One Week! Oh how the time has flown!

Greetings!

I hope this post finds everyone well! I miss everyone terribly and, while the time has definitely flown (as indicated with the above title), I am ready to begin the journey home. Though, it is definitely bitter-sweet for me, as I am leaving behind many little ones that I have come to love very much. In this post I want to write a little about each child that I watch everyday. It is most likely a losing battle to try and paint a picture for you just  how amazing these children are and how their individual personalities (haha, both the good and not-so-good aspects) have made me look forward to being with them each and every day, but I will try. Also, I may be repeating myself throughout this post (the downside to not being able to see my older posts while typing a new one is that I cannot see what I have already told you about the kids)...so here is my apology in advance.

The oldest girl, I'm not positive what her nickname was, but I believe it was Sue so we will go with that, is five years old and can be a bit of a handful. She definitely likes attention and will result to making VERY loud noises when she does not get said attention. I usually never have patience for children (or anyone for that matter) who seek attention--it's just always gotten under my skin. But strangely, this has not happened with Sue--in fact, quite the opposite! She loves to perform for Queyn and I, singing the funniest songs, basking in our enthusiastic praise. Her excitement and energy are such a joy to be around. The latest song/dance combo was what I like to call the "Plane-Train" song. She begins by flapping her arms up and down, chanting "Plane, plane, plane" and then switches to "Train, train, train" and making train motions with her arms. This is repeated several times before she switches to some sort of Thai chant and then every once in a while she'll throw in "Bird, bird, bird" with the same flapping motions as the "plane." I get the biggest kick out of these performances and make sure to applaud vigorously, always asking for an encore, naturally! Sue has started adding a "la, la, la" to the end of my name and it's become our funny little greeting. She shouts to me: "Becca-lalala," to which I promptly shout back: "Sue-lalala" (not really her name, but you get the idea).

Then there is Poe Poe. Lately he's been feeling a little neglected now that the babies have come to the daycare center and this has manifested itself in very cute ways as he tries to seek my attention. His favorite song that I have taught him to sing is "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Well, he (along with the rest of the children) struggles with pronunciation, and, since I am also his English teacher while here, I have been trying to get him to sound things out a bit better. Before I started working with him, the ending of the song sounded something like this: "Li is bu a eam!" Now he emphasizes each syllable perfectly and then repeats the line again after he's finished the song, going even slower and making sure that I am listening to his excellent pronunciation (if I am not, he will shout my name until I am focused on him and give him due praise when he is finished). We recently learned the letter "K" and the sound it makes. I was worried that he would have trouble understanding that it sounds like the letter "C," haha, but we have yet to run into trouble. When he needs a little moment of my attention, he likes to shout a variant of this sentence: "Becca! 'C' make sound 'cuh, cuh,' same same 'K' make sound 'kuh, kuh!' And 'H' make sound 'huh', huh' same same 'helicopter and horse and hen!'" These little moments are priceless (especially since I have grown in the virtue of patience--you try teaching a 3 and a half year old Thai child the English alphabet and the sounds each letter makes).

Okay, it's getting late (haha, yes, 8:50 at night is now late for me) and I am pretty tired from today--we took the kids to the park! It was so beautiful! Anyway, I'll continue this post tomorrow--I still have three left! Love and miss y'all!