Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve evening with new friends here in Thailand and learned a new Christmas tradition. Each year, each member of this beautiful family gives a gift to Jesus, we had the privilege of joining in on the tradition this year. It was a precious opportunity that helped us focus on the reason we celebrate Christmas, as well as getting to know each other even better. I wish all of you could know the Penningtons. Julie's two favorite words are precious and beautiful and they describe her perfectly. She is the director of the elementary program at FLC, teaches and is a mom of three. Brent, who always has a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye, is the director of FLC in charge of teaching several classes, developing vision for the school and working on fundraising. Both of our girls are privileged to have him as a teacher. Ben is in seventh grade. He is the oldest son, he is quiet and smart, and loves to play board games. Kate is in fifth grade with all the sparkle of her dad and the beautiful spirit of her mom. Jack is five, he has more energy and strength than anyone I've ever met, and is presently enjoying dragging around their two month old puppy everywhere he goes.

Christmas day we spent at home with just the four of us, a first. Several of our wonderful friends here did invite us to join them, but we were in the mood to stay home. We enjoyed playing Apples to Apples with new cards from home, opening gifts, watching most of A Christmas Story online and just being together. It almost felt like Christmas except for the 85 degree weather.

Christmas Day Pictures

The girls with their presents:
Lindsey


Megan

Christmas Dance

FLC is a special place. We've known that for months now, but last night was an excellent reminder. Ruth, our principal, had a dance at her house last night for all present and past FLC students and their families. Her husband, Chuck, fired up his outdoor pizza oven, which is always a delicious treat. We adults had a great time visiting, but the real joy was in watching the kids. The teenagers danced in groups, in pairs indiscriminate about gender, with parents and with all the little ones running around. Just a relaxed, happy atmosphere, so different than what Megan has told me about dances at home. At home, Megan won't attend the dances because the atmosphere is so terrible. Here, she loves them and so do we. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be part of this community!

By the way, check out our very amateur Christmas video on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7NeXDOlheI




Cindy with teacher friends

Chuck teaching proper pizza technique

Megan and Lindsey and friends

Chris and kids making pizza

Just some favorite scenery pictures. My dream: to be a National Geographic photographer!

From our neighborhood:

Sunrise




Just a weed


A temple window


During the rainy season. This is the view from our house, the back of Makro (Thai version of Costco) can be seen in the background.


In the Chiang Rai vicinity:







Taken while riding a bike during harvest season.


Chiang Mai area (Chiang Mai is 3 hours south of Chiang Rai)

You get up, go for a jog with the dog, shower, drive to school, teach, come home, make dinner, go to bed. Same routine anywhere. Life is beginning to feel that way here for us, and then something happens to make us realize that things that are beginning to seem normal, really aren't, at least by American standards.
Saturday I needed to pick up some cortisone cream, so I went down to the local market, where I managed to find a pharmacy, which luckily had some tubes of cream labeled in English. Couldn't find cortisone, but found something that said it was a topical steroid, so I bought that. Stopped in another shop to pick up some needles to do some mending, another shop had the bamboo skewers I wanted to make kites with my class, yet another had a pair of PE shorts the girls needed. All this felt pretty normal, until I looked across into the open part of the market, saw the fans with little pieces of cloth on them brushing the flies away from the raw meat, the fresh fish flopping around on the table of one vendor, another selling vegetables I've never seen before and would have no idea how to use. And everyone chattering in a language I don't understand. Oh, that's right, I'm doing all these everyday things in a country halfway around the world, in an attempt to help others to have an opportunity to hear about Christ!
We worshiped at the bi monthly international service this evening. There were people there from Holland, Australia, America (even other Seattleites!), Switzerland, South Africa and of course native Thais, and those are just the ones I know. Worship was led by a young woman who is a missionary here with the Akha people (a tribal group that is spread across 5 different countries in this part of Asia). Her Akha worship team led for us tonight, mostly in English, but they did sing for us in Akha as well, which is a completely different language than Thai. They are preparing for a 'summer' camp for 800-1,000 Akha youth coming up in the middle of October. This camp has been running every year for 20 years. Next time she leads service, she wants our girls to help.
The diversity of the people we spend time with here is a delight for us suburbanites. The passion for sharing Christ is a delight for our souls. We are so thankful to be part of this community!

East meets West in the Classroom

Here is a funny story that could only happen when teaching cross-culturally. I told my class of second and third graders that the next book I would be reading aloud to them was a classic, How to Eat Fried Worms. Sure to fascinate kids in a funny and gross way. Josh (my only 100% Caucasian student who is half American, half Dutch, but has always lived in Thailand) and Tan (pure Thai) started chattering excitedly in Thai. Josh works as a translator in my classroom on a regular basis. This is the English conversation that ensued:
Josh: A whole book about eating fried worms? Great! They're so yummy!
Tan: Yeah, I love fried worms, they're one of my favorites!
Josh: Me too!
Cindy: So in Thailand, people enjoying eating fried worms?
Josh: Of course, they're really good! Haven't you had fried worms?
Cindy: No I haven't. In America, people don't eat worms.
Josh and Tan with completely puzzled faces: Why not? They're sooo good!
Cindy: I guess we don't have the right kind of worms!

