Let the Waters Rise...

There's a Christian song the students like to sing titled "Let the Waters Rise" by Mikeschair. Well, here's an example of just that happening. The waters rose a lot, really fast, last week. Fortunately, now the water levels have gone way down throughout Chiang Mai, but not without some loss of life and a lot of damage. Apparently, Thailand is also preparing for a typhoon to hit the 5th or 6th. So much rain! At the school we have been fortunate and have not experienced the ill effects others have (care to have your car submerged anyone?), but I was admittedly very surprised when I went to the farm to check out the river.

Here is what the river normally looks like from the bridge close to the farm:



And here is what it looked like last Thursday:
Photo credit: Austin
Photo credit: Austin

Here's a picture looking down to the river from the sala a couple years ago:


And here is the view from the sala last Wednesday:


Please keep people in this part of the world in your prayers. Houses are not always structured well, and alert systems aren't honed. People have been swept away, especially as water rushes through the mountains taking those along the river in its path. Also, this flooding effects the rice crops which are a huge source of income for many in the region, as well as a major food source.

Game Afternoon

Okay, so the semester is winding down and classes are all beginning to run into each other. It's a good thing, then, that school ends next Friday and that we got to have a game afternoon this last Wednesday before reviewing and finals! A friend of mine came over to share some activities and hang with the students. I love it when they get to talk to other foreigners so they aren't always hearing the teachers. Of course, everyone was still a bit "shy", but I guess that's to be expected.

One of the games was called Human Scrabble. The students got several letters apiece and had to pool their resources to make a word worth the most points. In the picture, it was teams, boys against girls. I think the boys won that challenge - our team got points by spelling Thai words with the Roman alphabet. That's not really fair!The girls working on a really good, big word to beat the boys...
...and the boys looking equally intense.

The next activity was a picture relay. Three students (three different teams) looked at a picture and had to explain it (without showing) to a messenger (one per team). The messengers then had to relay the message back to students who drew what the messenger said. In the end they had to explain why their picture was the best.
Fon explaining to Bancha where the people in the photo are standing and how many there are.
Bancha relaying the message to his team.
AhJar relaying information to her team members.

Of course, what event is complete without snacks? It was a nice end to a good afternoon.


Shortly after this picture it began to pour and that will be the subject of my next blog.

Time for a Treat

I know many people make amazing food and don't feel a need to blog about it, but I get this feeling that sometimes people think I'm in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, it seems only fair to show you that, if I so choose, I can spoil myself and cook or bake things that are reminiscent of home.



For whatever reason, I recently had a hankering for apple crisp. I made two pans of it - shared a little, and had some with black coffee for breakfast. I did feel somewhat pampered as I sat down to eat.



Mmmmmm!