Back at Taw Saeng

My first day back at Taw Saeng and I was ready to get back to teaching. Today was a special day because one of the Thai teachers, Dtom, was leaving. She has been here for 2 years, but her mother is ill and is having a hard time getting around, so she is moving back to the village to help her family. The kids were very sad, as were the staff. I don’t know how we will replace her; she’s so good at her job. She teaches art and computers (neither of which I am qualified to do) as well as songs, games with the kids and is just amazing.

Judy brought art supplies and special paper for the kids to make goodbye cards. My class ended up being a quick review of what they had learned on Tuesday (school supplies, which I also know now, thanks to Lucy) and then they went to work on their cards. Have I mentioned how amazing these kids are at art? They can draw really good likenesses of family members, animals, anything you can think of, pretty much. I can barely manage stick figures on a good day.

After the kids were done, they went downstairs for dinner and as they went in to the building in their class lines, they each gave Dtom their card. I don’t know how she wasn’t a crying mess; I certainly would have been!

I said goodbye but then realized that I would see Dtom tomorrow. The reason the kids will not see her is because we are having a special day for the kids over 9 years tomorrow. It’s part of the prevention side of TS. I’ll explain more about it in tomorrow’s post.

As I headed home, I had the Song Thaew drop me at the piano shop near my house. The day before, when we were hanging out with Ruth and Sacha, we discussed the woefully out of tune piano Sacha has. She explained that she has tried several times to get someone to come tune it, with no success. Basically, they always say they will call her to arrange a time and then never do, and she is too busy to follow up on it. Well, I just cannot stand playing an out of tune piano, and I don’t think the neighbors should be forced to listen to one either, so I said I’d stop off at the piano shop the next day and would split the cost if I could get someone to come out to tune it.

So. The piano shop. I walked in, and just the owner was there. I said the requisite “Sah wat dee ka” (hello) and asked if they tuned pianos. He said yes, and asked where I lived. I whipped out my handy dandy Big Map Of Chiang Mai and pointed to my street. He said “That’s close!” and I said “Yeah. Can you do it?” He asked me for more specific directions, and if I spoke Thai. I said “No, but my neighbor does.” So I called up Ruth, and she answered and I told her to give directions to the piano tuner so we could finally have a working piano! She set it all up, found out the price and we were good to go. Tomorrow at 4pm we will have an in tune piano!

When I got home, I decided to relax a bit and watch some season one Big Bang Theory. You guys, that show is funny. I mean, I already know that it’s funny because I have been watching the current season, but the first season is REALLY funny for a first year show. Well, in the midst of my laugh fest, I get a text from the visa coordinator at Kijkandee Foundation, which is the parent NGO of Taw Saeng and are the ones getting my work permit and year long visa. She says I have to come in tomorrow at 10:30am to turn in all the paperwork for the work permit. I am so not prepared for this!

I have to turn in: transcripts (fine, I brought them with me, I have no idea why, but here they are), 12 visa pictures (these are not the same size as passport pictures, they are 2x2 inches, and I have not had a chance to do them yet), a medical report with a syphilis check (why? I have NO IDEA) and my passport.

Well, first of all, I had agreed to help with the special event at TS that was beginning at 9am, and I was supposed to meet them there at 8:30am, so this means I have to bail on that commitment. Not to mention, where do I go to get the medical thing done, how long does it take to process, what does it cost, etc. Then I have to worry about getting visa pictures taken and how long they take to develop. All before 10:30! I was obviously freaking out.

First, I called Rob and he gave me some advice and said it was ok for me to miss the 8:30 meetup. Then, I called the visa coordinator and she told me what hospital to go to. I found it on the map and circled it so I could show it to a Song Thaew driver. I still owed Ruth money for the plane ticket she bought me on her credit card as well as for the piano tuning the following day so when she got back from massages with her brother, she came by. I filled her in on all the distressing stuff, and like the amazing person she is, she was just like “Oh, I’ll drive you. What time do you need to be there?” I was like “No way! It is too too early. I have to be there at 7am!” Apparently, she wanted to go to that neighborhood for breakfast anyway, so she insisted on driving me. That alleviated some stress so I was able to sleep! 

