Sunday January 31st

sirirat and i stopped on the way to church at the sad old lady's house again. she was listening to bible verses on tape in Thai and when we got there she started crying. I asked sirirat why later and she said it was because the woman was sad that she couldn't go to church. We gave her some bananas as consolation.

we got to church really early as did some of the kids from the orpahange and I had some paper adn crayons in my bag for class later that afternoon so I passed them out. The kids were stoked and immediatley turned to sit on the floor and use the chruch pews as desks to draw on. we all got in trouble when the church service started and many of the kids kept drawing. I tried to be a good role model, turning around and paying reallllly close attention to the speaker who might as well have been speaking martian. I stared innaproriatley at an ancient woman sitting across from me. I had helped her in when she first came into the church and loved watching her. After the service was over I asked Sirirat to translate for me. I wanted to take a photo of the old woman to paint a portrait from. The woman loved the idea of being painted and smiled toothlessly for my photo.

we went to a member of the church's house for a prayer group (ah!) and lunch. we ate some really spicy soup that i chased with water to get down. Then I was handed something that looked like sliced up.... fruit? I watched people eating it an spitting something out but I coudln't figure out what it was and Sirirat was praying with someone so i didn't want to interrupt. I put it in my mouth and felt around fo r aseed or pit or something to spit out. Nothing, I swallowed as about three people watching me shouted in thai. Sirirat came over and explained to me that with fresh sugar cane you chew like gum and then spit it out. don't swallow any. She said its good for your teeth. hmmm. i think my dentist would disagree.

after church was english class. a bunch of kids from town showed up along with the kids from the orphanage. We spent most of the class working on body parts. I taught them head shoulders, knees, and toes and the hokey pokey. It was hilarious watching them try to do it and the little kids especially loved shaking it all about. 3 hours flew by and we even went over time. no one left.

sirirat brought me back to her house after class and sent me with Gam (her neice) on an errand. Gam had to pick up a package for her cousin in Burma and Sirirat wanted me to see the border town but not cross over. she didn't think it was a good idea. I couldn't figure out why. I had read in my guide book though that they only reissue 15 days visa to thailand after entry. Sirirat sent of the kids from the orphanage with us. One stayed with me at the border, the other went with Gam to Burma. Pooey volunteered to stay with me. She was one of my favorites, a little artist and we had bonded right away. Gam said we had about an hour so we started walkign around. The border town was mostly just a big market with locals selling knockoff sunglasses and purses. I wasn't especially interested. I bought Pooey some candy adn she was infinitley happy. Easy to please. We found steps that looked liek they led into the sky and decided to explore. 300 steps later (we counted) we got to a small buddhist temple and shrine looking out over the city. The view was incredible and there was only one other person up there. probably due to the work that was required to get there in the first place. I could have stayed up there all day ratehr than go back down to the crowds in the markey but pooey indicated that we shoudl go back down and i couldn't tell if we were supposed to met Gam or just to go down (she didn't speak any english at all) so we headed back. Gam wasn't there so we just walked back and forth abotu 20 times. I made her give me directions to walk in english like we had practiced in class. she was good at it and she told sirirat smiling proudly as soon as we got back. :-)