I hope all of you had a fabulous Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, love, thankfulness and yummy food.
Thanksgiving in Thailand makes me miss home. Thanksgiving here is very different than being home. More than the food and not being with family. I seem to look at things differently and have a new appreciation for family, friends and times spent together than I did before. I have always loved time with family and friends, but I guess like the saying goes, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Even though it's not a typical Thanksgiving, I do like Thanksgiving in Thailand. Legacy tries to go to an orphanage or do some sort of outreach on Thanksgiving. I love this. In doing this, Thanksgiving takes on a completely different light than it does at home.
We went to an orphanage in Chiang Mai which provides a home for about 50 children from 3 months to 6 years. After 6 years, if they are not adopted, they are moved to another orphanage. The orphanage they are moved to is actually near our school. The children who are in the home are there because their parents took them to the hospital and left them when they were sick or maybe they are hilltribe and cannot afford to take care of them if they were sick or various other reasons. It breaks my heart to see little ones who don't have parents.
We took them milk and cake. They loved the milk, but really the cake. I thought this was funny because most kids LOVE sweet stuff. After giving them the goodies, we got to play with them. They were absolutely adorable! They were very loving and were very funny. I got to use my Thai with them and they were sooo cute! I have been looking for an orphanage to volunteer at once a week to take a break from being "Ajan Elainea" and to help out in a different capacity. I guess partly selfish motives because I miss little kids. We'll see if it all works out. It would be a lot of fun to be able to go in on a regular basis just to play with the kiddos.
Here are a few photos from our visit.
This little fellow was sooo cute! He had the most adorable smile ever! They were seemingly camera shy so you don't get to see this cutie's smile.
These warmed up to me pretty quickly. The girls were harder to persuade to talk than the boys. They were really cute. They were having a tea party in the little train.
These two were helping sweep and pick up the leaves. It was sooo CUTE!
Typical little boy picture with a gun. Haha! They even like guns in Thailand.
Let's play a game... You're tall so... I'll tell you in Thai what I want and see if you can figure it out. I pointed and then heard, "Mai owe!" "Mai Owe!" Then I would ask, "Ani?" "Mai Owe!" Haha! I got it right though. She wanted the ball. Not sure how you say it. But I got it!
To my dear climbing friends, these little guys could climb that little crib, which held all the toys quite well! They would fly up that thing no bombers needed or a belayer. However, I think a belayer would have been useful. :) I think they would make some excellent rock climbers someday.
After going to the orphanage, the three of us teachers went out for Thanksgiving Dinner at "The Duke's" We met a couple of my friends from home who volunteer at the orphanage where I volunteered my first trip to Thailand. It was a fun dinner. It was almost like home. Not quite, but good enough when you're in Thailand. :) It was yummy. No pictures this year and we didn't where hats like we did last year. We decided to be normal. Haha! Whatever that is.
Today it was back to classes as usual. No Black Friday shopping here. I got to talk with some of my family on video skype, which was fun. It was almost like I was home amidst the chaos of all the little playing. :) Almost. (I love you guys!) It diid feel a little more like home after baking some cookies and making dinner tonight.
I've have been so thankful to be able to teach this past week. Japur/Uaorawet is back in my classes with another student added. Japur is a walking miracle and to see his view on life after his near death experience with the motorbike is amazing. He has always been sweet with a good disposition, but he's even more so now. He wrote something in class along the lines of, no matter how much we prepare, how careful we are, or how we try to protect ourselves, sometimes people can still crash into us. At the time it was something that I really took to heart and was food for thought. We can try to do EVERYTHING in our power to make things go right or get things done, but in the end, we don't have control over everything. Someone or something can crash into us. It really made me think.
Thank you for your prayers for Japur. I know that's why he is doing so well. He has the Best Doctor up above. Please continue to pray as he is still recovering, quite remarkably though.
I think that's all for now and I have brought you up to speed on my life so far. I'll try and get back into posting more regularly. It just seems if I'm not doing homework, I'm preparing for a class or at least should be. :) I hope this finds you well, happy and thankful.
Sending Love and Hugs from Thailand,
Lainy J.
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