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.  

 

Songkran Step Ahead conference: hot weather, waterfights, and James Bond

http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann 

"Yeah, it's always better when we're together..." I like this song a lot,  and even though it's kinda just a cute romantic song, the chorus actually makes me think about how much better everything is when we do things together w/ friends- especially friends w/ a common goal, purpose, and faith in Christ. This past weekend we had a big conference during the Songkran (Thai New Year) holiday. The Step Ahead staff from Bangkok, the YWAM Thailand directors, and some good friends of the Quinley family joined us here in Khao Lak. I helped Jeab make lunch on Thurs. and Fri. as ppl were arriving, and on Friday we had a nice dinner at Chong Fah Resort, one of our local favorites. Then on Sat. we went to James Bond Island in Phang Nga Bay. It's just a little rock formation sticking out of the water, but it was featured in one of the 007 movies, so it became famous. But Phang Nga Bay is absolutely beautiful. (See pics). We went out on a boat (36 of us), and we went sea canoeing. Jeab wanted to ride in a canoe w/ me b/c I can swim. She was afraid of the water, but she still had a good time. We canoed through caves where we had to lie down flat in order to avoid hitting our heads. We saw some very strange creatures- half lizard and half fish. After that, we had lunch at a little Muslim village called Panyi which literally floats on the water. It's just a line of houses and little shops, a narrow pathway, and a mosque. Really interesting. Everybody had their doors open (it was really hot!), so you could look in and see ppl having their afternoon siesta on hammocks or mats on the floor. 

  On Sunday we had presentations about the different ministries of Step Ahead (microfinance, preschools, language teaching) and a worship service with some very nice music from the Porter family, who live in Bangkok and run a campus ministry house. In the afternoon, some people went to join the waterfights in Khao Lak (ppl pour buckets of water over each other and spray each other w/ water guns and hoses on Songkran). Then we headed to the beach and played ultimate frisbee (YAY for ultimate!). Another lovely meal at Chong Fah concluded our conference. But actually, it was probably the in-between-events times that I enjoyed the most. I really got to know John and Kim Quinley's 3 boys a lot better (they're 15, 16, and 18), and I met some other really neat ppl as well. A group of us spent time playing games (mafia, spoons, hide-and-seek), singing songs, chatting, laughing a lot, and making late night trips to 7-11. And it was really cool talking to Steve and Marie Goode, the YWAM Thailand directors, who have been in Thailand for 28 years. They're from Tennessee. Marie and I discovered something we have  in common: motion sickness. Somehow, it was a little comforting to me to know that she has found ways to cope w/ this problem over many years in spite of her very mobile lifestyle. I could really identify w/ her when she said, "I wonder why God called me to this kind of life when I have to deal w/ this problem!" A lot of the people at the conference have worked in Thailand for many years, and so it was cool to hear some of their stories. The Quinleys worked w/ some of them in Phang Nga town when they were church-planting.    

  On Monday we went to Lampi Waterfall. It was so gorgeous. We hiked up a steep path in the forest in search of the best pool to swim in, found the perfect spot, and cooled ourselves off. On the way back down, we went down the rocks instead of through the forest. At one point we realized all the Thai ppl below were staring at us and laughing as we carefully made our way down a fairly steep and slippery part. I'm not sure what was so entertaining about it, but that's ok. We had a good time.  

  

A different kind of Easter

Decorating the church for Easter

Kids making papaya salad

Jeab in red! She's doing a lot better.

Two new Easter albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann . There's a lot to report on this entry, so grab a drink and snack (maybe some leftover Easter chocolate) and get comfortable. I'll number them:

1. making pad Thai with students


2. another visa run


3. Easter celebrated differently this year
4. Jeab's recovery!
5. jellyfish and soccer
6. kids' classes at Step Ahead

So here goes: 1) We had another great meal with the famous cook, Jit, who's been one of my favorite students ever since I got here. She and 3 other ladies, also students here, came over and showed us how to make pad Thai. However, even though it was the 2nd time around for me to watch, it's very complicated and I still don't think I could do it on my own. It was probably the best pad Thai I've ever eaten- Taste of Thai, sorry- NO comparison. :)