Oh, but we got good news today. My sponsor child (I’m gonna call her Cassie) has spent the past week with her family and they came by today to go look at Ning’s house to see if they want to let her live there with Ning and Faa. They liked it and Cassie loved it so she is going to live with Ning from after Song Kran festival on! Great news! I’ll still get to see her and she can still come by the center. I’m very excited by these developments.

 

Unexpected Vacation

So, I got up early this morning because I was supposed to give my first piano lesson with Ning at 10. I got to TS early so I could change some money. I figured there is no reason to hold back American cash, I may as well just have it all in Thai money.  I also needed to put some money on my cell phone.

However, just as I was getting to TS, Ning called to tell me we were having the day off because of a national holiday. Great, info that would have been nice to know before I spent 20 baht to get there. Oh, well. Day off, right? So, after a Song Thaew back home, I was able to finally post some blogs with pictures (yay!) and catch up on some email.

Jaz called me and asked me to take our little portable internet usb thing to Inna’s house so she could upload some videos for YWAM (where Jaz works).  Well, without a vehicle, I had to walk. It didn’t look that far, but Jaz suggested I cut through Chiang Mai University because it was a safer walk.

Well, Jaz, Ruth and I had gone running the other day at CM University, so I thought I could find my way. Well, I didn’t so much get lost, as I just didn’t really know where I was because the streets end up curving and stuff. Plus, since it was a holiday, there were no students on campus to ask directions of, and Inna doesn’t really know the campus well enough to give me directions. Oh, did I mention it was broiling hot that day? Well, it was. About 90 degrees out. So of course, as soon as I got good and lost, it started to thunder. And lightening. Jaz gave me further directions as to how to get thru campus, and I thought I could make it before the rain began. Just as I turned the final corner and saw the track we had gone running at, the sky opened up and a tram just happened to pull up. He drove me to the main road and I ran for shelter through the downpour. Inna came to get me because I didn’t have an umbrella. I mean, it was 90 degrees! Who would have thought it would suddenly start thunderstorming? Poor Inna. She has been sick all week and had to come meet me to get the internet stick.

Jaz came to pick me up and we stopped for dinner at the market. She was supposed to head up to Mae Sai to take a truckload of disaster supplies to the victims of the Burma earthquake, but with the rain, she decided to put off the trip til tomorrow. At the market, she told me the names of all the things we were ordering and had me order stuff. The people at the market would tell me the price in English, but she told them to only speak to me in Thai or I’ll never learn. Of course, she said this in Thai, but some things you can just infer. Hahaha However, she’s right. I do need to learn so I don’t have to rely on other people to translate all the time. It gets frustrating. But, the problem is that I only know a few things so far: numbers, colors, school supplies and a few choice phrases like “I only know a little Thai.” It’s a slow process, but I hope I’m learning fast. I can never learn fast enough though. I want to know everything RIGHT NOW.

Jaz has season two of Lie to Me on dvd, so we watched a couple eps and then she went to pick up Ruth and her brother Ben at the airport. They just flew in from Bangkok and Ben is staying for a week to visit. He works for World Vision in Toronto. We all hung out at Ruth and Sasha’s (she’s a Kiwi who works for another NGO, Partners) place next door for a while, then I headed home.

Home to Chaing Mai

This morning, I got to truly sleep in for the first time since coming to Southeast Asia! Ahh, luxurious Singapore life. Pak Kheng had a meeting in Chinatown at 11, and decided to bring me along so I could see true Chinatown. I didn’t have to pick up my visa til 2pm, so I had time to kill. So, have I mentioned how amazing Pak Kheng and Philip are? Yes? Well, I have undersold them. They are truly angels sent from God to make my trip survivable. Yes, I probably could have managed without them, but I would have paid a lot more for housing and food and would have just stayed in the cheapest hostel imaginable and seen nothing of the city but the Thai embassy.

