The Dad

My dad has arrived! My mom has work that brought her to Thailand, dad came with her but she had to go to Cambodia and Taiwan first so he came up to Chaingmai while she travels. He'll be here for a week before my mom comes and then we'll have a week and a half together. So excited about their visit!

Costs of the Day . . .

+ Eating traditional Thai food at a local noodle shop for lunch:
$0.57 usd (20 baht)
+ Drinking ice coffee out a plastic bag:
$0.34 usd (12 baht)
+ Ice to heal the welt on the head of the women we watched fall out of the back of a truck onto the paved road where we were eating lunch:
$0.14 usd (5 baht) donated by the noodle shop
+ Looking out the school office window and seeing the little boy who lives in the shack behind the school with a spiderman t-shirt and NO pants with his bare butt turned our way while he peed on the fence:
PRICELESS

Life

We visited one of the children's homes where a lot of the students that we teach live. The translation of the home's name means Life. It's an amazing place. They have set up such a great program for children who are at risk for being sold into prostituation or who have been rescued from dangerous and abusive situations. These children are so loved and well taken care of. I adored every minute of the visit. We played with the kids and they sang songs to us and then us teachers had to scramble to sing songs to them (for those of you who have heard my voice - EEEK!). I love these children. They may not live with their birth mom and dads, but they have earthly moms and dads at this house that love them more than they'll ever know. Beyond that, they have a Heavenly Father that adores them and because they live at this house, they have the opportunity to learn about His love for them.

Here are a couple pics.

I look like I'm yelling at this child but I promise I'm not. All three girls are in my 4th grade class and I am just teasing with them. Please do not contact my boss and tell him I am a bad teacher, lol. :-)

Eskimo kiss. Aww. Just met this little preschooler but already love her.

Here is a video of a few of the third graders singing a Thai song about a chicken. Basically they are the chicken and they are talking about getting poked with a skewer in the left and the right and then being cooked, lol. There is a little dance they do and the kid on the right in the blue gets SO into it. I heart this video.

School Status, Curry, Facepainting - PICS!

I know it's kind of difficult to understand (even for me) the details behind the status of the school. We are currently working on our school licensing, but in the meantime, we were partnering with another Christian school and were working offsite from them in an abandoned government building that we had permission to fix up and use for the year until we obtained our school license - at that time, we'd need to have a building that we could lease long term (which the government building wouldn't suffice). However, after just 3 months, the community leaders decided they didn't want our school in the building any longer and the short story is that we were forced out of that building. We started working on site at the other school and integrated all our students together. The other school (Mitrijit) is where our students are registered but they have a different approach to teaching than we do but all our students would take the same standardized tests. For the last month of this past term, we commuted to Mitrijit (about a 45 minute commute one way) and combined all our students. This week was the last week of the term. Our school is still seeking licensure in which our students could then be registered under our school. In the meantime, for term 2 (from now until March '10), we are required to continue to teach at Mitrijit (at least for now, things constantly change and nothing is written in stone :-). Because of our bi-lingual program and the advantage of teaching our students with smaller class sizes (our class sizes don't exceed 10 where as Mitrijit has over 30 kids in each class), we feel it's best to keep our children separate ad continue to run our program. The space is very limited and we are trying to think of creative ways to setup classrooms under a pavilion. While the situation isn't ideal, we have seen God working in so many ways. We found another building that we are renting and we have been fixing up.

Yesterday, we did a community outreach carnival for the students we teach as well as the community around us in order to build relationships. We are on "break" right now and will be able to take some time off but the rest of the time we will continue to build our curriculum and work on things for next term. Our plan is to be up and running as our own school starting in May '10. This is the reader's digest version and I hope it's helpful to let you know the latest info. Here are pics from the Outreach - we served Chicken Green Curry, had an air castle, face painted (that was my job for 2 and 1/2 hours straight and I loved every minute of it), and played all sorts of games.

The new school building

My job: facepainting.

Teacher's setting up games.



A lot of our students.


Spicy Chicken Green Curry . . . mmmmm.

