Crafting

Shift today was lots of fun, Jessica made a cake and we cut it into flat pieces. We then got the kids to pipe icing onto the cake from snap lock bags. They also got to decorate with 100's and 1000's. Appart from the kids enjoying getting to eat sugar is was one of the crafts they have been best at so far. It was lost of fun helping to guide little hands over their cake!

Graduation

Well, its the begining of the new school year and with that 4 of the olders children the volunteers look after and moving up to the older pre-school. Its a very exciting time for tham and i will deffinantly miss them, but i will still look after them mornings and afternoons and weekends, so thats good. Our group also got 5 new additions, youngsters moving up from the babies group. 3 of them are great, happily settling in but two are not to keen to be with the ferlungs (white people). There are alot of changes happening but its all going on swiftly.

The Wet Season

Well, its come early this year (or so they tell me). It has been raining every day for about three weeks now. It's still a bit of a novelty and the temperature drop is great to, its gone down about 10 degrees or so. I imagine in a few more weeks I will just be sick of being wet, having to take a spare pair of clothing to work and wrapping anything i need to take in a plastic bag. All the ponds in the graving feilds have filled up and its amazing how green everything is. After drought for so long its great to see greenery. But then I imagine thats going to get old when the path I use through bush starts getting overgrown and boggy.

Other exciting news

VISITORS!!

Mum and Dad are coming soon and we are all very excited. I am making the last arangements over the next few days and then all will be ready. 9 days in Chiang Mai with Mum and Dad before Dad flies home and Mum and I continue on the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for a few days each. I then have a few days rest before Sarah and Dave Williamson, my youth minister and Uni chaplain as well as two good friends, come and visit. I'm not entirley sure what we will be doing but it will be great to see them none the less.

Adoptions

With Jeanjira just left, Kanawoot leaving soon and Pailin not long after that our small goup of Children is shrinking and I and the other volunteers couldnt be happier. The hardest thing for me to deal with is answering HIV+ children why they dont have a mum and dad yet. Some of the most gorgeous kids will never have a mum and dad because their parents either didnt know about the desease untill it took their life or were careless. Perhaps in being unfair and narrow minded but it is also not fair that these kids dont get to have a normal life. Well this post turned into something completly unexpected, but there it is!

Pollution

Well this week we found out the pullotion levels are five times the recomended international level. We are all a little worried, apparently it has never been anywhere close to this high, I can hardly see to the end of my street. The only good thing is that it's 10 degrees cooler than it should be for this time of year, well, good for us bad for agriculture.

Conny and Alex all gone

Alex and Conny left Chiang Mai last Friday. Conny to the Thai Islands for a few weeks before heading home to Germany and Alex straight home to Australia. With Katherine also finishing work next week Jane tells me Agape has never had so few volunteers. When people take their holidays it will be down to one person per shift sometimes. Living alone isnt as bad as i thought it would be, so many people have told me to drop in at any time.

Waterfall

Yesterday Connie and I went to a waterfall whos source starts at a limestone deposit. Over thousands of years limestone sediments slowly flowed down the river and over the waterfall creating a formation that looked alot like huge bubbles. The smooth surfaces have the same texture of pumus and since moss can't grow there it is perfect for climbing. I only slipped once and thats when i stood on a fallen tree trunk. The place was beautiful, i have never had so much fun in water.

Sicknesses

I am experienceing my first outbreak. Over twenty kids 3 nannies and myself have had swollen glads. It was thought to be mumps but heals far to quickly and there arent any other symptoms appart from sore swolen glands. 5 of our kids are in isolation and whenever i go to visit them they run up and hang on to any part of my body they can reach (mainly just my legs, unless i sit down).

Japan

Day 1: After a long bus ride through the center of Tokyo e arrive back at Campus where Kelly lives intime for her to leave for class. So Paul and I wander the street of Kunitachi, taking in the sights and orientating ourselves. After dinner we went to Karaoke and then to the local watering hole for some beers and this weird sweet plume wine. Day 2: Today off to Asakusa, a big red shinto shrine, and lot of market and good thing to buy. In the afternoon we went to the kings palace but we were too late and the grounds were closed. For dinner we went looking in Shinjuko, it was like a Japanese Las Vega but without the gambling. It ued to be the home of the Japanese marfia, and probably still is, but they are less seen these days. Day 3: My Birthday!! Pancake for breakfast and then off to Harajuku where the people stand around in weird punk costumes. Alo shpping and another temple that still had it new year ice carving out. Lunch was deliceous ramen and a telephone call to mum, dad and grandma who happened to be at our house at the time. the a walk to shibuya and to the 40th floor of a fancy shmansy hotel for coctails. Then to hachiko which i a huge apparently famous "postcard" interection. Dinner was another deliceou meal, kelly ate the whole plate of tofu. Day 4: Hiroshima!! Shinkansen!! the two thing (appart from kally and paul) i had been lookng forward to the most. We had a rare great view of Fujisan (the volcano). We found a really nice and cheap hotel at the tourist information place near the train station. A japanese picnic across the river from the A-Bmb dome and then Paul and I went on to the museum while Kelly (like the nerd she is) found a coffee shop to study in. Dinner was Okonomiyaki with the nicest friendliest loudest cook in the world. Ian Thorpe once ate there. My first try of Mr Doughnuts for desert!! YUM!! and paul insists i also say this is where i got some laxatives Day 5: Traditional breakfast was tres good (Pauls words). all sorts of little bowls of stuff. Ferry to Miyajima where we hired bikes to ride to the water gate shrine (Tori shaped). Back on the Shinkansen, with obento for lunch, to Himeji to stop off to visit a 500 year old castle. Kelly's favorite place and I was scared climbing to the top floor. I left the taking photos out side the windows to Kelly and Paul on the 6th floor. Its strange, the 40th floor in Tokyo was no problem but i couldnt go 6 floors here with out feeling like I was going to die. (Paul inserts "first poop!!") Jump back on the Shinkansen and dinner at the train station with an amazing sight I have never seen and may never see again; a longer line at the gents than at the ladies. Day 6: Sleep in!! Kelly decided to skip class at the last minute (naughty girl) to come with us to Oeno. We had Don for lunch, finally, i had heard about Don on the first day and wanted to try since. It is a bowl of rice with mean on top, very plain but this place was deliceous. Then on to Museum of Easturn Artifacts, there was a very litle, very ugly mummy (but we didnt tell him that). the oldest articat we saw was 5 millenia BC. Kelly thought the paint was a bit faded! That evening we went shopping at some sleazy markets under railway rtacks, Omeyoko. Paul and I found a pre-faded pre-pilled flano for around $50. Dinner was with Kelly's host family. Last minute organised but still lots of yummy food. Day 7: Time for me to go home. Early rise and breakifast on the Narita Express.