Children of God

Today I was able to witness something beautiful, and what made it beautiful was not just the act, but the unaware simplicity of it. 

New to ICS this year is a middle school LifeSkills program for students who have special needs and are not able to learn in the regular classroom.  The class has two 6th grade girls and I am privileged that they are part of my homeroom.  God has been preparing ICS for this for many years, and my own heart as well, as I've had the opportunity to work with students with special needs in different settings and contexts in the last 9 years.  From inclusion classrooms to rooms for students who are cognitively impaired (the new term for mentally impaired, wait 5 sec and they'll change the lingo again) from preschool all the way up through post-high school to a middle and high school magnet program for autistic students to working with a very special student in Argentina when no program existed for him I have been blessed to see many things that are possible when we open our hearts and our school to all kids. 

The truth is, we all have our limitations, but most of us are better at hiding them.  Even as I write this, I am preparing another post about my limitations- my physical and emotional and spiritual limitations and how God is using them to stretch and pull me into deeper knowledge of him.  People with special needs don't usually have a choice about revealing their limitations, while we can often skirt around ours.  But it doesn't mean they aren't there.

But for ICS, this was all new. I wasn't really worried or concerned about it, mostly because I have seen it work, but many people worried about how this would affect our school, our current students, and our academic standards.  There were concerns about how the students would respond to their new classmates.  But I know ICS kids, and I knew they would rise to the challenge.  Over the past four months I have seen my homeroom (and many other students) reach out and include those who are different in many kind and gentle ways.

Today, one of them blew me away.  A potential new student to the LifeSkills program was visiting, trying things out for the day.  So while I was teaching math first period, their class walked past in the hall and I could see my kids noticing someone new (and different) out there.  I took a minute to explain who she was and encouraged the kids to say hi when they saw her.  As the bell rang and everyone packed up, one girl stayed behind to talk to me. 

"Are they (the LifeSkills girls) allowed to eat lunch at the tables outside?"

When I said yes, that they were welcome to eat anywhere the other middle schoolers could eat, her face lit up and she pulled both her fists back into a triumphant "YES!". 

Little did I know, when she left my room she immediately walked next door and invited all three girls to eat lunch with her and her friends at their table outside.  A few hours later, as I walked into the cafeteria they were all walking out to the table- smiles a mile wide.  And once they were done eating, I saw the whole group running and playing together- taking the hand of the new visiting student to make sure she stayed with them (she can be 'a runner' a times)- a group of girls from four countries with a wide range of weaknesses, some hidden and others not, just being children of God together. 

Thanksgiving in southern Thailand

Breakfast view of Railay East

It was a beautiful weekend at Railay Beach, despite some rain- I think when you're at a place like Railay, every weekend is a beautiful weekend.  My pictures really don't capture it. I had planned to take a million pictures and just use the best ones. But then I forgot to charge my camera, so 12 photos in, the battery died.  Arg. But it was a great trip anyway.  

The rock where we climbed

 After getting up well before the butt crack of dawn on Thursday morning to fly to Krabi, we arrived at our hotel at around 10am and took a nice nap, followed by more naps and reading and lounging on the beach for the afternoon.  It was a rough Turkey Day, but someone's gotta do it.

Railay West beach

 Railay Beach is known for it's jutting rocks and a wide range of excellent rock climbing that attracts professional climbers from all over the world. And also people like me.  So after a lazy Friday morning, we spent the afternoon climbing- there are plenty of climbing schools that cater to beginners, though there weren't as many beginner routes. 

Railay West

 Rock climbing turned out to be a very humbling experience for me. Many activities you can complete, even if you're not very good at them (like me and bowling) but with rock climbing, at a certain point, I'm hanging out up there, dripping sweat from every pore, gripping with my toes and holding on for dear life, cursing the rock to which I cling and trying to keep the tears from showing to those down below, and I just have to give up and come down.  To me, it's really not scary. I don't mind the height and I learned quite quickly that when I fall off, I'm not going to fall at all.  But it definitely puts me up against my physical limitations (sorry, but even if I can wedge my toe into that crevice by my hip, I'm not going to be able to stand up on that foot) and my emotional limitations (I don't think many other people were crying on the rock or fighting back tears every time they failed and had to admit defeat).  I hung in there and kept trying as long as my hands were capable to following the signals sent by my brain, and once they quit functioning I just watched while my friend kept climbing.  I have a lot more to process about the whole experience, and I'm sure it will turn into a blog post of its own eventually.

I loved the look of these boats, which we took to and from the peninsula (it's not really land accessible) though getting out onto them is somewhat of an adventure.