Thai teachers - fun with noodles.

Spectators from the community.

Fun and games.

My friend and co-4th grade teacher . . . she's going to work at the preschool. I will miss her :-(.

Story Continued

Some of you may recognize this from the newsletter, but I was thinking after I had written and sumbitted my article, I wanted to expound some more. So . . . here it is :0).

Though the past of a child might not be communicated to us, we often get an idea of that child’s past based off of their personality, traits or reactions. In this case, the permanent burn scars on the side of his face, head, and his entire arm with incision scars indicate and obvious and hurtful history of this child’s life. When this boy came to our school, he had only been in the children’s home for a short time before coming from a village. He would wear a bright yellow hat for the first few weeks to cover his permanent head scars. I just realized that it’s been a long time since he’s worn that hat, it’s nice to see that he’s grown comfortable without it. He is illiterate in Thai and English and was overwhelmed in the classroom (I believe he came to use only knowing his tribal language). At least, he has a hard time recalling things that he’s learned.

However, he has a special spirit about him. He has an attitude of perseverance and is eager to learn. He has a servant’s heart and will often do things not asked of him and he does it with the best smile. He loves to dance and will often bust out in a break dance in the middle of class and just laughs. He must have a bit of a gas problem because he often asks to step out of the classroom to “poot poot” and says “I smell” and waves his hand by his nose. He’ll sit right outside and will sound like a motorboat and he just laughs. I have grown to appreciate him asking permission to leave . . . even though it took me a long time to realize the difference between him asking permission to go to the bathroom and him asking to leave the room to “poot poot.” At first I was wondering why he was specifying whether he was going #1 or #2, haha, but now I know it's just "pooting." He likes to talk in a high squeaky voice when he’s being silly. He speaks to you with his eyes and I can only imagine what those eyes have seen but there is something so kind and gentle about him. He desires to succeed.

It was difficult for him to learn the English alphabet – to remember each letter and how to spell his name (he could write them but could never say the letters). We would work on it one on one and repeat how to spell his name over and over. We would take a break for a minute and I’d ask him how to spell his name and he’d look at me confused and scratch his head and say “don’t know.” We would try again and again. One day, about 10 minutes before school ended, I told him to repeat the spelling of his name over and over and over while he cleaned up and packed up. For the rest of the day, he went around repeating his name out loud and when he waved goodbye to me, he was still saying his name again and again. It took a lot of one on one time, repetition and encouragement, but he now knows the English alphabet and can tell you how to spell his name in an instant (which he follows up with a smile knowing that he’s accomplished something). Learning may always be a struggle for this child, but in the time we’ve known him, he has made much progress. One of the most important things is that he knows that God loves him. He is safe and he is being offered a hope and a future with the love that is promised to him.

Newsletter

Hope International Schools has an updated newsletter.

I wrote about one of my students in this edition.

Click here to read the newsletter.

3 of Many

This picture shows 3 of many reasons as to why I'm here.

'Nuf said for this post. :-)

Language Flubs

I told my student that she had a duck in her soup instead of telling her it was spicy.

I often tell my students (not intentionally) that the work they are doing is bad luck when what I mean to say is that it’s beautiful . . . one tone and I turn a compliment into discouragement. I am pretty sure they realize that I’m not great at speaking Thai and that what I say and what I mean are generally opposite.

My Thai counterpart was trying to talk to me about how she went to the doctor because she was having issues with her blender. I was pretty sure that dr.s in Thailand weren’t trained in appliances as well medicine, but I wasn’t sure. It took me a minute to play charades with her and show her what a blender was (I made the arm motions of me putting things in a pitcher and made the blending sound – I was actually impressed with my blender impression skills). She quickly shook her head as to say that’s not what she meant and then it dawned on me that she was talking about her bladder. I will always think of a blender when someone says bladder and a bladder when someone says blender.

My housemate Emily was teaching first and second grade about lunchtime vocabulary. Her students just can’t get the r sound and when she shows them a picture of rice, they scream “lice!” Then, she showed a picture of chicken and one of her students screamed “elephant!” Hopefully the house parents don’t think we feed their children elephants and lice for lunch. :-)

Never a dull moment.

