Comings and Goings

Last week, John and Matthew went home with their parents for good. I had written this in a previous post which I deleted. That day I knew the boys' parents were visiting, but I think everyone was hoping that they would not actually take the boys back so no one seemed to really expect them to leave that day. As I had said before, the newest child, Caleb, 7, arrived with a few small bags of clothes, and John and Matthew I believe left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. It is strange with them gone, but also a lot more quiet. The dynamics of the children have changed, and it even seems that a few of them are acting more mature now. It may be because they feel more mature in comparison to the new child or because they no longer have the same rivalries that existed with John and Matthew here. I am not sure, but it is interesting to watch. I only hope that John and Matthew's parents give them a good life, as good or better than the one they would have continued to have here.

I have been meeting a lot of interesting people here, mostly missionaries. Two of them are English, Jenny and Adrian. This English couple is among the cutest I have ever seen. They have three children, a girl and two boys. They are self-supporting and work on computer software out of their home in Chiang Mai. They live here because they work with an orphanage up in the mountains that mostly consists of tribal children (from the hill tribes of Thailand: Karen, Akha, Hmong, etc.). They teach Christian songs to the children here. Jenny plays the guitar and sings, and her kids have many different dances that go along with Christian songs that they also teach. Adrian says they would not consider themselves missionaries exactly because they are self-supporting, but a lot of the work they do here would be considered missionary work. They are really nice and I like them more and more each week I see them. Another couple I met is here to retire. They are Canadians from British Colombia and are hilarious. They are not missionaries. Foreigners live here for many different reasons, but I find all of their stories intriguing and find myself wondering if I could ever really do that-pick up and move for the long haul to a country that is so different from the one I grew up in. Don't worry mom, I think for now I prefer the shorter visits :)

Below are some pictures from when Matthew and John were still here. The pictures are actually I believe from the day before they were taken home by their parents. The kids had made hats with an English woman, Esther, Esther's mother, and Esther's grandmother (both who were visiting her).

This is the whole crew. From Left: Abby, Grace, Ruth, Cherri, Mark, Sarah, Matthew, David, Peach (behind David), John, Naomi, Paul, Hope (behind Paul), Esther, Caleb, Daniel (behind Esther), and Faith (on the end behind Caleb)

Close-up. From left: in Front: John, Paul, Esther, Caleb, in Back: Naomi, Hope, Daniel

Daniel, John, and Matthew...they all chose to be Kings :)

Abby

Me, looking ick, and Paul. I think his knight hat is really cute.

Pat (one of the teachers), in between is Peach, and then Sarah

Love,
Brittany

Trying New Things

First of all, I have to express how happy I am that it has cooled down here in Chiang Mai. It was steaming hot for a couple of days-pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit...or at least it felt that way. I was grateful for a thunderstorm two nights ago, despite the fact that it scared the children since it happened just as they were falling asleep, but that took the temperature down to a more comfortable level. It rained again early this morning so that it is now a very comfortable 70 degrees. I love it when the weather is like this!

Two days ago I decided that I was going to try the fried chilies (which are about the length of my fingernail mind you) that the Thais have told me are probably too hot for me. I thought that I should try it since I am in Thailand. So I started to eat a little teeny bit of it at a time, and thought oh okay, it's a little hot, but it's bearable. I crushed the rest of it up into my food and mixed it in so that it just seemed like I had put crushed red pepper into my food, which is something I can eat in the U.S. I was completely fine and proud of myself (though not too proud since the children were eating the chilies too :) ) All of a sudden my tongue started to burn with a vengeance and I couldn't bear it any longer...I tried to quickly make myself some Milo (hot chocolate), and as I had finished making it the pain subsided to soon be replaced by a burning sensation around my mouth (right under my nose and under my lips)...hah which then turned bright red--It was so embarrassing. The Farang (term for foreigner) tries a chili and gets a rash. Haha! It must have looked really funny. I then had to go take a nap until I felt better. As Malee said: "You are not Thai. You cannot eat like the Thais." I will remember this advice from now on and listen to the Thais when they say they think something is too hot for me. It's nice to have someone looking out for your best interest, but as a naughty child I had to learn that lesson for myself. :)

Tonight, I might be going with the teacher Pat out and then to stay the night at her Aunt's house in Chiang Mai. She has to ask Malee first if I can go...since last time she asked was during Songkran and her request was turned down-thankfully in my opinion, because I am guessing the reason she said no is because Pat drives a motorbike and during Songkran there are a lot of drunk drivers and a lot of dousing motorbikes with water on the streets-i.e. it's a time when there are a lot of motorbike accidents. Again, I am very happy to have someone looking out for me here. It's really nice. Ro (another teacher) also asked if I want to go visit her home about 4 hrs from here by bus from Saturday night to Tuesday night. I would like to see something new though I am not sure if I will go this time or not. The time I have here is quickly dwindling and once John gets here I will be off traveling and seeing more of Thailand.

