A Day in the Life...

Thought you might be interested in what we have been doing so far here in Thailand. This is Ashley. She just graduated from high school in Ohio and is taking a year off to be over here at the orphanage. We traveled together, but she will be staying here for the entire 10 months while I go to Cambodia. It's been good to have someone to figure things out with. Today we attempted to ride bikes into town to go to a market, get lunch, and make some copies. The tires were flat however, and we ended up getting a ride from one of the kind staff workers. Oh well, we'll try again another time.

We spent some time getting our room putting our room together at the orphanage. You can stores that will sell just about anything here in Thailand. (I am enjoying this now, but that is not the case in Cambodia. A missionary couple here from Virginia (Mike and Debbie) have graciously shown us around and helped us to get acquainted with the area. A couple of days ago, Debbie took us to the city to a day market for shopping. There are several levels of shops. Eventually, we will take the taxi from out by the orphanage to the market. It's about a 30 minute ride.

A couple of mornings this week were spent in staff meetings with the staff from all three orphanages. Ashley will be helping Debbie teach English to the staff as well as the children, so we took a morning to brainstorm and plan, and this week started assessing the kids. On Saturdays, the older girls have lessons in cooking and sewing, so today, Ashley helped them to make apple muffins. (Those of you who know me know that I was not much help:)


Evenings are always filled with something. Right now, the kids are in school during the day and start getting home about 4:00. (There are only 2 vehicles and lots of kids, so it takes several trips.) They play until dinner, and then have a devotional time every night, which involves lots of singing. They love to sing - especially when there are motions:) On Sunday evenings we go to a Bible study at the university student center sponsored by Asia's Hope. We also took a trip to Hot Springs (about 45 minutes away) to spend time with the orphans there.

I tried starting with my Khmer language tapes this week (the Cambodian language). It's a good thing that I trust that God can make all things possible. It's pretty tough to make some of those sounds! I will also be taking a class about Christian school administration with Savorn, the director of Asia's Hope in Cambodia. Part of what I will be doing there is helping to implement policy and professional development with teachers.

My absolutely favorite thing, though, is spending time with the kids. To the right is Aria (not sure of the spelling.) She just got here in May and has already transformed from the shy girl that I met in June. She came and found me when we first arrived and loves just to be near you. That is true for all the kids. They love to be rough and tumble or just to sit quietly with you...as long as they have some kind of contact.


This is going to be a long post, because I haven't been able to blog for a couple of days and much has happened that I want to write about. I have tried several times to add to this and upload pictures...and each time something would happen. I got kicked off the internet, it wouldn't save and I lost all the pictures, nothing would upload...it's been really frustrating. It's Saturday evening, and Ashley and I were just commenting on how irritating it's been. And then I was reminded of the devotional I read just this morning. It talked about seeing things from God's perspective and "when things don't go as you had hoped, look to Me lightheartedly and say, 'Oh well.' This simple discipline can protect you from being burdened with an accumulation of petty cares and frustrations." It goes on to say that if you practice this habit, "you will realize that most of the things that worry you are not important."

How true is that? Why let the little irritations linger and steal my joy for the day? I am finding that while I am here, it is much easier for me to let those little things go in light of what is going on around me. I am frustrated with the internet while there are those around me who are dealing with much bigger issues. It definitely puts it all into perspective. And when the internet didn't work yesterday...I left it all to go hang out with orphans. What could be better than that?!

I will finish with some random shots. One thing I will miss here is the scenery. Wow, it's beautiful. The mountains are in the background and green, tropical vegetation is everywhere. This picture won't do it justice.


Yesterday, I heard a commotion outside my bedroom door and opened it to find the kids riding their bikes. These kids are a bundle of energy and don't often slow down...hence, I couldn't get them all in the frame:)


We have enjoyed trying different foods at different restaurants by the side of the road. (A typical meal costs about 25 Baht. It is 30 Baht to 1 dollar, so it's very cheap. Yep, I decided to solve the economic problem by moving half-way around the world to third world countries.) Last night we got one of our favorite treats - Roti. It's a crepe that is fried with sweetened condensed milk and your favorite filling. Delicious!

So, after a busy week, we have a night free and are getting ready to go enjoy it - watching a movie on our computer and eating chips and salsa. (That was a big find in Thailand:) Thanks for all your comments, encouragement, and prayers!