Monday, June 29, 2009

Lasts and Goodbyes

Something I don't think I could hate more; leaving. All the 'Lasts' and the "Goodbyes'. Leaving somewhere, people who you have lived life with for any extended period of time. Its the that time of year again, the time of year I dreaded in Canada, has come about in Thailand all too quickly.

Last is so final: in the end; finally; in conclusion.

So we had our last ministry on Thursday, our last week in the office, our last trip to such a such beach or restaurant, and our last weekend all together in Thailand.

This week will fly past, we have Foundational Leadership Training, wednesday - friday. On Saturday we graduate this Pais year. And then the goodbyes start. Joel, Linda and Imko fly on Sunday. Nic, Sarah, Louise and Josh on Tuesday, Sam on Wednesday. Saying goodbye to the people I have lived and worked with 24/7 will be hard, but easier then saying goodbye to the kids, who it will be hard to keep in contact with.

Getting over this hurdle is the thing forefront in my mind right now, but I am looking forward to the new adventure in Rotherham. Maybe not the culture shock!

It not all bad, last week Linda, Sam and I went to Krabi. It was awesome. I ate crocodile and chilled on the most stunning beach ever. On Friday we went to see the Morgans, and stayed in a traditional Thai house, after going honey hunting through the forest - unfortunately the tigers live on the other side of the island so I didn't see any. But we got to squeeze the fresh wild honey into a bottle. Its awesome from the mango flower, its dark and tastes a bit like molasses.

anyway, a random blog post for a random time in my life...

Monday, June 01, 2009

Drama, Drama, Drama

When writing the weekly report for last week, the one word I used to sum it up was Ouch, but now I'm thinking Drama would have been a better word!

It all started on the 22nd of May. We where doing fruit games at Sussex House, and after various messy games, such as apple bobbing, banana tossing and squeezing orange juice, we played fruit bowls. Anyway lets just say that I managed to slip on the wet floor, and bang my head.. fair does, what does it really matter. Actually, a little bit, after a few minutes the headaches started, yay for headaches. Hey, I lived with headaches for a long time last year. Any the drama in this story concerns other people, as they wanted me to go to doctors, which I flatly refused due to my experience in Canada, take pain relief and rest - I paid like $100 for this privilege - not again! So far I have managed to stop them forcing me to the doctors, but please pray that the headache will go away, it is mainly subtle but can get painful at times.

The last week was full of Drama, Drama prep and 4 hours of Drama lessons at Tessa Bann, where we interacted with 140+ kids! Sweet! We are doing a 5 week drama course, using the story Daniel in the lions den. Lets say it is very fun to act, between 2 of you! So far we have introduced the story and the idea of voice projection Over the next 3 weeks we will look at Emotions, Body Language and Stage Positions, the final week, will see each group - 6 to a class- perform in front of their class mates. At the end of every session we have Question a Pais Worker, please be praying that we will get questions about why we are here, about the story and why Daniel was praying, and just opportunities to share our faith. This might be the students only opportunity in their lives to hear about God.

I changed my days off, so I could spend Friday and Saturday with Laura, before doing a stupidly early airport drop on Sunday morning, at least now I can laugh that she is in freezing England. Im terribly jealous of the amount of Thailand she has seen after just 2 months, I've been here 10! Linda and I have just booked a weekend off - we are allowed 3, and its my first this year oohhps -, and we are going to go to Krabi, Im also counting my pennies to see if I have enough money to go to Chiang Mai at the end of the year.

On Friday Laura and I, went on an ATV tour in Pang Na. It was sweet, there was just 4 of us on the tour, Laura and I and an Australian couple who are honeymooning here. We had fun, and got extremely muddy, especially and the couple from OZ and I got stuck. It was sweet! Friday date we went to all you can eat Japanese. Saturday morning we planned to get up early and go to the Royal Yacht Club for breakfast, but we had eaten too much at Oishi. We made our way to Nai Harn, where we both neglected to but sun cream on our faces - yay for looking like beetroot! We then went for a Thai Massage then headed to the Night Market where we sampled lots of yummy food.

Re-cap on Prayer Points:
1. That my headache will go away
2. For oppertunties to stem out of the Q+A at Tessa Baan.
3. For support for next year. Im still looking for 10 people to sponsor me £10 a month. If you are interested and would like to know more please contact me
4. Passion for England, where I will be serving next. I still haven't made a decision, but I need a love for the kids I will be seeing next year, even though I don't know them yet.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sawdee Ka!

