A big meal, a great family, new classes, and some time with Jeab

Dinner with a few friends on Sunday night after soccer :)- and the Honeyman family with their two kids, from Bangkok

At Jeab's house

Rong (Jeab's husband), Ton, Liz! (she's visiting us for a few days)

the boys cleaning up after dinner on Sunday night

For the past three weeks, there was a lovely family from Bangkok staying here at Step Ahead-the Honeymans, with their two children and their nanny. The husband is American and the wife is Thai.  Paul and Yeewa Honeyman helped us out with several things around Step Ahead: Yeewa helped Megan translate her surveys, visited the preschools, and she taught the kids in Lam Kaen in my and Pia's place while I was in Phuket. They were so kind and generous, always encouraging us and genuinely concerned about our well-being. Sunday was their last night here, and Paul and his oldest son joined us for soccer at the beach, and then they treated all of us (almost 20 people!) to dinner at Step Ahead. We were sad to see them go on Monday morning!

 Our friend Liz, one of the British girls who taught here for two months but is now working in Bangkok, is visiting us for a few days this week! It's been so great to catch up with her. Unfortunately El couldn't come, because she's with her brother and sister at Koh Samet. 

New classes started this week, and my English classes are too small, but my German class has 8 people! I had so much fun with those students today. My evening English class is quite unique because I have two ladies who each bring their kid to class! So it's 3 adults and two kids, and one of the kids, who is half Danish, can already speak English so well. He was in my Step Ahead kids' class over the school break! And the little girl is half German. She's adorable. 

Tonight Jeab, our housekeeper, invited us from Step Ahead, plus Ton and Momay, to her house for dinner. God has been working in great ways in her life, and I learned from Benz tonight that Jeab has put her faith in Christ! God is also bringing healing and reconciliation in her marriage, and it was wonderful to see a genuine love and happiness between her and her husband. He's not a believer yet. After dinner, we talked and laughed for a long time (Momay and Ton were being very silly- as usual), and then we prayed together for God to bless Jeab's family. 

A chat with Dinay. A changed life.

Megan and I made the rounds in our neighborhood tonight on our way to the beach, stopping off for a while at Gan's to share some of our pictures of Koh Yao Noi with her, since she's adding Koh Yao to the list of tours she offers at the Green Biking Company, then saying "sawat dee ka" to the ladies at the massage shops and the guys who work at the yellow Italian restaurant, and after a few minutes at the beach (it was already late- like 9:15), stopping to chat with Dinay at his tailor shop. It's been so exciting to see him grow in his new faith in Jesus. It's so much fun to meet with Dinay whenever I have time to stop for a while. His face beams radiantly every time I see him, and he's so joyful. He's been reading the Nepalese Bible, which I had asked the Honeymans (a family helping out at Step Ahead right now) to bring down from Bangkok, every day. Last week I asked him if he had ever read the Bible before, and he said "no, this is the first time!" He is amazed by the story of Creation and the stories of Jesus in the gospels (he read John first). This week he said he went to Krabi for a few days for his cousin's wedding and that while he was there, he read his Bible aloud to some of his relatives. One of them was really interested and has kept asking Dinay if he's still reading the Bible. 

Dinay likes percentages. Tonight he said several things that made me and Megan crack up. It went something like this:

Bri: "Is it as clean in Nepal as it is in Thailand?"

Dinay: "Oh no, it's about 20% as clean as Thailand."

Bri: "Really?"

. . . .

Dinay: "I'm too dark. I wish my skin were whiter."

Megan: "I wish I were dark like you! Does my skin look darker than when I came here?"

Dinay: "Oh yes, I think you're about 20% as dark as me."

(this makes perfect sense in his mind)

. . . .

Megan: "How many languages do you speak?"

Dinay: "About 5: Nepalese, Burmese, Thai, English, and a little bit of Italian. Thai about 60-70%. English about 60-70%. Italian only about 20%."

  I might have gotten some of the details incorrect. I have a bad memory. But it was funny. 

Phuket

Amber, Pia, and Amanda

We found a Swiss restaurant!

me and Bua at her favorite coffee shop
) 

at Rajabhat (sp. ? University in Phuket)

Chinese steamed buns and hazelnut steamed milk- yum!

