Half-Seven

Slow Friday

2012-02-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

I have no pictures that were actually taken Friday. Most of our parents took the kids to the pool in the afternoon, so we didn't do our last lesson. It was a blessing in disguise because it meant we could spend the afternoon tearing down the decorations and getting the materials ready to be sent on to the next conference. Otherwise we would have had to do that Friday evening after the kids left.

The highlight of MY friday, though, was a long evening chat with some friends that will have to remain nameless and faceless that I hadn't seen in 2 years. It was really wonderful to catch up, pray for each other and hang out.

So Friday's interesting Thai thing is Thailand itself--for being an international hub of connectedness. It was a great week with people from all over the world, and I got to hear lots of amazing stories of what God is doing in East Asia. I couldn't have asked for a better team to work with, and I'm excited to have couches to surf in so many new countries!!

Praise Thursday!

2012-02-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday was the Lord's Prayer day. We decided to focus on one specific reason to pray: PRAISE!

The kids made "praise hats" out of paper plates and drew things they were thankful for on them. I was helping one little boy think of some things to draw. That conversation:

Me: "What about about your brother? Aren't you thankful for him?"

Little boy: "No. But I am thankful for my friends!"

I tried.

But it was also praise Thursday because Michael Card came and did an unscheduled performance at the conference! One of the attendees knew him and heard he was in Chiang Mai, so she called him up and he agreed to perform a set and speak. Even though he's not an artist I normally listen to, it was a real blessing to be able to sit down and enjoy the concert and hear his talk. Much needed for a tired childcare team!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but these childcare girls were sitting in perfect "hue." Adam was less impressed with the rainbow affect than I was, though, so maybe it's not as cool as I think...

Happy Hump Day

2012-02-04T16:05:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we talked about being salt and light (but mostly light) in the world. Our memory verse for the day was Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." It's a verse I remember learning when I was very young, and so it was a special one for me to help them memorize. It was really amazing how quickly they picked up on the verses and how well they remembered them the next day. Since we talked about darkness, we made masks to represent the obstacles and temptations that are in the darkness before Jesus sheds light on them (if that doesn't sounds like a very good connection...cut us a break :) we had to work with what supplies we could get in Chiang Mai but--the masks were a hit!!) So I actually have pictures of the kids on this day because, well, they look like this...

Hilarious because most of them only had one of the two eye holes that fit, but they still ran around attacking each other for a good 2 hours. 3 year-old cyclopses on the loose!

I have to add a note about being sick on Wednesday. First of all, H (who some of you know) was caring for her own little girl who was also sick, but still came in and checked on me multiple times during the day Tuesday, and again Thursday when I got a second round of whateveritwas. Then, in turn, she got sick, so I felt really bad. Before she got sick, H suggested that I go on the B.R.A.T. diet for a couple meals, so I did. That would be Bananas, Rice, Apples (except not in Thailand because of the peel) and Toast. Instead of being filled with yummy Thai food, my plate looked like this for two days:

I am still thankful that Thai bananas are SO MUCH BETTER than the ones in the States. They're smaller and therefore less intimidating, as well. I am not a banana fan. I wish I had taken a picture of the bunch, 'cause they're only about 5 inches long. I didn't think to...oh well.

BUT as long as we're sharing breakfast pictures, I will introduce you to the 3-4 year-old leaders that I worked with all week.

Mirjam! (Far right) She played with the kids tirelessly which was a huge help to Gwen and me, who both fell sick at different points during the week. In the middle is Janet, she worked with the teens, and Lai Ying, who worked with the babies.

Eleasha Joy and Gwen (middle and right, respectively)! Gwen was in charge of our team and did a great job leading. She's actually staying in Chiang Mai for another week to help out with childcare for ANOTHER conference. That's dedication. And we loved meeting Eleasha Joy this week. The kids absolutely loved her and she was great at calming down the quiet ones. Charlotte (left) was one of the UKers who tried to "fix" my English all week. It didn't work. Charlotte was with the babies, too.

