~Playing Games~

The children as school do not get to practice their English very much, and most of they are afraid or just too shy to allow their English to be heard because they are not too sure about pronunciations or sentence structure, so we try to spend at least one day out of the week to help them out.

And since our girls are VERY busy teaching at public schools, they hardly have time to teach English to Avoda children. But they have 2 days out of the week where they are not teaching at the local schools so they use that time to teach our children.

And the best way to get them warmed up to us and to speaking English without fear = is to play fun games that involves movement, talking and creativity.  :)  So this past week we had amazing bonding time with them and they are slowly becoming more and more daring to talk in English. Praise the Lord!

~Competition~

This year Avoda School took on ACE curriculum to teach their children (Science, Math, English, etc.) It’s pretty much a Christian Homeschooling program. And each year all Christian schools and homeschools who use ACE curriculum have a chance to go to Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) where ACE will be hosting all kinds of competitions in different areas: (Drawing, Photography, Painting, Bible Memory Verses, Soccer, Running 100m, 200m, 400m, 1600m) All children had to participate in one of those criteria’s.

So I had a chance to help them with Photography and (of course my favorite) Drawing. “Ke” did a very nice job drawing the local water buffalo from a photograph that another student took, but to me the picture looked a little ‘flat’ from artistic point of view, so I decided to help her out and after we were done, the drawing just looked 100 times better! Good job “Ke”!

~Soccer~

And ACE will also have soccer competition, so I just HAD to participate in that and be their goalie :)  I thought I was good…but these guys were ‘born’ good at soccer! We all had fun playing, but had to take some breaks because even though in Thailand this is considered to be a ‘Winter’ it does get VERY VERY hot and we had to take water breaks. I think it got to maybe 85*F or more.

We played till we could play no more (due to heat) so we just decided to take shots at the goal one by one ane while some were kicking others were doing “break-dancing” hand-stands in the background. They were actually pretty good at it.

~Laundry~

Who said doing laundry is boring?

Here in Thailand not everyone can afford a nice washing machine, and most definitely NOT us! So we have to do our laundry by hand in a tub. It’s not so bad. Except that most of the girls complained that the laundry detergent made their hands feel ruff and skin crack, but other than that it was fine!  :P

Plus all the clothes afterwards were hung on the rope and dried naturally which makes everything smell like clean, fresh air! That’s something you don’t get too often in America.

*Picture of Staya washing her laundry by hand for the very 1^st time in her life!* It’s has to be a picture moment for memory! :)

~Popular Teachers~

Since our girls are teaching English at the local public schools, they became popular very fast, and they are the talk of the town! Some teachers even take pictures with them because they are so honored to take a picture with a teacher from America. And one evening somehow our neighbors found out that Avoda had English teachers on their premises, so they sent their children to Avoda to seek help with their English class homework and our girls were helping them out while their parents patiently waited for them.

~The Good ‘Ol Tractor~

We “all” love this Avoda Tractor that takes girls and children to and from school everyday. When I say “all” I mean everyone who does NOT ride it  :P  Girls and children actually really don’t like it because it is SO LOUD that you can hear it coming for a mile away! Plus it really stinks like Diesel fuel when driven and it vibrates so hard, that our girls think that their whole intestines get all mixed up! :)  But they all still come back home after school smiling, so I guess that’s always a good sign.

::VIDEO::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAvxRza1yTQ&list=UUq7E5RDwVoVhBftLk13SH2g&index=3

~Sunsets/Sunrise~

Sunrises in the morning look almost identical to sunsets. But both are SO beautiful! Sun just gets really, really low and SO dark red! The pictures can’t even do it justice! And the best part that at those times (evening or morning) it’s never too hot, and is just really perfectly warm and nice. Just sit on the porch and watch the sun go down. What an awesome sight to see.

~Our Little Khwan~

This little boy had a very rough past and was abandoned by his parents, so Avoda School adopted him. Now he lives on the school premises and goes to public school every morning on the Tractor with our Anita M. & Natasha (and he is in one of their classes). He is very sweet and very polite child. We all love him to death and I think everyone here does too. He doesn’t talk very much (maybe because he doesn’t know English yet), but he really LOVES technology, iPhones, laptops, cameras etc… He is very smart and figures them out on the go. He impresses us all.

He also loves to order the songs to sing on church service, he just calls them out one after another, he just loves to sing and also to break dance. Seems like most of the guys here are into break-dancing, and I think he just learns what he sees. He is just very adorable and hard to walk past him without hugging him!  :P

::VIDEO::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4jfMC5FgLc&list=UUq7E5RDwVoVhBftLk13SH2g&index=1