts your perspective from the way you look at things as a tourist. Not that I have anything against tourists, I’ve been one myself enough, but it’s just different looking at other foreigners and feeling like I belong more to the locals than the foreigners.

Like today, I went to church with the Field and the kids. As soon as I see the kids, they all want to hold my hand, or walk with me or talk to me. I never really think much of it, since they are often that way at TS and kids are that way a lot with me in the States too. But sometimes, I look up from the kids and see a group of Thai people watching this scene play out and it shocks me a little, like, Oh. I don’t really fit in because I’m not Thai. But I fit with the kids and Field and that’s all that matters.

After church, we saw Sophie and Winnie and it was so cute. They had come later and sat in the back, so when I saw them they were across the room. As soon as they spotted Field, Ning and me Sophie pointed and ran across the room to chatter away and hang onto me. I know their parents love them, but I have been thinking that maybe they don’t show physical affection like Westerners do, like hugging their kids. I only think this because the kids seem to either crave physical attention so much that they want to be attached to me or Ning or Field at all times, or the reverse, they are really reserved and don’t want to be touched at all.  It’s an interesting phenomenon.  

We all went for lunch at Pantip Plaza where you pay at a station and get coupons for the amount you purchase. Then you can spend the coupons wherever you want to get lunch. So, I got rice with chicken and veggies for 35 baht and then went to get some lime juice for 20 baht and gave them the coupons for each. Pretty good system actually. Today we had Willow, Faith, Peyton, Flynn, Ewan, and Penny plus Sophie and Winnie who met us there on their motorbike. Again I had that same thought as I saw people looking at us. At first I thought they were looking at the kids cause there were so many, but I think it more likely they were looking at me and wondering how the heck I fit into this scenario.

We headed back to Taw Saeng and let the kids play there for a few hours. On the way, Peyton stopped at the tailors where my mission team had gotten suits made in November. There’s a few pictures up of the guys and one of our whole group, and Willow and Peyton were so excited to see the guys. They were pointing out “P’Joe! P’Joe! P’Doug!” etc. It was pretty funny. We all traipsed down the street to get some ice cream at 7-11.  

After we closed up shop, Field took me to a Thai bookstore so I could get a kids practice alphabet book. I need to practice writing the letters. Field told me that “these are for little children” but I’m not even speaking at a first grade level of Thai yet, so I’m fine with learning out of a kids’ book. I also checked out their selection of books translated into Thai. I want to get the kids birthday presents this year, and rather than candy or silly stuff, I’d really like to get them books that they can keep and that can be all theirs and they can treasure. They have the whole set of Chronicles of Narnia, so I think I’ll get The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for Faith’s birthday, which falls on the same day as my sister’s!

Done at the bookstore, Field headed home and I went to the street market. Lucy sells shoes there on Sundays, so I wanted to see her and say hi. I called her, but she wasn’t there yet because the family motorbike broke down. I wandered around for a while looking at the cool street market stuff and finally made my way over where I knew she’d be selling. It was perfect timing because she had just started setting up.

I got to meet her mom and dad too. Her mom came over and said hello. Normally in Thai culture you would just do the little mini-bow and say “Sa wat dee ka” but her mom did that and then took my hand with both of hers and shook it with a big smile. Then her dad came over to say hello too. It was cool to meet her parents. I always wonder what the kids tell their parents about the people at Taw Saeng. I mean, I know the parents all know Field and NIng because they go into the slums and meet with the families and have been a part of this since the beginning. But, do the volunteers all run together? This is where I wish I knew more Thai so I could ask, “Do you really know who I am, or just that I work at Taw Saeng?” 

**

So, this week when I was doing my Thai lessons, I told Lucy that I was going to take her out for her birthday, and asked where she wanted to go. She said Swensen’s, which is an ice cream store with fancy flavors and sundaes and stuff. I was like “Really? Not KFC? “(the kids love KFC).  But she was sure about Swensens. The next day, the coversation goes like this:

Lucy: “P’Heather. No Swensens. KFC.”

Me: Uh. Ok. Why?

Lucy: Swensens makes you fat (holdingher hands in front of her stomach like she has a belly.) KFC make you tall. I want to be tall!

I just started laughing at that and was like “Sorry, kiddo, but KFC is gonna make you just as fat as Swensens. Plus, you’re 18, you’re about as tall as you’re gonna get. She was very disappointed by this news. I asked how tall her parents are and they apparently are short too. She tells me “My mom is fat, fat. Like Fiona (her sister, who is so NOT fat btw.) Dad is skinny, skinny.”

Me: How about your brother?

Lucy: My brother is perrrrfect. He is tall, he is strong.

A-dorable. I could not stop laughing! Then when I saw her and her parents at the market, she says “This is my dad. See? Short.” That cracked me up all over again!  

**

Because this was the final week with our summer kids and Ning/Faa’s kids, we did a fun “exam” day for the last day of class. First, we played hokey pokey to practice the parts of the body. Then, we played go fish with the flash cards from school supplies and things in the city. Finally, I gave them all ice cream but they had to know a family member that I gave them. Earlier this week, I had them tell me what the things on the flash cards were in Thai and write them on the board in Thai. Then, we translated them so they could see what the words looked like next to the Thai. Seemed to work pretty well, they knew the words enough to play Go Fish with them at the end of the week.  

**

On Thursday, I had Lucy test me on my Thai that I have learned so far. It was on writing the Thai alphabet, recognizing the letters when written, colors, phrases, school supplies, family, vehicles and numbers. Lucy is very encouraging, she gets so excited when I get a letter right. She jumps up and down and says “Took Tong!!” which means “you’re right!” So, I think I got an A. Yay! 

Next week: Visit to Ning's house,  new curriculum, Gooooo Pengins!