last day teaching

Today was just an amazing day, so I have to write another post.  I had a great day teaching with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, and they were really cool when they heard it was my last day, and seemed honestly bummed that I wouldn't be back for a while...they wanted my phone number and email so they could keep in touch.  Of course, they're elementary kids, so who knows, but there might be some time on translation websites in my future to keep up with them!  :)  To think that a couple months ago I was down on this teaching job is just an amazing thing to me, but God has kicked my butt again.  I will miss those kids a lot, and if I do come back I'll know more Thai so I can really communicate.

Tonight, a lot of my Mae Sot/Compasio family met at the Jungle Restaurant for a sendoff of sorts...I hadn't been to this restaurant before and it's a really neat atmosphere of trees, rocks, waterfalls, and lilly pads.  Even the bathrooms are pretty sweet and unique!  It was fantastic, and I was touched by how many people turned out.  I truly have a home here, with wonderful people and amazing work.  I knew it would be so, but it's going to be very hard to leave in three days.  There's a lot going on - Christmas parties to come for the school, Safe House, Baby House, and Dump Community, plus a party at the Thai church where some of our kids will sing.  Somewhere in there I need to think about packing!

Please pray with me that despite the hectic schedule, I do right by all the people here in my last few days, that I spend time where I need to and say goodbye well.  This has been an amazing experience for me, and I sincerely thank you for your support!

In Him,
adam

Ten Days

Time flies.  It really does.  In less than 10 days, I’ll be headed back to CO.  Hard to believe my time here is nearly up!

Since I wrote last, we finished painting, cleaning, and furnishing the new infant care home.  Dara, the new caretaker for Su Su, will move in next week!  Thanks for your prayers on Su Su in particular…her skin looks good after a good picking and lotion application, and she is cooing, smiling, and chattering like babies do.  There is even a family that is (very early stages) considering the adoption of a special needs child that might provide her a permanent loving home, too, which would be a total answer to prayer.  We’re not jumping up and down yet; there’s still some work to be done getting Su Su some paperwork so she can even be adopted, but since this is what we hope for her it’s hard for me to not get a little excited.

Thursday night at the dump was particularly cool.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but everything seemed to be clicking well.  Four kids rotated happily through the four badminton rackets that we brought (I used one until the fourth kid came along and wanted to play) with little to no conflict.  About 20 other little kids went to town on a stack of coloring books that we bring every week.  So many of them came to show me their pages when they were finished, it was pretty sweet.  The medical people went about the houses, interviewing people for health checks and treated a few people for minor things.  Also, this was the first time in a while that I either didn’t see more houses hiding among the trees or a house didn’t move or get built or torn down since the last time, so I don’t have to make any changes to my map this time!  That’s super rare!

Today was a fun day – I went with a few other Compasio friends to a Christmas celebration in town put on by the schools.  There was a parade (that I was in…didn’t really plan on that part) through town, and then a bunch of group games (tug of war, 3-legged race (with 7 people), a few others), music, food, and some light rain that didn’t last long.

Tonight, we had a small Christmas party of our own…more food (Mexican night at Rachel’s), Christmas music, a White Elephant gift exchange, and a movie (Elf).  Fun people that I will miss a lot!  Trying not to think about that too much for the moment.

Tomorrow morning, I leave early with a few friends to go visit a small village between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai called Doi Chang.  It’s a community of coffee plantation workers where Sia grew up and I’m told it’s really beautiful.  It’ll be great!  So I’m on a road trip for the next 4-5 days, returning to email, facebook, hot water, and that sort of stuff sometime on the 21^st or 22^nd.  Good times!

When I get back, it’ll be a pretty hectic pace getting ready for Christmas and getting ready to leave Thailand, so I’m not sure there will be another blog post.  If you’re on facebook, that’s probably the best place to get updates.

Thank you!!

Teaching English

You know by now that I teach English to 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th graders at one of the Thai schools here in Mae Sot.  You also know that this was a frustrating assignment for me until a friend helped fix my attitude.  Since then, I’ve had a lot of fun with it though I still doubt my effectiveness.  My classes today went pretty well.  I taught the 4^th graders from the book; they’re learning “can” and “can’t” and what can do what.  Can a tiger fly?  No, a tiger can’t fly.  Can you wash the dishes?  Heck no, I did them yesterday.  We also talked about sports they play, and I am proud that all my 4^th graders now want to be hockey players.  =)  Fifth grade was tougher…their book is hung up on food, and it’s really kind of boring.  We slogged through this odd exercise telling them how to make a tuna sandwich…really?  But it did give me the chance to teach some shapes (something gets cut into squares in the recipe) and different eating utensils and dishes (stuff gets mixed in a bowl).  Then, we went outside and pointed out stuff in the schoolyard and parking area, and I think they liked that. We mixed it up between natural things like plants, leaves, rocks, dirt and sand, and (of course) car parts.  My timing was perfect, too – we settled back into the classroom, did our “Thank you Teacher” and “see you next week” rituals, and the hour was up.   Then another teacher rolled on up into the room and ruined everything.  The way my caveman self understood it:  No 6^th grade this week, stay here for another hour.  Anyone who has to listen to me for two hours is bound to be miserable, but we made it through talking about numbers and clothing, and not once did I whack my noggin on this low-hanging cage for a television, the way I have done TWICE in previous weeks.  I’m a slow learner.  Anyway, it ended well, and several kids wanted my autograph in their little lesson books.  Ha!

