Cheese at the local supermarket!

This blog entry is partly for me to report with great delight that they are now carrying actual cheddar cheese (and Nutella, too) at the local supermarket! Which means that I'll no longer have to travel all the way to Phuket to get those precious commodities. On Tuesday night, there was a good-bye party for Saskia, the Dutch girl who works at Child Trac, an NGO that a lot of Paul's and my students work for. We really enjoy the Child Trac group; they are a tight-knit and really fun group. So Paul and I took off on the motorbike for the 40-minute-ride to Takuapa, the closest larger town in the area. But it started pouring on the way there. We had rain coats, but I discovered later that mine had ripped at the armpits, which is why my arms got so wet. It was still a fun trip, though. We went to a really nice restaurant, outdoors but covered (like most Thai restaurants) and surrounded by little ponds w/ fish and little stone walkways. The food was really nice, too. Some of my students lit sparklers, which is why there's smoke in some of the pictures. We had a good time, but I found it sad, too, to see the kind of lifestyle these people are living. There's a lot to pray for around here. Lots of homosexuality and gender confusion. Paul says there's a lack of good male role models in families.

Tomorrow I have a ton of things to do to prepare for our Thanksgiving meal on Sat. (you guys have all celebrated already, but there's too much work during the week for us to have had it today!) I only know of two of our students who are coming for sure, but I am glad that they are coming. There is actually a Buddhist festival on the same day, Loy Graton (no idea how to spell it), where they make miniature boats out of banana leaves and float them down the river to carry away their sins (I think that is the idea). It will still be a large group for Thanksgiving, w/ us from Step Ahead, two Canadian families, two of our students, and a few of the guys from the Step Ahead preschools. It's going to be lots of work, since I'm the main organizer and head chef. I hope I'll get a chance to rest at least some this weekend. I'm still feeling really, really tired most of the time and can't usually sleep past 7:00 even when I have the chance to (which is rare). I find the holiday season the hardest time to be away from home. Don't know yet what my travel plans for Christmas break are.