A fruit Festival and Wai Kru!

So two weekends ago now there was s fruit festival after church. This was at the Thai church on campus. After playing some ridiculous games, where people had to estimate how much fruit weighed in kilograms, and figuring out all the Thai and English words for each fruit, although there weren't English words for many of them, and then the new girls at GES sang two songs, then we finally got to sample all of the fruit. Some of it was great, some was spit back out, and a few were just a little too much work to get to. However I did come away with a new favorite, the mangosteen. Nothing like a mango, they really taste more like a grape, there is just a really thick skin to get through to the fruit. I ended the fruit medley with watermelon, something I can't get enough of here...maybe because that's what I would be eating at home. I took pictures of the arrangements because they had beans, carrots, and apples in them! Also, I love all the vibrant colors!

Later in the week it was Wai Kru day. To Wai, is to put your hands to your chin or below your chin depending on who you are Waiing, and then bowing your head slightly. This is what you do with the parents and students and certainly anyone older who you should out of respect. Kru means teacher, so basically it is a day to honor the teachers. All of the students bring in lovely flowers and then we had a ceremony where students come to your feet and bow with flowers and promise to be good students in school this year. Of course the ceremony was all in Thai, so we all were a bit unsure as to what to do, but it really is neat how much teachers are held in a position of honor here, even above a doctor or someone with much more training. So then I took pictures of all the beautiful flowers as well as my students. See if you can pick out Ari, my Thai/Amish boy, and Mafuang...pronounced Mah-fuh-luang, I think, she is adorable! There is also a picture of me with the owners of the school, two of the other new teachers, and the owners son.






This past weekend many of the GES teachers were house sitting for the church people. So we went over to one of their houses and cooked tacos and apple crisp and then went biking on the safe and clean streets of Nichita! (Such a nice break from the busy and smelly streets around the shcool). Sorry no pictures of this :(
There is a five day break coming up here, so a group of us are planning on going to Laos, which I am very excited about. It's looking like there will be an 11 hour train or bus ride involved, but the whole trip will probably cost me less then $100 dollars...who wouldn't go to Laos for that small amount? And I hear it is beautiful! So you can pray for safety in going there, but I am in a group with many returning teachers who are experienced travelers in Asia, so I am sure we will get bye just fine.
Be looking for pictures of Laos in my next post!

One Week Down!

So I have now taught almost an entire week with my students and let me tell you a few things. I have loved meeting each one of them, they are all so adorable and fun. I am already getting to know their personalities and seeing the ones that will be my biggest challenges as far as behavior goes. I also have a few that I am very pleased seem to understand some of what I say and they kind of lead the class in a response. Although some of them still are tuning me out completely, it is encouraging to have a few who follow along. Think about if your in a foreign place and you don't know the language, you typically just tune it out, which is what most of my students are doing right now, but with repetition and consistent routines I know they will absorb quickly and get what I mean. Until then I am learning a few Thai phrases like good, bad, and listen to the teacher, just to help me get by! I took pictures of each student for attendance and if you want to see those you need to add me on facebook, where it is much easier to add a lot of pictures. Until then I have a few favorite pictures I choose to share.







Although the week has been hectic with getting my classroom ready and getting the students into a routine it has been good. I have been laminating like crazy, (laminating sheets are like gold here and you could seriously barter with the other teachers for them because they are so hard to get.) I have also been doing a lot of lesson planning, which always starts out a little rough, but now that I have my schedule made up it shouldn't be too difficult.
So I decided to make a list of some things that I either like of dislike about Thailand, I think it will be fun for me to look back on in a few months when I don't even remember these things as being odd or amazing because I am used to them.

