Khanom and camp

Hello hello! It's our third day of camp here at Mathus. It's science camp and Justin has seven of the oldest kids about 10 to 16 and I have three of the youngest ( 4 and 5 years old). Monday was a little rough for both of us. Justin ran out of things to do and for the first hour two of my three kids were crying. Tuesday was much better though. Justin and I started a campfire thing for the whole camp at the beginning of camp. We made a fake camp fire and we sing a song and do a little warm up activity with the whole camp. We did it for the first time on Tuesday and it was very well received. Justin also made a weather observation center for camp that is also very popular.

My three kiddies are very sweet although they know almost nothing. None of them can write or recognize the letters and their vocabulary is now "my name is" "i am happy" colours and numbers. Tuesday we did plants and we got to plant some bean seeds which was fun. Today is animals.

I also got a new private student this week since I teach less hours in the camp because I have the younger class. The girl, Ice, is I think about 16 and very high. I have my first lesson with her this morning before camp. I'm going to do current events with her and we are reading a short novel. I'm very excited. It'll be a nice contrast to the little kiddies.

In other news, last weekend we went to Khanom with two other teachers. It's the beach closest to us, about an 1 1/2 hours away. It was very peaceful there with little to do. We got another bungalow on the beach where our boss Jason was actually staying as well. The food at the bungalow place was amazing so we ate very well. We left Saturday morning and spent Saturday laying around on the beach and playing frisbee with Jason. Saturday night we played cards and that was about it. Justin and I left before Keysa and David on Sunday morning. Next time we go we think Justin will ride the bike while I take the bus so that we can have some transportation while we are there since things are pretty far apart there. Here are some pictures from the weekend.













This was the random cow we saw on the road.

We've been having a rougher time with the kitchen this past week. Monday I went down to get a plate and I was walking around for a bit before I felt my feet getting bit. I looked down and the whole floor had a thick black layer of ants that were crawling up my legs. I freaked out a bit and ran to spray them off. If anyone's read Poisonwood Bible it reminded me of when the ants drag the town people and animals away. It's pretty amazing what those little guys can do. Needless to say Justin later went down and stood on the counter and sprayed them all away.

Then later we were trying to defrost the freezer and Justin accidently poked a hole and let the coolant out. Oops. So we don't have a fridge right now, but that we hopefully get fixed.

Some people asked about the food here and if it's similar to American thai food. It is and it isn't and it all depends on where you go. The cheapest and easiest food places are the outdoor food shops where they fry everything up in front of you and you sit down and eat in an open air kind of place. I'll try to take a picture. These places are mostly where we eat. At these places the menu is pretty limited. Mostly we get fried rice, pad see yew ( a noodles dish), omelettes, stir fried veggies, or soups. Those places don't have any beef or pad thai or peanut sauce or much we eat beside what I listed. But, if you want beef or fancier things you can usually find that at one of the fancier restaurants where you can get really good cashew chicken, and grilled beef things and all sorts of food more often found in American Thai restaurants.

The markets we showed pictures of have prepared food. We ate at the market Tuesday night and Justin got a salad and sushi and I got a pad thai ish dish, grilled bananas, and pineapple.

Oh and mom, you don't have to have a google account, but I'm sure it might make it a little easier. If you don't have one you just type in your name I believe.

Also, Donna and anyone interested there's a way to subscribe to the blog, I think it comes up as an option when you click to bookmark it or possibly at the bottom of the entries there's a spot to subscribe. It might depend what kind of browser you're using. I know that works on Firefox. When you subscribe to the blog then you know when a new post comes up.

Hope that answered some questions. Let us know if you have anymore I enjoy answering them. And if you want Justin to post a blog you should pester him by email. It's justinsitarz@gmail.com.

Warm wishes to all!