This morning Meme and Seh Doe are sitting at the table doing their math lessons, Marianne and Jennison are studying their bibles and writing in their journals, Travis is monitoring the math class, while Hannah swings Meme’s doll in the hammock. Life is pretty peaceful here, and sometimes it is hard to think of what to write about. Already this morning we have had worship, breakfast, taken Pawkuhmooeydee and Thunduh to school, had our own worships and cleaned the house. It still has not warmed up, so we are either bundled up in blankets, or wishing that we were. I don’t know if you can imagine what this would be like, but let’s try it.

Imagine that you are living outside in a small area with 10 other people, most of whom do not speak your language very well, or not at all. At night the temperatures are in the upper 50’s to around 60 degrees. That doesn’t sound that cold does it? Well, take off your warm socks and shoes and go barefooted on chilly floors, and then put away your warm clothes, get out the summer ones, then add a flimsy jacket to it. You are also allowed to wrap up in a single layer fleece blanket! Make sure that you added the 90% humidity to the picture, and then you will begin to understand why almost everyone in the family has some sickness or other that they are battling. Fortunately, I have introduced my students to Kleenex! They never had such things before….I will leave that one to your imagination.

The nice thing about the cold season is that it does warm up during the day to where it is rather hot in the sun, but there is still a cool breeze in the shade. This does tend to complicate bath time. I rather like cold baths during hot season, but when I am shivering from the cold, it is really hard to convince yourself that you really need that daily dunking, especially with that cool breeze blowing on your shivering form. But, the daily bath is a pretty set item in Karen land, and without it you would be considered some kind of odd ball, or even worse, they would say that you “smell like an American”. So we dunk away, and live with colds, pneumonia, or whatever it takes! (OK, so no one has gotten pneumonia yet…but I do worry about it a lot!)

Since Natalie came to Thailand, she brought me some new treasures that we are all enjoying a lot. Roy’s parents gave us a DVD set by Fountain View Academy called “Steps To Christ In Song”. It is wonderful, and my students are fascinated by it. Also, Natalie brought me the “Sing, Spell, Read, and Write” program. This was an instant hit with the kids. Even Pearl, who knows how to read perfectly in English, wanted to do this program. So, each evening finds everyone sitting on the floor singing “a…a….apple, b…b…ball,” etc… It has games and workbooks, and reading books and all kinds of wonderful things. Maybe even Hannah will be reading soon! I really thought that I would only be able to use it for Meme and Memewah, but I was wrong. I know that it may seem like a little thing, but this program just made my life a lot easier, and I can’t rave about it enough. Teaching someone to read English is a real challenge since our English language is so incredibly complicated.

This is the final week of Marianne and Jennison’s training time. So, this morning found them up at 4:30, making breakfast under Pahkuhmooeydee’s tutelage. They did a superb job, so their final exam will be doing a whole meal without an advisor. Believe it or not, those two girls have already learned to read in Karen, and are doing very well on their language learning…even though Travis, Pearl, and I were gone the entire first week! They are very sweet, smart girls, and we are going to miss them a lot when we pass them on to their next assignment. I really enjoy training the student missionaries. I find that I just end up with more kids this way! (Elani still calls me each week from her village, and she is doing very well. She is now enjoying the crowds of curious onlookers for every move that she makes. Also, after teaching in the Thai school for only 2 ½ hours, she was voted teacher of the year!)

Hey, one other news worthy item…yesterday Marianne and Jennison came to me and told me that they had found a plant that tasted like mint! They like to drink tea, so they were really excited about it. I had never heard of there being mint here, so they brought me some. Sure enough, it did smell like mint. But, I wanted to check with the students before eating it since I didn’t want to get poisoned by some strange mint flavored plant. But, Marianne and Jennison were pretty sure that they were right about its identity, so this morning they went out and picked some leaves, and acting like they knew what they were doing tore them up and added them to their boiling water, threw in some palm sugar and calmly stirred up their concoction, much to Pawkuhmooeydee’s bewilderment. They tell me that it did taste just like mint tea, and so I am going out there to try it for myself. If I suddenly die, along with two student missionaries, you will know what to blame! But, I figure that hot mint tea just might be worth the risk.

Please keep us all in your prayers.