Tuesday brought on my first full day in Roi Et as well as my first day helping with English classes at the school. I will admit I was a little nervous, but in the end there was no need for it! The first class I helped with was super energetic and participatory! It was great fun! We worked on introductions along with some other things. Over the past 4 days I can't tell you how many hands I've shaken! Or how many times I've said how old I am! I prefer not to mention my age as most assume I am younger and I am more than ok with that! But alas, the students need the example to follow to practice sharing their own personal information. I had one more class before lunch which well, too. After lunch we found out our afternoon classes had been canceled due to a big teacher meeting. That was kind of a nice benefit as I was dragging quite a bit and this allowed me time to rest midday. After time resting I helped dig up a flower bed and plant plants in it in front of the Barbee home. Then we all got on bikes to head out for a bike ride. We had a bit of a hiccup with one bike getting pulled off balance causing a bump on poor little Foster's head, but we got him back safely to be loved and taken care of and took the other two back on the bikes to give them space. We rode out to a beautiful area with a reservoir. It was a great ride. After returning, we loaded up to go for dinner. We went to this really cool 1 hour buffet place that has a hot pot in the middle of the table and a conveyor belt bringing all kinds of noodle, vegetable, and meat options by your table. You just grab what you want and dump it in your hot pot! Super cool! They also had a sushi and fried shrimp bar to eat off of, too! So good! Right up until one of the kiddos got sick all over Chris and the floor. We cleared out pretty quick after that. Good news, he is fine now!
Wednesday was a super busy, but super awesome day! I helped Chris with several classes, all different age ranges. The third grade class was a bit squirrelly, but otherwise they went great. More introductions, handshakes, alphabetizing, and such. The after school class was super fun! Patdi taught song lyric pronunciations and singing it. Very fun lesson to get to see. Chris asked me to share a bit of my story with these kiddos. That made me quite a bit nervous, but I trusted God to find words to share in very easy sentences. Kat translated for me and miraculously I was able to share some of my heart journey in simple terms! It all worked out! Why do I ever doubt or fear?! There really is no reason to. God always comes through for me. I closed our time out together in prayer and we broke for dinner. It was a fast dinner. Chris arrived with rice and chicken for us each just before the first students started showing up for the Wednesday night Bible storying time. I shoveled that in super fast as more and more students showed up. They opened the time with singing which was just such a joy to experience and witness! They sang songs in English and in Thai and it was just such a fun time! They told the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead and as far as I know (not understanding Thai) everyone seemed to be participating well! Afterwards, we walked the students back to their dorms and the joy was still so evident! So much laughter and love being shared! Definitely the best thing I had experienced yet! Little did I know that there was still so much more great to go!
Thursday was a great day! It was pretty slow paced in the morning because we didn't have any classes to teach. We went out for breakfast together, the Barbee family and me, and stopped for coffee before heading back home. We all split to do our own thing at the house (lesson plan, kid play, and me taking advantage of Wifi). I had planned to blog during this time after taking care of some emails, but ended up spending the remainder of my free time chatting with Heather about our time together at the end of the month! I started taking care of details pertaining to that part of my trip and making sure rooms and transportation were lined up. It was also cool because we were actually talking to each otherat the same time of day as opposed to 12 hours apart! From there I helped prepare lunch. I was in charge of chopping the fruit for smoothie making! I chopped up a half of a pineapple, 4 little bananas, and one mango. We broke of a chunk of frozen raspberries to go in with it and blended it. The smoothies were so delicious!! Only other thing added was some ice! Came out perfect! Chris made the tuna melts and grilled cheeses. It was a great lunch! We got the kids taken care of first and then while Dora got them down for naps Chris and I prepared ours and I took care of doing the dishes. After eating, it was time to head out to Todd and Pam's house. They have a very spacious house in town and they do English clubs there certain evenings. This evening they were doing a cookout, porkburgers and hot dogs. They have mainly all high school students who come and they started showing up. Some of the girls joined Pam in the kitchen to read English directions and make brownies. They seemed to love doing that! Some alternated in and out of playing ping pong while others sat on the couch passing the English question box around to read and answer in English. It was a very fun time. Then dinner was ready and we all crammed around the table to eat and talk. The students did so well talking with us in English! We all even started exchanging riddles! I am absolutely terrible at riddles, but it was so much fun watching the Thai studentsprocessthe riddle in English, translate it to Thai, discussit in Thai, and then processtheir responses back into English. We sat around that table for probably a solid 2 hours! After kind of bringing that to a close some left, but others proceeded to play more! All in all it lasted about 4 hours! 4 nonstop hours of fun! So great! I loved it! I enjoyed getting that long just to freely discuss whatever and laugh and play! No real structure or rule other than to speak in English as much as possible! Chris picked me up from there to return home. He was excited to hear about it and I was happy to share!
Stay tuned for more!
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