Anyway, I went to the Burmese Learning Center and met the children I will be working with. They are aged 7 to 12 and are of a very happy disposition, just as cute as can be. Two particular little trouble-makers were teasing me for attention. I gave a short chase and that seemed to satisfy them. I cannot post pictures of the children or Burmese people for legal reasons - protecting their identities. However, I did take some pictures of their village, so I am posting
one of those. What is interesting about this picture is that the ocean tide comes in and fills their backyards with water - as shown. When the tide goes out, it is more like a swamp. The Burmese immigrant workers live here and work on commercial fishing boats, which dock nearby. It is their children that go to the Burmese Learning Center. They cross the bridge in the picture and it goes right to the school. I have a really neat picture of some boats that are to the right of this picture, but I am not going to post it here. I think it will be one I post on FB after I get home.I believe I mentioned monkey mountain. Well, now I can post a picture.
I did get several pretty good pictures, but I think I will only post one. These monkeys are actually macaques and they do not have a long prehensile tail. It is only about 6 inches or so, a little longer for the big ones. The closeup gives a really good idea how their faces look but not the rest of them, so maybe I'll post another showing the whole body.
This is a female adult. She is either pregnant or has a baby. I can't remember which at the moment.
Ok, what else? Oh yes, I have a rare picture of myself. I was goofing around, swinging on a liana.
Tarzan could not have swung on vines, too weak, but he would have swung on these woody versions. They are very strong and hang all over the place haphazardly. I wish I could have gotten a picture of me riding on the back of Chana's scooter. I am sure that was a hilarious sight. Ok, I am at an Internet cafe and need to draw to a close, so I will post one more picture - since visuals make it so much more interesting. My new friends at Andaman Discovery, Andrew and I went bicycle riding up a hill to a waterfall about 8km from the office. It was a lot of fun and gave me a great opportunity to see the countryside. This picture is taken at the bottom of the waterfall, which I unfortunately did not get into the picture. Laura, from France, is closest, then Nan, who is Thai, then Tui, also Thai, and Andrew, from UCLA in the cap. There is so much 
more to tell and I am trying to write as much of it as possible in my journal, but this blog would be so long if I tried to put everything. I think I am bginning to get past the culture shock. It is so very different and I feel so out of place and lost here. Fortunately, I have some very nice people to help me acclimatize. This is absolutely invaluable being a stranger in such a totally foreign country/culture. One thing I can say is that ALL of the food is amazing. I have liked everything I have eaten immensely. I need to take a picture of a fruit I tried today. It does not look edible but tastes absolutely delicious. I had a fruit in the airport I wrote about in my journal if not my blog, but anyway it is called dragonfruit and it is great, too - rather the texture and flavor of a properly ripened kiwi - maybe lighter. Fruit! Yum. Noodles. Yum. Tom Yum soup. Yum here, way better than Tom Yum at home!!!! Different flavor. Ok, until next time.
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