They have been so much more than generous; they have practically adopted me into their family. They’ve stuffed me with delicious food, paid for my transport everywhere, showed me how to get to the embassy and more! I am speechless with thankfulness.  All I did in return was help with the grocery shopping. And even there Pak Kheng kept trying to buy me things to take back to Thailand! Luckily, I only had my one small backpack which was already pretty full; otherwise, I would have ended up with a suitcase full of British food (not that I’d be complaining about that, let me tell you!).

Anyway, Philip drove us to Chinatown and we walked around some and got some drinks before Pak Kheng went to her meeting. I wandered the streets looking at things and ended up spending $2 on some cute chopsticks. They are just for decoration, which would be the case no matter what, since I cannot envision a meal I would ever endeavor to prepare that would require chopsticks. Spaghetti?  There was a bunch of really cool stuff they had for sale, so it was also a good thing that I had no money to spend on trinkets. Where would I put it in Thailand anyway? I have no piano on which to display things. 

The meeting lasted about 45 minutes and then we jumped on the train to Orchard Street near the Thai embassy. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant and I tried hot pot for the first time. For those who don’t know (like me) this is where they bring you a little pot on a gas burner and fill it with raw meat and veggies and broth and you cook it all up together. It’s actually pretty yummy.

After lunch, we started to head outside, only to discover a torrential downpour! And this was the one day I left my umbrella at the house. Of course!  Well, since this whole area is basically one big underground mall, we just went a level below and tried to get closer to the embassy. By the time we popped back aboveground like little groundhogs, the rain had ceased. I went to wait in line, and saw a few familiar faces from yesterday. Luckily the guy who had to prove his monetary worth was in line to pick up his visa, so success for him. Yay! The line moved quite quickly for how many people were in it. There was only one window, but I got to the front in next to no time.

All along the street in front of the embassy are huge posters advertising a shipwreck exhibit at the art/science museum that Pak Kheng had been wanting to see for a while. We decided last night that we’d spend the afternoon there after I got my passport back. We took a bus this time, so I could see more of the city on the way. The place where the museum is located is called Marina Bay Sands. This is a super exclusive mall that has whole floors and even stores that are invitation only shopping. Fan-cy! Architecturally, this place is beautiful and amazing. The museum itself is shaped like a lotus opening up. It sits on what used to be a bay into the sea, but has now been closed off into a reservoir. They also installed a fountain into the water just off the boardwalk. Across the bay is the Durian Building, so called because it looks like the smelly fruit that people eat here. I still have to try that. 

The exhibits showing at the Art/Science Museum were Ghengis Khan and Shipwreck. A few years ago, an underwater explorer came upon what turned out to be the oldest shipwreck ever discovered. It tells archaeologists a lot about the history of that region and dates from over 1000 years ago! There were some really amazing designs in the teacups that were discovered and some cool gold sculpted dishes and goblets. It kind of reminded me of the Titanic exhibit in Las Vegas because it was so well preserved, but this stuff was centuries older. 

Upstairs was the Ghengis Khan exhibit about the Mongolian leader. Did you know that a lot of things that are in our constitution stemmed from Khan’s laws of his kingdom? Like religious freedom: Ghengis Khan believed that everyone should be able to practice their beliefs without restriction. He also believed people should be promoted based on merit and not on who they knew or were related to. And this was in the 13^th century!  All I remember from Ghengis Khan is that he was a brutal warlord. I didn’t realize he contributed so much to modern society.

The museum is built in a circular manner, so in the center is a fountain built from the 4^th floor that drips water down to the bottom floor. When we came out of the shipwreck exhibit, I was like “Oh my gosh, its pouring!” Of course, then I realized that it was just a fountain. But, when we were ready to leave, it really WAS pouring outside! We had to make a run for it through the rain to the mall. Thankfully, by the time we got to the bus stop, it had pretty much let up. After a quick shower and some dinner, again delicious of course, as prepared by Ophelia, we headed out to the airport. 

