Sunday January 24

I havn't had internet all week but have been writing in my journal, so I'll try to update going back a few days here...

I went over to Siriats house early to help with breakfast and get things prepared for hurch. She insisted on driving us over even though it was only about a ten minute walk (right next to where I live). On the way to church she and I stopped to visit two elderly ladies. "They are too weak and ill to come to church" Sirirat told me, "so i visit them and pray with them before church." One lady was in a wheel chair and looked like she hated her life. She had two identical white cats. different only because one had green eyes and one had yellow eyes. They refused to leave her alone even those she made angry hissing noises at them, repeatedly.

Church was a combination of singing in Thai and talking in Thai (Im fairly confident the talking parts were out of the bible). The only thing sirirat translated for me was when she brought me up in front of the whole congregation, introduced me, then had everyone pray for me. "We thank God for bringing up this missionary who loves God and loves children." I didn't realize I was a missionary. I thought I was just here volunteering. Doesn't "missionary" have a religious connotation. The irony made me laugh inside. Especially since I was the only one that understood her.

After church was a quick lunch before going back to the church where I woudl teach the orphans a collection of a bunch of other local kids English. Sirirat had told me not to worry about preparing lessons, "just bring some English games" so when she told me I had 3 hours to teach a room full of zero English speakers I felt somewhat unprepared. Good thing I was well versed in our subject matter, English!

I had a white board so I drew some pictures of a bunch of animals and then went through each one with the kids putting its name next to the picture and having the kids repeat it with me a few times. Then I watched their eyebrows raise as I erased all the names, leaving the pictures up, and handed the marker to a kid. I motioned for her to write the name for one and then give it to another kid. They remembered most of them. Then I split the class up into boys and girls, two lines and had them speed write the names of as many animals as they could think of up on the board. The girls won by a landslide and they stood up and cheered when I put a star next to their team name on the board.

Next we did directions. I drew pictures and words on the board for go straight, turn right, turn left, and stop. Then I had the kids pair up and one kids closed their eyes while we hid somthing in the room. The other kid had to direct them verbally to where the object was. They loved it and by the time we were done, they had listening to and giving simple directions down pretty well.

We went on to do colors, school supplies, and food and when i started running out of spontaneous ideas, I was glad our time was up. I reiterated an American greeting. for the 10th time with call and response and told them goodbye and good job with a big thumbs up. Phew! Though it was challenging and I was exhuasted, I felt like the students had been really engaged and learned alot already.

I cooked fried rice with the kids (their favorite). Apparently fish oil is the key ingredient, "makes everything taste so yummy yummy!" Sirirat educated me. Dinner. TV (a korean drama I coudl tell was terrible without understanding any of the words). bible study. I hung out with the kids after sirirat went to bed. A few of them were still watching tv, and 3 sisters about 7, 8, 10, were interested in me. We spent about 2 hours making faces at each other, charading, and somparing diffrences. They held an arm up to mine and commented something in Thai... I'll be tanner in a few weeks I thought to myself. They decided I was the same color as their palms. Next they held their hair up next to mine... "oooh!" They laughed. It turned into a game of gentle tickling. We all belly laughed hard. I crossed my eyes and puffed out my cheeks and squashed them so air blew out. The kids copied me and then we took turns doing it to each other. They thought this was hilarious and fell into a heap on my lap giggling. I told them I had to go home and get some sleep, charading sleep with my eyes clsoed and my head resting on my hands. They stood up to follow me back. We all held hands and skipped back singing the only American song they know, "we wish you a merry christmas." I made a mental note to teach them some better songs in english. Before I knew it we were back. As we parted ways they waved and said "goodbye, see you tomorrow!" As we had practiced in class. I smiled "goodnight!" and blew them kisses.