I guess I'll pick a different book to read aloud next.

Josh's parents later told me where to get fried worms and bugs at the market. They said they like the worms better, some kind of bamboo worm. Megan is intrigued to try them, I'm not sure I'm brave enough. I'll let you know.

This link might take you to my Facebook where you can watch a video of my students singing as we work on creating a movie.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=1120652296160

And here is the movie we created!

Pictures of school

Dan and Ruth (our principal) in front of the school, which used to be a motel.


The elementary 'hallway'.


Cindy's classroom before school started.

Dan at his desk.

Teachers eating in the staff lunchroom/auxiliary classroom which looks out over the playfield.

More pictures of our latest waterfall adventure are on Facebook, I think anyone can access this link, members of Facebook or not.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017786&id=1222639240&ref=nf

We have survived our first week of school. I must say the students are absolutely delightful. Truly. I have three third graders and five second graders. Two are from Taiwan, their parents are missionaries here. One has one parent from Holland and the other from America, also missionaries. He is trilingual. One looks Asian, but says he is from Kansas. I haven't worked that one out yet. The rest are Thai. They are hard workers, so far at least. Despite their limited vocabularies, they love to read and groan when I interrupt them. Their math and reading levels are miles apart, so that could be challenging this year. Differentiation is not a great strength, but I'm working on it. Also, the reading books for the third graders are much too hard for them so we are finding alternative reading material for the time being. Dan and the girls are adjusting, too. Lindsey says she is enjoying it. She likes the small size, the feeling that all ages are connected together. The girls are working hard in their classes already and are enjoying being in a Christian school. That is a new experience for all of us. I was hoping the homework would be a bit lighter for them, but that doesn't seem to be the case. In a couple of weeks there is an all school dance. Ballroom dance is one of the classes offered here, so the students really enjoy the opportunity to use their skills, I guess. The school has arranged for the juniors to go to Chiang Mai to take the PSAT, in October. It will be interesting to see how Megan does on that.

Working full time is going to be challenging, too, I've gotten used to having tons of time for planning that I simply can't do here. At least here I have a house helper once a week and our family can eat a wonderful Thai dinner out for about $5. Beats McDs! Our cleaning lady came Wednesday, so we came home to a clean house, ironed clothes, laundry washed, dried folded, etc. We stopped at the market on the way home, there's a small stationery shop there where the girls needed to pick up a few school supplies. We bought huge frappucinos for 1.50 a piece, bought 8 steamed buns with pork and veggies inside for $2.75, some coconut custard and dragon fruit for dinner. I don't know how people work full time and come home and cook dinner and clean house, too. Of course, we're extra tired here trying to deal with the heat. I miss September in Seattle, it's one of my favorite months for weather.
I just found out yesterday that the woman who got forced into taking my job quit, so now my job should be there for me when we get back. I'm so thrilled to know that, I told poor Dan three different times. I miss home, friends, family, EHRC, cool weather and being able to talk to my neighbors. There's a story behind that last one. We were without running water in our house for four days, starting Saturday afternoon. The government is doing some project with the water system here, so it's not unusual for the water to be out for a day or so. Most people we have since learned keep a tank of water just for such occasions. Our house doesn't have one, although there is a garbage can we figured out on Saturday should be kept full of water for flushing toilets and bucket baths. Anyways, one of our Thai speaking friends here asked a neighbor for us on Sunday when it would be back on, she said it would be that night. No water. Monday no water. Tuesday no water. Finally, we had the same friend call our landlady to find out if she knew what the deal was. She came out to the house and just turned the water on at the street. It's quite common to hear announcements in Thai over intercoms on the street, but of course we can't understand. I would assume one of them said you can turn your water on on Sunday evening! Sigh, the joys of living overseas. Anyway, Tuesday night we had water so we could take showers at home, flush toilets properly and do laundry. Yippee! It's amazing how this frustration on top of the start of school really got us down.

Today (Saturday) we went to a waterfall about 30 minutes from here. The rainforest is fabulously green and beautiful and the water is fabulously cool and refreshing. I am trying to get pictures on Facebook of both school and the waterfall, but my connection seems to be too slow right now and uploading pictures to blogs doesn't seem to be allowed presently in Thailand. Is it just me???