BUT. First of all, I forgot to check the terminal so we went to the budget terminal first. Then, we got a call from grandma that I had forgotten my bathroom stuff! What?! I double and triple checked that I hadn’t forgotten anything but I forgot to check the bathroom? Argh. Well, I got checked in, Philip when back to retrieve the stuff (they live really close to the airport) and Pak Kheng stayed with me so he could call her when he came back and I could RUN to the gate to catch my flight. Of course, all the stress and rush turned out to be pointless because, even though the board at the front of the airport said that Boarding had started, when I got to the gate, all out of breath, the plane hadn’t even deplaned yet!

On the plane, I read a funny article about cereal. Apparently, three cereals you should stay away from are Froot Lops, Cocoa Puffs and Frosted Flakes. Why? Because, get this, they have more sugar than health benefits. Really? Do they really think people are under the delusion that these yummy, sugary cereals are coated with healthy fibery goodness? Come ON! You eat them precisely BECAUSE they are not good for you! Silly airline magazines.

Visa Day

This morning I was off to the train by 8am and in line at the embassy by 8:45, the first one. I was joined within minutes by another person, and by 9am, the line stretched halfway down the block. I was very glad I was early because it lessened the stress a lot knowing that I would be first to talk to them. I got to the window and handed over my paperwork. The lady asked me if I was getting paid in Thailand and I said no, then she asked how long I’d be there and I said for a year. She replied “Without getting paid?!” I was like “Yep.” She took my paperwork in the back, returned, told me to sit in some waiting chairs and that someone would come talk to me. I sat there for about 45 minutes, and she called me back to the window to tell me it was approved and asked for money. I can come pick up the visa tomorrow.

While I was waiting, I was chatting with a guy from England and he was there with his buddy who lives in Thailand and is a Muy Thai instructor. His wife and son are in Thailand right now but he had to come get a visa for some reason. He has been married to a Thai woman for 7 years, so I would think by now he’d have citizenship, but I guess not. Anyway, he was stressed cause he had all his paperwork in order and then he got to the front of the line and they said he had to show that he had $2000 in Singapore money in an accessible bank account. I hope he got his stuff all sorted because he has been away for a couple months I think and is anxious to get back to his family.

After the visa thing was sorted, I jumped on a bus to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which are beautiful! I wandered the gardens for a few hours and saw all kinds of plants and sculptures and even some swans. It’s a huge plot of land—155 acres! There’s a 6 acre rainforest right in the middle too, as well as several ponds and food areas. 

I started to get overwhelmed by the humidity and headed back to the train station for some lunch. I jumped on the train back to the house and plan to relax for the rest of the day. I was going to hike down to the beach for a swim, but I think I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Instead I ended up napping, watching TV, reading and generally just being a layabout for a couple of hours! I ended up helping Pak Kheng go grocery shopping after supper, for which she was very happy. I thought it was the absolute least I could do to repay her kindness and generosity. Post shopping, I was overjoyed to discover that they get Castle in Singapore!!! I love that show, in all its cheesy glory!

Singpore Day 2

Woke up bright and early this morning to leave for church at 8:15am! They go to a Methodist church of which Pak Kheng’s parents were some of the founding members. It was pretty funny because, while usually I do not like to single myself out as a newcomer when the pastor asks who is there for the first time, today it did not work, as I was literally the only white person in the entire congregation. The pastor looked right at me until I raised my hand. Hahahahaah. There was no being anonymous in that crowd! After church I met a bunch of new people whose names I forgot immediately, of course. Everyone wanted to know why I was going to Thailand and what the story of my visa was.

Pak Kheng’s uncle told me a story about 50 years ago when he went to Chiang Mai from Bangkok and the roads were not paved. They took a night bus up the road and they had to drive with all the interior lights off so that robbers would not be able to see inside and try to stick them up. When they arrived the following morning, everyone’s hair was red from the dust of the road!

