Just jump in!

Today was such a fun day! I started the day with teaching the children. About 20 Thai children came from Huai Bong village. I taught them about the post office, the vocabulary that goes along with it, and what you would say if you wanted to mail a letter. It was really fun! I had them make their own envelopes with address, return address, and stamp and then they deposited their "letters" in the makeshift mailbox I made :) They loved it! After I finished teaching the children, I was told, as translated by Noah from the teachers to me, that they wanted to take me to lunch and then for a "day on the town". Me, two teachers from the school, and the children all piled into the truck and began our day. We went to eat at Gnow Pie (Bamboo shadow), which is a restaurant owned by the parents of one of the boys that I teach. They were lovely people! After lunch, which was absolutely delicious and included a fish smiling at me, we piled back into the truck and drove to Mak Usa. When we arrived at the mountains in Mak Usa, the girls began to scream, as we encountered a lovely green snake with black spots all over it. It was fascinating! I like seeing snakes here, as long as they are a far enough distance away that it's not dangerous. The snake slithered off the walkway, and we made our way up the very steep walk to the bat caves. We walked through the caves, that were inhabited by bats and munks alike. There were buddhas and drawings of buddha surrounding me. The children and the teachers bowed to the buddhas and prayed to them. My heart broke as I watched them all worship a piece of stone. Nothing more than a piece of stone. We did get into a conversation about God, but I can only say so much because they don't understand English. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would do the rest. After we were done at the caves and I tried to wipe as much of the bat droppings off my feet as possible, we made our way to the waterfall.
The waterfall was beautiful! One thing I have always wanted to do was jump straight into the water with my clothes on. Without changing into my bathing suit and being proper about it. This dream finally came true. I walked right into the waterfall, clothes on, and just jumped right in. I felt so free! I felt like I had not a care in the world. I felt like I could do anything! As I jumped in, the children followed. We all played in the waterfalls, with our clothes on, and had the time of our lives. Who knew a simple thing like jumping in the water with all my clothes on could set me free! This freedom I have to enjoy every single aspect of life, to learn who I am, to learn who God is. A freedom I have desperately been wanting, and it has been given to me through a waterfall :) As laughter escaped us all, we continued to splash each other as the waterfall fell on all our smiling faces. It was amazing!
After the waterfall, we all piled back into the back of the truck, water still dripping from our clothes, and drove to the hot springs. The breeze feeling ever so wonderful on our wet skin. Again, the freedom flowed through me. Freedom to live!!!!
We arrived at the hot springs, and the teacher handed me eggs and a basket. We brought the eggs to the hot springs and we boiled them. It was so much fun! I was boiling eggs in the natural hot springs. They boil them a little different here. They don't boil them till they're hard like we do, they boil them to where they are still liquid inside. I was very surprised when they handed me one to eat, because instead of chewing like I thought I was going to do, I was drinking the egg. It was really good, but it was difficult for me to get over the thought that I was drinking the egg. We had our little picnic snack time, and then went to put our feet in the hot springs. I can assure you that Hot springs is the correct name for this, because it was HOT!!! It felt like I was sticking my feet in scalding boiling water. The children just walked right in and were even splashing and playing in it, and I could barely keep my feet in for more than 2 seconds. I finally got used to it a little bit and I was able to keep my feet in longer. I loved just sitting there with the Thai children and teachers and just relaxing. They were teaching me Thai as I taught them English. My Thai is really improving and I'm really beginning to understand the language. May's cousin told me I have learned a lot for only being here for one month. It made me very happy :) As I sat with my feet in the scalding water, I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore, and it was perfect timing because they told me it was time to go. We all contentedly jumped back into our places in the back of the truck. As we drove back, I sat there in the cool breeze as it whipped through my hair soaking in all the wonders of God around me and the wonderful day He just blessed me with!


Some more pics are up, so check them out if you get time!