Winner for interesting Thai thing for the day definitely goes to the mini-banana.

A Tour of the Resort

2012-02-04T15:19:00.001-08:00

I realize I told you I would show you what a Thai hut looks like. It looks like this:

Each age group was given the main room space and one bedroom in a Thai hut. Decorating that space so it didn't look like a resort hotel was a fun challenge. I posted some pictures of how we decorated earlier. I'll also include a couple more of the resort. It was beautiful, but for some reason I chose to take pictures the one day it was cloudy.

A pretty creek ran through the campus.

There was also a field with lots of colorful ribbons hanging from the tree limbs.

And rows of Thai huts. Some of us stayed in the same Thai huts that we used later as classrooms (but not in the same rooms, of course) and others of us were in "Thai houses" which were just a bigger version of the Thai huts. All of them basically functioned as hotel rooms.

Tuesday...

2012-02-04T15:09:00.001-08:00

Despite not drinking any tap water, avoiding fresh vegetables, and trying to keep a distance from unchecked coughs and sneezes from the kids, Tuesday I woke up a couple times during the night, and by morning I knew I was sick, so I stayed put in bed. I'm still not sure whether it was food or a virus, but I wasn't the only one who got sick. By Wednesday ten more leaders/parents/kids had thrown up, and everyone else was just trying to avoid.

I did manage to snap a shot of this little guy who was outside our door. Do not mistake size for volume. We went to sleep each evening to a resounding symphony of "ribbits."

Even though I wasn't there, I got a couple shots of the kids' work from Tuesday. Since we were loosely going through the Sermon on the Mount with them, Tuesday was the beatitudes, so Gwen talked to them about having an attitude like Jesus.

Tuesday's interesting Thai thing is the elusive "mini frog." But, true to his name, I don't have any pictures. They were about the size of a dime. The kids would try to find and catch them all over the resort after dinner.

Monday's Child Is...

2012-02-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

Well, Monday's child hit the ground running, at any rate.

I have to warn you that picture-wise this second week is pretty scarce and perhaps boring. That's for a few reasons:

1) Because the people we were working with were children, and because they were a particularly sensitive group of children, we were not allowed to take any photos of them. BUMMER. But for a good cause.

2) Tuesday and Wednesday I was sick. I will spare you pictures of that.

3) We were ridiculously busy all week and I really just didn't have a ton of time. Let's take a look at that schedule again:

So basically, because I realize you can't read that, we had the kids every day from 9:15 until 5:15 with a break for lunch every day and an extra break on Monday and Friday and then Wednesday afternoon off. So that's 7 hours with a class of 9 3-4 year olds.

I have to say, it went MUCH better than I expected. We had a really great team of leaders and we broke up the leadership responsibilities by day, which I think worked out pretty well. I had Monday, and the lesson was all about Joshua 1:9. The first was particularly relevant to these kids who do a lot of traveling even though they are young, and can more clearly understand what it means that "the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go!" We talked about the things we bring when we're going on a trip (or expedition, since that was the overall theme for the week) and how we bring things we need. Then we talked about how we always need God with us, and made a craft to show some of the things we might bring on a trip.

We had a couple kids that took a while to get used to the room and the new people. We had play dough ready and 1000 balloons ready to be pumped up at the slightest wail. It worked well.It was usually the same kids every day. Slowly they warmed up to the environment, but of course Monday was the worst. Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly this day went.

Ridin' on a Seoul plane baby...

2012-02-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

I have arrived in Seoul. I will be here for the next 5 hours. Although it's 5PM in the States, it is 5AM here. So I am trying to simulate daytime, which is proving difficult to do when the guy behind me is snoring, but anyways...

We touched down at the airport here and parked (or whatever you call it when it's an airplane). I looked out the window to see some sort of huge chemical reaction/explosion that had left this weird white residue on the ground next to the hangar. I was looking at the big pile of white powder trying to figure out what it was when suddenly it dawned on me...it was snow.

