Orphanage, Sky Lanterns, Chiang Mai, & TIGERS.

so it's been a long time since my last post. sorry about that. but if you are friends with me on facebook i post pictures there quite regularly that you can check out. {i am going to spare some of the details because the post would be too long if i didn't}. here we go. 

on monday we took a 2 and a half hour trip up to an orphanage in Mae Sai to check it out and what thery're needs were. the location is beautiful and they have around 80 kids. in a week or so we are going to go back and help them with square foot gardens, and in the meantime we have been teaching around 15 of the kids english.

Dave teaching about square foot gardens

one of the girls' rooms

wall of rules

then on one of the nights we lit thai sky laterns (like the ones from the movie tangled) and made wishes. they are so beautiful, i wish i had been here for the festival where they light thousands of them.

thats me...

me again 

and again.

we taught at the orphanage until wednesday and on one of the days we bought a fruit called Durian. It is the King of fruits in Thailand and for most people it tastes awful enough that they can't swallow it the first time without gagging. I ate two bites without difficulty and swallowed them both {to me it tasted like rotten deviled eggs}. But apparently ours didn't have as much flavor as usual and according to Todd when they do they taste like: "eating rotten onions and sucking on a dirty man's big toe while smelling hot sick anus."

friday me, manasa, and lauren got massages and ate italian food for dinner. so good. 

saturday we made a 3 hour trip to a bigger city south of us called Chiang Mai. We were going down for a soccer game but it got moved till sunday so we went to the one of the Chiang Mai temples, played with tigers, and went to the night bazaar to shop for souvenirs. 

yeah, they are cute until they ask you for money if you take their picture, but not to worry all i did was zoom in to get them. ha. two can play that game. 

amy, me, manasa, lauren, aubrey, and courtney.

view of the city of Chiang Mai

oh hey look mom, i found you! heh. heh.

getting blessed by a monk again.

Buddha. 

Carving a giant candle of wax.

so tigers was a amazing. we picked the large&smallest tiger bundle and i do not regret spending the money for it. i mean when will i ever do this again? go big or go home. we were all actually pretty nervous...i didn't think i would be but those things {there were 2} are huge and have even huger teeth. but i love cats so this was like a big Comet {my wonderful orange cat} except lazier {if that is even possible}. at one point the tiger started to push amy toward the electric wires with its back feet. and then we played with the baby tigers. adorable. if i wasn't for the rights of wild animals i would definitely want one. 

mitch, me, lauren, and amy. 

mitch covering up his "critical area" so the baby tigers don't get it. hahaha best thing ever.

our tiger guide made us pretend to be asleep with them

and to kiss them firmly as he said "FIRMER! FIRMER!" haha so great.

and on sunday we stayed after for a baptism. she was so cute and so happy. 

excuse my side glance. there were a lot of cameras okay.

the next week i went to teach the orphanage kids mon-wed because i am the project lead. they are some of the best kids ever and really smart too. we get anywhere from 10-15 kids and the ages are from 11-18. some of the boys are such studs too {especially Moko, Atalay, Phet, & Paulo}. we teach them vocab, play games, sing songs, and afterwards hangout with them for few minutes. 

Atalay. so cute.

Moko. {doesn't he look like Rufio from the movie Hook?}

Paulo is such a hard worker. 

playing simon says.

Booba.

Wayya.

we made paper airplanes after class. 

Phet. all around stud, scholar, and a bit of a show-of.

Booba, Meeyuh, Phet, Kalagna. 

Meeyuh, Manasa, Atalay, Paul, Moko, Yapa, Me, Wayya, Phet, Kalagna, Paulo. 

playing games on Paul's phone. 

wayya and atalay. 

Atalay, Yapa, & Moko.

me and the boys.

Kalagna, Paulo, Wayya, Atalay, Yapa, Moko, and Phet. 

Booba and Meeyuh. 

Lauren, Paul, Manasa, and Me with the whole class.

moko and paul arm wrestling. i beat all the boys except moko. that kid is strong.

on the way to the bus station in a truck.

paul taking a picture of us with some of the boys.

in Thailand the kids think it is cool to pose like this.

so i was supposed to go to the orphanage again today to teach but it was cancelled for a meeting, which is perfect because i am sick. i think i have some form of the flu. and that is why i have had time to blog. even though i got to sleep in til 2pm i would rather not be sick...

{the second group of orphanage pictures were taken by Manasa. there are more that lauren took, so once i get them from her i will probably post a few}.


and as i am in the internet cafe thai school kids flood the computers to play shooting video games. even boys in thailand are the same.