A Bunch of Burts

It’s me again…Leah!

This is gonna be a continuation of what Mom wrote about last time. We seriously did get busy as soon as we got here!

The people here are so friendly, it is wonderful. You can hardly go anywhere without being stopped to chat. Sometimes it gets frustrating when they only speak Thai Lue (the new village’s language) and not Central Thai (the national language). Of course, I can’t speak much Lue at all and hardly anyone speaks Central Thai to me except when they see that blank look come over my face and my little bobble head going up and down agreeing to whatever they say.

We just got back from our mission’s conference this past week. It was a blast! I always enjoy getting together with my friends in the mission. Already, we have been busy with village life. On Monday, we were in a parade, last night went to a wrist tying ceremony and this whole week has been gardening, gardening, and more gardening! It must be a cultural thing because everyone wanted to help with the hoeing, or bring us some sort of seed or give us some helpful tips. Ema is really the one who is the gardener out of all of us and she, with the help of Mom, Dad, and the Mae Luang (wife of the village leader) finished planting our small plot of land.

Captain Jack Sparrow showed up to conference!

About the parade….

Mom came home from visiting around that village and told us that there was a parade that afternoon and that we were gonna go and watch. Okay, nothing abnormal about being invited to something like that. And I like parades. No problem. Well, we get to the meeting place in the muubaan (village) and everyone is wearing their traditional Thai Lue outfits…and then a couple of them leave saying that they were going to get us, Mom and I, Lue shirts to wear. We look at each other with a look that says uh-oh…they aren’t just going to watch the parade are they? Then Mom asks and sure enough they are going to be walking in it. Inwardly I groan, not anticipating a long walk in the blazing hot sun with a heavy, long-sleeved black shirt on.

Mom and I waiting with the other ladies.

We were already wearing Thai-ish skirts so we didn’t need to change those but they brought us the Lue shirts that I just slipped on over my first shirt because its wasn’t very thick. Mom however was wearing a shirt that wraps around and is tied in the front, very similar to the Lue shirts, so she had to change hers. It would have gone fine except for one thing…there was no bathroom or other place that she could change in. We were waiting at a building that is the morning market location. The ladies there said, “Don’t worry about that! We have umbrellas here, we’ll cover you while you change.”
Mom says, “Um…no thanks, I’ll just go home and change.”
They say, “We’re all ladies! Don’t worry, we’ll cover you!” Mom didn’t really have a choice there, so she finally got it done and we were ready to go.

Nearly everyone left before us because we were waiting for our partner, Aunt Dawn, who had gone home to change into the Thai Lue outfit that she already had. So the Mae Luang waited with us. We drove to the place where we were supposed to, but no one was there. Then we drove around looking for a bunch of women in matching clothes but didn’t find them. We thought we had missed the start, so we went where the parade was supposed to end. I’m not sure why, but we were following the Mae Luang’s directions. She said that we would just wait here for the parade and there would be something going on afterward. There was another group of ladies there who were going to do a dance or something after the parade was over. We heard that the parade was getting started late, so we all hopped back in the car and headed back toward the meeting place. It was just starting so we just kinda sneaked in line with everyone.

Aunt Dawn, Will, Mom, me and Gwen.

It was kinda fun to see the people watching do a double take when they saw the five falangs (Thai word for white person) in line with Lue ladies. Aunt Dawn and her two youngest children came too. Gwen, 7, was all decked out in a Lue outfit too. But Will, 4, really brought a lot of stares.

It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was kinda fun! I burn after being in the sun for 2 minutes so the long sleeves really protected be from being crispy by the end. Everyone was holding umbrellas so I borrowed one to protect my face. And, miraculously, I survived without a single red mark!

Today, some ladies from ESD are coming to our house. ESD stands for Extension Services Department. They work at Grace International School and are there for the home schooling families in Thailand. You can send in your schoolwork and they look over it and, if you want them to, will give a report card out every quarter or so. They also come for home visits where they come to just help with whatever the moms need done regarding school. Sometimes they help get a schedule down or help think of different activities to do or even organizing a bookcase. This will be our, the Burt’s, first home visit, but I’m not sure if the Orwilers have had one already. We are excited to have them come and can’t wait till this afternoon when we pick them up from the bus station.

