a little bit of catch up

So much has happened since the last time I wrote so I thought that I would catch you up on life here in SE Asia. I have been busy and exhausted lately! I feel like between teaching, grading, lesson planning, and all the wonderful extra duties, plus youth group, Thai language lessons, and preparing for the girl's retreat I had no energy left to even climb up the three flights of stairs to my bed! BUT the girl's retreat took place this past weekend and it was pretty cool!
   The girl's retreat was with a group of Burmese refugee girls that live up in Mae Sot (about 8 hours) from where I live. It is in conjunction with a school that my church supports. They do not speak Thai which is a little tricky and they don't speak English which makes it even more tricky to find translators. God provided them for us though and we had the opportunity to be able to communicate with them the whole weekend. There were several teachers from my school who went, along with women from the church, and some people from America who came just for the retreat. I had 8 girls in my group who I spent the entire weekend with. They are wonderful girls between the ages of 14 and 16...don't worry I will include pictures at the end! :)
  We were able to give them BIbles in Burmese so they could read them, and a good portion of the weekend was spent teaching them how to use the BIble and how to have a personal devotion time with God everyday to better get to know him and his Truth. We also played games, did crafts, and had a special banquet for them at the end that concluded in a pretty sweet dance party!
  The only negative part of the weekend was the leaders themselves. There was a lot of tension between the American team and the rest of us. The American team had lead 12 girls retreats before and they did a lot of the schedule planning for this retreat. The only problem though was that they had done their retreats in Guatemala and America. Thailand, especially refugees in Thailand, have a completely different culture and need to be approached in a very different manner. The team from Thailand had been to Mae Sot on previous trips, they knew the culture, place, and the girls. They were getting upset at the American team and the American team was getting upset at the Thailand team. I chose to not get involved and instead I just focused on my girls! It worked pretty well for me, but God can never work as powerfully when His people are divided!
   We ran into some problems with our transportation on the way back, and instead of getting home at 8:00 on Sunday night, we got back at 1:30. I still had to get up at 6 for work the next day so I was a little tired on Monday for work to say the least, and of course Monday is my most hectic day in regards to my schedule! :) I survived though and now for the next 2 days I have parent teacher conferences. I am not particularly looking forward to them, but it will be nice to be able to share with the parents some concerns that I have.
   I also met a friend at the gym....my first gym friend! Her name is Nattie. She takes the same class that I do on Monday night. She speaks English very well so I am hoping she can help me with my Thai! Which, by the way, my students are telling me is getting better and better! The one night I even had a full conversation all the way home from church with the taxi driver in Thai! AND church is about 40 minutes away with no traffic! Yes there was alot he said that I didn't understand and vice versa BUT I was pretty proud of myself! Enjoy the pictures from this past weekend! Fon di na kah! (Have good dreams! :))

meet my students!

I took a short video today while we were making our science displays. Meet my students! :)

Overnight Camp!

Overnight Camp is a really fun time where we put on a "camp" for them from Friday after school until Saturday afternoon. It takes a lot of planning, means Friday is a CRAZY day in the classroom, and there is not a lot of time to prepare for the next week, but it is so FUN! Our theme this year was the beach and we taught the students about humility. On Friday night they rotate with their teams, so I rotated with the orange team and had students from every grade. At the end of the night we have a campfire complete with hot dogs, s'mores, and very sweaty students! :) We put them to bed and wake up early the next morning for class activities. It is a highlight for the students every year and it is really fun to be able to spend time with them outside of the classroom! I love my kids and it was a very fun (but EXHAUSTING!) weekend!

I am also starting to help out with the youth at church. Today was the first day that I got to meet them and spend time with them. My housemate and I both decided to help out with the youth this year and it is really neat because we are the only female leaders. I think the girls (especially in middle school) need someone who is a girl to talk to. They are all really sweet and 3 of them just moved to Thailand this past week! Hopefully we can really pour into their lives and help them feel comfortable in Thailand and especially at the church!

I'll post some pictures from the campfire below...

My new name is Aunt Sarah!

You can now officially call me Aunt Sarah! Isaac made his appearance into the world tonight! I am so excited! I am sad I cannot be with the family right now traveling up to New Hampshire to meet him, but I will skype with him and hopefully will see him soon! :) God is good, and everything went smoothly and both mom and baby are doing well! YAY! :)

I'm back!

Koh Tao was the most beautiful place I have ever been! We had an amazing time! The scenery was beautiful and nothing can compare to being able to take a 4-day weekend trip to an island! I feel a little spoiled and I almost cannot believe that this is my life! God is so good and I have been so blessed! We hiked up the steepest road ever imaginable to get to this lookout that was absolutely incredible! Then we looked around the island, went swimming in the pool, ate a late lunch and pretty much zonked out at our hotel room. The next day we got up early and went on an all-day snorkeling trip around the island. The fish were so beautiful! I have never seen anything like it before. We were suppose to go to a bay that was known for having sharks but there were none when we got there! :( It was the best vacation and a great way to relax! Have to go back to teaching tomorrow! I'll post a few pictures from the island on here so you can see the beauty of it...

vacation here I come!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!
   No school on Friday and no school on Monday means a 4-day weekend and a trip to the beautiful island of Koh Tao for me! :) We leave tomorrow (Thursday night) and take a night bus to Chompun and then a ferry to Koh Tao. It is suppose to be one of the most beautiful islands in Thailand- if you have time Google it! I will also be sure to upload pictures so you can be jealous of me! ha! :)
   I am exhausted and I am definitely in need of a break and some relaxation time! I just hope that with traveling so far we would still be able to enjoy ourselves! I am so excited!
   I am connecting with my students well. This week we had open house which was a great time to meet the parents and share a little bit about what I really want to stress and emphasize with the students and what we need to work on as a whole class!
  Life in Thailand is great! I am blessed and God is good! :)

a long day!

Just to give everyone an update, this week I had been having some not so normal health symptoms! I thought maybe it was stress or any number of different things. I kind of blew it off until today. Today when I was in church, the pain in my abdomen was so intense that I had to leave and go home. I woke my brother up on Skype to get my parents so I could talk to them about what I was experiencing with my body. They told me that they really thought I needed to go to the hospital. When my roommate came home we talked about it and decided that I should go so we went I am glad that I did!

When we first got to the hospital, they said listening to my symptoms they thought I had kidney stones. If that was the case it would mean I would have a very expensive ultrasound. We waited for about half an hour and when the tests came back, I did not have kidney stones, so I did not need to get an ultrasound done or more testing. HOWEVER the levels in my kidney were really high. They are suppose to be at a cell level of 5 and mine were at a level of 50. The doctor told me that I had a very severe kidney infection. Right now I am on antibiotics and (thank goodness!) painkillers. I have another appointment on Thursday after school to check out my levels again. All my medication and doctor visit came to half of what an ultrasound would have cost.

Since taking my medication, my pain is almost gone and I feel normal for the first time in days. I think I can handle teaching this week which is a blessing! Hopefully the antibiotics kick it out so on Thursday I can get a clean bill of health! :)

Besides having to miss church and scare my parents a little by waking them up at 2 in the morning I am no worse for the ware! :)