well, still no pics

I'm trying on the pictures though. I'll have to go another avenue I think. Things have been good over the past week, but a bit crazy. Over the weekend I went with all the other volunteers to a province nearby called Kanchanaburi. It was pretty relaxing and really good to get to spend time with the other people here. It was great spending time with them and learning about their countries. I even watched a little soccer with them one night, though I had to call it "football" in order for them to understand me. I got to ride an elephant while I was there which was OK, but I had already done that on a previous trip so I wasn't too enthuised about it. After riding it though we took them down into the river Kwai and washed them which was cool. I got to see the bridge over the river Kwai and check out some museums there too. I might go back there one more time just to go kayaking down the river with some of the volunteers.

I'm off to Laos tomorrow to get a visa. The Cambodian trip fell through and now we'll have to go stay in Laos for a night and get the proper visa. It's a headache and one that I should have been able to avoid, but I'll know better for the future I guess.

The last couple days with the kids have been pretty good. Today we took the to the main office to see a movie with all the other kids. We saw Tranformers, but it was in Thai. Not a bad movie I guess. After that the kids all got some fake money and had to buy there own food downstairs in a makeshift food court that had been set up. The whole point was to help them learn how to use money, but some of the kids just tore their money in half. Maybe they were just greedy and wanted twice as much. All I know is that I won't be handing them any of my money to hold for me.
Monday we took some of the guys to a park on the outskirts of Bangkok. The park was part of a Buddhist temple I think, and was a nice place to have a picnic. We took the guys there and cooked food and fed some fish. I got to learn how to cook some Thai food which was pretty fun. The kids wouldn't eat the food I prepared though (wimps) so I had to stomach it myself. Next time I might ask for a little more guidance in the cooking aspect of things here!

Frankie goes to Hollywood

It was a good day with the guys today. Thursday is usally movie day which the guys seem to like a bit. I was sitting next to Pittaya who kept hitting me in the back of the head when I wasn't looking. Then at lunch time I went to get the food and there was only two pots instead of three. I took the empty pot back and pretended to dump it over sen's head. He was laughing so hard he fell over in his wheelchair and just about took the table with him. The guys thought it was pretty funny.

And then there's Frankie. His Thai name is perm, but we call him Frankie for some reason. Today after work me and Berg, my roomie, took Frankie and Samer to the movie theater place near the house called Hollywood Majors. There's a KFC on the bottom of it where we took the guys. One of the girls from Rachawadee girls came, Gat Gow, and a couple of the babies came out too. All in all, there were 13 people there. After the KFC we took them to an ice cream place called Swensons. They claim to be America's favorite, but I've never heard of them before. The guys really liked the food and ice cream and were really excited for the opportunity to get out and do something different. They were looking forward to it all day long. We play to do it pretty regularly with the guys, either to there or off to church with us on Sundays. They really get a kick out of it and are soo excited when they get the chance to get out.

Good news about the visa problems. We don't have to go to Laos. We can actually choose to go to any country we want to. Well, I had already known this, but what I didn't know was that Cambodia seemed to be a much better choice than Laos. I think that the entire trip can be done in a day and costs less in the long run. I think we'll go next Wednesday. Thanks for the prayers, I'm relieved not to have to spend the weekend in Laos. Hopefully this works out well for us!

Balls of Fury

Today was a pretty good day with the kids. On Tuesday mornings we go into the sensory room with about 5 of the kids. What's a sensory room, you might be asking. Well, it's a dark room with mellow music where the kids can go and chill out, playing with different things that light up, floors of different textures, and of course, air conditioning. It's usually a pretty chill place and the kids seem to like being in there a lot.
However, little did I know (I had to take care of things last week so I arrived late last time) we go to a wonderful place called the Adventure Room before we go into the Sensory Room. Now, a better question might be, "What's an adventure room?". Well, there's lots of cushiony things, trampolenes, foam blocks to clime on, a slide, a fort, a swing, and oh yes, lots and lots of those plastic balls all over the floor.
It only took about 2 1/2 minutes of us being in there before those plastic balls that kids love so much were flying across the room, hitting anyone and everyone in their path. I think I threw about 200 fastballs in the span of about 45 minutes, which is quite tiring for any pitcher i would imagine. The kids seemed to love it a lot and some of them got some accurate throws. I was hit in the face more than once! A couple of the kids have decent reflexes, while a couple of them had reflexes like a stone wall. I think one of the kids got hit right between the eyes without even flinching! That's tough to do even when you try. They seemed to love it a lot though, and I don't know about them, but I can't wait to go back to this adventure room.

The sensory room was a good change of pace today, though there was 2 bus loads of students coming to visit from a school in Bangkok. People kept opening the door to peek inside and come and see the kids and take some pictures of what was going on in there. Probably wasn't very chill for the guys today.

On my lunch break today I learned how to sew...I tried to sew a big J on a piece of paper but it came out backwards. I think I'm confined to practicing my sewing while everyone else gets to work on the actual project that I'll have to use this new found skill with. Apparently I'm pretty bad at it.

No pictures yet...

