Teaching, Teaching, Teaching

Everything has been going great here in Thailand.  I love it more and more everyday.  Yesterday before dinner a couple of the girls were talking to me and telling me who everyone like who's boyfriend was who's and who they liked last month but not anymore etc.  G and I had been guessing these things because the older kids pair off and talk and flirt, we were right about most of them.  Of course Kam likes Petch and Aussie likes Oh, but I never knew that Ganyanwee had so many boys after her!

I think though that the best moments come when you see that everything you have been doing hasn't gone to waste and these kids actually do listen and learn from you even though they do everything to make you feel the opposite.  Last weekend a group of student from a Bangkok international school came to the Farm to spend a couple of days with the foundation.  All week we had been practicing and practicing with the kids on introducing themselves.  Thais are very quiet people (except when they yell.  My goodness they can yell) and very shy.  They were nervous about getting up in front of a group of older students who spoke perfect English and introducing themselves in English, a third language for many of these kids.  So, the day came and we were... ready?  Yes, we were ready.  As we went around the circle and everyone got up to introduce themselves I got so happy when Sua remembered everything we had taught him.  He said it with a smile and confidence letting everyone know that "he was from Burma, and liked to ride his bike and eat banana!"  We wrote down an entire page for Kam to say, but she got up there and and told everyone who she was and what grade she was in.  She didn't even pause to remember, she just spoke.

I love that joy you get when you teach and you realize that you are actually doing something.  Very often I feel like me teaching English to these children isn't doing anything.  I look at all the volunteers they've had in the past and how many times they've learned the vocabulary for the kitchen and think, am I even doing anything?  Does me being here mean anything?  But then there's moments like last weekend when they get up in front of a big group and that yeah, it does make a difference.  It might be slow, and it might be painful.  But at least it's working.

Chiang Mai at night (obviously).  Seen from Wat Doi Suthep

Machete vs. Machete

If I haven't written the new/old volunteers lately than shame on me because they're pretty cool.  Their names are Philipp and Leoni, they're German and they're awesome.  It has been so much fun to have them at the orphanage because they bring a whole new aspect to this entire experience.  Philipp loves to go rock climbing and so last Thursday they took us to a gym in Chiang Mai and we all went rock climbing.  It was fun.  More than that.  It was SO much fun.  The people there were great.  We went again on Saturday and it was just as much fun.  Also, it's super cheap.  A big plus.  Reason number two why they're so great: they love good food (naturally, they're from Germany).  We love to reminisce about all the food we miss.  Mostly we talk about bread and cheese and of course I throw in pasta.  But above all the number one reason why I think they're so cool, they love their language.  They make German seem like this amazing language that you can not only learn but make fit you as if it was your own language.  Philipp talks about his language as if it's a part of him, and I'm sure it is.  I think our native language is a part of all of us, but it's different for Philipp.  Today we were talking and he asks me, "Do you say Machete?  You know for that big knife?"  Yes we do.  "But it sounds so.. 'Machete!' like a little girl." (I really hope you've been imagining this in a burly German accent) "In German we say MacHater!"  It's spelled m-a-c-h-e-t-e, but pronounce MacHater!  It was a perfect example of their love for the German language.  There they both were saying, "Machete!" while throwing their arms up into the air.

It has been so great having them here at the farm with us.  I love talking to them and joking around.  It seems a bit weird that when they leave in a week or so I will most likely never see them again.  So, Leoni and Philipp if you are reading this I hope you know that we loved having you here at the farm.  Thanks for teaching me great German words (Shiesser), showing me how wonderful your language is and how wonderful I can make my language, telling me about your dogs and therefore making me want one as soon as I can get my hands on one, and taking me rock climbing.  I hope that you eat a big piece of warm German bread as soon as you get home.

p.s. For those of you that have been squirming in your chairs, Philipp is spelled correctly.
and, more pictures here.  Of course.

Leonie and Philipp

Biking, Teaching, Touring, Laughing

More photos here.
Last night it rained all night and into the morning which means that today is a nice cool day.  I can sit outside and not sweat.  It feels so good, and I'm very grateful for the rain though it means snakes will come during the night.  Let's just hope they stay clear of our bathroom.

Last weekend was one of the best.  We headed down to a beautiful place called Sukothai.  Part of it is an old ancient city with ruins of old temples, buildings, and Buddha statues.  We all rented bikes and rode around the city all day long.  This resulted in sunburns (sorry Mom), awful tan lines, a heat stroke for G, and tons and tons of fun.  One thing that made it less fun was getting road burn on my leg that doesn't have the burn.  This means that standing isn't very comfortable, and also being at Sukothai in the heat with a fresh wound meant little baby flies sitting on that wound.  Gross.  But everything turned out fine, and it was still a lot of fun.