That to say, I haven't slept in 23 hours, and even though I'm going to try to crank out the rest of the posts while I sit here, you (the reader) may have to navigate several misspellings or things that just don't make sense. Be gracious :)

Prayer Request

2012-01-31T05:05:00.000-08:00

I'm interrupting this delayed blog with an up-to-date prayer request. The little fever I had last night turned into full-blown sickness this morning, which was probably a combination of bad water or food and a virus. Since about 1:00 this afternoon I've been on a diet of bananas and rice and bread, and am thankful that I seem to be keeping food down now. But pray for a full recovery by tomorrow, and pray for the rest of the team, as a virus does seem to be going around amongst the children and now the leaders too. Thanks.

Prep

2012-01-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

Since everyone else was to arrive at Suan Bua Sunday evening, we spent the morning unpacking boxes and boxes of craft supplies, paper, toys, children's books and dress-up clothes, re-organizing them, and then organizing them again by age group.

This is April, our fearless and tireless leader.

Each of the age groups is meeting in a separate Thai hut. I realized I don't have a picture of the outside of them, so I'll have to post that later. Our theme for the week is "Xpedition Force" and we're going through the Sermon on the Mount and talking about our journey as Christians. For the 3-4 year olds, we broke up the topics into; 1. God is always with us on our journey 2. Beatitutdes: Jesus shows us what attitude we should have on our journey 3. Salt and Light: the Word is a Light in the darkness 4. The Lord's Prayer: The importance of praying during our journey 5. The Continued Journey.
For that reason, each group decorated their Thai hut with an explorer theme using various materials that were available from Chiang Mai.

We created a jungle and an ocean. Behind the "jungle" and under the stairs was a cave with some cushions. It's one of the children's favorite spots to play in.

Taking the Hike to Suan Bua

2012-01-28T01:14:00.000-08:00

On Saturday George took me out on the motorbike again (this time with a helmet) for Thai breakfast. We had been eating toast and fruit at the hotel, but he took me out for duck and noodle soup. Since breakfast time here is close to dinner time at home, duck and noodles made as much sense as anything. After breakfast he said we would go to a "cute coffee shop that you'll never be able to find again with your friends." That's probably true. The coffee shop was really cute, but it was up a hidden staircase in the back of a shop in the middle of the market. Oh well. It was fun morning.

When I got back, we packed up to leave Riverside Hotel. We had one last meal in Chiang Mai and packed into sang tauws for the hour trek up to Suan Bua, where we would be having the children's program.

We were supposed to pick one of the team members up from a gas station, but there was a little miscommunication (viz: our driver spoke Thai and none of us did) so we passed the gas station, had gone up the mountain and were 5 minutes from Suan Bua before we pulled over to try to sort out what to do. This is the driver making some phone calls.
We all went out to dinner at a little restaurant across from Suan Bua, and afterwards had a worship service, since there wouldn't be anywhere to go Sunday morning.

Today's interesting Thai thing is the Thai language which, it turns out, is very useful in communicating with the people here :)

Elephant Art

2012-01-27T21:42:00.000-08:00

If I said this post was about elephant art, something like this might come to mind:

You might not think of something like this,

or this,
or this.
But I assure you they are elephant art in the most literal sense of the term. More on that later.

According to schedule, before the elephant rides on Friday we went to the elephant show.On our way into the show we got our first up-close glimpse of some of the elephants.This glimpse... ...turned into a close personal encounter!After locating the loo......we continued on our way to the elephant show.
The whole thing was really impressive, but at some point I realized the pictures weren't doing it any justice, so I put down my camera and watched instead. I still have enough to give you a taste of what we got to see.
But, without a doubt, the coolest thing the elephants did was paint. Hence, "elephant art." And in case you don't believe that the art above was done by elephants, I have proof of the process:

For those of you hoping I brought home some elephant art, 6,000 baht = $200. So don't get those hopes up.