I'm sitting at Amber's house in Phuket, listening to the rain while Pia relaxes on the couch next to me. This week has been such a great time to truly wind down after a busy class term and some unnecessary visa excitement last week- which worked out absolutely WAY better than I could have expected. To make a long story short, while talking to Kim, my director's wife, on the phone, she asked me what was the exact date that my visa expires, and.... when I looked at my passport, it was that very day! Exactly one month after my last visa run in June. It had been stamped wrong, which somehow escaped my attention. But Benz called around and talked to people for me, and I found out that I wouldn't be deported or have to pay a big fine, but I'd just have to go to Ranong and get it re-stamped the next day. Praise the Lord! Amber had planned to rent a car anyway to pick up some of Pia's stuff, because she is in transition and will probably be moving up north to do some different work, so she ended up driving me (with Pia) all the way to Ranong, and then back to Phuket! Ten hours in the car.  The great thing is that in Ranong, I didn't even have to go on the boat! I simply walked up to the counter, explained as best I could in Thai what had happened, got my passport re-stamped and left! It was the fastest trip to Ranong ever. 

So for the past week (which ended up being a longer stay in Phuket than I'd planned), I've been able to spend some great time with Pia and Amber and her family. We've done very little; honestly I've been content to sleep in, pray and read a lot, play guitar, and help Pia think through some issues. She will most likely be going up north near Hua Hin to do some new work. I'll miss her so much. She's been one of my closest friends the whole time I've been here. Another cool thing I got to do was get to know Bua, the only Campus Crusade staff in Phuket, and visit her university and talk to her about her ministry. Bua lives with the Griffeons (Amber's family) and goes to their church. Cru recently moved all of their staff to the bigger cities, so all of the staff in south Thailand, except for Bua, are now in Hat Yai. She really has a heart for Phuket, so she asked to stay and do her master's program in Phuket.  

Island Adventures

Pics:  http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann

  On the 4th of July weekend,  Paul, Carter, Megan and I went to Koh Yao Noi, an island close to Phuket. I have to say that it was pretty much the most fun trip I've been on the whole time I've been in Thailand! It was an adventure from start to finish. We took the bus to Phuket, got off at the roundabout, and then tried to find a song thaew (taxi) to the pier, but we couldn't find one, so we hitchhiked. (Not as dangerous as it sounds- Paul assures me that he does it all the time, and he grew up in Asia). We sat in the back of a pickup truck and got there in no time. We caught a speedboat to the island, just about 30 minutes away. While on the boat, Paul made friends w/ a girl who let us get on her truck that was waiting for her at the pier, and they took us around to find a bungalow. We settled on a cute one with hammocks in front and a lot of privacy. The tide was way out, so the beach didn't look too nice, but that didn't matter b/c we could drive to another beach. We rented two motorbikes, and I got my most extensive driving experience since I've been in Thailand- before that I had only driven to the beach and on the small roads near the beach. What I didn't expect was that I'd be driving off-road, through the mud, and up and down very steep hills. That was on the 2nd day, when we went in search of the elusive "Paradise Resort." But I discovered that this type of driving was beyond my capability as a new motorbike driver with a passenger on the back (bless Megan's heart, she was brave), and on a very steep downhill part, we landed in a hole! Nobody was hurt, but I broke my flip-flop and Megan and I had a good laugh about it. 

  Another funny instance was when we went to the beach at night to collect firewood and made a fire, but we underestimated how far the tide would come back in. We were lying there, enjoying the stars and the fire when we heard water coming nearer and nearer... so we ended up wading back to our bungalow in water that was higher than my waist! Megan and I were kind of freaked out about it, which resulted in nervous but constant laughter the whole way back! 

  On Saturday afternoon we found a beautiful beach with no one on it except the four of us, and on Sunday morning we went sea kayaking out to a little sandbar with gorgeous white sand. The island itself is just a small local village, and it's not touristy at all, especially compared with Koh Phi Phi and Koh Similan. That's probably why I liked it so much. 

  On the way back, the adventures weren't over yet. As we were walking out of the pier road to hitchhike back to the roundabout, I had to sacrifice my freshly-cut mango to a band of vicious monkeys that surrounded me and would have attacked me! They were small, but I wasn't about to tangle with about 10 monkeys with sharp teeth! And then we returned home in a bus- made for maybe 40 people- but filled with 100 or so! It was the fullest bus I've ever been on in my life. I sat on Megan's lap, and people were sitting 3 to a seat and standing up from front to back, with about 13 people in the front area gathered around the driver. 

    

June- the YWAM team month!

