Finals' Week

Happy March First Everyone!

Here at Legacy we are beginning every students' favorite time of the year- finals. Okay, I'm being sarcastic, but I do know it's their favorite because they get to finish soon. :) I'm right there with them. I know I said this last year, but it is still weird being on the side of the desk that hands out the exams, quizzes, assignments and grades. It is especially weird being back in school and teaching at the same time.

The buzz of graduation preparations are exciting. When someone completes the full three years at Legacy, it's very exciting for everyone involved. Our students hopefully not only leave with a good grasp of the English language, but also knowing what a leader is, what that looks like and of course knowledge of the Bible and what living a life following Christ look like. We have hopes and aspirations for all of our students to complete their time at Legacy and leave better, enriched individuals. It is always encouraging to hear that graduates are doing something that uses their gifts and talents.

Last year we had seven graduates, which I had the pleasure of teaching the majority of their classes. We have heard back and even seen some of them this year, which is always nice.

Norah with her 2 girls 4th of July 2008

Norah: She is translating booklets for a LaHu church and taking care of her adorable girls. I think she is probably doing a phenomenal job. She definitely had the gift of language.

Hkawn Din and me at a Legacy football game last year 2009

Hkawn Din is working helping care for elderly people. She has aspirations to continue her education and obtain a Master's degree.

Seng Mai and me on the 4th of July 2008

Seng Mai is working with her family.

The four guys taken at graduation last year.

L to R Buut, Jaseefu, Beka, and Jay

Buut: He is doing what he loves-- working on computers. When he was here at Legacy, he loved computers so it is not a surprise that's what he is doing.

Jaseefu: He went back home to his village after graduating. He was working on many different jobs, but is now teaching children in his village. I hope I can go see him teaching at some point.

Beka: He is working with his family.

Jay: He is going to school to obtain his bachelors at a Thai college. He takes his studies very seriously and I'm sure it doing very well. He is studying education to become a teacher.

In my next blog, I'll put up pictures of our current students and graduation. It'll be small this year because we only have one graduate, but we are very exciting about what he will be doing!

The countdown for me coming home is at 8 weeks! :) See you all soon.

Lots of Love and Hugs,

Lainy J.

One Week and Counting...

Legacy's school year is winding down. I can hardly believe that the year is almost over. We have one week of classes left and then finals. We have one graduating student this year. His name is LaNuNan. He is such a driven, confident, young man who loves the Lord. He's a very hard worker in all of his classes even though he is the only student. This next year he will be attending Payap University. He's very excited as are all of us. We are very proud of him.

After school is out, I'll be focusing on homework for my classes and stuff around Legacy. There are a few projects that we want to finish before next year's school year. I believe most of you know, but for those of you who don't, I have committed to staying at Legacy for one more year-the 2010-2011 school year. Erika will also be here. Legacy is currently taking applications for other teachers for next year's school year. Student interviews are also taking place and will continue after our school year ends.

Update on Uaorawet: He's doing so well. He was even the song leader today. It's so amazing to see how God is healing him and working in him. He is such a sweet, young man who has a good heart or as they would say in Thai jai dee. Continue to pray for him. He is still having double vision, but we know that God can heal him. Having the hinderances incurred from the accident do not stop him from giving his all in each and every one of his classes. After his last surgery, he was released on Saturday and was the first one in class on Monday ready to go and participating. He's such an encouragement to me and I know everyone around him.

Other than that, here's not a whole lot of new things happening around here. We're just trying to finish out the year strong. Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers and Legacy.

I'll be back in the States in about 9 weeks or so. I haven't started a count down yet.

Hope this finds you well.

Much Love,

Lainy J.

Chilly Lovin'

In Thailand, you eat everything with chillies. The spicier the better. I've always like spice, but not to the extent I do now. Food without them is bland. (I put Tabasco on a tuna sandwich because it was blah!) If your nose doesn't run, eyes don't tear up, or lips don't burn, is it worth eating? I submit that it is not. This is a random rant that came about as I was eating Som Tom, which is one of my favorite Thai dishes. It's a spicy green papaya salad. They put in a ton of chillies. As I was eating it, my nose was running. However, this did not stop me. I continued to enjoy my spicy salad. Then this morning, I had some fruit. Well, in order to make the fruit more delicious, you put chilly on it of course! It's a sugar, chilly, salt mixture. It's kind of like Lucas for my friends who know what that is. I began coughing and my nose was even burning from eating it. It was so good, though. I'll be surprised if I get out of this country without having obtained an ulcer. I'm hoping not, though.

Here are some pictures of chillies that I found on google to give you an idea of what some of the chillies look like over here.

This is my favorite and I like to put it on virtually everything. It's just dried, crushed red peppers.

Some people prefer them off the vine as seen here.

Here are a couple other varieties. The ones on the left are just dried.

Now this is what we have at Legacy since Fon is back. It's called Nam Prik, which is liquid spice you put on your rice and other things to give more flavor.

It's good stuff! Wish you could all try some. :)

-Lainy J.

Class, Coffee, Class, Coffee, Read, Read... Sleep and Repeat

We finished the first set of classes in our MA TESOL program through APU. We began the second set the beginning of January. My cohort has 11 people who are very different and have had different life experiences so we bring something different to the table. Most teach in China, but there are a couple of us who break that trend. Josh teaches in Japan, Alyssa teaches in Mexico and I needless to say, teach in Thailand. Last semester we took Culture and Language Learning and Pedagogy 1. This semester we are taking Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition. If is sounds tough, that's because it is. :) We are all in hopes of becoming betting English instructors by going through this program. I must say so far so good. I am approaching the classes I teach with a different and hopefully better perspective. It was fun seeing everyone who I met in LA last July again. However as my title states we pretty much studied constantly for two weeks straight. While the majority of our time was filled with school, we did find time to have fun of course! :) I have a few photos from the two weeks everyone was in Chiang Mai. I stole them from my friend Jen. :)

Class!