2) Ok, this visa run takes the cake for number of complications and severity of motion sickness. To make a long story short, on the bus ride to Ranong, I had the barf bag out and ready (though I'd taken some motion sickness meds, a new kind though), but by an act of God I managed not to throw up. I thought I'd die. I wanted to. For the motorcycle taxi which drove me a total of approximately 15 minutes- but waited for me while I went on the boat- I paid 4x the amount of money I paid to take a two-hour bus ride from Kuraburi to Ranong! Then I was put on a boat w/ 2 Swedes, a Philipino lady and her cute little daughter, which would've been no problem except that they wanted to stay in Burma and shop for about 2-3 hours, whereas I wanted to head straight back to Ranong- as soon as possible. The boat guys wanted me to take the same boat back w/ them, but I said absolutely not- I had dinner plans that evening w/ the Australian family I'd stayed w/ in Kuraburi! After paying a bit extra in baht for having a $10 bill that wasn't "new and crisp enough," according to the Burmese officials who stamped my passport, I thought I was ready to return to Ranong. As punishment for not wanting to return on the same boat as the Swedes and Philipinos, they put me on the slowest boat, which stopped approximately every few meters to pick up Burmese and Thais. We must've had 15 people crammed on that little fishing boat. The whole boat trip including the haggling over the $10 bill on the Burmese side took 3 hours; it should've only taken 1. On the bright side of all this, I met a nice German guy on the bus ride back, and I had a lovely time w/ the Austrlian family in Kuraburi. I stayed 2 nights w/ them, and they had 2 guests from their home church who were helping w/ a water project in a nearby village. We played a fun dice game the first evening and went out to eat the 2nd evening. I love spending time w/ the Higgs, who are so sweet and so much fun. We seem to have similar preferences in books and theology as well. On the final leg of my journey back to Bang Niang, the bus driver asked for my phone number- but he asked one of the bus attendants to ask me for it. I didn't give it to him, but when I was waiting at the front to get off at my stop, I had a good laugh w/ the 2 bus attendants and the driver, and they complimented me on my Thai. They asked me how many years I'd been here already. :)

3) On Saturday, we had an especially fun morning w/ the kids at church. After some songs and teaching, they cooked lunch! They did a great job. And we decorated the church together. On Sunday morning, we had a candlelight sunrise service and ate rice porridge w/ garlic, ginger and cilantro for breakfast (have you ever had rice porridge on Easter morning?). We sang songs- really funny too, b/c they didn't sound like hymns or traditional Easter songs; they sounded like oldies- I mean 60s rock! And we played a game where we passed around a plate of boiled eggs, chopped in half and w/ candles stuck in them, and when the music stopped, whoever was holding the plate had to eat one and feed one to his neighbor on each side! Then we went home between services and had our usual service at 10. That was really nice. The kids- including the ones from our Saturday class- sang a special song- "prajao bpen kwam rak"- God is love. Paul's brother Mark was visiting for a few days, so it was really nice to get to know him a bit as well. Now he and Paul are off traveling in Chiang Mai.

4) Jeab, our housekeeper, has recovered for the most part! Praise God. She came to the Easter services and today was her first day back at work at Step Ahead.

5) I've been playing soccer w/ the boys at the beach lately, which is great. I really, really miss doing competitive sports, but I find it really hard to organize people to do anything here. Benz played tonight, too, which made me glad to not be the only girl. Unfortunately, after the first match we all went into the sea and I got stung by a jellyfish in about 5 different spots. These jellyfish are not dangerous ones, but it sure did hurt anyway! There were never any jellyfish around the first 5 1/2 months that I was here, but for some reason, there are lots of them right now. Almost everybody has been stung- Paul, El, and some of Paul's friends who were visiting.

6) Lastly, Liz and El are teaching a kids' class at Step Ahead while the kids have their vacation from school. It's great! Today was the first day. Jit's kids are studying w/ us, too.

Done!

Featured Friend- Ton!

Ton with a bunch of kids from our Saturday church class


handing out prizes at Children's Day


I think Ton is the favorite emcee for any church event! (this was the Christmas gathering)


Teaching the kids some fun songs


Name: Ton (his first name is Prateep, which is Peter in English, but I can't remember his last name)

Age: 26 (exactly one month younger than me)

Interests: Jesus, teaching kids, teaching the Bible and Thai- as of recently :) , playing guitar, taking pictures, drinking coffee, playing soccer, driving a motorcycle.

Ton is such a unique person. When I first saw him, I wouldn't have guessed that he was the pastor of a small house church (that I would later attend). He looks like a rock star, for one thing, and he's really young to be a pastor! The first few times I saw him, we didn't say much at all because I couldn't speak any Thai and he only spoke a little bit of English! But a couple of months later, he became my language partner and we've had LOTS of laughs, lots of fun, and we've learned a lot together. He is such a good teacher, and he's learned quite a bit of English, too. And he has become one of my best friends here. Quite unexpectedly, I've organized two Thai classes for him to teach, and I'm helping explain things to our German students. We'll start a second Thai class next week at Step Ahead if everything goes as planned!