Celebration

How I spent my first bday in Thailand:
We went to the Elephant Camp (well, that was more sight-seeing and less bday celebration but it's worthy of going in this blog update) last weekend and went bowling and I opened gifts (thanks everyone for spoiling me)! I got rainbow chip cake (from the US - thanks Jess for sending it and thanks Marvel for baking it ;). The Thai teachers celebrated with me with Dunkin Doughnuts and my roommates made me breakfast and dinner. Not to mention the Happy Birthday Hijack - thanks CB :-). I told you - spoiled!!! My parents sent out boxes of wrapped gifts and i had to wait a whole 9 days to open them . . . it was torture! I felt like I needed a Birthday tree to place all my gifts . . . instead they were on top of my wardrobe in a box and I'd just stare up at it in anticipation. hehe. Here are pics of the celebrations.


Khruu Nida - my 4th grade teacher partner who made me the purple scarf in my hand.

Roomates and Khruu Ooy (the 3rd grade Thai teacher) who is our great friend.

Mr. Smiley

I am sitting here in our old school that we are no longer allowed to conduct classes in and I’m eating a something that I was told is both a fruit and a vegetable (a hybrid perhaps?) that I have no idea what it is and it’s a mix between a sweet, flowery and bitter taste. It has the consistency of a fresh peeled potato with celery like strings . . . it’s really hard to describe and I’m not sure I like it . . . but I keep eating it, kind of addicting.

We are still conducting classes with our children at another school but they have other teachers as well so today is an off day for me and I’m not required to teach. So, I wait. Wait on a task of something productive to do (it’s a long story that I can talk about another time - - - -we are in the midst of a lot of transition with the school). It is fun though to hang out with the Thai speaking teachers and laugh at them and allow them to introduce me to random foods and new songs (all in Thai of course) and speak broken Thai (for me) and broken English (for them).

I am being productive (at least I was until starting to type this) by studying Thai since I have a big test this week on our first book. Language study is going okay . . . some days I feel like I know what I’m saying and I can actually speak in the correct tones and some days I feel like I’m not able to communicate at all. Take for example . . . yesterday. On our way home from the other school (which is about 40 minutes away from our house), our co-teacher’s car died not too far from our house. Her husband came to help her with the car and we decided just to walk home. As we went through the front gates of our neighborhood, my roommate Emily and I decided to try to engage in a conversation with Smiley. Smiley is the nickname we gave one of our guards at our neighborhood who has the best smile in the world. He is all professional with everyone and salutes them as they drive by but as the mature Americans we are, we wave our hands like crazy every time to make him laugh and smile. Whenever we drive into our neighborhood, we hope that Smiles (another version to Mr. Smiley’s nickname), is on duty because his smile is contagious. We are convinced that God should use him to be at the front gates of Heaven . . . that’s how encouraging his smile is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling God what to do . . . just a mere occupational suggestion ;). We have always wanted to say something to him but never knew what to say and are always in the car. Well, yesterday, we were on foot so decided it would be a perfect time to say something to him. We said hello to him in Thai and he started talking to us in an unrecognizable tongue. Joel and Marvel think he may speak Northern Thai and that’s maybe why we couldn’t understand a single word that came out of his mouth and he couldn’t understand a single word that came out of ours. It was like watching a Japanese film where the words that were coming out of his mouth were not synchronized with how his mouth was moving and I am convinced some words came out after he stopped moving his mouth. We just kept on trying and trying to make some sense to each other and finally a truck came by so Mr. Smiley turned to do his work and we waved and said goodbye. We were a little sad because we’ve always wanted to talk to him and be his friend . . . but I guess we can still be friends through waves and smiles. I am learning that non-verbal communication is sometimes more effective than verbal communication. A smile goes a long way! J

By the way, I took another bite of this fruit and now that I’ve finished it, I am convinced that I don’t like it. But never fear, the Thai teachers ran over and filled my bowl up with another random fruit!!! This one is like a miniature pear but very bland and smells like it’s sweating - - - can fruit sweat? Hummm, weird. I just popped a Werther’s Original (from the great USA) into my mouth to get rid of the sweaty fruit taste.

