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???