Bulletin Update

I arrived at Legacy last Thursday and will be leaving this coming Saturday night. Aside from the teachers, no one knew I was coming, so the students were pretty surprised! Nine of my students from last year are here, plus three more who completed two years but are still here taking additional classes. There are eight new students- they're great, but they're a little shy because they think that they don't know English well enough to speak to me! I've also had a chance to visit with the new teachers- Jason, Kevin, Dan, and to catch up with the old ones- Ryan, James, and Lawan- there's a good group this year. Everyone has a pretty unique personality, and that's exactly what you need for this school. It's been so great visiting with my old students again- I've been doing some tutoring during the day and answering tons of random English questions at night. Everyone has improved so much! The other night I taught a couple of my students how to use email too. Words like "online," "website," and "sign out" are a little difficult to explain, but we managed, and now they have new email addresses sothey can communicate with their families back home. Letters to certain parts of Burma can take about a month to get there, if they get there at all. I think my favorite part of my trip so far was last Saturday afternoon- a little while after church a bunch of my old students and I sat around singing the songs from the hymnal that I taught them in choir last year- it was great.

Bulletin Update

This was my last week at Legacy. Since the school year is over some of my students have already left and are staying with friends or relatives in the area during the break from school. Of the five graduates, two will be staying here to help at Legacy, two will be going back to Burma to help teach there, and one will be helping an organization in Chiang Mai. I will be leaving this weekend- I know that it will be so incredibly hard to say goodbye. I've had a really great time teaching and getting to know the students, and I will miss them terribly. I am leaving here on Saturday night, and I will arrive in the States on the evening ofthe 13th. I will be giving a presentation at church next week (the 19th). I'm sad to leave, but I'm glad that I get to speak about Legacy and to share my experiences with everyone back home.

Bulletin Update

This week was final exam week, and it went well! I think everyone (myself included) still isn't convinced that the school year is over already. We finished up exams on Thursday, and Friday afternoon we took the students bowling, which was so much fun! They went one time during the Feast and have been wanting to go back ever since. For most (or maybe all) of them, this was only their second time bowling, but a lot of them are way better than me! (my bowling skills aren't so great though...) We went to an enormous shopping center in Chiang Mai- the bowling alley was on the very top floor and had lots of black lights, so anyone who was wearing white glowed a lot. The bowling balls were florescent, and there was lots of dance music, so the atmosphere made it a lot of fun too! I think everyone had a really good time. This Sunday is the end of the year awards ceremony, so that should be nice-everyone's looking forward to it! We're having the ceremony on the Sextons' property, and then going to dinner at a restaurant afterward. After that I'm going to stick around for the next week to pack and say my goodbyes- I'll be back in the States on the 13th.

Bulletin Update

This week was the last week of regular classes- it's hard to believe that the school year is already coming to a close! It seems like I just arrived, and I think it hasn't really sunk in yet that on Friday I taught my last classes at Legacy. Next week is our final exam week, so there is a lot of studying going on here! Exams are Monday through Thursday, and the awards ceremony is Sunday, March 6th. There is a lot of end-of-the-year excitement- the second year students have to give speeches at the awards ceremony, so I have been working with some of them on writing their speeches. I think that they're going to do a really great job- they've put a lot of effort into what they are saying. They are all a little bit shy when it comes to speaking in front of a group of people so I know they're going to be nervous, butI know they'll do a good job too! I'm sure they'll be practicing a lot this coming week.

Bulletin Update

Across the street from Legacy there is a public health space. Everynight at 6 pm, the women from the village get together there, play really loud techo-dance music, and do aerobics for about an hour. This phenomenon isn't specific to my village- everywhere in Thailand (or inChiang Mai at least) there are enormous outdoor aerobics classes at 6pm. People are really into it- it's kind of like the 80s! Everyevening the students look over our school fence and watch, and some ofthem dance along a little bit. The whole time I've been here I've said that I was going to go across the street and exercise too, and I finally did it last week- it was so much fun! The women are really nice too. Some of them speak a little English so they ask me thingslike where I'm from, how old I am, and if I have a boyfriend. After I went the first night the students told me that they wanted to go too.Quite a few of them came with me the next night, and it was great- Ithink they liked it a lot. I have been going everyday since. Sometimes the students go with me- the only problem is that 6 pm is dinnertimeat the school, so they either have to eat in a hurry and jump around on a full stomach, or eat later. Also, some of them have kitchen duty so they can't go- it rotates though, so everyone who wants to go will get a chance. We're going again next week!