Our house in Thailand

I am still unable to add photos, but if you'd like to see our house, check out Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016906&id=1222639240&saved#/album.php?aid=2016906&id=1222639240

Our house is very comfortable and came well equipped with everything we needed. Many thanks to the Yluans, from whom we bought all the furnishings, etc.

Thoughts on Three Weeks in Thailand

Unfortunately, at the moment access to this site is sketchy, the Thai government is finding it to be immoral. Today I can put on words, but not pictures, sorry about that! Try checking us out on Facebook for pictures, that still seems to be working.

Thai food:
An excellent meal can be purchased for about a dollar. We've been to several amazing buffets for about $3. I've learned to say not spicy in Thai - mai phet. Although sometimes the food is a bit spicy anyways, generally this gets it to a level I can eat.
Yesterday morning for breakfast we bought Thai pancakes - rhoti - from the street vendor just down the block. He takes a little ball of dough and stretches it really thin, to almost the size of a dinner plate. Then he puts it on a sizzling hot griddle and breaks an egg over it, scrambling the egg and spreading it over the pancake. He folds it a bit until it gets brown and crispy, moving it to the edge of the griddle to keep it warm and let the oil drain off a little. When he takes it off the griddle, he drizzles it with sweetened condensed milk and sprinkles it with sugar, just a little of each, rolls it like a burrito and wraps it in paper to take home. Eaten with iced coffee (also sweetened with sweetened condensed milk) it is an amazing meal. Each pancake is about 30 cents.
I could go on and on just about the food. I'm not going to lose any weight here!

School:
Dan and I are enjoying getting settled in at school. We feel very valued, needed, wanted there. It feels like our skills, talents and experiences are really the ones that are needed right now. We feel very affirmed that we are in the place that God wants us to be right now.

Weather:
It's hot and muggy. For Americans not from the west coast, it probably feels like normal summer weather, for us Seattleites, it's hot and muggy. I am finding I do better when I avoid air conditioning, I think extended periods under air conditioning may be yet another migraine trigger for me, but I crave air conditioning. It's an afternoon treat to go to shopping at Makro (Thai Costco) or Big C (Thai Fred Meyer) just for some aircon. We have it at school as well, but I really am trying to use it for only short periods at a time. Lindsey has suggested turning it off a while before I leave so that my body adjusts gradually to the heat instead of suddenly. It can't hurt to try!
Last night it rained incredibly hard, so it will be cooler today after a week of hot, rainless, muggy weather. I am thankful!

New experiences:
I love all the new sights, tastes, experiences and smells. Yes, even the smells. Chiang Rai is very clean, so really the worst smells are walking past the fish area in the markets, (the girls avoid this area as much as possible) and the durian in the fruit areas. The durian here isn't as smelly as the durian in Malaysia, though. Dan gets exhausted by all the new experiences sometimes. It energizes me most of the time. Of course, I enjoy any kind of shopping, which he doesn't, so that's probably part of it.

Shopping:
Going to the grocery store and seeing bags of chicken feet, a pig head or pigs feet, frog legs, roast chickens complete with head and feet, pig snout, whole cooked fish (a common type here is a fish with the head at a strange angle, I admit to being too chicken to try it, not being a fish eater anyway).
Beautiful fabrics! I bought a lovely piece just to hang in the living room. Melissa McGill would be in heaven!
Can't get top sheets here, which is all we want for sleeping under right now. We're borrowing from new friends at the moment.
Many things are more expensive than I expected, some are cheaper. I could shop everyday just exploring all the different things. Good thing I'll be working full time soon!

I'm out of time, we're heading out to help the librarian move this morning.

The Golden Triangle Trip

Ruth, our principal, and Barb, the secondary program directory, took us on another sightseeing trip. Ruth's a great guide! She knows all the best spots to eat and has routine trips worked out that fit everything in. She could be a tour guide if she wasn't such a great principal. This time we went up to see a Buddhist temple built in the 1200s (pictures on that will be delayed, the batteries were dead in our camera), the Golden Triangle, where you can see Thailand, Myanmar and Laos all at the same time and also to a government project where villagers work on beautiful handicrafts, making paper, cloth and pottery as well as the king's mother's garden. We didn't manage to see her villa, we'll save that for another trip. The garden was fantastic. If you've ever been to Butchart Gardens in Victoria, this is a Thai version. The pictures don't do it justice. Thankfully, since two of us (mostly Megan and Cindy, despite the picture) were riding in the back of Ruth's pick up, it didn't rain as much as was predicted! Megan says riding in the back off the pick up is almost as great as riding in Grandpa's boat.

Dan and Lindsey in the back of Ruth's truck.

Myanmar's on the left of the river, Laos is to the right and we're in Thailand!

Warning: The following pictures are for all my gardening friends, taken at the queen mother's villa. Please know the sunlight, even through the clouds, washed out the colors considerably.