Tobi and Arnaud baptizing Dini, a Nepalese guy who just accepted Jesus

Washing dishes at church w/ Erin and Arnaud

Teaching German with Tobi, from Switzerland

Visa run to Burma w/ the team

Praying for church members

More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann

   I think that the month of June has possibly been the best month that I've had here at Step Ahead in many aspects. At the beginning of the month, a YWAM team with 13 people from a snowboarders' DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Davos, Switzerland came to help out with various things, including teaching classes, visiting and praying for church members, teaching English and hygiene with Pia at the Moken Village, and doing a bit of construction work at Pak Ping Church. At first I had some reservations about having such a big team come; I wondered how they would integrate here and whether there would be enough work for them to do... and quite frankly, how chaotic it would be w/ 13 extra people running around here! They're not sleeping at Step Ahead, but at a hotel right down the road from here, but they come here for all their meetings and spend a lot of time here during the day.  I don't know how many times God will have to teach me this lesson, but every time I get anxious/worried about new people coming here, I am always surprised at how much they enrich my life, how much fun we have together, and how they seem to come at just the right time. And I think the feeling is mutual. Because I've been here for a while now and can speak some Thai, I've been able to help the team out as they navigate this area and culture!  

   At first I did feel a little overwhelmed with all these people. I wasn't sure how to co-ordinate things so that they could help me with my classes, and I was hitting a brick wall in my lesson planning.  Also, honestly, I'm starting to feel tired of having so many short-term relationships: I meet people for a short time, we just start to get to know each other, and then they leave again. That is the nature of my work at Step Ahead, and not only that, it is the nature of my lifestyle for about the past 8 years of my life! (since college and afterward). It makes me feel like: why do I even want to put in the effort anymore? Why would I want to connect w/ ppl and then they (or I) leave? I received some of the best advice ever from Arnaud, the Dutch guy on the team, as we talked for a long time one evening about it. He said, "learn to be a friend wherever you go and whatever you do." It's so simple, but it made perfect sense. And I am so thankful for those whom I love back at home who keep up with me in spite of the distance. It's not the same as being able to talk to you face-to-face, but Skype helps a lot, and it provides a bit of stability in my crazy life. Though I find it tiring sometimes, I must say that I'm also happy with my life and definitely wouldn't change my decision to come here.

  I haven't been able to join the team for all of their activities, of course, but here are some of the highlights from the team's time here so far:

• having Tobi, a Swiss German, help me teach German class! It has been so fun co-teaching, and he has great ideas and interacts so well with the students. Arnaud has helped out with German class, too, and I think his Dutch accent adds a fun element. :) The English classes w/ the other volunteers have been more lively and funnier than usual, too! We did a lesson on describing physical appearance last night that had us and the students nearly in tears from laughing so hard.
• seeing a lady at our church relieved of her backache after we prayed for her
• having evening prayer & Bible study meetings (in English!) a couple times a week
• our visa run to Burma together- doing it w/ the team was 100x better than doing it by myself, and I wasn't motion sick this time! (Evelyn sent me some magnetic wristbands which must have helped)
• getting to see Dini, a Nepalese guy that Tobi, Arnaud and Rev led to Christ, baptized in the ocean this week!
• Saturday morning pancake breakfasts with the team
• watching late night soccer matches- the Euro Cup! Playing spoons, laughing a lot together. 
• big soccer matches at the beach! We had about 18 ppl playing one Sunday!
• the simple love and heart of service that I've seen in the team members.

  I'll close on that note for now. There's only about a week left, and then I anticipate a sad good-bye. 

good-bye to El and Liz... sniff

 I have to say that one of my highlights from this week was during the kids' class when El accidentally threw a pink sock right at my face! We were doing a lesson on clothing, and El, Liz and I did a silly fashion show where we put on all sorts of clothes (over our clothes, of course) and then, when she was taking off a sock and trying to throw it in the bag, she missed and hit my face. 

   

I don't have any new pics to post yet, but I will soon. I've taken some, but it's been a busy week and I didn't have the chance to upload photos from last night before leaving for Bangkok (which was very early this morning!). Now I'm sitting in the Quinleys' living room, relaxing and updating my blog! It's been a whirlwind week, and I am glad that I didn't have a lot of classes this term, otherwise this week would've been even crazier. It was El and Liz's last week in Khao Lak, so we tried to fit in as much as possible! Last Sunday after church, we went to Lampi Waterfall again and hiked up quite far until we found a very nice pool to swim in. We also found a natural rock slide, which Amnuey tried out first! 

  Then I had a test to write for my Lower Intermediate class and I had advertising to do for our new class term, since I knew I'd be gone all of the upcoming week. We always take a week break after a term to give us time for advertising. So I went out a couple days and passed out fliers at hotels and shops and made some good contacts with ppl who are interested in learning German. 

  I did a lot of baking this week too, because El and I had an end-of-term party for the intermediates on Wed.; I made banana muffins for that. Then it was Paul's birthday on Thursday, so I baked him a carrot cake. And for the party on Friday (El & Liz going away, end-of-term, + Paul's bday all together) I made banana chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. 