Bulletin Update

Last weekend I went to Mae Sot, a city on the Thai side of the Burmese border. There are some church families that live there, so I got to visit them again. (I met them briefly on my way back from Mae La refugee camp back in November). I spent Friday afternoon and night with Lawan's family- Lawan is a graduate of Legacy and is now a teacher here at the school. She is from a Karen village right outside of Mae Sot. We visited some of her neighbors (they all wanted me to come visit them) and she showed me where she went to elementary school. Everyone in her village is so friendly and nice- someone even made me papaya salad! (which happens to be one of my favorite Thai foods) Saturday I spent at a church member's house- it was a lot of fun. Htoo Hpa, the woman who house I stayed in, fixed us really good food and taught me how to count to ten in Karen. Her whole family can speak English really well, and staying with them and talking to them was just a really enjoyable experience. I think in the future her kids will probably come to Legacy- right now they are still a little bit too young- they have to finish school first. Their whole family is just really giving and it's so inspiring to be around people who are genuinely selfless like they are. They are such good examples of how to live- even though they may not have much, they will give you everything they do have and will help you in any way they can. On Sunday we had to leave, but before we took off Ryan and I had to checkout the thriving Burmese market. It was amazing- there were tons of people under a hundred huge umbrellas selling vegetables, clothes, flowers, and any kind of animal or animal part you could ever want to buy. There was so much noise, so many smells, so many interesting things to see- it makes me sad that America doesn't have markets, because they are so much fun! We walked around for a bit and then had to catch our bus home- we arrived in the evening and had just enough time to prepare for the next day's classes before heading to bed.

This past week was pretty good- on Monday I went to the supermarket and ice cream was on sale!!! so of course I had to get a whole bunch for the students! That made Monday night especially enjoyable-everyone loved having a nice treat (who wouldn't?). Tuesday was Thai army day- all week there were lots of paratroopers in the sky, which was fun to see. Also, there is an election coming up, so there are tons of posters around and trucks with loudspeakers blaring Thai political ads and music. Something funny that happened to me: Friday afternoon I went for a walk- I was walking along the road and all ofthe sudden this black bird crossed the street and walked right up to me! It was really weird because I've never seen a wild bird that was that friendly and unafraid of humans. It was really pretty, and it puffed up its feathers and made a lot of noise. I got a long piece of grass to see if it would take it, but I had no luck. After looking at it for a little bit I threw down the piece of grass and started towalk away- the bird chased me and started pecking my shoes! I started running and it still chased me and tried to eat my feet. Finally I got away- it's a good thing I was wearing tennis shoes or it would have been really painful! I don't know if I disturbed its territory or what, but it wasn't too happy with me. Or, here people only wear flipflops, so maybe it had just never seen tennis shoes before!

Bulletin Update

Along with English and all of the other subjects, our students also take Thai language classes here at Legacy. We only have two students from Thailand- the rest are from Burma, so they don't know how to speak Thai. Lawan is our Thai teacher- she graduated from Legacy last year and is now spending her year of service teaching here at theschool. I started going to her Thai Listening and Speaking class at the beginning of the new semester. I was a little worried that Iwouldn't be able to keep up with the students since they took Thai forthe whole first semester too (when I wasn't here yet), but thankfully I'm quite able to. We had an oral test on Friday, so Thursday night Iwas reviewing with some of the students in the class- they were asking ME questions about Thai! I was able to answer them though, which wasactually really good practice for me! I think I did well on the test-we had to make sentences using certain words, and I'm pretty sure I got all of the words right and in the right order. My tones areterrible, so it's probably unlikely that a Thai person could understand me, but I sure have fun trying!