I'm having troubles loading pictures up on the blog here so I'm going to have to get another site to load some pictures on to. But not to worry, they should be coming soon!
It's about 91 degrees here in Bangkok, which is pretty nice here now. The evenings cool off a bit which is great. It's supposed to get hotter from now on, but I'm enjoying it now. I say this because I just looked at the weather back home and it's like 3 degrees! I think I picked a good time to be here.

This weekend has been pretty quiet around the house which is nice. Half the house has gone to a beach somewhere and the rest of us have just been around the area. One of the girls had a friend come in for the weekend. Other than that I was able to get my laundry done and catch up on a few things. It's really nice to be back and meet up with people that I haven't seen in a couple years and also to meet some new people that have come here to help out. It seems like everytime I come there are more people here helping out with the children in the government wards. This is encouraging.

On friday some important lady from the Thai government came to CCD to see the work being done there and visit the children. This was a good idea, but they came 3 1/2 hours late. By the time they had gotten there most of the children were already supposed to be back at the wards and getting ready to eat dinner. It was then that I realized that cranky children tend to throw teddy bears across the room if you don't feed them first. The lady came with a big bag of gifts but some of the kids had nothing to do with them! Oh well, it was a nice thought and I was glad for her coming. Maybe the kids will be calmer by tomorrow...

One week down

It's hard to believe that I've only been here for a week. Being back here sort of feels like being back at home. It feels good to be back, but there is a lot of things that are different that I'm trying to get used to. The area here has changed with the addition of a bridge build here. A lot of the bus stops have changed and restaurants have come and gone. I'm still trying to figure out a couple things.
Most of the kids all remember me and are really excited that I'm back. It has been an amazing week so far getting to see them all again and they all get real excited to see me in the morning. Everything seems to be a bit better on the wards now than when I had left last time which is also encouraging. The guys and staff here all seem to be a bit happier. One of the guys here, noom, has been talking a lot more since I had left the last time. He used to only really say the word for pretty a lot when playing with legos or what have you. Now he seems to talk more to the staff and volunteers. He has been calling all of the volunteers Jeffrey ever since I left last time. It's really funny, everyone is Jeffrey. He calls the girl volunteers Pretty Jeffrey.

Today we did some cooking with the kids. It was a noodle salad...the noodles were like ramen noodles and there was a lot of different things in the salad. The guys got to chop some vegetables and put in their own spices. They all seemed to have a great time doing it even though my group made their dish really sour at first. A bit of sugar water cured it right up though.
It's great being back with these guys. Thanks to everyone that helped to make this happen, I'm sure these guys would tell you how much they appreciate it if they had internet!

Feeling like home again

It's sunday night now and I'm going to start working tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. I've spent the last few days resting up and running around Pakkred and Bangkok meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. I was able to meet up with some of the Thai people that we hung out with last time I was here and catch up with how they are and what is new with them. Also, there are two girls here from California doing a research project so we met up with them in the city and saw some sights together. It was great. They will be here for the next couple days then return home.

Right now the volunteer house is pretty crowded. I don't even know how many people are here now, but it seems rather full. I hear that in a couple weeks it will empty up a little bit which will help some. It's not too bad for now though, I'm coping pretty good. Most of the volunteers were gone all weekend, but we'll see how the week goes.

I'm 2 for 2 on killing the cockroaches I've seen in the house. This is a good statistic seeing as how these things have a lot of fight in them. I usually have to smash them about 3 times to finish the job.
I think one of the baggage handlers at the airport stole the deodorant out of my bag. This was not a funny joke and I hope he feels sorry about it now.

Well, off to bed, I'll write more after I officially start working. Pray that I don't have to go to Lao to get a visa...there's talk that I might have to.

40 some hours and 5 airports ago...

I don't remember how long it took me to get here, but it involved a lot of waiting. While I haven't experienced enough to have a highlight of the trip thus far, I think it would be safe to say that the lowlight has to be the 3 + hours I spent on the New York subway system. When traveling to New York I wouldn't recommend making that the primary sight that you see, though, the wonders you may see there!



Our first flight out of New York was 3 hours late by the time we took off. Had it been 3hrs 15min late we probably would have missed our connecting flight in Taiwan. Had it been 2hrs 45min late, we probably would have not only arrived in Bangkok on time, but so would our luggage.



The first thing I noticed in Bangkok was the smell...ah that familiar smell. Nothing too attractive about it, but it still has a familiarity to it...much like these tiny mosquitos that accompany me as I type. It was about an hour car ride from the airport to the place we are staying. We arrived about the same time the others got off from work today which was nice that we got to meet them all. The names of the other volunteers are... Well, the names aren't important now, I'm sure I'll learn them once i get a little sleep in me, and maybe a shower.



Praises. Yes, there are a few of them. For one, the language is coming back to me and I was able to navigate the taxi and understand what I was getting for dinner. My room has AC in it that can only be turned on at night (brilliant!). We were able to travel here safely and get into the country with no hassle. We have to go next week I believe to get the proper visa, but we're still legal for now. And Amazing Grace. My prodigal luggage has returned! After wandering off the path of righteousness in Taipei and refusing to board the same plane as me, it has returned tonight to bring me joy and clean clothes. Yes, this was great blessing today. Thank you God!



Time to go try to sleep off some jet lag, tomorrow will be a whole nother day