We got to meet and greet the stars of the show afterwards!

They let us feed the elephants bananas and sugarcane, but it was impossible to capture a picture of that because they ate it so quickly.

Adam's elephant skills are not quite as good as the elephant's human skills.

And instead of an interesting Thai thing this post (since it's still the elephants), I will introduce you to another Cockney slang phrase that Adam taught us. While in the orchid nursery he said, "are you having a butcher?" I had no clue what he meant, so he explained that it meant, "are you having a look?" Basically, the Cockneys took a word, came up with a two-word phrase that rhymed (in this case "look" and "butcher's hook") and then used the first word of the phrase instead of the original word (thus "look" becomes "butcher"). It worked as a code language for trading goods so others didn't know what they were talking about. Then it worked its way in to the common speech. Pretty interesting!

Elephants and Tigers and Butterflies...OH MY!

2012-01-27T01:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm writing Monday night (which hasn't happened yet if you're in the States) for stuff we did last Friday. Since we left Chiang Mai for San Buan on Saturday the internet speed and temperature have dropped. As a result, I haven't had the time it takes to upload the pictures I'd like to share. This Friday post then, will be split in to two.

First: Elephant rides!
Terrifying.
It's sort of like taking the downhill of a roller coaster...on an elephant. Hence:

In these pictures in particular, our guide and driver had slid down the elephant's trunk (seriously) and left us to steer the great beast ourselves for several yards. It does not look like the elephant below is moving, but I assure you--he is.
Conversation with Milly on this one went something like this:
Me: Can you fall off of these things?
Milly: No. It is impossible to fall off.
Me (Holding on for dear life): You think anyone has every fallen off of these things?
Milly: No. No one has ever fallen off an elephant. Eva (which of course, is how she says "ever").
And so on...

Towards the middle of the ride we took the elephant for a drink. Our guide taught us how to say "drink water" in Thai, but at this point I've forgotten. Anyways, I thought these pictures were pretty cool, particularly because of the rainbow!

This is what it looks like from the top of an elephant, in case you were wondering. Unfortunately, even with sepia effect, my legs are still reflective.

Charlotte and Anne Grace's elephant came for a drink at the same time as our elephant. On our way out of the creek, their elephant sprayed us with the water he had collected.
No. 66: Elephant with attitude.

The stressful ride called for a drink...of coconut milk.

After our adventures at the elephant camp, we went to see some tigers that people could sit on and take pictures with. I'm only posting one picture of that because basically they all look like this:

Post-tired tigers, we went to a butterfly and orchid nursery. I have tons more pictures of this, but blame the slow internet for these "best-of's" instead of a whole roll.

It was a really fun and exciting day. Lots of new experiences. The elephant ride was the highlight, clearly. Oh! I almost fell off. Yes, that's right. After all that joking around about falling off, we were headed back to the "loading dock" to get off of the elephant. I was asking Milly if we were supposed to tip the driver, and had decided yes, that would be a nice idea. I let go of the railing we were holding on to to get out my wallet JUST as the elephant decided to...go. down. a. flight. of. stairs. No kidding. Huge, elephant-sized staircase. So of course, I slide/bump out from underneath the bar, clutching my camera instead of anything useful and the driver turned around to throw his arm out and Milly...well, she laughed.
Anyways, near death experience.

Winner for interesting Thai thing on Friday is, without contest, the elephants. Even more on them later.

And since I'm taking the time to blog, I'd appreciate your prayers for the children's program this week. It's off to a great start, but we leaders could definitely use prayers for energy and endurance. And I've got a fever of some sort, so you can pray that goes away.
Thank you & have a nice day!

Familiar Faces

2012-01-27T00:21:00.001-08:00

Some of you will recognize this guy:

I was in my room uploading pictures to the blog yesterday when this happened:

(Knock on door.)

Anne Grace: Lindsey, do you know someone named George McBride?

Me: Uhm, yes...

Anne Grace: He's here looking for you.