Up-what? Update

First off, thank you to everyone who has made me feel so loved and valued as I turned the big 2-6. Eeeek! :-) Actually, the only thing that feels different than last year is that I live on a totally different continent than last year, but other than that, not much has changed, hehe.

I feel so blessed to have so many awesome people in my life.

I have a bunch of fun pics but blogger and facebook are not letting me upload pics right now so I'll have to try again later.

I'll just take a quick minute to give you an update on our school. We did find out that we are not allowed to be in the building we were in any longer and had to move out this past Monday. Our students are in another school that has partnered with us and will allow our students to join their classes for the remainder of this term (4 more weeks). In the meantime, we will be partnering with them and driving to the school (about 45 mins from our current location) to teach English classes. We are hoping to have a building to renovate and fix up so after term break (beg. of November), we can get back to things as "normal." Granted, there is no "norm" in Thailand. Everyday is something new, each obstacle brings a new opportunity and a new opportunity brings a new obstacle . . . so we stay super busy! God is good. We are in the midst of major transition and things are not easy, but God is always faithful. Your prayers for our kids and our school are much appreciated!

I will be posting fun pics in the next week hopefully!

Happy Birthday Hijack!!!

Happy Birthday Brittany!

Update: Thanks all for participating. Even though we are back to our regular programming, feel free to wish Brittany a happy birthday :) Thanks all for making her birthday special! -cb

Brittany, your blog has been hijacked because all your friends wanted to wish you a happy birthday! And we wanted to celebrate you the best we knew how! We hope that your birthday is a wonderful one and that you feel blessed. We all wish we could celebrate with you this special day, this is the easiest way we can!

To all who read this blog, please post a birthday wish for Brittany. You do NOT need to register or signup. Simply enter info in the comment area and select the Name/URL under the identity and put your name in there.

-CB

May Saap, May Khaw Jai

The title of this blog is the Thai phrase for "I don't know, I don't understand." This is a phrase I use often when my children come running up to me and blurt out sentences of Thai that they expect me to understand and often I give up and just say "may sap" or "may khaw jai." They just laugh and then blurt a million more Thai words at me. Sometimes I tell them that I know what they are saying so they don't say anything about me but I really don't think I have them fooled though. haha.

The title of the blog is significant because these have been phrases that have been going through my head this past week or so when new developments started with the school. There are truly so many details involved that I don't know all of them (I don't need to know them nor am I sure I want to try to comprehend it all).

The short story is that there was/is persecution and disagreement going on in the area where we have our school about us conducting our school in this government building (that was abandoned for 7 years before the goverment told us we could fix it up and use it for this year until we can find a different place). We've been told that it's possible that we'll have to leave the school building we are currently in and teach at the place where our kids are registered at. This change was to be made ASAP as in TOMORROW. This place is a small building and doesn't have room for us and so we would need to conduct our 1st-6th grade classes on a concrete pavillion all day every day. At first I counted this as the "bad" news but then I figured - who am I to decide what's "bad." Maybe it's just God's will and something bigger and better will come along. I don't know. May saap. This past week, we have been praying diligently about the situation and just asking God to do what would be best for these children that we teach. They are just now getting into the swing of things and getting used to the consistency and schedule of our day. It breaks our hearts to have to uproot them again but, "may saap" . . . I don't know what's best for them but God does. I have gone through my times of being angry with the community and their lack of compassion for the abandoned children and the orphans . . . I don't understand "may khaw jai."

Basically, the long and the short of it is that it would be a miracle from God if we were able to work it out so we could stay in the current building we are in for the rest of the year. We have sought God so much on this and truly I am at peace with wherever He leads, knowing that He is in control. However, I don't want to be apathetic about the situation and have still kept my passion for the children and for glorifying Him through it all.

