Shower shoes back in fashion!

So last night I was taking a shower and thought I saw a centipede behind my door, which are poisonous. I opened the door and saw this lovely little friend on my bathroom floor. This is what we call an elephant scorpion, which are the big ones. I havnt had one in several months, but I guess this tells me the hot season is now back. It just means that shower shoes are now back in style, it will be like living in the dorms again!

I'm a Grandpa!

Its official, Im a Grandpa. On Wednsday morning right before I woke up Eleanor gave birth to two healthy kittens. Welcome to the world thing 1 and thing 2. She had a third, but it died at birth. I am happy to say they already have homes, but not for 2 more months. One is going to my friend Bom and the other will go to one of the new peace corps volunteers, which I will have 4 new volunteers coming to my province and 1 coming to my town! I cant wait! Anyway, the kittens are doing great and Eleanor is being a great Mama to them. She had a bit of trouble her first day but she is fine now. She is very kind and doesnt seem to mind me touching them, and even lets me pet her when she is with them. The obviously look just like her, so will be gorgous. But they have Mr. Ruth's cute little pink nose.

Field Trip

This Friday my 4th-6th grade classes from Anuban Prankratai School went on a field trip. We went to a historical park where a queen from the Sukkotai era used to live. The kids did a 3 and a half kilo walk and then we all went up this hill to see some beautiful landscapes.

This is a beautiful picture of some rice fields.











Here are some great pictures of my kids and one of my kids and I on top of the hill.

Thai Youth Theatre Festival 2006

The Theatre festival was an absolute hit! It went over extremly smoothly. The kids all had a lot of fun and so did the volunteers. Kids came from 5 different communities around Thailand. The kids aged from 2nd grade all the way up to senior year of high school. So we reached a wide range of children. All of our hard work really payed off. But of course, we could not have done it with out everyone who donated, so thank you so very much for all of your donations!
Here is a picture of all of the volunteers that helped put this festival together.












The festival was held at Payap University in Chiang Mai. Here is a picture of the beautiful chapel that we were privledged enough to do our performances in. The second picture is of the over 200 kids that attended the festival. One group spent a whole 22 hours driving just to get their. It took our group about 5 hours to get to Chiang Mai.

Why the Rabbit has Long Ears

OK...This is the play that I have been working on forever! I took tons of pictures, but am posting some of the best ones. The kids worked really hard and in the end it all payed off. They did AWESOME! I had so many teachers and people come up to tell me how well they did and how clearly they pernounced their words. The actors are part of a 4th grade class, with the exception of one little girl in the 2nd grade. The kids had a ball doing the play, attending the workshops, and getting to see Chiang Mai.

Performances from other schools

Here is a sampling of some of the other plays performed:
Willy Wanka and the Chocolate Factory






Rudolph the Red Nosed Reighndeer

Teenagers Confronting Aids. This play is in Thai and was written and perfomed by these high schoolers. It is a project one of the volunteers is doing to help promote and educate students about AIDS and HIV.

Thai Melodrama

We had hired a Thai theatre company to help lead and do the workshops that the kids went to, so they got the knowledge from people who do this kind of thing for a living. Then at the end of Saturday the company did a Thai melodrama, which is a traditional type of Thai theatre, for the kids. At the end the kids got to ask questions with the actors as well.

Set Design

The workshop I was in charge of was set design. In my workshop the children learned first what it is and the history of set design. Then they got to do an activity about floor plans and placement by drawing a floor plan of their house. Then they did an activity on resizing and how to draw a backdrop and make it go from small to big. The final activity was they listened to a story, without seeing the pictures, and then in groups had to design a backdrop based off of the story.

Mask Design

One of the volunteers has a passion for mask making and masks, so this session was extra fun. The kids learned the history of masks and about masks in different cultures. Then they got the chance to make masks out of tissue paper, newspaper and glue that turned beautifully. Then the next day they got to add sequins and feathers and things to them.