This afternoon, Pak Kheng will take me to the subway and show me how to get to and from the embassy tomorrow morning. I have all my paperwork ready to go: passport photos, copies of my passport, my invitation letter, my application and my flight itinerary. I just pray that it is all enough and that the line for visas is small so that I can get it back by Tuesday. Tim Byers, the CEO of Kijikandee Foundation, said that he has been able to turn it in at 9am and get it back the same day, so that would be amazing, but I’m not super optimistic, judging from the way things have gone thus far. Tune in tomorrow for more visa updates!

Singapore Day 1

Got up very early this morning, headed to the SkyTrain to get to the airport. I left about 6:30am. I’m glad I left when I did because if I had to catch a later train, I may have not made the plane in time. The airport link seems to only come every 15 minutes or so. First, I took the BTS train to the Airport Link train, then waited and waited for that train. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the airport because there are only 6 stops from end to end of that route, but I was still a little nervous about making my flight. Thankfully, when I got to the airport, they opened up a new line just when I got there. There was a long line of people in front of me, but they seemed to all be part of the same group, so I didn’t feel bad jumping over to the new line. Plus, I had no bags to check, so why not, right?

Flight was delayed but uneventful. Arrival in Singapore was a pain. There were several other flights arriving at the same time into the passport control area and I didn’t know the address of the place I was staying! The one piece of info I always forget when flying into another country. You’d think I would have learned this by now. For crying out loud, I’ve filled up a passport and a half, yet I never fail to forget this minor detail of a local address. Anyway, as per usual, I end up in the slowest line. I watched the line next to me as 5 people went through for every 1 person in my line. So frustrating! It took an hour to get through, and I was meeting Gillian’s aunt, so I was feeling bad about making them wait this whole time. Plus, I couldn’t call their number from my phone. Luckily, Pak Kheng, Gillian’s aunt, called my phone so I could tell her what the holdup was.

By the time I got through passport control, I rushed outside the airport and right past Pak Kheng! She finally found me outside. Hahah I should have been paying more attention. Well, of course she and Philip, her husband, took me right to eat lunch and started stuffing me with food. I felt bad because when it’s hot and humid, my appetite disappears and I get full much faster, so I wasn’t able to finish everything they bought for me. I did have a nice coconut though. Man, that juice is good!

We ate in a nice park right on the beach, so after lunch, we went for a walk around a reservoir where they have cable waterskiing. This is an amazing thing. Maybe you have heard about it, but I hadn’t. Basically, there are a string of cables that encircle the area high above the water. You strap on this wakeboard as if it were a snowboard, boots, bindings and all. The cable runs continuously and they strap you onto it as it goes by. It pulls you off the platform and into the water, and you have to stay upright. You can either go just on the water, or there are a whole bunch of jumps you can do for tricks. We watched a bunch of people do it and were impressed, but when we walked to the launching place, we saw that it was more difficult than it looked. One guy just kept crashing upon hitting the water. I looked at the prices and you could pay $32 for an hour or $7 for just one go round. However, the stipulation was that no matter where you fall, that counts as one round. So, the bloke that was falling off the platform would have had that count as his $7. I hope he paid for an hour! Even with the difficulty, it still looked like fun. Maybe someday I’ll try it in the States. 

I got a tour of the amazing beautiful house that was designed by Philip and Pak Kheng. It’s very open with lots of natural light and windows. They even have a wet kitchen and a dry kitchen. I guess it’s a Chinese thing, so the smells of the Chinese food can float out into the world and not get embedded into the walls of the house. They live here with Jonathan, their son, and Pak Kheng’s mother. It’s a great family.

I needed to get passport photos taken for both the visa and for my work permit, so Pak Kheng took me down the hill to the photo place and I got some shots taken. While we waited, we stopped at a fruit juice stand. You know how I love me some fresh fruit juice! They had freshly squeezed lime juice and Chinese pears, which I LOVE. Pak Kheng refuses to let me pay for anything! She is too generous!