PRAISE GOD. Today, we found out that we may be getting a miracle after all. As of now, it looks like God is going to keep us in our current building. It's hard to explain all the details, but basically, someone came out of the woodwork in the past few days and is helping us and those originally trying to kick us out of the building are stepping back it seems. Seriously, so amazing! I still feel like "may saap, may khaw jai" because there are so many details and so many things that are not logical about the way things work here in Thailand. However, I know that God is in charge and is working through this school. I know that God is my rock and my foundation. I don't always understand the way He works, but that's not for me to understand.

A verse that I have clung to since I heard it at church yesterday is 1 Corinthians 3:9-13:
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

One of the songs that me and my roommates blast every time we are driving to and from any where, is "My Savior My God" by Aaron Shust. The lyrics have stuck out to us even more the past week as we knew that we were facing a serious situation regarding our school and our students and our lives here in Thailand. Again, "may saap, may khaw jai" . . . but "khop khun pra chow" . . . Thank you, Lord!

Lyrics to My Savior My God :

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior
I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves,
My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be

Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior

That He would leave
His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves,
My Savior lives
My Savior loves,
My Savior lives

Thoughts

- This is my 3rd blog post today but with limited interent access, I have to take advantage when I can :-)

- I walked into my room yesterday and caught a lizard sleeping in my bed . . . I tried to explain it’s welcome to stay on the walls but isn’t allowed to be in my sheets but it ran away before I could make sure it understood my wishes.

- I didn’t expect this country to be so hot. Can someone check the thermostat fo reelz?

- I hate mosquitoes.

- I didn’t expect to have a student who has pig tails and the sweetest smile and the best arm I’ve seen on a Thai girl as she chucked a pencil sharpner at the head of a boy in front of her. I didn’t expect my reactions to be 1. laughter (on the inside of course!) 2. wondering if Thailand has an Olympic softball team and 3. oh, that’s not acceptable behavior. I guess my reactions will be altered appropriately as I become a more mature teacher. Hehe

- I didn’t expect to enjoy taking daily showers without a hot water heater . . . I guess this coincides with the not expecting this country to be so hot comment.

- I hate red ants.

- I wasn’t expecting my student to pull out a packet of spices that you put in Thai Roman Noodle soup when I asked what he was hiding. Turns out it’s his idea of a treat . . . pours a bit in his hand and licks it up. Hmmm, I decided not to discipline him . . . if he wants to burn his tongue with spices, that’s his choice. LOL.

- When we drive down the road, I’m not surprised anymore to see an elephant being led alongside a main road

- I love praying and singing with the Thai teachers every morning before school.

- I hate mosquitoes and red ants.

- I love these children whom God has surrounded me with. This doesn’t mean they don’t test my patience daily . . . it just means I am developing a deep love that comes with forgiveness, discipline and adoration for these kids.

More random thoughts to come!

The Faces of Love

a little girl that we ride to school and back with each day.
My new student

The child that hugs everyone all the time. He calls himself a monkey which he is because he climbs all over me.

Playing the "Don't Blink" game

playing badmitten. She is also a monkey. She's a climber.

such a sweet child.

My student who has only one volume (and I'll give you a hint, it's not quiet)

so sweet. Also in my class.

the child who had the spices in his pocket as a snack (see above posting).

Daniel, Gordon and Emily (all my co-teachers). Gordon refuses to smile in photos but I let it slide because he loves his students with all his heart.

Leonie and Kari - helpers for the summer - - - HUGE blessings!

one of my students who LOVES football.

The twins. The problem is that they are impossible to tell apart. Today, they are actally not wearing the EXACT same shirt. If I ever have twins, for the teachers' sanity, I promise not to dress my children identically. Luckily, Emily is the one who has to tell them apart, lol. The principal suggested we ask the kid who isn't in trouble what his name is to get an honest answer, lol.

I encourage students to stick out their tongues at me, is that wrong?

1st and 2nd grade girls. Adorable.

Good bye Kalena and Tessa. I will miss you!

Seriously, this time, I really am going to miss you!