Bulletin Update

First of all, thanks for all of the concern for my well being after the recent disaster. Legacy is in northern Thailand, which has been completely unaffected by the disaster. I felt the earthquake a tiny tiny bit, but other than that I wouldn't have known anything major had happened if so many people hadn't emailed me and called my house! Despite its diminutive appearance on the world map, Thailand is a good-sized country- Phuket is very far away from Chiang Mai. I did go to Phuket and some islands in the area over Thanksgiving break, but I had to take two 12-hour bus rides to get there! I appreciate the emails and the phone calls to my parents, and am happy to report that everyone here is doing just fine.

Last week the other teachers and I went to Laos to get our visas renewed- we had a really fun trip! First we went to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We saw lots of sights there and ate some really great food! James and I went to a traditional Lao dancing show, which was a lot of fun too. Next we headed to Luang Prabang. We didn't stay there long- we got there in the evening and left early the next morning- butwe did have time to visit the night market and eat some yummy Laotian food there- all you could eat for 5,000 kip, which is about 50 cents. The next morning we took off on a boat trip up the Mekong River. The trip lasted two days total, and the scenery was gorgeous! After the first day the boat stopped in a small village called Pakbeng. We spent the night there, and also spent the next day (Sabbath) and night there. Sunday morning we took off for the second day of the boat trip, which was full of more beautiful scenery. There are thousands of hilltribe peoples living throughout the mountains of Laos, so we could often see bamboo houses along the slopes. We also saw people washing clothes in the river and fishing or collecting their nets. We arrived in Huayxai Sunday evening, and then crossed to Chiangkhong, Thailand the next morning. Then we took a bus back to Chiang Mai- we arrived home Monday afternoon, and classes started up again the next day.

Bulletin Update

Greetings from sunny Thailand! During the day the weather is gorgeous, but at night it gets really chilly. It's cold enough at night and in the morning to wear a jacket, but I definitely don't feel like it'sthe end of December! We had a short week at the school this week- the last day of classes was Wednesday, and now we are on a break until thebeginning of January. I was talking to Lawan (another teacher) the other day about how even though it's nice to have a break, we miss teaching our classes! The students miss going to class too. During the break the other teachers and I are heading to Laos to get our visas renewed. We will leave for Vientiane about the middle of next week and be gone until the following Sunday. It will be a quick trip, but an enjoyable one I'm sure.

Over the semester break Mandi and I went to the beach, which wasawesome. We arrived back at Legacy on Thursday night- Thanksgiving. Noone else had done anything to celebrate, so we decided we should fix a special dinner for the students. The next night we made salad, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans for everyone- it was great, and the students really liked all the food. On Saturday night Mandi and another teacher and I took several of the students to a big festival in Chiang Mai. It's called Loh Krathong- there are constant fireworks, a big parade, and people float krathongs- small flower arrangements with candles- in the river. There were thousands of people all up and down the streets and along the river- it was one ofthe most crowded places I have ever been in, and it was so much tryingto navigate through the masses with all of the students. This festival puts all 4th of July celebrations to shame- not only are there big fireworks in the sky, but everyone sets off their own fireworks andfirecrackers as well. They also release hundreds of paper lanterns, sothere tons of small lights in the air- it's beautiful. It was really fun for everyone. This week was the first week of the second semester, and classes are off to a great start so far! Now I am teaching health class now and I am tutoring a few more students, and next week I will start giving piano lessons.

The past week has been great! Last Sunday James and I and two women who were visiting the school went to an elephant camp. We took a bamboo raft down the river, rode an ox cart, and then rode elephants! There was a seat on top of the elephant, but part of the time I got toride bareback on my elephant's neck, which was a great experience. Classes are going well- I passed out recorders to my music class earlier this week, so now we get to hear the melodious sounds of 13 recorders every Tuesday and Thursday. I've taught them four notes sofar, and believe me, that is plenty. In choir this week I taught thethe song "How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings," which the students thought was hilarious because one of the girls is named Doi Ling and her name sounds pretty much the same as the word dwelling. This weekend James, Ryan, and I are going to Mae La, which is a Karen refugee camp near the border of Burma. We are leaving early Friday morning. On Saturday afternoon Ryan and I will also go to Mae Sot tomeet with another family there, and James will stay in Mae La. We areall coming back on Sunday so that we only have to miss one day of classes. I'm really interested to know what the refugee camp will be like, so I will make sure to tell you about that next week!