So, today is Pak Kheng’s niece’s 25th birthday and a bunch of family is coming over to celebrate! We had to go grocery shopping for dinner, so we headed to the market and finally I was able to change some money. I need $100 Singapore dollars and I have to have exact change, so I got that done. When we got back to the house, the family was all here. Stephanie and Samantha are the cousins and their parents were also here.

Samantha is quite the chef and prepared lamb and mashed potatoes and potato salad for dinner. I tried to help, but it was a situation of too many cooks in the kitchen and I was just getting in the way. Haha I ended up just hanging out with Steph and chatting while dinner was being made. The men grilled some steaks and there was also soup. It was quite the feast! We all sat down to dinner and had a lovely time. Steph and Sam went to university and some of high school in Australia, so their accents are very fluid, especially Samantha’s. Sometimes she sounds American, sometimes Chinese and sometimes Aussie, depending on what she is talking about and who she is talking to. It made me laugh.

After dinner, we (Jon, Steph, Sam, Paul (Sam’s boyfriend), and I) attempted to play a game of Monopoly cards, which is highly confusing, but were interrupted by the demand for birthday cake, so the game was abandoned in favor of more conversation. Eventually, I just got too tired, and Pak Kheng started kicking people out, so I just went to bed. We had to get up for church early anyway.

Bangkok Holiday

Wow, my day here was a much needed break from visa stress! Bangkok is a pretty cool city, but it’s HUGE. Way bigger than Chiang Mai. They have a proper bus system and a subway and skytrain!

Stephen and Allison have a suite, so they have a really nice bathroom with a rainspout shower. It was the best shower I’ve ever had in Thailand! The shower in most places in Chiang Mai is a little electrical heater that heats the water a little at a time, so this was a nice luxury.

Since they are staying at the Marriott, they get free breakfast, so it was quite the spread. Egg and waffle bar, fresh fruit, pastries, plus local cuisine. I got to meet the executive producers and we chatted for a bit about what I was doing up in Chiang Mai. They are also Christians and the movie is another faith-based film, so it was nice that they knew a little about The Garden of Hope already and I didn’t have to explain it. Laurie invited me to come to her daughters’ birthday party that afternoon. Allison was happy about that because they had rented out a room at a bowling alley, so she didn’t want me to feel like I was crashing the party. Laurie said the more, the merrier, so we were all set. She wanted to hear more about what I was doing in Thailand as well, so we decided to talk later.

Stephen has been working like a crazy person on the movie for two months, so he finally got a day off and we decided to visit the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha. We took a taxi there and walked around for the morning. The Palace is beautiful and very ornate. It’s all very shiny and there are Buddhas EVERYWHERE. Everything is very large too. I took a bunch of pictures and a couple with myself in them. We went into the large temple where everyone had to take off their shoes. 

The most impressive thing to me was the elaborate wall murals and paintings. One little temple area had what looked like Buddha wallpaper, but upon closer inspection it was all handpainted! The moustaches were all a bit different, and the eyes too. Stephen joked about the guy who drew the first one. “He was probably like, ‘OK, Bob, Joe, Frank, do it like this, only ALL over.’” Haha. Of course, insert Thai names there!

After we were palaced out, we tried to figure out how to get to the Reclining Buddha. We wandered around for a bit, looked at the map and finally figured out which Wat it was in. This is also the place where Thai massage was born, and there is still a Thai massage school there.

So, the Reclining Buddha is HUGE but the building that protects it is not very well made. I mean, it’s fancy and all, but there are these huge pillars that block large parts of the Buddha. You can’t really get a good view of how large it is. It’s like they built the Buddha, then built the building JUST big enough to fit around it. The tip of Buddha’s hat is actually touching the ceiling. If they had made the building larger, they could have put the pillars further away and taken publicity photos to show what it looks like, but now, there’s no place to view the entire sculpture. 