The garden is up in the mountains, the air had a little cool freshness to it, it felt great!

What kind of bug chews a hole this big?

I guess the kind that eats leaves that are a yard across!

This flower was the size of a dinner plate.

Vines grow big here, too.

The color of the water gives you an idea of the color of the soil here. Everything grows well in it!

Elephant Ride!

Today was a play day. Ruth arranged for us along with two other new friends to take a longtail boat ride up the river to a village where we could ride elephants. The longtail boat ride was beautiful, it took about an hour past farms, mansions, shacks, jungle and gravel operations (two guys digging gravel off the bottom of the river and piling it in their longtail boat until it almost sunk). It was a very hot, heavy day today so the breeze during the boat ride felt fantastic.

The village was oriented to tourism with small shops selling trinkets; cloth, jewelry and puppets and especially elephant rides. The ride took about an hour through the village and jungle. As you can see in the pictures, Megan and Cindy rode one elephant, Dan and Lindsey rode another and our friends rode a third. Megan and Cindy's guide could speak English and was very interesting to talk with. He allowed them to ride on the neck of the elephant, not just up in the seat. It was great, riding on the neck was a relatively smooth ride, up in the seat you rock back and forth alot, but it's warm sitting on the neck and those big ears act as blankets, very unnecessary in the heat today! Dan and Lindsey's elephant kept stopping to eat, pulling up large branches, and once

an entire small banana tree!

Riding elephants!Cindy and Megan got to 'drive'!Similar to the boat we rode in, these guys are collecting gravel from the river bed to sell.

Jogging

Below are some pictures from our jogging route. We actually managed almost a full half hour today. It has been raining for 24 hours nonstop, so it's a bit cooler. Previously we've been afraid to go very far for fear of overheating. We got absolutely soaking wet in the torrential downpour. The Thai people in our neighborhood really got a good laugh watching a couple of farang (foreigners) jogging (strange thing to do) in the pouring rain (downright crazy) with a dog actually on a leash (what in the world is a leash for?)! We got lots of stares and smiles today! We leash Lacey mostly to protect the chickens and ducks running around since our neighborhood is small and very quiet (other than the fact that we look at the back end of the Thai version of Costco as our view).


Rice Fields

Friendly neighborhood cow

Everyone has orchids, these surround a Thai home's address sign.

Close up of a banana orchard.

We made it!

After 19 hours of flight ( the dog was in the cabin with us, sleeping drugs are amazing, she did great!), three hours in the Tokyo airport where we all fell asleep on the floor and 19 hours in Bangkok (where we convinced the hotel clerk to let Lacey into our room with us instead of making her stay outside with the security guards and the scary mongrels and six hours touring the city, see photos), we have arrived in Chiang Rai! It's great to finally be here. Yesterday the principal of the school showed us around Chiang Rai. The drivers aren't as scary as in Uganda, and the roads are very good, but the motorcycle drivers are reckless and land designations aren't carefully observed. We haven't been able to drive our car yet, the doors won't unlock, but we are able to borrow the Quesenberry's car for a couple of weeks until we get it worked out. (The Quesenberrys are the couple who invited us to come to FLC, but are now in CA for cancer treatment.) The girls got an opportunity to hang out with the principal's son and his friend who are Megan's age. It was fun for them to begin to make friends here. Today we'll figure out how to do some shopping and how to get to church this evening. Our house faces the back of the Thai version of Costco, so we'll probably start there. This could be interesting!

12 Days and Counting

We leave in 12 days. It's hard to believe it's finally getting so close. It has been amazing to watch the Lord at work to make all this happen. Praise to Him in His provisions, both large and small. So many of you have been His instruments in allowing us to go be a part of His work in Thailand. Thank you!!! We are going with full support to cover our basic needs. God is good and so are all of you. We so appreciate your financial, prayer and emotional support.

God is continuing to work out the details. It looks like we'll be taking little Lacey, our dog. Things have been working out to take her and nothing has worked out for leaving her here. I still need to get in contact with the Bangkok airport, which has been problematic. Please pray for us as she will be in the cabin with us on 19 hours worth of flying and two layovers!

Praise God I finally found someone at AT&T who could help me figure out how to get out of the second year of our contract without $460 in penalty fees. We just have to prove we live overseas and we will be forgive those fees. They've made me a loyal customer!

Our house here is rented to missionaries from Honduras. In return for cheaper rent, we are using our garage to store our stuff, including the car that Dan loves. They seem like a great family and it's a good fit for all. Please pray that they'll stay for the full year.

















We have a mostly furnished house waiting for us in Chiang Rai. It has three bedrooms, but no air conditioning.

Our car was rebuilt by the school auto shop. It looks pretty cute. It's a stick shift and we drive on the left side. Could be interesting!