 After climbing we had a great dinner and watched a fire show at a bar along the beach.  Lots of beach places in Thailand have fire shows, and this one was by far the worst either of us had ever seen.  It was pretty comical and when they took a short break half way we just had to look at each other and left. 

This beachside bar made me think of Pirates of the Caribbean

 Saturday we were hoping to do a bit of exploring at a cave/beach nearby and then kayak in the afternoon before our evening flight back to Bangkok.  The cave and beach areas were stunning and I only wish my camera had been working. We liked that area so much that we gave up the kayak idea, checked out of the hotel and headed to spend our last afternoon on the beach. 

Beautiful, even in low tide.

 Sadly the rain hit not long after we got there and cut that time short. We got absolutely drenched in the monsoon walking back, which would have been fine except we'd left our bags at reception so we'd taken all our valuables with us- phones, camera, wallets and passports.  Oh well, the passport dried...

Ready to climb!

 I do have to say that though I love exploring all these tropical beaches (and they are fabulous!) I am still a Great Lakes Girl at heart. I still don't like the stickiness of the salt water after a swim or the fear of creatures in the water.  I am always surprised by the sting of the water in any cuts I have or the pricklies you can get from the little ocean mites or whatever those things are.  And I do miss the long stretches of amazing sand along Lake Michigan or the crash of the waves that you don't always get here. 

Very busy with climbers

 Overall it was a fabulous 3 days to completely disconnect from life here and spend time just being.  I managed to read The Help, which I've been wanting to do for years (though I do need a buy a new copy of it, since the copy I had borrowed from someone was in my bag during the drenching) and practice being more confident with my Thai. One of my highlights was definitely chatting with the climbing guides in Thai once I was done and just watching.

Getting ready to go up.

My friend climbing. And then the camera battery died :( So sad.

If I can't spend Thanksgiving at the Ancestral Home, I suppose this is a pretty good substitute :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) is having their conference in northern Thailand this weekend, and I for one am SO GLAD.  In order to assist teachers in attending, our school had a half day today (Wed) and has Thursday (Thanksgiving) and Friday off.  I'm sure the conference will be great. I, however, am going to the beach. 

We don't usually get anything more than Turkey Day itself, so this is a real treat (thanks ACSI!), and boy do I need it.  By 6pm tonight by insane month of Thai class will be over and I will get my life back.  Except when you stop doing anything but learning Thai for a month the rest of life builds up, so my "to-do" lists are exceedingly long.  For 4 weeks now I've been saying "I'll do that the week after Thanksgiving". 

So here I am, tired and weary and speaking better Thai than ever, but oh-so-ready for a few days of relaxation before real life slams back on Monday. As usual, I've over committed myself with extras at work, tutoring, ministry, and friends.  I know how to say no in at least 4 languages, but I am complete crap at ever doing it. But once the AC guys come this afternoon and that gets fixed (2 out of 3 are broke) then I can go to Thanksgiving lunch and then to Thai and then come home and pack and have my skype date so I can get up at 4:30am and fly to a little slice of paradise in southern Thailand, and just chill. 

So enjoy your turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie tomorrow. I'll be thinking of you and missing you and feeling so thankful for the many friends and I family I have around the world. 

The Bangkok Marathon

I ran the Bangkok Marathon today, but it's not what you might think. I didn't run the full marathon, nor the half marathon, nor the mini (10k) marathon.  I ran the micro (5k) marathon :)  I am not a runner, even though I've always had runner friends.  In high school I'd run when we were on vacation with my friends and their family, but I could never keep up with them.  Running was just not my thing. 

 After college, I my runner friends and I became roommates, and I watched them run day after day. I looked at my "bucket list" (which, I might add, I made long before the movie!) and it had "run a 5k" on it.  At 25 years old I decided I wasn't getting any younger and my knees weren't getting any better: it was now or never. So I did the couch potato to 5k training program and ran a 5k.  I loved it! I was so worried about just being able to finish that I had lots left in the tank at the end.  I ran again the next year and finished in a lot less time. 

Since then, I've run on and off, but never in an organized race.  One of my good friends in Argentina was a serious runner (she has since completed an ironman race!!!) and she inspired me to at least push myself a little harder when I ran, but still, I wasn't really going very far or very fast. 

More of the ICS 5k crew

Running in Bangkok has been a bit difficult to do real regularly.  There are few hours of the day when you can run (and in the hot season? forget about it!) and there aren't many places to run due to the lack of sidewalks and the plethora of street dogs.  But a few months ago I convinced my friend to run the Bangkok 5k- she had never run a race before and really wasn't sure she could do it.  But we signed up, along with a lot of other people from school (many of the more serious runners at ICS skipped this race because they are doing a half marathon at Angkor Wat in two weeks). 