Make-Up

In the make-up workshop the kids learned about the history of make-up and got to see lots of pictures of make-up in different cultures. They were shown how make-up for theatre is properly applied, techniques they can use, and got to practice on each other. One lucky little boy even got to practice on me!

Costumes

At the costumes workshop the kids learned about the history of costumes and saw pictures of how a costume design goes from drawing to reality. Then they got to design some of their own costumes and did a group activity where they made a costume only using toilet paper and some colorful tissue paper. All I can say is FUN!

Acting

At the acting workshop kids learned about the history of acting and did some acting warm up activities, group activities, partner, and individual acting activities.

Married Pandas

Many of you may have heard about the pandas the got married at the Chiang Mai zoo. We had a break during the festival, so my kids and I went on a field trip to see the pandas. I remember pandas coming to the zoo in Columbus, when I was little, but cant really remember them. I could appreciate them so much more now, since I am a bit older.

TV Fish Tank

So I was walking in my neighborhood the other day and came across this resteraunt with this sign. I thought it was funny that they thought welcome would be two words, but not as bad as some English signs that I have seen.














Then, right before I walked away I noticed they were selling old tv sets. I walked closer to take a closer look and found that they have turned them into fish tanks. I thought that was pretty ingenious, especially since they generally dont reuse things very often.

Interesting things to buy at the Festival

This was at an Indian stand. These are some Indian god statues made out of candle wax. They are wrapped in plastic so they are a bit hard to see, but I thought they were intersting.











This is the hot chesnut stand. This lady thought I was strange for wanting to take a picture of her and her chesnuts.













Arn't these orchids beautiful. They always sell lots of beautiful orchids when ever their is a festival in town. I am always tempted to buy some, but I would probably just kill it.










These are fried bird eggs, but you can buy just the eggs as well. They have a cute little fryer for them. My friend Bom loves them, but I think they are Kai Yuck Kai Yan...which means yucky in Thai.










This is Canome Booung. Its a little Thai pastery. The first time I saw this I thought it was a little taco with sour cream and cheese, and was disapointed to find out it was a sweet with cream and something saturated in corn syrup that is misleading for cheese. They are pretty tasty though.

Nope Bplah Len Plang festival

There is a festival going on in my town right now called Nope Blah Len Plang festival. It is to celebrate the finding of the most valued Buddha in all of Thailand, called the Emerald Buddha. This is a buddha statue that was covered by rock when the Burmese were trying to destroy Thailand to protect it. They had completly forgotten about it and then one day some Monks were moving it and dropped the statue and found the Buddha inside. It was found in the Sukkhothai area, one of the first kingdoms of Thailand, which is where my province is located and why we have it. The statue is located in the roral palace in Bangkok now. I was a little sad because I just found out it is actually made of Jade, but when they first found it they thought it was emerald. This picture is of the gate in front of the festival.

Here are some cute Thai girls doing some Thai dancing!

Popeye, the bird, and Dang Moo

I thought I would post pictures of the other animals in my life. This is Popeye...pernounced Bob Eye in Thai. Hes our guard dog and has a vicious bark, but I am absolutly in love with him. Hes such a sweet heart, but is still very powerful. I think hes part German Shepard..so hes a big dog.








This is the amazing bird, that I call my secretary as it always greets me. He is big talker. He always says Sawatdee Ka when someone passes her, which is what women say for hello in Thai. It also makes a noise when ever a car comes up, so its nice to know when someone is at the house. Also, it makes this funny bubbling noise like its blowing bubbles that I love. I keep trying to teach it to say hello so it can be bilingual, but that hasnt paned out yet.




This is Dang Moo and my land lords wife. Dang Moo means watermellon in Thai, which is an appropriate name for this cat because it is the fattest/ largest cat I have ever seen. It just waddles around because its so big. Mr. Ruth and him just have yowling matches with each other where they sit in front of each other and meow, but never fight. Im glad too because all this cat needs to do is sit on Mr. Ruth and he would be a gonner!