Until later,
Brittany

Apology

It has come to my attention that in my past 3 posts, I have been misrepresenting my time in Thailand. Betty Van Riper from the Calvary Church that sponsors Ban San Faan thankfully brought this to my attention. I would like to extend my apology to anyone that was offended by my words. The worst part about it is that I am actually having a wonderful time here despite what I made it sound like. I really love the Thai people and their smiles (it's called the Land of Smiles for a reason), I love the children here at Ban San Faan, and I love the people who made all of it possible. There is so much good that is being done in Thailand that it is amazing. There are so many homes that have been created for children to give them the opportunity for a better life and I have met so many people here who have found it their purpose to help those less fortunate than themselves. I have encountered all that I ever hoped for here and despite the difficulties that accompany being in a culture much different from one's own, I have found that I am having an experience that I would never trade for anything else. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I hope anyone offended by me will accept my apology and know that my intentions were never to do so.

The Lake

The Longtaow, which shuttled us from shore
View from the Longtaow of the place where we had stayed for the day
The large meal
Really fresh, Really good fish
View from Where I was sitting

Today, I spent the day with Averil and missionaries, Brigitta and Jeff and their son Josh, and their friends from Australia and their 3 sons. We went to this lake in a national park, where there were floating guest houses and restaurants. We went to one particular place that was awesome. We were just there for the day, but you can rent out the rooms for the night. They cook your food right there and it's delicious. Below are some pictures. I'll write more later. I'm too tired right now.

My Birthday

I spent my birthday first at church with the children and then Averil took me out to lunch and to the mall. It was a pleasant day. When I got back, they had a cake for me, which was unexpected and really cute. It was really pretty. I took a picture of it. The kids were busy trying to give me their things as birthday presents. It was really cute though I wasn't allowed to accept any of the trinkets since they were given to them by their sponsors. One of the children, Hope who's almost 10, wanted to pray for me. It was the cutest thing I've heard in a while. She said thank you for me coming to play with them and that God watch over me while I'm sleeping and awake, etc. Really cute and innocent. The House Mother, who I've been teaching English also gave me a pair of sunglasses and the House Father who has not spoken English to me since I arrived (well, because he doesn't speak it hah) said God Bless You and Thank You. I had a nice birthday.

Sonkran

Pictures of Sonkran

The typical group for Sonkran loaded up in the back of a pickup

Yesterday, was the beginning of the Thai new year celebration in Chiang Mai. It consists of people riding in the back of pick up trucks with buckets of water and dousing those on the street who also are armed with squirt guns, pails of water, or just a hose. Water seems to be plentiful around here because no one seems to think twice about leaving the hose on all day even though it's supposedly the dry season. People standing on the street throwing water target the pickup trucks with people in the back, people walking, and those on motorbikes. I was in a van hah so I was shielded from all of this. It's quite amusing actually and seems like a lot of fun. Drinking is also involved and I saw many bottles with dark liquors being drank in the back of pickups. I took some pictures of this and also the parades that were in the street, carrying floats with Buddha on them, which people would then approach and pour flower scented water on the Buddha.

One of the Floats

The government building next to Ban San Faan appears to have many many many parties. Every night, I hear loud music from their direction. Apparently, it is more play and less business over there :) Averil and I took a walk down our street today--the people who saw us were very happy to stare as we walked by almost falling off their motorbikes...and we got come here's from a couple of men drinking in their garage. Westerners are stared at a lot here--despite the many tourists, Thais apparently can't get enough of staring at a white person.
Yesterday, we had a visit from the baby who will soon take his place at Ban San Faan as the youngest, displacing Abby, 4, from that position. His name is Sammy and he is incredibly cute. He never cried the whole time he was here and seemed happy to be stared at and to play with the other 17 children who live here. It seems that he'll fit in nicely. He is 8 months, and DoDo (one of the nannies) said he seemed really skinny to her. He looked fine to me, but I seriously can never remember what babies are supposed to look like or be able to do at certain ages.

Today, we went to the Carrefour mall to let the kids play on the arcade games and various toys and then to KFC. This was a birthday celebration for the two who were born in April, Paul who will be 6 at the end of the month, and Cherri who will be 7 tomorrow. We saw a procession for Sonkran in the mall as well. Averil thought one of the women, who was being held up by men with no shirts and those wrap skirt like things on, was a he-she. Apparently, there is a lot of that here since Buddhist's are very tolerant and operations for changing sex are readily available in Bangkok.

Paul on one of the rides. He always has the best camera smile.
I will post more pictures soon!