When we signed up I was a bit surprised and disappointed to see that the 5k runners wouldn't be timed.  But today I found out why: many many many of them were walking.  And taking pictures along the way. I should have known- this is Thailand!  But despite dodging the walkers, it was a lot of fun.  I lost my friends in the crowd (HUGE!) while we were actually running, but we were able to find each other again afterward.  It's inspiring ya know, doing these races.  I might even try to train for the 10k next year... 

Sidenote: In Thailand you don't run a "5k" or "10k" you run "5 kilo" or "10 kilo". It makes me laugh every time I hear it :)

When you're climbing up a ladder...

... and you're feeling something splatter- c'mon folks, you know how it goes- Diarrhea, diarrhea! 

I have found a very interesting cultural difference here in Thailand, surrounding this very phenomenon. In the States, we may sing about it on occasion, but we certainly don't talk about it.
Stomach's a little off. 
GI problems. 
Tummy's rumbling a bit. 

Or if we're being really brave and in comfortable company we might say I've got the runs. 

Or a million other lines we come up with to avoid that one horrible word that no one wants to say and let's be honest- no one really wants to hear about.

In Thailand, however, it's quite different.  If a friend asks how I am, I might easily tell them I have a headache, and Thais just as easily and nonchalantly say that they have diarrhea.  It still gets me every time.  Students have no problem coming up and telling me that they have diarrhea and might need to "make a run for it" in the middle of class.  I'm still slightly embarrassed for them. 

I'm not sure why the difference- why it's such a taboo word in American culture and yet so openly discussed here.  Maybe it's more prevalent here, but maybe all of the US has the runs and no one talks about it.  We'll never know...

Thai Class

YAY! I am half way through my intensive Thai course and am so glad that I chose to do it.  I expected to have to drag myself there everyday, and while there have certainly been days when I'd rather take a nap, overall I have really enjoyed going.  I don't have to concentrate as hard as I did at the beginning in order to follow along and the two hours pass much more quickly than I imagined they would.  The biggest challenge at this point is the sheer amount of vocabulary that I am getting everyday- there's just no way to remember it all. This is how I usually feel during class:

I just can't catch all the words falling at me.  But I am being exposed to them and I plan to use December and January to work on reviewing and memorizing more of them, in addition to improving my reading skills.  One thing I've been really proud of with this class is that I am working from a book that's written in Thai instead of phonetics. I can really see my reading and writing improving, but it has also shown me some of the HUGE gaps in my reading and writing, which would be natural since I basically taught myself how to read and write from a book I bought while I was back in the States.  So I have the basics down, but I'm crap at the finer points, and at some of the not so fine points as well. 

One thing that has been really enjoyable about the past two months is the singular focus of it all.  I work from 6:30-3:30, I have Thai from 4-6, I eat dinner and have time for one other small thing- whether it's a skype date or catching up on email or watching an episode of Downton Abbey.  My schedule is fixed and regular and routine- ahhhhhh.  But at the same time, being gone for 12 hours a day gets tiring pretty quickly and I'll be glad to have the flexibility back to return to tutoring, coffee with friends, actual grocery shopping and cooking, and things like that. 

And don't worry Argentine friends, my Spanish is still stronger :)  Though Thai is catching up!!

Election 2012: Why I don't really care

I'm not a big fan of politics.  Social justice, yes.  Political history, yes.  Current politics? Nah.  I do enjoy hearing my family discourse about it, but only because they are interested and educated and civil in their debates, I mean, discussions.  But I also really like what someone once said about my Gramma:  "(She) wasn't very political. She was more interested in people."

I don't pretend to understand the political and economic issues, and I certainly don't pretend that I'm going to have any idea how to solve them.  I don't really even like voting.  I hate staring at lists of candidates whose names I don't recognize for a post (such as University trustee) that I don't even care about.  I just leave those ones blank.  I figure a ballot is a bit like the SAT- if you haven't even got a guess or clue, it's probably best to not put anything at all.

I do pray that at some point in my lifetime I'll see a Presidential candidate that I can really get excited about.  I don't know who will win tomorrow/today.  And don't shoot me, but I don't really care that much.  I know that neither Obama or Romney will really be in control.  I know that every government on earth, both good and evil,communist and democratic, Democrat and Republican, is under the authority of the Supreme God, my God, and that in the end, he alone can and will judge each according to their actions.

