Happy Thanksgiving Happy Loy Krathong

Spending Thanksgiving in Thailand has been .... different. I miss cooking for family and friends. The ease of finding just what you need in the states is taken for granted. 

We celebrated Loy Krathong, which takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the Western calendar this usually falls in November. This year it fell on Thanksgiving.

Here are some pics of Loy Krathong and Thanksgiving. 

These are Banana trunk disks. They float on the water and carry the decorations. 

The krathongs are decorated by using fresh flowers.

The banana leaves are used to cover the banana
disks. Straight pins are used to secure the flowers
and 3 incense sticks as well as a candle are pare
of the decoration.

Here are some of our boarding students.
The young man on the right, Kaizen, never
wants me to hug him. I'm not sure why?

This is Ian, pronounced Yan, and he is one of only
3 blonde children at our school. He is Russian.

These girls are all Thai. They are dressed in
traditional Thai costumes. 

Some 4th grade girls who will be dancing
in the program today. Aren't they the cutest!

Here they are dancing a traditional Thai

dance.

Finished krathongs.

The high school girls after their dance
being silly ... what they do best.

Each class makes a krathong and the winner
is given an award. This was the 12th grades
entry.

7th Graders entry. Tonight they take their
krathongs and place them in the stream.
The purpose is to ask forgiveness and get good
luck. I made one but didn't float it, it was too
pretty! ;)

Here is the winner - 11th graders. 

In the evening after floating the krathongs.
These lanterns are sent up to represent something
... what, I'm not sure but it's part of the ceremony. 

Of course, you can't miss an important
text while lifting lanterns! 

These lanterns are made out of thin paper, almost like crepe paper. The unique part is the way they get these to rise. They take a roll of toilet paper, soak it in gas and was mixture. It's then solidified and cut into disks. These sit in the center of a wire case and are ignited. Once the lantern is filled with black smoke you let go and it floats away.

Halloween - Thai style

Halloween was a bit harder to do for me this year. We have it so easy in the states to just go to the store, Hobby Lobby, and get what you need. Not only do I live up on a huge hill which takes 20 minutes to get down ... they don't even know what a hot glue gun is. Sad

But the kids and staff did a wonderful job of making this event fun. Check out all the wonderful costumes.

Dave looks really nice as a girl.... very nice legs!

Our elementary principal and secondary principal ... very nice ladies

Minseung dressed as a girl as well.... the only problem is, his legs aren't as nice. Helen makes a great Mad Max extra!

These are some of my favorite girls, Diana from Romania as the Queen of Hearts, Vivi who is part Mexican as Laura Croft, Me as Spaghetti & Meatballs, Yong (the trouble maker) as Weekend the rapper, and Honey from Ethiopia who is a scary old lady.  Thomas is in the background photo bombing the picture and he's the cookie monster.

My sister in law, Sheryl, who is dressed up as a "social butterfly" .... get it!

Some of our other staff who dressed up as well.

Medusa

I'm not sure what Prim is but I wouldn't want to wake up with her hovering over me.

Hope you had a spooky evening as well!  Hugs

October Break - Elephant Hills & Kuala Lumpur

What a life! We're so lucky to be able to do what we've dreamed about for so long. Working and traveling ... seeing so many new places! 

We have a week off during October after the first quarter of school. We get invited to go to a place called Elephant Hills (www.elephanthills.org) in Surat Thani, Thailand. If you ever get a chance to come to Thailand you need to spend some time here. So beautiful and so very relaxing .... well except for the long hike. :)

Elephant Hills is in a rainforest with all kinds of creatures and vegetation. The forest around us is dense with greenery. 

It was overcast when we got there.

One of the beautiful flowers in the camp. We stayed the first night at the main camp. 

The views from our ride into the floating tent camp.
It can only be reached by boat.

We learned a lot about the lake, Cheow Larn. It's a manmade lake created in 1982. We were told the lake took 5 years to fill from rainfall and streams flowing into it.  

The long boat that took us to the floating tent camp. 

One of the numerous limestone cliffs jutting out of the lake. 

Our tent camp ... about 14 tents in all and each have a very modern bathroom inside and wonderful shower. They are powered by solar. No air conditioning ... only a tiny fan, dinner plate size.

  

Half way thru our 3 hour hike... It was so hot and humid. We saw several spiders in the cave and some were as big as my hand. This one was munching on its lunch. Disgusting.

After our fun at Elephant Hills we headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We didn't realize it but once we landed there was a fog over the city. We found out it was from the fires in Indonesia and this happens every year for 2-3 months. Just like in Chiang Mai. It wasn't unbearable but it didn't allow us to get very many good pictures.

Yep, everyone needs to taste joy ... well, maybe not but this was funny ... it was right next to  store called Sin Sin. :)

While walking around we needed to use the toilet. When in Rome or Malaysia ... use the squatty potty. I'm getting good at this. It only cost 20 ringget to use and 10 ringget for toilet paper ... for a total of about $.10.

 A beautiful fountain.

A monkey and it's baby ... they were every where and not too afraid of us but I was a bit of them especially when one thought it would be good to show me all his teeth.

At

The start of the 275 steps to the top.

 

At the top this is what we find! No Exercise ..... yeah right. 

We enjoyed our time in Kuala Lumpur and I get to mark another country off my list that I've seen. So where should we go on our next break?  Maybe New Zealand ... that sounds like fun. Or maybe Trinidad and Tobacco!!

Ban Piang School

Today felt like being in Haiti, Oaxaca, and Huruma ... we loved on kids, played games with them, and fed them. I left with tears in my eyes.

I love what I do. I've been fortunate enough to travel to countries to love on kids who need it. The only thing missing for me this time was my wonderful friend, Suzan Bellis. I remember when I first saw her, it was on a Sunday morning and she was telling us about her trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. She also told us she didn't start going on mission trips until she was 40. There I sat at 45 thinking, "if she can start at 40, I can start at 45" ... and I did. The best decision I ever made. God blessed me by supplying all my needs for all the trips. He's faithful like that.

Ban Piang School is a public school for hill tribe children. They have about 50-70 children who live on the campus. The older siblings take care of the younger ones. These children have very little and have to bring their own food supplies for lunch on the weekends. Which means when they go home the bring back rice and vegetables from their homes to use for their meals on the weekends. Here are some pictures of our time there. 

Gan is a senior and was our interpreter. These children don't understand English and most of us don't understand Thai. Gan is from Burma but was raised in Thailand, he is a good student and wants to go to college in Switzerland to study Hospitality. 

Who doesn't enjoy a game of Duck Duck Goose. These children loved having others around to play with and lead them in activities even though the weather and humidity levels were well over 90. 

Playing Dragon Tail ... our students did a wonderful job and we couldn't have been prouder. 

The young girl on the far right's name is Goi. She had the sweetest smile and wasn't afraid to give me a hug. 

The children were served
first but didn't eat until
everyone had food.
One of the older students
prayed and we ate.

The students wash their own plates
and then rinse them.

After the children wash their own
plates, they place them to be dried.

   

Ms Somjit, one of our RA's, was our cook. She worked
the night before making massaman curry for the kids. She
made a red curry as well as rice. Here, one of our drivers
pitched in and helped make omelets for the kids.
From what we were told these children get very little
protein so having chicken and eggs was a treat.

We look forward to coming back next month. We have a few work projects we want to do to make life easier for the children that live here. I'm thankful we're here.