Love,
Brittany

A New Arrival

Today, was quite uneventful to start out with. The children were really busy because a Thai professor (the wife of the builder of Ban San Faan) came to assess their Thai. They were taking tests for most of the day and the Kindergartners were busy being antsy and trying to avoid doing their homework.

At 1pm, I taught an English lesson to Mali and ChiChi, the House mother and one of the nannies, respectively. During our lesson, a new child arrived. His name is Caleb. He is 7 years old and does not speak English. He is really small and looks more like a small 5 year old. He seemed to warm up fast-the other kids were really helpful since at first, he seemed really frightened. He was repeating English words that Averil was speaking to him so hopefully he'll be a fast learner. It struck me as really sad to see the small bags of clothes that were the only things that accompanied him to his new life. However, the children here are really lucky to be here, they have more here than probably most Thai children who live with their parents.

Tonight, we had a group of English people come and sing Christian songs and do a short play about the life and death of Jesus Christ. It was actually really cute. The woman who sang and played the guitar comes weekly with her husband. The mother of the children who did the play, Esther, comes weekly as well to do crafts with the children. Two other families accompanied them who were just visiting from England. I love English accents! :) It's funny how I see Westerners here and immediately think oh yay another American, but for the most part they are either European, English, Australian, or from New Zealand.

Out in Chiang Rai

After leaving the girls at Mercy House for the night, we went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, well hah but they served Thai food-go figure. This is the restaurant below.
The above not very good picture is of the 4 college students we met for dinner, who once lived at Mercy House, but were the few who completed high school and now are attending college thanks to Bill and some sponsors. The one on the left is an accounting major and the other three are English majors, but really cannot speak much English. Bill is in the center. The girls are sooooo small hah and I am so large compared to them. They hugged me goodbye, which only made me notice this more.
The front of the "Indonesian" restaurant.
After dinner, Malee took me to the night market where they had a stage with Thai dancers. Thai dance is a really slow dance-almost hula dance like except no hip movements. The kids at Ban San Faan take Thai dance lessons and it's really cute to watch. Peach especially has really graceful hand movements. She looks like a natural dancer.
Another bad picture hah of the night market. I'll work on taking better pictures, I promise.

Chiang Rai Pictures

On Friday, I visited Chiang Rai with Bill and Malee. Here are some pictures from the trip. The following are of Mercy House- a home for girls and one boy from the hill tribes that live up in the mountains where they can live and eat for which they must work in the coffee fields. They come down and live here so that they can attend school. We were there so that we could meet with the girls who wanted to attend high school. Bill finds the funds to allow them to go to high school, which, though tuition is free, has a lot of fees associated with it for books, uniforms, etc. At first, Bill was going to have to tell certain girls they would not be able to go since he had not yet raised the funds, but he said he was taking a leap of faith and enrolling them all- 8 in total. About $600 for the year a child.

This is the house that the girls live in. It has Thai toilets (squat toilets) and no shower, only a barrel full of water to bathe with. They have two rooms full of bunk beds and a kitchen area across the dirt road.
I thought the flowers above and bike below looked so bright in front of their drab lodging.

I did not feel comfortable going inside and taking pictures so I took one from where our car was parked. I cannot speak Thai and the girls cannot speak English so I would not even be able to explain why I was taking pictures. I felt like it'd be imposing for me to go inside like a tourist taking pictures of their impoverished lives.
This is the road leading to the house. The house would be about right where I am writing. There were some sort of cattle across the street, though they did not look like cows in the U.S. I am not quite sure what they are called.

A picture of behind the home where the girls hung their laundry to dry. Really pretty fields. The home from a distance. That is Bill's car parked in front. The girls and one boy for the most part take care of themselves. There is one woman that supposedly looks after them, but she is never really there.

The Night Market Last Weekend

Last weekend, we went to the musical "High School Musical," the following pictures are from that day:This is a picture of Abby, 4 and the youngest, and Ruth, 5 who has a twin named Esther. Esther has 3 freckles near her nose-that's the only way to tell them apart that I can see anyway.
This is David and Sarah. I often forget their ages. David is around 7 and Sarah is a bit older-about 9. Ruth, Esther, Matthew, Malee (the manager of the Children's home)and Abby

After the musical, we went to the Saturday market to eat and walk around. These pictures were taken at the restaurant and market. We had pork and noodles-really good.
Ruth, Abby, Matthew, and Esther
View of the Saturday night market
Paul, 5, in front of the Lanna Music Truck, really loud gong-like sounds

Saturday Market view from the restaurant
The restaurant-everyone in purple is from Ban San Faan
whoops repeat picture and i cant figure out how to delete it!! This blog is starting to annoy me.