Ton is from northern Thailand (Chiang Rai) and he came here after the tsunami to pastor this small house church in Lam Kaen. He also worked with Siam Care, an NGO that helped children after the tsunami. I admire his commitment to God and his kindness and heart to serve and love people. He is outgoing and friendly and very funny- very silly sometimes. He has a huge smile and an infectious laugh. He takes special care to make sure that new people feel comfortable, which I really appreciate. Sometimes I don't understand his stories. And sometimes he drives me crazy. But I feel really blessed to know him.

End of Term Class Party!

My lower intermediate class, left to right: Jeab, Amnuey, Kerk, me, Jit, Mouy, Barsan

They brought so much food!

And Mouy brought a cake.

Kerk eating a Chinese steamed bun. I love this picture!

This is why I love my job. Not actually because my students bring us lots of yummy food and cook with us & for us, but because they like to spend time with us at Step Ahead! Yesterday was the last day of this 8-week term at Step Ahead, so I told my class that we could have a party, and I'd bake chocolate chip cookies, and they could bring something if they wanted. But they went all out! They brought all sorts of food: several different kinds of fruit (rose apples, bananas, longan), dried seaweed, Weet-a-bix, cake, a couple kinds of steamed Chinese buns, and nuts. We sat around eating and talking for about an hour, and then I gave them their final exam. After they finished, they decided it was time to eat again! Somebody ordered sticky rice and spicy pork salad, and we went back to the table and ate lunch. It was really relaxed and fun. I am always happy to see that our students feel comfortable just hanging out at Step Ahead.  The young boy in the picture just above (Kerk) is the nephew of the tall man on the far right (Barsan), two pictures up. I think it's great that uncle and nephew are studying together! They work together at a photo shop down the road in Khao Lak. Occasionally Paul and I stop by to see them there if we're out and about in the evenings. This group has been my favorite class since I've been here. It was quite small last term, but a few more joined this time, and we've had a solid core of about 7 students who never or hardly ever missed class at all. I am so excited to see their progress; several of them understood very, very little of what I said when I met them, and now all of them understand a lot! And they can speak much more, too. I love language learning, because it's something you can see tangible results with.   

Hooray for bike riding! & first Thai lesson with Germans

Yesterday after church, I was a little bored b/c there was no one around at all. Paul had gone to Bangkok for the weekend, Amnuey had gone to Koh Nok, and Benz had gone to dinner with some people from her church. Then I remembered that Amnuey had repaired an old bicycle that I could use! So I went out on my first bike excursion by myself! I felt so free. It reminded me so much of the old days when I used to go out for hours-long bike rides by myself in Salzburg. I explored just about every corner of the city on my bike, almost no matter what the weather was. And I loved it. It was a great adventure. Somehow, I couldn't really feel lonely on my bike. I felt close to God and close to nature. I could stop anywhere I wanted to; I could go to a little cafe and enjoy a hot cup of coffee on a cold day. I could bike up challenging hills (and partway up Gaisberg Mountain) or on the flat road alongside the river, which led out to other towns.

Well, this bike ride wasn't quite like those times in Austria. There are no bike paths here, and it's not really safe to ride along the main road, so a bike can't be my main form of transportation. But every time I set out by myself on a long bike ride, I always reminisce a bit. This bike trip had one thing in common w/ my bike rides in Austria: the bike was really clankety and rickety, and too small! As I soon discovered, I couldn't shift gears! Well, I could shift up but unfortunately not back down. That made it a hard ride up the hills. I had to go old school and stand up to pedal. I rode out a small country road that goes through the rubber tree plantations and out to the waterfall (the one I've been to a few times already). I didn't ride all the way to the waterfall b/c I didn't have a watch and I thought it'd be getting dark soon, but I rode to the reservoir. It was a cloudy day and late in the afternoon, so it wasn't very hot at all, just a bit humid. I loved it. I realized how much I've missed bike riding since I've been here, especially since I don't drive either, and I feel a bit stuck.

Today was our first German-Thai lesson: me, Ton, and four Germans. Boy, did we ever laugh! All four of them were so funny and good-natured and interesting to talk to. My brain got all mixed up as I tried to understand everything Ton was saying and then translated it into and explained in German (but really, it worked out well for the most part. Occasionally I turned to Ton and spoke to him in German, and then he gave me a confused/ amused look). I am really happy about this opportunity to help Ton (earn some money), to use my German in a challenging way, and to get to know some nice people. It's good to be connected to the German community here. A lot of them stay here for half the year or longer (they are retired). I encouraged them to all buy the same book, one that has German and Thai, so that Ton will know what to prepare beforehand, and they will have a better idea of what's going on in class. It is hard to learn a language that has a different alphabet, so you have to learn by trying to distinguish the sounds as best you can and writing them down the way they sound.