   On Thursday while I was at Bangsak Beach with a friend, I saw the YWAM team that will be coming in June to help us teach and do a few other things at Step Ahead! They're in a town about 20 minutes away doing construction work right now. They went to a DTS in Switzerland, and their outreach is in Thailand. Fortunately, there is one German speaker on the team, who I hope will be able to help me w/ my German class! There's also a Swedish guy, so I'm hoping he'll be willing to do a 4-week intro course in Swedish. In the evening, we went out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner for Paul's birthday and then had carrot cake for dessert.

  On Friday there were party preparations to be made, and lots more fliers to be passed out for classes. It rained heavily in the afternoon/ early evening, so we were worried that students wouldn't show up, but then it stopped! And we had about 35 ppl total, which was great. Lots of students. We played knights, horsemen, cavaliers (a hilarious game; if you haven't played it, ask someone to tell you about it). And I was really happy to see Mouy there, one of my dear students who comes over to cook and bake w/ me sometimes, but hadn't been able to attend class this term b/c her kids were off school. She said she'll be returning to study at Step Ahead in the next term. After everyone had left, El, Liz, Benz and I blasted some music and had a dance party. It was so funny. But I went to bed late and got up this morning to leave at 6.30 for an early flight. I'm gonna miss those girls so much. But it wasn't actually good-bye yet, b/c the two of them plus Benz are coming up to BKK on Monday, and then we'll hang out together on Tues./ Wed.- go see the Grand Palace, Siam Square, and visit the YWAM base and Ban Jai Dio (a student ministry house). Things will be different when I return to Step Ahead and the girls aren't there! I'll miss them so much. But we're supposed to be getting an American girl pretty soon and maybe a few others in the summer as well. It's hard when things are always changing, though; ppl always coming and leaving.

    

Massive waves & a fish that followed El home

the fish that El "caught" in her hair. Much smaller than my fingernail.

Teaching the kids at church

For the past week, the waves have been absolutely massive! Earlier in the week, they were fun to just jump up with (they'd lift you about 3 feet off the ground). But yesterday and today, the whole ocean was just churning with crazy waves! Usually there will just be basically one wave that breaks on shore all along the length of the beach, but now they're breaking in many spots and going in different directions, too. I've never seen it so stirred up in the 7 months that I've been here! Yesterday El, Paul, Liz and I went to the beach in the late afternoon (as we usually do, to avoid the hottest part of the day), and all of them went in for quite a while to get battered about by the waves. I never ended up going in very far, b/c as soon as one came, it would knock me down and carry me along w/ it. Even when I tried to dive under them, they would still sweep me away! The whole shape of the beach has changed, too. Since the tide has been up so high, it has carved out some sand dunes and little hills and drop-off points, whereas it's usually just sandy (loose sand) and fairly flat. Pretty interesting. I've been told that the wind blows in the opposite direction during the low season, and that's what causes the waves to be so big, while the ocean is normally very calm during the high season. And it's definitely the low season (more about that in a minute!). When El got home tonight, as she was taking a shower, a tiny fish fell out of her hair! Apparently he'd gotten tangled up and couldn't get free, and then he went for a ride to Step Ahead. Unfortunately, he didn't survive the journey. I tried to take a picture, but it's so small that you can barely see it. 

 Low season: I realized that the low season has really started when, on Thursday morning, Liz and I ventured to Khao Lak (a 1/2 hour walk) in hopes of having a nice breakfast at Stempfer Cafe, a lovely German bakery/ cafe.... only to find that it was closed- until OCTOBER! I was pretty sad. I'd been looking forward to a nice European breakfast and a strong coffee (and buying some bread to take home). Even the small German bakery right down the road from us is closed, but I'm not sure if they'll be closed for the whole low season.  Lots of shops and restaurants are closing around here for the next 5-6 months. It's becoming a ghost town! But I expect we'll still have plenty of students in the low season; Paul said they did last year. 

  I'm going through a phase where I'm kinda tired of Thai food. It seems like we eat the same stuff over and over (which we probably do at home too, but it's just different to eat the same foreign food over and over... not sure why). I was especially annoyed w/ Thai food when I got food poisoning 2 weeks ago- from a noodle shop where I had lunch- and threw up literally the whole night (I haven't thrown up in years; I have to be REALLY sick to actually throw up).  I'm seriously thinking I need to learn how to make my own bread. I think I've had enough rice to last me a lifetime. But it's ok; I'll pass through this phase if I persevere. Also, my plan is to search out bagels and cream cheese when I'm in Bangkok... something I haven't eaten in 7 MONTHS! And I'll probably make a few trips to Starbucks as well. 

  

  On a happier note, my friend Pia told me that I can now read and write Thai at first-grade level! So I'm now about as smart as a 7-year-old Thai kid.