Being in Thailand is Still Sinking in...

Sawa- Dee- Ka! 

(Said in a sweet quiet voice while waiing.) 

I hope this finds you well and that your weekends are off to a great start whatever it may be filled with. 

I am doing well. I am fully recovered from being sick with whatever I had last weekend. Praise be to God. It was terrible being sick away from home. But I am oh so thankful to be better. 

Being in Thailand is still sinking in for sure. Sometimes when I am heading out to the farm or to my apartment, I think, "Wow! I am in Thailand." It's kind of crazy. Then I think about how blessed I am to have this opportunity. It's definitely a life changing experience. My views on life and certain aspects of it are certainly changing. When I come home, I know it will be a challenge to adjust to the US. I do hope that I bring back some of the Thai attitude and hopefully rub off on those around me. Definitely not all of it, but maybe a small portion. 

This week has been busy as usual. Kind of quiet without having a ton of visitors as we did last week. It was nice to have a "normal" week as normal as it gets in Thailand before we have another abnormal week. Aj. Leon is going to Myanmar to bring back some former Legacy graduates for further training at Legacy. Aj. Erika, Aj. Nathan and I will be taking cooking classes next week from Aj. Leon's daughter in law. We are really excited about this! Maybe I can make you some arroy mak (very delicious) Thai food when I come home. :) Then Aj. Nathan, Aj. Ben and I are going on our first visa run. We have to leave the country and get our passports stamped so we have decided to go to Cambodia. We are thrilled!! I'm sure I'll have tons of photos and stories to blog about when I get back. 

As far as classes go, I am still loving it. The students are great. There are some frustrations that have been pretty prevalent the past couple of weeks. It's a Thai mentality that I am still learning to deal with. At times some students not motivated and don't come to class prepared for what's going to be covered. It's somewhat frustrating because the most of the students are older than I so I automatically think I should not have to tell them they HAVE to do their homework and participate in class. It's kind of crazy. Other than that, classes are great! 

Reading is a fun class. I am trying to get the students to learn how to read to retain what they read and figure out definitions of words they do not know from context. These are skills that will help them if they go on to take the TOEFL test.

Writing is great! I love it! I am using ideas that I learned in my Education classes as well as my own English classes. It's fun to see how they respond. I am striving to get  them to think for themselves and not want to write only about what Aj. Elainea says to write.

Intro to Bible is so much fun now that the students are understanding more English. They amaze me at how much they have progressed in such a short amount of time. 

Journalism is fun too. We just finished our first issue of our school paper. It is very exciting! 

Health is fun because I have second and third year students. They are doing well in class. It's fun with some of the discussions we get into. 

Discussion is a combo class with second and third year students. Aj. Nathan and I teach this class together, which is a lot of fun. This is probably my favorite class if I had to choose one because I get to hear what they think about different issues and see them develop their oral English skills.  

Mae Sa Elementary School class is still quite a challenge. It's 7th, 8th and 9th grade, which is enough said to figure out why it's a challenge. But other than that, they know very little English and don't have a drive to learn English. The teachers who teach English in Thailand translate it all into Thai so they haven't ever heard straight English and definitely not from a Farrang. So needless to say it makes things interesting. I only teach them for about an hour each class once a week so it's difficult to make a huge impact on their English skills. 

That's an update on what I'm teaching and how the classes are going just so you know. 

Sorry only one photo this week. Not to say their wasn't anything interesting to take photos of. :) One day this week we were walking down to where we play sports and you wouldn't be able to guess what we saw. There was a pony eating all of the shrubs to clean up a particular area. So I have concluded that there isn't a need for lawnmowers! Everyone just needs a pony to take care of it. I'm assuming a goat would work too. So all of you who have grass should run out and purchase a new and improved type of lawnmower. 

Speaking of animals... I had another gecko in my shower this week. If I ever come back to the US I am going to think that it is strange to not have geckos all over the place. Maybe I'll bring some back with me to share with all of you. :) Just Kidding! 

I think that is all for now other than a couple of prayer requests. Please continue to keep me in your prayers as well as all of the teachers over here. Pray that we will make a difference and have an impact for good. Pray for traveling safety of Aj. Leon and the three of us who are going on the visa run. Also, one of my students fell off of his bike and broke his arm. His name is Jay. Please pray for a speedy recovery. 

Take Care. I think of all of you often. 

Much Love and Hugs,

Aj. Elainea