almost half way

DEPDC grounds

i've been in thailand now for a little over a month. and i feel like i just barely got here. it's crazy to think that i only have two more months ahead of me. i actually catch myself getting sad that i'm almost half way there-i feel like i am just starting to get the hang of things. things just keep getting better with each day and with each lesson and with each meeting. i am loving teaching at DEPDC. there is nothing better than walking down that s-curve path to the school and seeing all the kids sitting on the floor, anxiously waiting for the lesson to start as they call out your name, "j-mee!" it's been a challenge individually connecting with all the kids and learning their names, but i feel like all of us have developed a really good relationship with each of them over the last couple of weeks. the shyer students have started to open up and the louder students have learned to give the rest of the class a chance to participate...at least some of the time.

true artists, right? my own self portrait.

my teaching partner, courtney (or "coco," as the kids call her) & i have taught the kids some conversational english, colors, days of the week, and animals in the past two weeks. unfortunately, coco is only here for the first wave & is heading home next week. i don't know what i'll do without that girl. [& to be honest, she is the favorite of us teachers] i think my favorite recent memory was playing four corners with the kids last week. as we had no translator this day, we tried to explain to them how this game worked. you know, one person is it & counts while everyone else runs around & chooses a corner to stay at. when they're done counting (with their eyes closed) they yell a corner and whoever is in that corner is out. well, we were playing this game to teach colors so in each corner we posted a different color and the person who was it, would yell out a color. anyways, we thought we did a good job explaining and acting out how to play. so, i decided to be it first and closed my eyes and started counting. i heard all the kids start running, so i figured that they understood the game fine. so i finish counting, yell out a corner, open my eyes...and see none of the students. apparently they thought we were playing hide and go seek. coco and i then acted it out again, and they caught on shorty after :]

they may or may not love us.

but we love them most.

my fave teaching partner, coco, & i leaving DEPDC via one of the many song taew drives

aside from teaching at DEPDC, i've still been focusing a lot on the problem with thai citizenship && statelessness. last week i had an awesome meeting with Plan-Thailand. our beloved country director, hudson, set up the meeting and me & jordan tagged along and let him translate the whole thing for us. we met with one of the main directors, Dong, and he told us all that Plan is about. i immediately had a good feeling about the organization and knew that i wanted to establish this relationship to get started on helping with this issue. what is great about Plan is that they are a big organization (in 47 different countries) and have an office located here in chiang rai. they also partner with many local organizations and so they are aware of those organizations that need extra help and can direct us where our help will be most beneficial. Plan-Thailand's country goal is for children and young people from most at-risk populations in Thailand to enjoy their right to education and economic security, sexual and reproductive health, and protection from all forms of abuse, exploitation, violence, as well as from disasters. their four main programs are: child protection, education for economic security, HIV/AIDS risk reduction & protection, and local capacity development for sustainability. we had another meeting with him this week and have two other meetings planned for friday and sunday. it looks like we'll be able to jump into some work with these local organizations pretty soon. many of them are understaffed and in need of extra help. i'm not entirely sure which organizations we will work with-but i promise i'll keep you posted!

researching at our local, && regular, internet cafe

and of course, i've got to end this post w/ an update on all my fun-outside-of-work experiences! a group of our team took two vacation days to head down to phuket for the weekend. note to my wonderful donors: i promise that my little trips are fully funded by myself && that your generous donations are going directly to all of the wonderful volunteer work & projects :]
so, this past weekend, we were able to finally get by a body of water to cool down from the ever present heat & humidity of thailand by heading to phi phi island and enjoying all the pretty beaches in southern thailand.

but of course, within five minutes of being in the water...

sea urchin in my foot. 

causing me to limp solo to the nearest medical center while still soaking & salty.

i had absolutely no idea what he was saying that he would do, but trusted that he knew what he was doing and let the doctor go at it. he ended up numbing my foot in three different spots to laser and cut out (w/ some kind of exacto knife) the ten spines that the little creature injected into my foot.

good news: i was still able to get in the water the following day. which means...

SCUBA diving, of course!

our whole group joined in and tried diving, most for the first time. i was the only certified diver and was able to venture off w/ our fav dive master, mo mo. it was awesome. i saw my first sea horse, sting ray, and cuttlefish. it felt so good to be back under the water!

taking a break from thai food w/ some american pizza & sandwiches

watching the fire throwers on the beach

ferry from phi phi to phuket

ready to head back home to chiang rai for another work week :]