I want to introduce you to Nappy-Do aka Rasta. She is our neighborhood dog that Jessica and I loosely adopted - she doesn't live with us and we don't feed her unless we see her coming back from the market. We talk to her as we walk through our neighborhood and she follows us around! I wish the picture did her hair justice...it is so Tina Turner!! She's precious!! It's been a while since blogging, but this first week of school was a serious readjustment into using my brain again. It took me a bit to get started again after having such a long vacation and moving to a new country. But the week went by and it was smooth, outside of totally changing the way I used to teach in order to meet the needs of these kids. Keep me in your prayers as I adjust...
Here's my week in a nut shell:
Monday - first day of school, awesome, came home exhausted, bed @ 9pm.
Tuesday - second day, awesome again, came home, got a hair cut as you can see in the picture (check it out)
...you cannot see the back which is way more layered than I have ever had it before and only for $4.Wednesday - third day, after school, went to youth group and spoke about how the Lord is romancing all of us and if we just sit still, He will be better to us than we could ever experience anywhere else, got encouraging words from the kids after...thank you God!!
Thursday - fourth day, came home, and then babysat some friends' kids
Friday - fifth day, made it through the first week, and came home, changed into pajamas, watched a movie with my housemates, and ordered pizza delivery!!! yes, it comes all the way out to my house! We were all so excited!
Then Saturday...here comes the adventure...my principal, Ruth, picked
all four of us here, and two other volunteers (me, Damaris, Sheila, Cece, Danielle, and Jessica), and we headed out to some of the oldest chedis (temple statues), but not before we took a U-turn in the road 
to take a picture of a water buffalo (like the ones in the Veggie Tales songs). In the picture on the left, the 
chedi is a shrine where they put relics of either Buddha or a local monk's ashes in the top for people to worship. Buddhism, as I am learning, includes tolerance for all religions, including animism, a fear of not appeasing the ancestors and spirits. As we drove through this area with the chedis, people honked randomly to let the spirits know they were there, so the spirits don't get scared. 
In the center picture, you can see the wall of the city, which is so old that trees of significant height have grown out of the wall, as you can see! That wall in the picture is older than America!!
Another chedi we saw is on the right. If you look closely, you can see me, which shows you how tall the chedi is. We also saw Buddhas everywhere we went as you can tell from the pictures and they were all huge and golden and shiny, but so empty. It broke my heart to have people so tied to a religion that is empty without grace or redemption and no personal relationship or love. Pray for this country and its wonderful people!!
This picture in the middle is of Buddha floating on a beautiful boat that is probably two stories high with shiny glass mosaic put together with steel. The pictures never do the actual thing justice, sorry about that! Maybe if you click on them, they'll get bigger and you can see it better. The river behind it is the Mekong River, which is at its highest level right now. The Mekong River is what meets the Golden Triangle, where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet all in a triangle, as in the picture to the left and down. The pointy part is Burma, the green at the bottom is Thailand, and the green on the left is Laos. Behind the mountains
is China - 5 hours away by driving (just fyi!). While we were standing there taking pictures, these kids dressed up in costumes (Akah and other tribes styled) came up 
and asked in a sing-songy voice, "Take picture, two kids, 5 baht, okay?" Since they wouldn't leave us alone, Ruth, my principal, said in Thai, "You take picture, two ferongs (white people), 10 baht, okay?" Then they walked away, after laughing at her.Then we ate lunch at a Thai buffet, which was beautiful and delicious.
We hopped back into the truck and drove to the Mae Fah Luang Gardens, which are the gardens of the Queen Mother. Here are some beautiful flowers...indescribably beautiful. I have never seen so many flowers
and so exquisite each one. The Lord is surely a creative God!
That is me with a wat
erfall, which was in the gardens too! Right after we took pictures with it, they turned it off, so we just made it!!This plant just below is a
carnivorous plant that catches bees and other pollen-carrying insects in it's cute little pouch, and uses them for their nutrients! For something so cute, it is pretty vicious!!
This tree on the right looked special enough to be included because when I
saw it, I thought it should be in a Dr. Seuss book. Isn't amazing??The picture on the left is the Queen's gardens which is the last thing you see before you leave. They are perfectly manicured and absolutely incredible.
While taking pictures there, we met new friends, who are from Thailand and wanted pictures with us. The one girl jumped into our picture and we all laughed and had a blast! Another girl took a picture with Danielle, saying, "Sa
me hair, same skin, I take picture with you?" It was awesome!
As you can see, I am still at home among the mountains! My housemates don't think the picture is good unless I am laughing, and it doesn't take much to get me going.So, the last picture is a bit sentimental, because my sweet roommate and very close friend, Danielle, leaves this week to go back to America. We all are very close, but since Jessica got here and moved into her bedroom,
Danielle has been sharing a room with me. We have shared memories, cried and prayed together, and have formed a lifelong friendship. She will truly be missed. Pray with us, that she comes back (at least for a visit!)Saturday night, we all spent the night in an Akha village, but my camera died and I couldn't take any more pictures, so I will leave you for now, and tell that story later this week! Honestly I think even with all the beautiful flowers and with all the history that we learned and sights that we saw, the best part of this weekend was getting to hang out in the back of a truck with some of the most amazing women I have ever met - all single and willing to leave their homes and families in various countries because God said GO!! Plus, we had lots of adventures where we would literally fall into the middle of the floor of the truck so we didn't fall out, as we sped hoppingly along at 120 kmh (pretty darn fast). At one point, we were holding onto the bars and barely sitting down in between bumps, trying to hold on, but hysterically laughing as Danielle and Jessica landed on each other on the floorbed of the truck. It was almost more than we could handle, but amazing nonetheless!!
I am honestly overwhelmed at each new experience that the Lord deemed me worthy to do this...travel to Thailand alone, and teach in a Christian school. It is amazing! The time I have been here feels like forever, but seems like just a few moments. I so look forward to ALL the future holds whether it is here or in the States...I am confident of this...there is one thing that I seek: to dwell in the House of the Lord forever and to gaze on His beauty. For me, Thailand is it.
And now to Beowulf and British lit...love and fried bananas!!
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