There were a bunch of other buildings in that little compound and, most incongruously, a huge basketball hoop. Stephen was like “Can you just picture a monk in a tunic flying through the air to slam the ball? He’d be like ‘I OWNED you! Sa wat dee krup.’” Plus, there was a weird beeping sound coming form inside a tree next to the bball hoop. I was like, “Uh, did someone throw an alarm clock in there or something?” Apparently it’s actually a bird. That must be one tired bird. The beeping is pretty consistent and fast. It kind of sounds like a car alarm.

After the Reclining Buddha, we called Allison and planned to meet up with her and the kids at the food court at one of the malls. There are 4 places called “Central” something in the center of town. Highly original. This place is simply called “Central” which is different from “Central Plaza,” “The Center” and something else that I forgot. It’s one big building of a department store and it’s 7 stories tall. The top floor is a ginormous food court area. You get a cardboard ticket with a barcode on it and you get food from whichever stand you want and they scan it. Then when you leave, you pay for it all together. Pretty smart. I just wanted fruit juice and Allison and Stephen got smoothies.

The kids who were there are the twin daughters of the producers, Whitney, a college girl who is a family friend of the producers and the twins and MJ who is the son of the Laurie’s best friend. The twins were turning 15, so after we ate, they went back to the hotel while we bought them birthday presents. (By we I mean everyone other than me. I did help pick out some coloring books though.)

We jumped on the SkyTrain to the huge mall that has a whole floor devoted to high end cars, Maseratis, Lambourghinis, Mercedes. I have no idea how they get them up to the 4^th floor, but, more importantly, if you want to buy one how would you get it DOWN? 

They also have an IMAX and a full bowling alley and karaoke rooms. This place is amazing. The bowling alley has 24 lanes, plus 2 platinum suites. They had rented out one of the platinum suites for the party. This has 4 bowling lanes, couches, an eating area and a karaoke room all together. It was booked for 2 hours. We had a lot of fun. I only played 2 games because my arm was hurting, but they had snacks and drinks and three types of birthday cake. When it was time to sing, we sang to each girl individually, which I thought was a nice touch. They alternate years as to who gets sung to first and they are in charge of keeping track of whose year it is. Too cute. They turned 15 this year and I asked if this is the coolest place they have ever spent their birthday, they enthusiastically said “YES.” Although, they did live in Macedonia for 6 years of their life, so I would imagine that was pretty cool too. Their younger sister was also there and was much more interested in belting out karaoke than bowling. For some reason she was into singing all the Abba songs. haha  

While I was at the party, I also met another of Laurie’s friends, Rose, who knows about The Garden of Hope/Taw Saeng. She was actually supposed to meet with Rob and Judy when she was in Chiang Mai the week before I came, but it didn’t work out. She’s very excited that we’ve now met so she has a contact with the organization. She runs a company that employs girls at a decent wage to make free trade products like pajamas, purses and other textiles. They have a factory in Chiang Mai, which is why she was up there. She will be back on October, so I will probably see her then as well when she comes to visit the TS center. I need to get the website info from her so you can purchase some free trade clothes if you are interested. Stay tuned for that information.

Post-party, we headed down to the market, got some food for dinner (a nice American meal of spaghetti and bruscetta) and went back to the hotel. While Stephen went for a run, I tried without success to purchase a plane ticket from Singapore to Chiang Mai. Using my debit card here is proving to be quite the challenge!  I don’t know why, since it can also be used as a credit card and I’ve used it all over the world, but for some reason, I can’t seem to use it anywhere in Thailand except ATMS. Anyway, I ended up just having Rob and Judy get my ticket and I’ll pay them back next week. Thank goodness for good friends! I also got directions on how to get to the airport in the morning via SkyTrain. It was much cheaper than the taxi would have been. The taxi from the airport to the hotel at 11pm was 265 baht, and that was the closer airport. The SkyTrain was 65 baht to the new airport! 200 baht cheaper! That’s only about $6.50, but still.