7-11

One of the funniest things about living in Bangkok is the constant presence of 7-11 stores.  They are almost literally on every block.  There's one right in front of my apartment complex in fact. It's where I buy phone cards for my cell phone (I use it so little it's cheaper to do it that way than to get a monthly plan) and pay my electric bill. I can get water and snacks to go, and to be honest, I do a bit of grocery shopping there when things are busy. It's such a strange little phenomena, especially when you consider that 7-11 in the US is the kind of place with large "no loitering" signs outside. But here, it's a staple, and a sign of progress. So you can imagine my surprise on Friday night when my friend and I tried to stop in there, but it was closed.  7-11, closed??  From what we could tell, they were remodeling or something.  It was closed again on Saturday, and again today, on Monday (I don't know about yesterday, I am not feeling well and I didn't leave the apartment yesterday).  There's a sign on the door, and I'm sure that explains it, but it's in Thai so I can't read it.  It doesn't really look like some great remodel is taking place, but I can't imagine that it says closed for good.  A street in Bangkok without a 7-11 is no street at all.  At best it's a dark alley, unlit by the glow of the neon sign at night.

From Siam to Siem

I confess, I cannot take credit for the title of this blog. I stole it from the shirt that a bike rider was wearing at Angkor Wat, a biker who had just cycled from Siam (Bangkok) to Siem (Siem Reap Cambodia).  At first I 'bout fell over when I saw it, since it had taken us about 8 hours to get there.  But then I remembered: This is Thailand; This is Cambodia.  An 8 hour drive here is only slightly longer than the drive to Toronto or Cincinnati, and thus only slightly longer than the rides I did in HS.  Granted, we weren't biking in the tropics, but anyway. 

I love having a fall break, and not just for the obvious reason of a week off school. It's awesome when international schools have week long breaks because it's not long enough to make the journey home (and thus return exhausted and out of cash) but it is long enough to travel regionally.  Our time in Siem Reap was awesome, even with the last minute changes in schedule.  One of the girls I was traveling with has friends there and we were able to stay with them and really enjoyed spending time with them.  We also did our fair share of tourism, including the required trip to Angkor Wat.  We rented bikes ($1 a day :) so we cycled out to and around the temples.  We started out at 5am to hit the sunrise and miss the heat, and it was worth the early morning. 

We also had a chance to meet up with the church plant team in Siem Reap and one of my favorite parts of the trip was meeting them and having the opportunity to share with them and encourage them, as well as be encouraged by how God is working in their lives. 

After a few days in Cambodia, we headed back to Thailand for a few days at the beach.  It's not far between the two places, but it took us nearly 24 hours.  We boarded a bus in Siem Reap at 8:30am (it was supposed to leave at 8) for a 2 hour drive to the border.  A mile or so before the border we stopped and pulled over and waited. For half an hour.  A guy came, gave us all red stickers, and we got back on and went to the border.  The border is a walking border, meaning we all unload, take our stuff, and literally walk across a bridge and go to immigration.  We arrived at 11:30am and the line for immigration was long.  The back half of the line was in the sun. It was the middle of the day. And we waited.  It took nearly two hours to get to the shaded part of the line.  Then another 90 minutes or so to get to the front of that line where we could go in the Air Con building to get in the actual lines.  We finished immigration about 3:30pm.  4 hours total. 

From there we got in a van that was supposed to take us right on the ferry to the island.  Except it's a 3 1/2 hour drive.  And it was 4pm when we were leaving. And the last ferry leaves for the island at 7pm.  So we made it to the town on the mainland, where we had to get a cheap room (with our lovely one waiting for us!!).  Needless to say, we woke up early to catch the first (6am) ferry over and at least got to have our yummy breakfast we had paid for. 

Our days on the beach were a lovely blur of reading and napping by the water, swimming, eating delicious food, and even learning how to ride a motor scooter.  I also learned about jellyfish.  Every time we tried to go in the water there were lots of jellyfish.  I've never been stung, and I'd like to keep it that way, so I mostly stayed out.  Funny thing was, no one else on the beach seemed the least bit bothered by them. So the second day we all ventured out and gingerly got past the jellyfish to an area where we felt safe. But when we tried to go back in, there were swarms of them. Everywhere.  My friend and I tried to swim in but ended up surrounded and shrieking.  I eventually made it past them, but not without a lot of encouragement and some definite prayers- I recited Psalm 23 aloud the whole time I walked through :)  After that I didn't go in past my ankles.  Apparently, the jellyfish are only an issue in rainy season. 

We arrived home Sunday night, after a thankfully uneventful van ride home.  Can't wait to go back! 

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Temple of the faces

Temple where they filmed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, not that I ever saw it.  Cool place though!

Love the hallways with columns!

Our trusty wheels!

Sunrise from the ferry

Beach at Koh Chang

Last meal before heading home, at our favorite spot!