Kuraburi - June 26 14:00

It is Saturday and I woke up from my internal alarm at about 5:40 AM, just like I do every morning. Anyone who knows me well knows how weird this is, but it is true, I swear! This is my ONLY morning to sleep in until next weekend - even then I don't think I can - so I put a pillow over my face and tuned out the noises of the morning people. I did get back to sleep and woke up to start my day at 9:00 am, a much more acceptable hour in my opinion. I wrote in my journal until Andrew came knocking to see if I wanted to run errands with him and go to the office. About 11:00 am we started out and dropped off/picked up laundry and went to lunch.

It was the weirdest thing. As we were walking, we both felt weak, light-headed, and dizzy. Eating and drinking water helped, but we had dinner last night and should not have been in such a bad way. It is more explainable for me, because I have had a major loss of appetite. Most of the food is good, but I eat a few bites and feel full. I am dropping some weight - mostly water weight, I am sure - but nothing to cause alarm. I think my appetite is suffering from the heat. It is just too hot and too much work to eat. We had long tong (spelling is a guess, we ordered it phonetically with a long O in both words). It is a noodle soup with stewed pork, bean sprout, cilantro, and a hard boiled egg. I added some chili to it to give it a little more pep. This soup is a traditional Thai dish. More on the foods: Last night Karen and her (Thai) boyfriend made us a wonderful dinner with grouper (fish), rice, a spicy fish sauce with a lot of lime in it, and a mushroom/vegetable dish. This is the second or third time I have had fish here and it does not taste like fish. There is nothing fishy about it. Therefore, I am really able to enjoy it. The mushrooms were the really long skinny kind. I don't know the name. I really like the tom yum soup, which is spicy but not too much so for me. There are pork balls on a skewer that are served with some kind of delicious chili paste sauce that is sweet and spicy. At the school we ate traditional Burmese food which usually had a fried egg dish kind of like an omelet but was flavored or something. Then usually a meat and vegetable dish and rice. Pork is the most common meat here. It is always available, but chicken is not. I would have thought the opposite with the muslim people around, but you know when you get to a muslim owned place because they say no pig, no moo. I never thought to take any food pictures, but if anyone is interested, please let me know via FB or something and I will start taking some.

Our last day at the Burmese school was not an ordinary school day. There was a parent meeting held and we did garden planting. After the morning prayers, the kids were free to play. I took a lot of pictures, about 350, on Friday. So far I have about 600 - 700 pictures from the entire trip. There is a planter by the painted wall where the new garden is going in. There is no drainage, however, so tires were brought in to raise up the plants. The tires were filled with soil and then roots or small plants brought by the parents were plated in the middle. This shows the kids really digging in to help (pun intended). They are all food plants and I did not recognize any of them. Neither did the Thai teacher who was asking me what they were.

Judith brought some seeds from Austria. She demonstrated filling bowls with water and tissue and sprinkling seeds on top to get them started. These seeds were "krause" ??? Miraculously, by the end of the day, some of the seeds appeared to be splitting open with green starting to show through. Very impressive!

The work being done, it was then play time. I was having a bit of a rough ankle day and tried to take it easy. After an hour or two of standing, I took pictures and played games that I could play sitting down. Several of the kids found chairs and placed them next to and around me and we "hung out." It was great and I really wish I could share those pictures. They are just so precious. I emailed my mom, Dave and Devan a few, but there are so many. The clapping game is really popular for all ages and Andrew got his share in as well. They never tired of it. The little boy on my left was my cling on for most of the week. When it comes to posing for pictures the peace sign is the number one pose. The sign language "I love you" is number two in popularity. Not many pose without hand signs of some sort. This one little preschooler though always seemed to make the rock and roll sign that I think was coined by Dio (but I am not sure). I don't figure his intent is rock and roll but it was funny to see nonetheless. He is the picture I put at the beginning of the blog above. The yellow stuff on their faces is a powder that has different meanings or purposes. Traditionally, different patterns were used to designate their tribe, but that meaning is mostly lost now. It is used for protection from the sun and as an antibacteria.

Judith bravely took on the preschoolers, very much taking her life into her own hands. She was instantly popular after dancing with them. I am not sure how the dog pile got started, but now looking at the picture, perhaps I should have rescued her instead of just taking pictures of it. She came out okay, maybe a bit on the exhausted side.

These pictures do not demonstarte the happy-go-lucky, bright shining faces I saw every day last week; I can't post those. These kids are amazing. They have almost nothing, therefore almost anything becomes a toy. A wooden block becomes a rubberband shooter, a boat, a train, a tool, etc. They have big, beautiful eyes that you feel you can see into the depths of their innocent souls in. Their sense of community, sharing, caring, and looking out for each other is unlike any of our kids at home. The head teacher, who is a Thai engineer, works a labor of love with these kids. He could be working anywhere, perhaps in some nice airconditioned office, but he comes to the Burmese school everyday to try to help prepare them for life in Thailand. He loves the kids and the kids love him, you can see it in their interaction and his ever-present smile. He is the tall one playing jump rope. I did not think to ask permission to use his name, so I am ommitting it here.

The school itself, as I described before, is bare bones. There is not much funding for it, so it runs on a pittance. Thai children wear uniforms to school and the Burmese school tried this, but parents could not afford to buy them so it is impossible to require a dress code. They used to have funding for a lunch program, but that has recently been lost. Some kids bring a lunch of rice and some main dish that looks like leftovers from dinner maybe? A few eat food brought in by a local woman but I think maybe this must be purchased and not everyone can afford it. Many kids live on sugar tablets, candy, popscicle-type things, and dry ramen noodles. There are a few flat balls and one large cardboard puzzle that is popular. Badminton is also a favorite. But if I could do just one thing for the school, I would not try to get supplies or toys to them; I would try to raise funds to continue the lunch program to ensure the kids got at least one really good meal. I have no way of knowing what they eat at home. I just see the junk they come to school with. Some how, some day...

Tomorrow the Thai high school in Kuraburi and then the Muslim village. I am not sure what the internet situation will be there. I will be away Monday through Friday and staying in the home of one of the families. I will see if there is an internet cafe. If not, don't worry if you do not hear from me for a week. Right now, Andrew and I are going to see if we can rent a motorscooter.