There’s no school next Thursday.  I’m going to miss them.  Strange how things turn around, isn't it?

After a great lunch with the other teachers at school,  I rounded out the day with painting at the new infant care home til about 8, then a quick visit with Su Su and then to Casa Mia for a ridiculous beef burger and fries.  More painting tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers!

Visa Run

Recently (Dec 3) I went on what the locals here call a visa run – as in, my 90 days are running out, and I need to extend my visa for 30 more days.  The idea, months ago, was to go 3 miles down the street to Burma, walk across the bridge, and get my stamp.  It wasn’t to be, as the border with Burma here has been closed and seems it will stay that way for another 4 months or so.  But, I still had to get out of the country because the fee for overstaying your visa is like 500B/day, which for those into following exchange rates closely, converts to “sucky.”  I selected the cheapest flight I could find, to Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia.  I didn’t leave the airport, and took one picture from the plane as we descended.  I don’t really count it as a place I’ve visited.

The side benefit of such a run though, was another trip to Bangkok.  This time I would visit Ake, a friend of my brother’s whom I’d met several times when she was living in Denver.  She showed me a good time and took me to some great food, including some salty sea bass at a cool place by the river where we could watch the occasional practice firework or lantern for the King’s birthday celebration to come.  I contributed to the agenda by suggesting the Saxophone Club, a cool jazz restaurant and bar with great music and more fantastic food.  All three bands were excellent and the three of us (joined by Ake’s friend Frank) rocked out and ate ourselves silly.  The third night of food came from one of Ake’s favorite places, which I am not to reveal to the immense readership of this blog.  Whatever.   =)  It’s called “Papaya Salad,” and was incredible!  The four of us (this time also joined by my friend Rachel, also with Compasio and happening through Bangkok at the time) topped it off with ice cream sundaes. 

Other points about visa runs:

1.  Don’t write your old visa number on your entry card when you get to immigration in Bangkok on the way back.  You used that visa already, and aren’t really extending anything.  You get a new 30 days with no visa.  Writing it in there gets you a stern talking-to from the immigration guy.

2.  Stern immigration guys are turned into happy fun immigration guys by small electrical fires. 

 

3.  For those ever tempted or have even thought of mentioning the whole Adam and Eve thing (it’s really funny to Thai and Burmese familiar with the Bible story because they don't run into "Adams" very often), wait no longer:  I found Eve.  It’s a guy, and he works at the Starbucks in BKK.  I so wanted my picture with him, but the place was busy and there were ‘no cameras’ signs up.  It was a short relationship, unfortunately:  I gave him 60B, he gave me a banana-chocolate chip muffin, and it was over between us.  A fleeting, magical moment.

Ok, so the story on #2:  When I got back to Thailand something unusual happened - I was in the passport check line and finally got my turn, and I was a little nervous because I'd never done this before.  I could totally see the guy saying "hey, your visa has already been used, what are you trying to pull here?" and having to call Allan at Compasio and tell him I was stuck at the airport.  Because I dorked up and wrote my old visa number on my entry card he had to call me to the desk to ask me about it, and when I explained he was nice enough, but vaguely annoyed and he shooed me back to stand on the line, a bit back from the desk.  All the desks have these electric fans on them.  Little ones, maybe 10" in diameter, on plastic bases that clamp to the top shelf on the desk.  Well - no sooner than the agent shooed me back than I see his fan start sparking inside the base.  The cord had been twisted around and abused to the point of wearing through the insulation - a little fire was starting as the insulation burned.  So I'm like, "Uh, can I tell you something?"  He's looking down at his work.  "Hey, yeah, you got a little fire goin' on there," and I point to his fan.  He looks up at me, questioningly, and right on cue the fan goes BANG very loudly and flashes brightly as the wires shorted together.  He jumped...it was awesome.  The fire didn't last, it just fizzled out after the electricity wasn't flowing anymore, but it was smoking pretty nicely.   After that he was all smiles and laughing with me.  It’s true:  nothing breaks the ice like fire. =)