Mission Thailand

There was a wasp nest attached to a leaf of a teak tree in front of our house. Nart removed the leaf to make the wasps go away. Holding the leaf with the wasp nest still intact, I was talking to Nart, and told him how I had seen a documentary called "Wild China", where 2 chinese guys followed a wasp to its nest in a tree, then smoked out the wasps, took the nest, and ate the larvae. They reckoned the larvae was a real delicasy. Before I had barley finished my story, Nart pops a larvae out of the nest and eats it. My first thought is this guy will eat anything that moves, my next thought is, maybe I should try one. So I grab a wasp larvae, and down the hatch. They taste oily and maybe a bit nutty, ... and yes I was a bit nutty eating them. But hey, they could be this awesome treat ready to hit the streets of Adelaide, and we just dont know what we are missing out on. Instead of a bag of mixed nuts, what about a bag of fresh wasp larvae. It almost has a good ring to it.
Well at least those wasps didnt chase us.

On a lighter note, today I gave a couple guys here a hair cut. Yes you need to be multi-skilled to come here. Im surprised they let me. I offered my hairdressing services to them once before, after cutting Isaac and Jeds hair but they refused. I didnt blame them really, I did a shocker of a job on Isaac and Jed. You can see their hair cuts on the picture gallery.

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Yesterday at the school where we teach english, we were to have a visit from the Thai Education Department, who were coming to look at the school, and view those fine model teachers from Australia in action. One of which actually worked at the South Australian education department (DECS) ( ...ok so I was in I.T. and never saw a student, thats just a minor technicality). Anyway, the normal english teacher was there all dressed nicely and the kids must have been primed, as they were on such good behaviour I was taken back, as they are generally more ...unrestrained (saying it nicely). So we thought we would start with something that seemed like they are learning english (boooring), the education department people poked their heads in the door then walked on. We thought that was it, so onto the fun stuff. We were playing a game, that got a bit out of hand, with kids crashing into each other and making heaps of noise. At this point the regular teacher was looking rather nervous, but we kept going. Hey, the kids were having fun. Then I look up and the education department guys are looking in the door again, and realise why the regular teacher was so anxious. Ooops!

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We went to visit the Grand Canyon this afternoon. No not that grand canyon, this is more the baby canyon, but was worth a visit. We all enjoyed it. We stopped for an icecream by the canyon, and it still amazes me how the Thais all look at us, and you can hear them talking about us too. I feel a bit like a freak show. They often talk Thai to Isaac and he hates it and used to always just give them an angry look, but we told him to be a bit more friendly, and now will sometimes say hello to them in Thai. A couple pics on our picture gallery of the Thai grand canyon.

We stopped for some Thai Roti on the way home at the local market. Its like a flaky pastry with condensed milk poured over it and rolled up. Mmmmm.

The weather here has been nice over the last few days. Its been overcast, and had a bit of rain.  

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Just when I thought I escaped from programming, I have found myself doing updates on Mercys website. Also as the website is getting a bit out of date, I have been spending some time creating some new website layout samples, as to how it can be improved. Though its a good break from working outside in sweltering heat.

I guess I can run, but I can hide. 

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We were teaching at the school today, and talking about food. I wrote down the names of some fruit on the blackboard, and the children were copying down all the names. As I was looking at one childs spelling, I told her she spelt Orange incorrectly. She points to the blackboard, and with a bit of embaressment on my side, I see she copied my writing exactly. I had written "Orango".
 
Hey, I never sed I could spel when I signed up to be a inglish teecher.

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Just thought I'd share a summary of what I shared at church yesterday...

Who is Jesus? 

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Ive been helping to do the centres weekly shopping, being a chauffeur and lacky, with Dah our cook. Conversations are a bit wierd, as she talks only very little English, and I speak even less Thai. So she'll tell me a big spiel in Thai, I understand about 3 words out of what she says, I return conversation with a big spiel in english, and the look on her face is, she can only understand 3 words of what I said. I ask her a question and she'll smile and say "OK", but that in no way answers my question. So I try and say it in Thai, she attempts to pull out her english dictionary, then gives up and we continue in silence. Arrgh, yes I am trying but I just cant make the language sink in...yet.
Despite the frustration, we do manage to communicate enough to get the shopping done.


By the way shopping doesnt consist of just going Coles and getting it all, its more like going to an dodgy version of the Central Market, with the meat sitting out in the sun with flies on it. There are 2 "Coles" Type shops (Tesco & Big C) where we get milk and a couple other items, but these shops are much more expensive than the market, so off to the market we go. Even though I'm not one for going shopping at the best of times, the market is interesting, and a bit of an adventure.

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We had a team of 25 Americans come here for a couple days, a bit of a squeeze for accomodation. For yankees they seemed like an ok bunch of people, and did some good work here. We've had 4 teams now come here since we've been here, each has had something different to contribute.

Today Isaac felt a bit homesick for the first time (a few tears). Homesickness hadnt even crossed my mind (sorry to burst your bubble), Isaac was looking at some photos of some friends back in Aus, and that brought it on. He is really enjoying it here, but it can be tough without your close friends.

We went to the new school yesterday, and to my surprise the kids were fairly well behaved (unlike the last visit), and they could speak a little english, better than the last school. I think all the kids like our english program, no boring english  lessons with us, theres games, food, stories and songs. They may not learn any english, but at least they'll have a good time.

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We had our real last day at the Kasong school today. We had lots of fun playing games with the children. It wont be the same for them going back to normal boring school work. We enjoyed teaching at that school, and we also had some good opportunities to share our faith with them.

Yesterday, we met the principal of the next school we will go to. When we got there the kids were all just running around wild. I dont know if it was just because we were there, or if its just a crazy school. We will find out next week. Isaac and Jed came with us, and they were like stars, with all the kids crowding around them. Isaac didnt like that much though, a bit overwhelming.

Whilst typing this, we just had a couple ultralights buzzing around over the top of us, it looked like lots of fun.

The village people (dont sing YMCA), have started planting rice in the surrounding fields, which looks great, will take some shots soon.

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On thursday we taught at the local school again, and they thought it was our last day there, but we are still there next week. They gave us presents, took photos of the principle giving us the presents, took photos of us and the staff and kids, and each of the kids wanted individual photos of us with them. We felt like movie stars, but it was really all a bit embarrassing. We told Tik (the Thai manager who interprets for us and leads the english program), that we think they think this is our last day. She said no, they know we are here for another week. We told Tik to check with them as we were about to leave, and yep they thought it was our last day...whoops. 


It was Yings birthday today, she turned 2. So Lisa made a cake and we all gave some presents. Tried to take a photo of her, but she was being very shy, and could not get one of her smiling.

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