That had better be all for right now, or I’ll be sorry when I haven’t memorized my science words for my upcoming test!:)

After reading this article on Yahoo News today, I could not help myself, I have to make a public comment on it.

The article claims that evidence has come to light that whales were once land mammals. Apparently a fossil has been discovered that shows s a momma whale with her unborn baby whale.
They claim this fossil shows that whales used to give birth on land and so therefore is evidence of evolution.
The ‘evidence’ they are excited about is that this poor baby whale was positioned with the head first, instead of tail-first as they are normally born.
The conclusion these people are jumping to is that obviously a whale cannot be born head first in the water, as it would drown, therefore, whales used to give birth on land. The article also mentioned that head-first is the preferred method of birth for land mammals.

I guess whales are exempt from the unfortunate occurrence of breech births. Poor Momma Whale, who may have even died from this birth complication ( since we all know whales still have not developed thumbs or hands to aid in a breech birth), is now going to be hijacked into being a poster child, or poster mother if you will, for evolution.

That is insult to injury.

My friend Shelley tagged me this meme, What is the fourth picture of your fourth folder on your computer?

Tada!:

This is a not -so-clear picture of one of the day trips we took when our friends were here for Christmas. It is not so easy to take a picture on top of an elephant while it is walking. The roll of their huge shoulders makes for a rather bumpy ride. It moves you around too much.
We discussed how we would NOT like to travel by elephant. Romantic sounding, but not terribly comfortable.

Although this is not the fourth picture, it is a better one of the day.

This is a fun place to go, so if anyone shows up to visit us, hint, hint, hint, we would take you too!

Kathy do you want to play too?

I know, I am terribly pitiful that I did not post anything inbetween WFMW editions, but that is just how it is right now.
As I just recently told someone else, blogging is not one of my spiritual gifts. hahaha.

Each Sunday night, we have an easy dinner and watch a movie together. I am sure this never happens at your house, but between the three kids, and yes the two adults too, we find it difficult to all agree on what movie to watch.

We have come up with a system that works for us.

Each person gets to put their choice into a hat (or other fun receptacle), and then Mom or Dad will reach in and blindly choose the movie for the night.
To keep things fair, whomever had their movie picked must abstain from putting one in the hat the next week until everyone has had their choice.
The person who was chosen from the previous week get to be the ‘puller’ for the next week.

Of course, we as parents, reserve the right to veto choices (before they are put in the hat), based on appropriateness for the whole audience or if we as parents just could not bear to watch a particular movie yet again.

This works for us, now I want to know what works for you! I am heading over to Shannon’s, see you there!

Yes, I have a couple of extra W’s in my title. This week I am posting about What Would Work For Me!

This year, we entered the homeschooling arena. For the past two years our kids attended an international school here in Chiang Mai and we all enjoyed the experience. We pulled them out for this year to become comfortable with the process, before we moved out to a more remote location and helps were less readily available. We have learned many things that do not work for us, and are still ‘getting comfortable’ with the rest of it.

I have discovered what would help.

We have met recently, no less than two–count them two– homeschool helpers/assistants/tutors. (The precise title is fluid depending on the day. )
These intrepid young ladies have left their home countries to live with missionary families to lend a hand with the homeschooling process and help the mom have more opportunities with language and culture learning and involvement with the work of getting the Gospel to those who need to hear.

What a great idea! I want to know where I sign up! Is there some kind of list I can put my name on? Just tell me where, and my name is there.

Do you know Christian young person who would be interested in such an valuable life experience that would give them a look at life overseas, at mission work and perhaps even be able to help them make a decision about their future as well? We would feed them well!
Hey, it does not have to be a young person either, experienced teachers can come too! Wow, wouldn’t that be great!

That would definitely work for me.

Now I am heading to Shannon’s site to see if anyone posted that they know of a bulletin board to find homeschool helpers.