I grabbed my camera (but left my camera card by accident because it was in my laptop) and went out to the hotel court area where Mr. McBride was waiting.

I emailed him before I left the States, but had had trouble reaching him while in Thailand, and wasn't sure how to get in touch. Thankfully, I told him where we were going to be staying, and he popped in randomly to see if I was free. After more properly introducing myself (since I was only 4 when the McBrides left for Thailand) he said, "would you like to go for a ride?" I said sure and we walked outside where his....motorbike....was waiting.

Driving in any vehicle on Chiang Mai streets is an experience and the motorbike ride was a particularly...thrilling...one. I had to choose between taking pictures and staying alive, however, so there's nothing to document that. George made fun of the fact that every time we would pass a car (mind you, with about 2 inches of space between) I would squeeze my knees in a lot tighter.

He said, "nothing in Chiang Mai is far," and he was right. The McBride's home was a 10 minute ride from my hotel. Their home is beautiful and, as he told me, used to be an orphanage. It was wonderful to meet Awn, his wife. She was a gracious hostess.

It was a short visit because they're having me back on Saturday for Thai breakfast. He asked me if chicken was okay and I responded that, since it's technically dinnertime in the States when it's morning here, chicken would be fine. Thankfully, they lent me a camera card so I could take these pictures to share with you!

Planning

2012-01-26T03:08:00.001-08:00

In case you think we're shopping all the time and not getting anything done, I included these pictures of our planning time today. Obligatory cup of coffee picture first:

This is the 3-4 year-old team I'll be working with next week.

Our schedule for the conference:

Miriam and Gwen:

And what's a day without a Chinese New Year Parade down the sidewalk?

And finally, today's interesting Thai thing is (as Milly calls them) Big Thai Trousers:

More Market

2012-01-26T02:42:00.001-08:00

Here's some more from the Night Market. Roti is a sort of flat pancake that you can fill with bananas and honey or chocolate sauce. This woman is frying one.

For all of you funnel cake lovers:

Here's the first one of my favorite (and only) roommate at Riverside, Millie. She's from the UK on her gap year. She came to Chiang Mai from Bangkok and is traveling to Peru from Chiang Mai.

Adam (left) came to Chiang Mai last year and was our fearless leader around the market. He negotiated prices with his Thai skills. His navigation included finding our hotel again at the end of the night, which would have been impossible for me. Adam and I have been swapping accents all week and he's been trying to teach me Cockney phrases, like "dog" for phone. That's the only one I remember, so clearly it's not working very well. Rita's on the right and is German and helps me tease the ones with English accents.

Mango gelato. Yummy.

Millie in what I can only imagine is a traditional Thai hat. They have these everywhere. It could also be a cruel tourist joke.

We "wai" with Ronald

For dinner we swapped bhat for food coupons and ate at the food court in the middle of the night market.

My dinner was a curry chicken and egg noodle soup. Very yummy.

Night Lights

2012-01-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

Tonight we perused the Night Market, which is about a 5 minute walk from the hotel at which we're staying. The Market is massive and we spent about 4 hours there without repeating a stand. The stands are full of fun colorful items for sale, and the Market is full of all sorts of lights, as you can see.

First Full Day

2012-01-24T16:41:00.000-08:00

Good Morning! For those of you who are not in Thailand with a British roommate and don't know what half-seven is, I will tell you. It means 7:30. Which is what time a.m. I woke up here. It was about 75 degrees when I climbed in the saengthaw at the airport last night, and it's just a little cooler than that this morning.
This is what my room looked like this morning in Chiang Mai. We're staying at the Riverside Hotel. Today we spent all day planning activities, studies, and schedules for next week. I'm pretty exhausted, but that's probably because it's 6:30am at home. Thankfully they served us coffee about every two hours today.

Tonight we're going to check out the night market and get dinner. Pictures of that tomorrow.

One more. Today's interesting Thai thing is:

Beer and egg shampoo.