playing catch up....NIKO

ok so i'm sorry about my lack o' bloggage. there wasn't internet very many places during outreach and i was a busy little bumblebee. so i'll start now and catch up on outreach. with each new post a new place.

SO. niko came first. there isn't a lot i can say about niko (mainly because they request you don't say much so that people who have yet to do it aren't aware of what's to come) but i can sum it up in one picture:

bugs and heat, ladies and gentlemen. bugs and heat. please note that this is just my legs. i now have nightmares about red ants attacking me. these experiences with various creepy crawlies will haunt me for awhile.

outreach!

so we only have one more week of lecture phase left! starting september 21, we no longer will consider the NRTC home. we have to be all moved out and have our room all cleared and cleaned before outreach! it is going to be pure chaos!

first, we go on niko from september 21-25. this will be a trek through the wilderness of thailand. this is also the part i'm most nervous about. i only found out about niko two weeks before i left for thailand. i thought my body would acclimate to this tropical climate a lot better than it has. overheating and dehydration have been a problem since i got here. it's gotten a bit better, considering i now think that 68 degrees is cold (november in idaho will be BRUTAL). but i talked to the nurse that's coming with us and feel much better about the situation.

after niko, we'll be back at the base sept. 26 and 27. which will be time for us to do laundry and make sure our room is empty and clean. then on the 28th everyone from the U.S. and australia has to go to the border of thailand and cambodia for our visa run. although we have year long visas, we are required to check in at the border every 90 days so they can keep an eye on us, i guess.

then we fly out of bangkok that night to phuket. when we arrive in phuket, we'll have to drive to phang gna, which is where the first stretch of our outreach is. we'll be in phang gna until oct. 10. while we're there, we'll be teaching english. and some other stuff but i can't remember!

after phang gna, we go to ratchaburi until oct. 30, but for three days we'll go back to bangkok to help out with a worship conference that one of the thai students (mai) is in charge of coordinating. while we're in ratchaburi, we'll be teaching english and other skills to a few different people groups. one that was mentioned was burmese refugees.

after all that, we return to bangkok for debriefing and graduation and then i head home! WHEW!

a couple of stories for the ages...

so, it's been a long time since i last blogged. i thought i'd warm myself up for the long blog about outreach with a couple of stories about life in thailand. so sit back and enjoy:)

the haircut

i pretty much have needed a haircut since i left the U.S. but didn't have time or a large extra stash of funds. i thought to myself 'how bad could it be? it's not like i'm going to actually DO my hair!' well it got bad. my hair got so weak and damaged that it was an out of controll frizz ball. there was nothing i could do but get it cut. in thailand. by a thai.

now, i'm not asian and therefore do not have the thick black asian hair. so i was nervous about someone who has never cut farang (foreigner) hair before cut mine. luckily, i was pointed to a place at a nearby mall that employed a few people who knew how to deal with farang hair. it went ok, aside from the fact that my stylist knew very little english and i knew even less thai. i showed him a picture and he went to town. a little too much into town, but he got the main idea. then he blow dried me! i thought i was going to pass out from the heat! but here's how it turned out. this is the only time i've had straight hair since i got here, so it was a momentous occasion:

laab

my wonderful thai friend taught me how to make my favorite thai dish that i've discovered while i've been here. it's called laab and is from the esan region of thailand. don't worry, i'll make it when i get home...if you're lucky :) we were able to make it in only about 30 minutes. we had to have one of the base interpreters help us out, but it was SO MUCH FUN! thank you so much mai! oh, and p'paul for translating of course.

The Magic of Swensen's

Why yes, that IS a shot glass of hot fudge in my right hand.

CHEERS!

Homesickness Blues

Lately I've been feeling really homesick. It's just been an exhausting last couple of weeks and I'd like to just run home and give everyone hugs and let them know I still think about them. I miss my parents' hugs and going to Adriane and Conrad's house. I miss going out to dinner with my friends. I miss being dry and having an amazingly comfortable bed. I MISS STRAIGHT HAIR! I know this time in Thailand is going to fly by! It already has gone so fast. But I'm stuck in a homesickness rut. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Kids, Kuts, and Krabi

So we went to the YWAM Thailand national conference in Krabi, Thailand. From the beginning, we knew we as a DTS were going to be in charge of childcare. What we didn't know however was that we were going to have 34 kids (not 19) and be in charge of them for 6 hours a day (not just 3). Needless to say, the beginning of the conference was a rude awakening to how unprepared we were! Oh-so-very stressful and overwhelming. But this story does have a happy ending! We were able to pull it all off with only a few minor hitches in the system.

The first night of the conference we were supposed to dress up in costumes for the welcome dinner, so there's the explanation for the bottom picture. Asen, Kate, and I did 80's babies, mainly because it was so easy to find stuff that worked for that theme...

Then it was time to enjoy the ocean! I was a bit apprehensive about swimming in the ocean, having only done it a couple of times before. My friend Kate said she'd stick with me and keep me safe. *my hero* We were out in the water about to our upper thighs and looked over to see our friend Anna limping up the beach back to the resort. So we turned around and followed her to see what happened. Anna had dove into the ocean, only to find coral directly under the surface which cut into her hands, arms, side, and foot. Also, her finger jammed into some of the coral, which resulted in a slight fracture. Such a downer for beach day! Luckily, she went to the hospital on Thursday and got all fixed up, so she's on the mend. But beach day was a bit of a bust...

I spent the majority of my free time lazing around in our room and napping in the air conditioning. I felt so spoiled! We even had a TUB! My favorite part was showering and NOT sweating immediately following my shower, which is a common occurence in Bangkok. And the food was delicious and the kids were adorable and the scenery was BREATHTAKING so really the trip was much more good than bad.

Pictures of Cambodia!