God is Moving!!

So, even though I am living and teaching in Thailand, many of you know that I have been to India several times. There is an orphanage there with 28 children that have captured my heart! They are being well cared for and brought up in a Christ loving home. Our time there last fall was to begin to build up a support group for the orphanage. Things like food, school books and uniforms, tuition, and the occasional doctor's bill and other unexpected expenses need to be covered. Right now the Indian man that started the orphanage, Babu, lives in Florida with his wife and 3 daughters. He works at Walgreens and she works as a nurse, and they live off of very little so that they can send most of the money to support the orphanage. Our goal has been to find sponsors for the orphanage. Anything you can give, monthly donations or just a one time gift, is a blessing and is greatly appreciated.
You can read more about the orphanage and the children there by going to:

http://www.ashamission.com

We have seen God work in so many ways! We have been praying for quite a few months for a bigger vehicle. They just had a motorcycle and a small car (that in America might hold a driver and 4 children... in India we stretch that a bit!). On holidays, to take the kids to the park or on any kind of outing took several trips. The Lord answered our prayers when a large van was donated to the orphanage a few weeks ago! It holds 4 times as many as the small car and will be a huge help and will lift a large burden off of Saji, the man who fathers the orphanage.

When I was there in the fall, there were 5 children who didn't go to school. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but children in India aren't allowed to start in the middle of the school year. Because of this they had to wait until the next school year started. We tutored them at home, but every day they would ask when they would get to go to school. Well... school starts on Thursday! They finally get a chance to go, but we need to raise the money to send them, YES, by Thursday! We have seen God work so many miracles at Asha Mission that this is not too big for Him or out of His reach.

There was a missions group called HopeChest that had the opportunity to spend some time with the children and decided that they wanted to help send our students to school. Not only do these 5 homeschoolers need to be covered, but there is a total of 12 students who need funds to start/return to school. HopeChest has decided to take it upon themselves to raise awareness and funds to make it happen. If you want to be a part of it, go to their blog here:

http://www.brandilea.com

I remember being in India and feeling overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable obstacles staring back at me... the poor, the beggars, the lepers, the street children, the orphans, the widows. Every corner you turn it is staring you in the face. A feeling of helplessness just took over. But then I looked at these children. 28 children, amongst millions, may not seem like much, but let me tell you that these children are being trained to be followers and seekers of Christ. You can make a difference for one of them, and they in turn are going to grow up and make a difference in their country.

I plan on going back to India for 2 weeks at the end of October. I can't wait to go back... It hurts to be away from them for so long! Knowing that they are well cared for and loved puts my soul at ease, but to see their faces and hold their hands is something that I will never forget and never stop longing for.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and to care about the things that I care about. If you are interested in more about what I did in India, you can read some of my previous blogs on this site, because I used this same one for that trip.

Love you all! Pray for Asha Mission!

Wai Kru

Wai Kru is a ceremony that goes on in schools in Thailand. Ours was last Thursday. Basically it's a day where students honor their teachers. Teachers are held in extremely high respect here. In a social hierarchy, they are considered to be right under monks, so it's a pretty important job to have and a high standard to live up to!
So the elementary students and teachers gathered in the church for Wai Kru on Thursday. The teachers all sat on the stage and the students sat out in the pews. A Thai teacher gave a lesson about being a good student and having charisma, then they recited some sort of something, not really sure what they said... Then each teacher took a seat at the front of the stage and their class came up and presented them with gorgeous flowers and sort of did a little bow thing. It was a very interesting experience! There were some gorgeous flowers! Things that you would see in a wedding or a ballroom! And they smelled SO good!The ones in my classroom are still living (it doesn't get as hot in there) but the ones in my room wilted in about a day :(
Here are some pictures:













This weekend was a nice time to relax. I did some shopping and got some fun stuff to decorate my room. Pictures will come once I get my room cleaned up!
I've also found a wonderful church that is a lot like Alliance, my home church in Boone. It's a bit far away, but it's worth the drive, and it's nice to get into the city once a week for a break.

This week is only a 3 day week. We leave Thursday for a staff retreat/training time and won't be back until Saturday.

I hope everyone has a great week! Pray that I will be productive and that my students would be receptive and willing to learn!

Happenings as of late

This has been an amazing week. Despite the lack of sleep and the super loooong work hours, my classes have gone pretty well. There are some frustrations. I have a very wide range of ability, even among just 13 students. Some will finish an assignment in 5 minutes and some it could take up to 45 for the same assignment. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it all work, but I LOVE my students! They are sooo cute and really funny and personable. I have 13 students in my class (it's actually going to be 14 because I'm going to have a student for 2 months... then again another one is going to be absent for a month, so I guess it averages out to 13! Only in Thailand... haha). There are also 13 students in my co-teacher, Jill's, class. I teach both classes math and she teaches both classes science, so I get to know all 26.
Not much has happened besides school... it keeps me pretty busy. One of my friends decided to get a flying squirrel as a pet this weekend... his name is Glider. I have yet to get a good picture of him awake, but here he is all curled up:


I also attempted to get a quick picture of my students. It's hard because there's so much to fit into the day I forget to take pictures, and this isn't their best, but it's all I have for now, so here it is:




I also got an AWESOME pair of suspender pants (Finally! I've been looking everywhere for the past year... they're just not popular yet in America). Pictures of that to come....