Amazing things:
-Fresh fruit is for sale on the street and cut up for you for about 30 cents and it lasts me at least 3 meals. (the pineapple and watermelon are the best.
-The people here at the school are so willing to help in everything!
-How much teachers are revered here, and the fluent in speaking English thing just adds to it.
-Holding and playing with babies at the orphanage.
-The garlic chicken I eat at least 3 times a week at Sam Bahts (It's a little restaurant about a 5 minute walk from the school, it costs about a dollar for a plate full of goodness!)
-Sticky rice with mangoes
-My co-teachers are all pretty fabulous and we all have a good time in the staff room working together or just hanging out in the evenings.
-The church I attended last week that I plan to regularly attend. It is like you leave Thailand and enter California because everyone speaks English and is there working for Chevron, (the oil company), and they love to take care of the poor GES teachers with barbecues and other fun stuff! (And there's a pool next to it that we pay very little to swim at after church!)
-The owners of the school who invite us over for ice cream and then we end up singing hymns...everyone here is amazed how I sing harmony and they ask if I learned in Choir, I of course give credit where credit is due to Sonnenberg Mennonite Church and the amazing voices that I have grown up listening too! (Choir helped also I'm sure).
-I love Kru Som, the Thai teacher who is in my classroom and who saves my sanity and will interpret what I say when the students just aren't getting it! She is also incredibly patient with the children and has been a good example to me in that way. I hope I can be a good example of Christ to her!
-The last thing I love the most is singing Bible songs with my students. They belt them out so loud and in English! Our class favorite are: "If your Happy and You Know It", "If I were a Butterfly", and "Jesus Loves Me." (I will have to record this sometime and post a video).







Things I don't really love:
-How everything gets dirty here so fast from your room to the bottom of your feet which are guaranteed to be black by the end of the day since you teach with your shoes off.
-Throwing toilet paper away in the trash, yuck!
-The rats that seem to love my roommate and I. We have caught 3 babies and 1 mamma rat in this stick trap you will see a lovely picture of. But I also have a mamma and a baby that visit my room at night :(
-The tiny ants that are everywhere, so I keep everything in the fridge to avoid loosing food.
-Cockroaches
-the bad smells when you walk anywhere, although they are fading for me.
-the heat! I almost sleep without air conditioning, but during the day, if your outside, your dripping in sweat!
-how students come in the door anywhere from 7:30 to 10 (School starts at 8:30!) (I'm so very American in my scheduled like thinking, but come on, its time to learn!)
-I don't really love being away from family and friends at home, but I have amazing friends who are quickly becoming my family and support system here.

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One final thing I love the most is that I know that people at home are praying for me, and that means so much to me! I feel your support and I know God has me here for a reason, and looking at my 12 students I know they are reason enough!

I have arrived!

The first picture is one of me with most of the new teachers. We went on a river taxi, about an hour ride for essentially 30 cents, things are so cheap! So I took a picture of a suspension bridge, my roommate Brenna and I on the Taxi, (more roommates to come I think), and then some houses along the river. Sorry about the layout, I tried to go back and change it, but it won't let me, the next one should look better!

Now for the real post:

Hello Everyone! I have safely arrived in Thailand! The flight was long, and I didn't sleep more then 3 hours, so by the time we got to the school I was exhausted. But then our luggage didn't get here until like 3 AM which would be 4 in the afternoon at home, so by the time I got settled in, I still didn't really feel like sleeping cause for me, it felt like afternoon not night. But I am getting into the rhythm here with sleep which is a very good thing.
So far my days have been very busy. On Thursday 5 of us teachers, 4 new girls and 1 who is returning for her 4th year, went to an orphanage with more then 300 Thai babies and toddlers. You can sign up to be in a program where they assign you a baby and you go as often as you want to hold and play with or feed your baby during visiting hours. I think the five of us are going to do this all together. It is actually a really nice government run orphanage but with so many the babies rarely get held, so its a great program! After the orphanage we went across the street and got Thai massages! I know its a bizarre thing to do on your first day here, but it cost about 4 dollars for an hour and a half massage from blind Thai men. They do it all in one big open room and it is a program to help the blind men learn a skill and be able to support themselves.
So far the food has been very good for the most part. Their have been a few things I didn't like but I have had many good rice and chicken dishes. Today I even got a snow cone that tasted so much like the ones we used to get in Kidron.
Oh, one more thing. It is way hotter then I expected. As soon as you get out of the shower you are sweating again. I have been blessed with a great air conditioner in my room, everyone is jealous of how well it works. Another surprise for me has been how you take your shoes off to go in everywhere. There are just stacks of shoes outside restaurants and even outside all over the rooms to the school. It's kind of nice being barefoot, but then I worry about like foot diseases, so I am trying to wash them often!!
I am off now to unpack and organize my room, a job I have put off for too long so I must do it! Thank you for all your prayers as I traveled! God is so good!