Sawdee Ka!

I just wanted to inform you about something really cool that happened this week.

Last week I asked a teacher at Tessa Bann if we could go in one lunch a week to hang out with the kids. Yesterday we went for the first time, not knowing what to expect or if any kids would interact with us.

Josh, Joel and Imko started kicking a ball around on the football pitch, and slowly the kids joined in, until there was about 33 playing football! While us girles, started skipping and playing hopscoth which got Sai, L, Fern and Rung interested. We then proceed to draw on the playground with chalk which drew a bigger crowd, as people realized we where friendly. In total we interacted with roughly 75 kids! Awesome or what.

Yesterday night, Sam, Linda and I braved an oil massage; it was awesome. I am so getting into the spa thing, especially as it is so cheap. I will miss the spa dearly when I return to the western world. Life will not be the same.

As well as all the cool things happening at schools - we had a student come to Yes - a cell kind of thing the church puts on for young people, for the first time last week, and 2 students who did Blueprint at the University have come to a few events now. How amazing is God?

I am being blessed at the moment, by the opportunity to house sit for a Canadian family in the church - oh yeah!. What a blessing, internet, hot showers, air con and duvets in the bedroom, and a vast selection on dvds to watch. Let's not forget the washing machine and just somewhere that is home to someone, a real house, somewhere to go at the end of the work day. Yay for being able to drive in Thailand!

Canadian blessing all the way, as over the past 2 weeks the church has had a team visiting form Glad Tidings in Victoria. It has been really good to be able to chat to young people who are a similar age - and the fact they are from Canada means they had something going for them too! They had a dentist with the team who went around pulling out teeth, and last Friday I got to pick Dave, Andy and Sarah up from the Burmese school where they had been pulling teeth. well Josh and I thought we where doing them a favour, but we ended up getting taken out to Sizzlers - a steak house, with all you can eat salad and pasta bar, so I got to spend a few hours getting to know them better before ferrying them about some more. Free toothpaste and toothbrushes too, all very helpful. However when we asked Dave questions we where informed that a lot of stuff we thought we knew about cleaning our teeth we didn't, we also got to watch a very interesting flossing demo. I must say seeing some little boy's teeth being pulled out was not a highlight of last friday, as he choked twice on he blood as the tooth was difficult to get out.

This was supposed to be a short, sweet, snappy update but turned into rather along one. Hopefully my May newsletter will hold some interesting stories and events.

Please don't forget to check out: rap4jesus.ra.funpic.de/BBB.doc
and support us on our adventure to helping Zaw and the wider Burmese community!

Thanks for all your support and prayers

Rosie

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

newsletter!



Please take the time to read my latest newsletter, check out the pictures of the kids too!

Hello!

Hello!

I am sorry for the lack of blog updates this year, time flies by, and access to the internet is limited. Better luck next year!

It is now official, I am moving back to England - I am not sure where I will be yet. This posses a lot of challenges, which I would really appreciate your prayer for. I will be living in a country that is supposed to 'Home', yet I haven't lived there for 3 years. It will a interesting to learn all about English Culture again after being away.

Lots has been happening and lots is going to happen in the next 9 weeks. I only have 7 weeks left on Pais Asia. Eek Scary.

The Thai schools have started back this week, so I will be speaking to teachers shortly about what we can do in the short space of time we have left.

As most of you will now be aware Pais Thailand are raising money for the church's Burmese Pastor and also to send a brick machine to Burma, by all running different distances. Please put this link -rap4jesus.ra.funpic.de/BBB.doc 
 into your address bar and download the profile to find out more about this.

I am having a few days off at the end of the month - well shifting them, so I can spend some time with Laura before she flies back to England. Im looking forward to the relaxation! woop.

Hopefully next week, Sam, Linda and I are going to brave an oil massage.

Please read my latest newsletter, Im sorry its late!

Thanks for everything.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

March news!




Hi

We are in the middle of planning another camping trip - for next weekend! Things have come together very fast, but it will be good to spend time with the kids from sussex house and the guys before they leave.

It's a week of finals; final team week - so everyday is a countdown, but it is also the countdown to something fresh new and exciting!

Last week Sam and I started Mentoring and Training students at the British International School, to prepare them to help some of the Burmese in a camp next to their school. This went well and we are looking to partner with the more with some initiatives that we as Pais are doing. Hopefully we will be able to do some extra training and pass on skills, that help them to in turn train next years years 12s! truly missionaries making missionaries!!

Thursday, January 29, 2009