Sukothai

Everything is going great.  I love it hear.  Teaching English is getting easier.  Now on Fridays we teach for about 5 hours at the school.  The older kids are a lot of fun to teach, but the younger ones are a little harder especially because the Thai teachers give them to us all at once (about 25 kids) for two hours. We're hoping that in the future we will only teach three hours a day instead of five, we'll see what happens.

On Sunday G got heat stroke so we didn't think that taking the trucks home would be a good idea.  We waited until a man from the ward was able to take us home in his car.  My goodness he is the funniest Thai person I've ever met.  He's also not a very good driver.  We were driving around trying to find the road that takes us to Doi Saket when he starts driving behind this big grocery store.  G and I ask him where we are going and in his heavy accent he replies, "I don't know?"  We all started laughing and laughing.  Next thing we know he's pulling out onto this very fast road.  In about 2 seconds he crosses three lanes and cuts somebody off.  That car swerved around us and speed up ahead.  Very calmly he says, "Wow.  He was mad."  After we finally got on our way to Doi Saket he was more cautious.  Or as he would say "I have cautious."  It was great.  So great.  I love it here and I can't believe that I have less than two months left. It's crazy. It feels like yesterday I was stepping off the plane in Bangkok so excited to get up to the foundation and start working.  And now I'm here, doing just that.  I have to remind myself that this will all soon be gone.  And I'll miss the cicadas that hurt your ears, the frogs that can get so loud I can't sleep, and the meals where I wonder what in the world I'm eating.  But most of all I'll miss the children.  I'll miss playing ninja attack with them (Now they're so good it's impossible to beat them) and having arm wrestles with boys and getting sore arms the next days.  They are all wonderful people, and I hope that some how, in some way, my being here will have meant something to them.

Fa, Me, G, Kam.

All the kids before going to school.

I'm an Asian

More pictures here.
You know when you get hurt and at first your not that worried about the injury, just taking it as it goes?  Then somebody talks to you and tells you all the things that can go wrong with what is already wrong with you.  Consequently you get a little paranoid and can't stop thinking about what was previously just a pain in the leg.  Literally.

Last weekend G and I headed down to Chiang Mai like we always do.  To get back to the orphanage we have to take a series of trucks up the mountains and then somebody from the orphanage has to drive out to the main road to pick us up and take us back.  So it was a nice Sunday night and we were waiting to be picked up when Aussi (a 15 year old boy mind you) shows up on a two seater, I repeat, Two seater scooter.  Also keep in mind that the wheels on the scooters here are significantly smaller than the wheels on scooters in America or Europe so it's already a little wobbly when you ride it.  It ended up that all three of us were riding home on this small scooter, and I think it's important to note that G and I had back packs that amounted to a large 10 year old.  It made me feel Thai.  For a wonderful 10 minutes I thought I was as Asian as the Asian driving the scooter.  Everyone listen! (or read)  Being Asian is awesome.  

Here's where my being Asian stopped.  Petch (another 15 year old) showed up on a second scooter.  So I was getting off the first and onto the second when I noticed that my leg hurt really bad.  Like it was on fire.  You guessed it my leg was resting against the uncovered exhaust pipe on the scooter.  Needless to say I didn't enjoy the second half of my ride home in the fresh night air watching the lighting a ways off as the Asian I previously was.  Okay, maybe I enjoyed it a little bit but my skin had just been melted and it kind of hurt.

I got burned, and I got burned bad.  I don't know why the engineers who design these scooters don't think, "Man, this exhaust pipe gets Really hot after driving this scooter.  It's open and anyone can touch it, especially when they're getting off the back and they need to put their leg there.  Hmm... maybe we should cover it... Meh, they'll just learn by experience."  And we do.  We do learn by experience.

I wasn't too worried about the burn until the new volunteers from Germany started talking to me about it.  They said things like "flies sit on it," "they plant eggs," and "you can't always be swatting at them, some flies are too small to notice."  That's when my paranoia kicked in.  So, now I keep it covered as I should/should have so no flies can lay their eggs in there.  

Besides that burn (which really isn't that bad, it's just something to write about.) everything is going great.  So great.  Especially because as I write this I'm listening to one of my favorite songs and that always makes a good moment better.  I love it here, and though I miss my family and friends I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.  It is so much fun to be with these people.  And up at the orphanage I get the opportunity to meet so many people from all around the world because what we call guests come to the orphanage a few times a week to see what we're all about.  It is fantastic and I love it.