Paul again, 5 years old

Really bad picture-i think the point of taking it was to show people what Thai writing looks like (yeah that's it)-see on the blue sheet of paper behind Faith, who is about 7 yrs old i think hah i can never remember except for the 5 year olds). This was where the kids were coloring pictures of different superheroes and/or Hello Kitty.

Motorbikes

I taught the house mother, one of the nannies, and one of the teachers some more English today. I find it quite fun. I then went with Averil, the teacher from New Zealand, to have cake with a friend. We actually went to a Western place, The Duke's-created by a guy from Chicago, but it was air conditioned and a nice break from the heat. The woman we met up with named Sam is from British Columbia, Canada. She was really funny and is retiring in Thailand with her husband Cliff. She speaks more freely and comicly than the other Westerners I have met here (which have been mostly missionaries).

Upon returning home, Pat, one of the teachers, asked me to go to the market with her. I then realized after agreeing and walking outside that this meant I would have to get on the back of her motorbike. If you know me, you know I am a nervous person hah so I thought about backing out since motorbikes here get into a lot of accidents. The accidents occur mostly because they drive without ANY road courtesy and motorbikes zoom in and out of traffic. So anyway I sucked it up and climbed on back and I am alive!! I actually found it kind of fun, like an amusement ride. I don't think I would get on one of those anymore though. It's funny how the Thais aren't afraid of getting on one at all. At the market, I got the Hellos from a couple of guys, that I haven't experienced thus far because I was mostly with Averil too or in a place where there were more foreigners. This market was all Thais. I bought some sticky rice cakes. They were also selling anything you can think of plus fried red ants, what looked like fried cockroaches, and some nasty looking little birds eggs with holes in them. Interesting.

Tomorrow, I am leaving for Chiang Rai, Northeast of Chiangmai, with Bill and Malee. We will be visiting other children's homes-ones that aren't quite as nice as the one I am working at. We will stay overnight, go to the markets, etc. then return here on Saturday. Until then, Brittany

Day by Day

Hi everyone,

The kids are still on "school break" so my days have been different from the first week. We actually have a couple more weeks of this break though they will be varied based on different field trips and how many Thai classes Malee feels like teaching that day. The architect that designed this building is married to a college professor who claimed that the children are behind in their Thai. I don't know personally if a college professor is the best person to ask-i think sometimes when you're surrounded by adults you forget what children are like and their learning patterns. But anyway, so Malee got all concerned and is thus, teaching them extra classes in Thai on their time "off."

Today, I taught an English class to the House Mother, Mali, and one of the nannies, Chi Chi. One of the Thai teachers, Pat, also listened in. I was nervous to teach them since I didn't really know how much they knew and did not want to offend them by starting off too easy. Apparently, I had nothing to be worried about because they were grateful for any bit of English I gave them and they really need the practice. I hope this will be a daily occurrence and assume it will be since they both seemed so eager to learn.

I am continuing to try to learn Thai as well, but it is very different from English and thus, a lot harder than learning Spanish or French. And even with those languages I am certainly not perfect. I have forgotten a lot of my French, which I took 12 years of-frightening, and my Spanish now from college definitely needs to be brushed up-hah. I love languages though and really would love to be able to at least get by with a little Thai. I also wish I knew what the kids were saying all the time because I miss out on the cute things they say since they use Thai for that. Sometimes Averil translates, but when she's not in the room I just have to guess what they're saying.

I will be going to Chiang Rai with Bill and Malee on Friday to visit a different orphanage and probably to the market there, which is exciting. I am also trying to make plans for my travel afterwards. If anyone has any ideas of must see places in SE Asia or Australia/New Zealand, please let me know (BrittanyL@gmail.com). Hope all is well with all of you.

Love,
Brittany

Random thoughts

I am very impressed with the children here. Many of them try hard to speak English with me. Some frustrate me by refusing to try harder to speak English and resorting to having others translate their Thai to English. I guess it's really frustrating to me too since I understand basically no Thai except for Hello and how are you and I know for sure that they understand a decent amount of English.

However, once I get frustrated I often realize once again that I am not in just some school, but all of these children are orphans of one sort or another-meaning that some of them still have living parents, but those who abused them or couldn't care for them. I learned many of their stories the other night from Bill from Washington state who helped organize Ban San Faan. The tales of how the children ended up here gave me more compassion towards the children, and a willingness to put up with more. It strikes me as really sad what the children have already been through, yet really uplifting that these children have been taken into such a loving environment.

They were watching A Night At The Museum tonight before bed (we've seen it 3 times since i got here-hah) and when it was over and it was time for bed, they all went around hugging all adults in the room-it was so cute. Abby, the youngest, likes to make sure she sits right by me and holds my hand a lot. Kids have so much love to give. It's startling to me that anyone in this world could hurt a child without remorse.