That's about it. Things are great, the food is great, my friends are great, and my room is finally great! Thanks for all the prayers. I miss you all!

My Room: Before and After

I finally finished painting my room!! It was a grueling process, but it feels soooooo much more like home now!

This is what it looked like before:




This is what it looks like now:




There's still a lot to do. I'm going to spray paint the green shelf and add some decorations and hopefully a rug. But at least the painting is done!

That's what I've done this weekend. It feels very good to be finished. I slept in the morning (for the first time in 3 weeks!) and have had a nice relaxing day. Me and Laurelle strolled through the market this afternoon and bought fruit and some random snacks. I can ask people how much something is, and most of the time understand the answer in Thai. I can also ask what something is, although getting the Thai word for it doesn't always tell me a lot. There's a really sweet lady named Dang right at the beginning of the market who has become a very dear friend. I stop and talk every time I'm on my way out or in. She teaches me Thai words and we talk about her daughters that are in college. She works all day everyday to put them through school. Everyone tells me I speak very good Thai because I can repeat words exactly like they say them (it's a tonal language...eek!), but the problem is, 10 minutes later, I forget how to say it! Maybe I'll learn it... we'll see.
I came home and did laundry and planned on working, but fell asleep instead! Now there is much work to do, so I have to go get started.
More updates and pictures to come...

My Classroom

It's harder than you would think to set up a classroom and get ready for school to start. There's sooo much to think about! What will the rules be, how will you enforce them, what are the consequences, what are incentives, how will you arrange things, what's going to go on the bulletin board... the list goes on and on and on....
Some of it is fun, some of it is stressful. I've been working several days now on all of it, and hopefully I have come up with a good system that will work.
I'll find out tomorrow... the 1st day of school! I have no idea what to expect. It can be difficult trying to get students to talk and discuss when English is their second language and they aren't used to that type of structure in the classroom. It's also a very community, group-focused society, so they always want to "help" each other with their work. It's definitely going to be an interesting day. Pray for me if you think about it!
I just finished decorating my room (well... as much as I could finish. There are still a few things to do, but they can wait until after the first 2 days.)
Here are some pictures :)

Busy Busy

Hey everyone!
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. It's been super busy around here. School starts Thursday and it's been crazy trying to get lesson plans made, get the classroom organized, develop a system of consequences/rewards, AND paint my room. It's been quite exhausting. I have pictures and stories to post, but they will have to wait until I get some rest and get through the first week of school.
I'm super excited about it and can't wait to meet the kids. This weekend we get to go on a little weekend retreat to relax (although I'll be writing lesson plans for next week... it never really ends :P ).
Everything is great. I'm healthy, I have great friends, amazing food, and a room that is slowly but surely coming together. It already feels like home here (just a little bit hotter!).
It's off to bed for now. Check for a substantial update later next week :P

My apartment and co-workers

I must say I am quite blessed... our apartment is wonderful! Apart from some odd bedroom colors (which is fixable) and a few cockroaches (who have been sprayed and are beginning to die), or apartment is lovely! Cool and colorful and already decorated very nicely (Thanks Jill!!).
4 girls live in the apartment. Right now it's just me and Laurelle, who lives across the hall on the 3rd floor. Jill, who is a returning teacher from last year and my co-teacher for 4th grade, comes back Tuesday. The 4th will be here in a few weeks or more. A position opened up at the last minute so she has to get all of her paperwork and visa stuff done, but we can't wait for her to get here to have some more people around.
Laurelle and I did some super cleaning today! swept and mopped all the floors, cleaned the walls and the bathrooms, and re-arranged all the furniture. We're making a list of things to go to the store and get to decorate, and hope to start painting later tonight :)

Here's a link to a video I took of our apt.(You'll notice I keep referring to Laurelle as Janelle, haven't quite gotten that one straight yet, but I'm working on it!)

My Apartment from Elizabeth Dawson on Vimeo.

