What I'm up to :)

Greetings family and friends!!

As I sit here with a cat on my lap in the office of Wildflower home, I try to think of what I should write down for everyone to read. I guess I'll start with what fills my days. I wake up every morning at around 6 o'clock (while I don't set my alarm to wake up this early, that does not stop my eyes from opening...I can't seem to help it), giving me about two hours to get ready for the day and eat breakfast. I usually eat breakfast in my room, eating what I have bought from the store--what the women here eat for breakfast every morning is rice (plain rice that is...and then there is rice for lunch...and then there is rice for dinner...let's just say that by the time I get home I probably won't want rice for quite some time..). Here are a few pics of my room:

It's beginning to feel a bit more like home (hehe, excuse the mess!). Then at 8 it is off to the daycare where I help Nguen watch over the four children (and then later two babies they are trying to transition to daycare come over from the nursery for the rest of the day). We either play games or let them play outside in the sand. At 10 it is snack time! The smallest boy, who is also the hungriest, is always the first to line up. Before the children receive their "Ca nom" (that is how it is pronounced, I have no idea how it's spelled), which means snack or small sweet, they must have their hands in front of them in a prayer position, bow, and say "Cap pu cam" which means thank you. We take the children to lunch is at 11:30 at the Sala (pavillion) where everyone at Wildflower gathers to eat. Haha, it is kind of like a feeding frenzy, in the best possible sense, and if you don't get to the food soon, there may not be any left... Then it is back to the daycare where Nguen baths the children, I dry them off, and they get ready for their two hour nap. We each take a child to the mat, sit next to them and rub their back until they are settled down to sleep, if not actually asleep by this point--they play very hard all morning, so they are READY for this nap (or at least most of them are--the oldest girl at Daycare sometimes thinks she does not need a nap).

Once the children are asleep, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays I teach English to three women at a time for a two hour period (aka, while the children are asleep and Nguen can spare her Daycare helper). Then it is back to the daycare from 3-5. It's a long day, but the children are a joy to be around. I have just started teaching the women this week, and even then I have not been with them by myself yet. But, quick funny story about that! Yesterday, when Meredith and I were teaching, the wind blew one of the windows open and one of the girls tried to help Meredith close it. She was trying to talk in English and show how good she was getting along, so she said to Meredith, pointing to the window: "Shut up!" Well, she meant "shut it." We all started laughing really hard, and she felt so bad (the Thai people, as a rule, are extremely polite and would never tell anyone to shut up, least of all their teacher).

Well, that's all for now!! I miss all of y'all so much and I look forward to hearing from you!! Love y'all