Day 2 in the village

As a lizard scurries by me squeaking, I right aboiut day two. Today was such a wonderful day! I woke up at 5:30 am to the sound of 130 voices singing as loud as they possibly could to God. I have to say that is the best way to wake up. I lay in bed, close my eyes, and listen to the voices. It's so easy to be drawn so close to God here. The presence of God is so incredible here! I'm always hearing Pastor Winai say "Praise God". The things he does for the children here and the surrounding community is incredible! After the children finished worshipping, they began to get ready for school and I drifted back to sleep until 7:50. It was so funny because last night I had a dream that I was teaching the children English and the phrase I was teaching them was "Yes I can". I was shaking my head up and down and pointing to myself as I said it. I felt like God was speaking to me, because last night I was praying before I went to bed that God would help me teach them because I didn't really know where to start or exactly how to teach them, so God was reassuring me "Yes I can" :) After I woke up, I went to Pastor Winai's house and ate breakfast. Mae made us Thai french toast. It's not at all like American french toast, it's not sweet and it's basically just cooked bread with eggs around it. It wasn't all that good. Then I taught the staff members (they range from 19-24) English for an hour. I taught them while the children were at school. They go to school Monday-Friday from 8-4. Everyone here is so eager to learn English. They want to learn anything that I can teach them. I played "UNO" with the staff and they had to say the color and the number of each card they put down. They loved it! They had so much fun and they were cracking me up! Anytime they would say something wrong, they would laugh and laugh. It might have been the funnest game of UNO i've ever played :) After we were done with the English lesson, Teep (one of the staff members) taught me how to drive the motorcycle. I learned very quickly and then I drove it by myself to the village store. I definitely will be taking it on rides around the village. I loved it! Today it was very hot (taco pado in Karen-their tribe's language), so I was relaxing on a table outside and reading my book and the girls asked me if I wanted to go with them. I didn't know where we were going to go but I want every experience I can get. So we walked down the road to a swamp and one of the girls stepped right in it, mud and water up to her knees, and dug her hand into the mud and pulled out a crab. I couldn't believe it! Then all the girls began doing this and pulling out crabs. They were collecting crabs for a crab paste. I walked right through the mud, knee deep, with the girls but I was too scared to catch any crabs. I told myself "I will catch a crab before this year is through", but I'm going to have to work up to that. As sweat dripped down the girls faces and they were muddy and working so hard, all you could see were big smiles on their faces and all you could hear was laughter. It's funny because American children would have been complaining about the heat and would have not worked anymore, but these girls never complained and worked harder than adults I know.
After the children came home from school, did their chores, and ate dinner I taught them English. I taught them in two different groups-the older and the younger. When we were done with the lesson, they all bowed and said "Thank you Teacher". It is so amazing how incredibly grateful these children are for things that we take so much for granted. After I finished the English lessons, there was a wonderful dinner waiting for me in Pastor Winai's house. The food was delicious! I love Thai food!! We ate dinner while we listened to the children worship and pray. Pastor Winai talked about the progress they made on the water well. They bought filters and the tank and pipes today. They will begin the water well tomorrow so the children will have safe water to drink, so they won't be getting parasites anymore.
As I sit here and write this entry, Teep asks what I am doing. I tell him that I am writing so everyone back home can read what I'm doing here, and he says "you mean the people in America, because Thailand is home now"....it made me smile :)