Class?

Coffee!!! YAY! :)

Teaching Thai to my fellow class mates

After a few days of hardcore studying, it was time to get away and take a break. We went to see K. Natan play at Nine Lives.

I'm Asian can't you tell?

Me and Mark

Anthony and Jen

Alyssa and Shelley- I think their brains were fried from too much studying. :)

K. Natan playin'

Saying good bye!

Most of the gang: Mark Anthony, Alyssa, Jen Josh, Cindy and me with the cute shop owners across from the YMCA.

Farewell dinner.

Mike and Josh

Jen and me with presents from the trash from a new "friend" Haha!

Well, this is going to be a short one. I think most of us ended the two weeks of classes overwhelmed and not at all ready to start the new semester's work. Alas, life must go on. It's going to be a challenging semester, but full of learning. I'm thankful for the opportunity to further my education.

All My Love,

Lainy J.

Vietnam: Deadly Traffic, Pretty Flowers, Beach Scenes, Clapping Men and Jesus!

Following our New Year's Bash in the village, it was back to Mae Sa Luang to do laundry, get a bus ticket to Bangkok and jump on a plane.

I met my friend Shelley from the APU program who teaches in China. Then we were off to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam to travel before classes. We spent about five days traveling around the City and took a ferry trip.

We felt like TOURISTS! It might not have been as terrible a feeling had we not just completed a course on culture and language learning. We knew just snippet about the culture and NONE of the language (we did attempt to learn a few phrases and failed due to our Thai and Chinese). We felt so helpless. Many people in Vietnam know English and are trying to make a buck anywhere they can. It is a pretty touristy area so we had no problem getting around, we just wished we could have been more literate.

I'm not sure how to describe the culture of Vietnam other than hardworking. They didn't seem as friendly to me as the people from Thailand, but then again I may be a bit biased. :) I am always happy to get back "home" to Thailand after traveling. There's just something about being here that is very different from the surrounding countries in South East Asia. Having said that, it was a fun place to visit and it was nice on the pocket book once you get there.

Enough talking I know... you want to see photos! :)

The first few photos are from our meandering the first day there

A photo I found out later I wasn't supposed to take. We're not sure why maybe to keep from obstructing traffic.

Some flowers...

We went to the War Remnants Museum. It was very sobering and thought provoking. It was amazing to be where the war that I was taught about in high school took place. I think history class should take place while traveling the world.

One thing Vietnam is known for is it's incredible traffic. By incredible, I mean awful, terrible, scary and quite possibly deadly. So I had to take a couple photos to share with you what you cannot even fathom unless you visit. (Though I must say it is more organized than Cambodia's traffic.)

There are millions of motorbikes! It was NUTS!

Photo Credit: Shelley

See all that happens: bikes, motorbikes, cars, people and even balloons

Photo Credit: Shelley

I think this photo is great depiction of what I think about when I think of Vietnamese traffic.

They have taxis in Vietnam, but they also have motorbikes with a driver who will take wherever you wish to go for a small fee. Their tactic to get people's attention has quite the opposite affect at least on me. To my guy friends, here's what not to do to get a girl's attention. They would kind of squat down a little like you would when you are calling a dog or pet. Then they would clap their hands as if somehow this would make them more appealing for us to take a taxi ride from them. Needless to say the clapping at got old, but it is quite a funny memory especially of Shelley and I looking at each other the first time it happened and asking if it was really happening.

Photo Credit: Shelley

I think this photo is amazing and I thought I'd share

.

Photo Credit: Shelley

Vietnamese BBQ... It was fun and very delicious. We ate so many vegetables and meats for a total of $15. It would have probably been over $100 in the US.

I did mention we were traveling before classes. We had assignments due our first day so we spent on day doing homework sitting in a coffee shop. Lame I know, but really sitting in the coffee shop allowed me to see a different side of Vietnamese culture as I watched from a window while I was doing homework. I didn't finish all of it so I had a chapter to read the next day so on our ferry ride. Shelley caught me in the act.

We headed to Vaung Tau, Vietnam on the ferry. It was this really neat, little, quiet city. I loved it. No traffic quite the contrast from Saigon.

This was quite possibly one of the coolest boats I've ever seen.

Boats!

Photo Credit: Shelley

The view

Photo Credit: Shelley

Our guest house was just to the left of the street.

Photo Credit: Shelley

I love their hats!

Photo Credit: Shelley

This made me laugh! They even swim in their hats!

Shelley finding treasures.

This is about as close as I got to the water. I was glad when I found...

This! It's a raw sewage. Gross!! Shelley and I were shocked! Plus people were swimming out there. Really?!

Pretty

Shelley's treasures

As my title says, Jesus. We found Jesus. On the hillside they have a statue of, "Jesus" and another one of Mary. I found this so funny especially when they refer to it as Jesus when giving directions.

Photo Credit: Shelley

Here's Jesus

We walked up to the top of a hill for the sunset. Everyone we met were walking for exercise. It was cool. It was a pretty good little walk. We only saw one other tourist and they were in a cab. It was so pretty. I'm not sure why one would take a cab as opposed to walking, but that's just me.

Photo Credit: Shelley

I like this photo. I think it looks like something out of, "Prince Caspian."

Of course there would be a lamp post. :)

We walked back down as the sun was setting to find some PHO the Vietnamese noodles. They are tasty. The next day it was back to school, Mae Sa Luang to do laundry again and get ready for classes.

Sending you some love from Vietnam!

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Lainy J.