There are some incredible people here! Laurelle is from CA and we hit it off immediately. She's teaching the first level of Kindergarten (they start at 3 here!). The apartment next door is for the boys (there's only 1 boys apt... they are quite outnumbered!) Nathan lives there, he's teaching High School math, and Ben, who is a returning teacher, will be teaching the extra help English classes for my students. Allan also lives there. He's been teaching summer school and will be filling in for awhile once the school year starts.
Our neighbors on the other side are families. One is yet to arrive, although they are veterans here and have 2 small children. The other is my roommate Jill's brother and sister-in-law and their 2 precious boys.
The rest of the teachers live on the other side of campus. Steve and Andi are a couple from Canada and brought a ton of games for us to play! Steve's teaching high school or middle school something... I forget... and Andi is teaching 5th grade. Sarah is so funny! She's great with kids... she's teaching the 2nd level of Kindergarten. Eunice is from Guatemala and is so much fun to be around. She's teaching the 3rd level of kindergarten. Julie is teaching 2nd grade, but I forgot where she's from, sorry! Then there are teachers who stayed for the summer... a girl named Janelle who teaches 6th grade and a guy named Chris and his wife and 2 little girls. Other returning teachers, Ruth and Kristin, are coming back today. There are also 3 more people coming in a few months.
Whew! So that's everyone. We stayed up late last night playing all kinds of awesome card games. There's a lot more exploring to do! And also work... we've started on our year plans and goals and next week will begin working on weekly plans/units/lesson plans.

Orientation

Right now most of the new teachers have arrived and we started orientation yesterday. It's been a lot of fun getting to know everyone and starting to learn more about our jobs and where we live and about Thailand in general. We've learned a lot about Thai history and culture and about the history of the school and the family that runs it (they are quite amazing!). There is such a mix of cultures at this school. The family that started it are Chinese, although they have lived in Thailand for several generations. Then we have Thai teachers, American teachers, and Canadian teachers. There are also quite a few Philippino's (sp?) as well.
I really do love it here, although the heat is going to take some getting used to. We are within walking distance from a 7 eleven and there's also a Big C (like a wal-mart) just down the road as well. To the other side there is a huge outdoor market with lots of amazing trinkets and really really good fruit! Today we ventured through the market all the way down to the river where they have river taxi's that can take you all the way into the heart of Bangkok (haven't done that yet, but soon...). I haven't really taken many pictures yet, but I will try to be better! As soon as I get some I will post them.
We got to look at curriculum today, and as nervous as I am about being in a classroom again, I'm really excited to be doing what I've been trained to do all those years in college. We still have a week and a half to prepare before school actually starts, and my roommate/co-teacher will be returning next week!
I really should plan these out before I start, but I just get on here and start typing what I can remember... Hopefully it's not too boring.
More to come later.

Long Journey

Sooo, after a long and tedious travel weekend, I finally made it to Thailand. Let me tell you a little about what happened....
Things started out really well. I left from Charlotte and even though my bags were a few pounds overweight they let it slide. They also gave my family a voucher to go back to the gate with me. The flight to Detroit was fast and fairly uneventful. Once I got to Detroit I had to run from gate 18 to gate 64 (it was a LONG way!), with my incredibly heavy carry on luggage, in 10 minutes! I make it, although quite tired and out of breath, and find my seat. The flight was supposed to leave at 3:25. Around 4:00 we're still sitting at the gate and they announce that there's a problem on the plane they're trying to fix, but that it would take about 45 minutes. At 5, we're still sitting there... they say another 45 minutes or so. At 6 they say everything is set and they even show the safety video. 6:30 comes around and we're still at the gate. weird. People are starting to get pretty angry. By 7 they tell us that the crew has become illegal (because we had been sitting there for so long) and that we all had to get our carry on's and get off the plane. They said they'd have a new crew by 8:30 and gave us food vouchers for dinner... 2 problems with that...
1. There are 400+ people waiting in line to get a voucher, and then waiting in line again at the few restaurants that are close by.
2. $6 is not going to buy you dinner in an airport.
Anywho, we get our food and wait until 8:30. At 9 they tell us there's no crew coming, but they are going to put us up in a hotel and that we'd leave at 9 the next morning. Yet again, 400+ people waiting in line for hotel vouchers, then for shuttles. The process took about 2 hours. Made it to the hotel, got up at 6 to catch the shuttle, and get to the airport. Then all 400+ have to wait in line yet again to get new boarding passes. Then the new plane that they had flown in had a problem, so we had to wait for that to get fixed. Once that was fixed we found out there was a crew member missing. We ended up leaving around 1:30. Once we got to Tokyo they had to re-book all our connecting flights... another line. We also had to go back through security. I barely made it to my gate, but 7 sIhort hours later I was in Thailand! Got through immigration and found my bags and my ride, and got to the school.
All in all, it wasn't so bad. Even if the flight had left on time, I would have missed my connection in Tokyo and then I would have been stuck there! And I got some flight vouchers out of it. I arrived a day late, but no big deal, orientation doesn't start until tomorrow.
I will post pictures of the school and my room later. I am definitely going to be painting and doing some organizing/decorating, but that might have to wait for awhile.
Thanks for following!