baby tigers!!!!!

here in thailand, they don't have cubs, or boyscouts, they have baby tigers. there goes one now!


mornings start early at the abundant life home, especially on baby tiger day...


p'ganniga has to tuck and fold and belt and wrap her entire squadron into crisp, sharply-creased respectability...

since we were at church camp for monday and tuesday, i switched my teaching days to thursday and friday. the english teacher's english ability is (as previously discussed) haphazard at best, and so i didn't know who i'd be teaching until i showed up thursday morning, but there they were, bright and shining in their baby tiger best, my patom 6:1 class (i teach them on monday mornings).



there's twins (see if you can spot them, it'll be like a where's waldo: crazy thailand escapades! also look for: three hall monitors; the one kid who actually remembered his baby tiger hat; and evidence that they don't wear shoes in the class so the room always smells like feet), and for the longest time i thought there was only one of them and i just saw her a lot.

that was yesterday.

today is friday, and technically it's my day off, and i didn't want to get out of bed and i didn't want to teach and i didn't want sticky rice and deep fried chicken drumsticks for breakfast, because (although it's better than nasty fishes) the boys always pick the bones clean and then crack them and suck out the marrow, and i feel badly that i just can't manage to eat my well-seasoned gristle, and i didn't want to teach patom 6:2 because they're rowdier (although admittedly more fun sometimes...here they are...)

and not as bright, and we can spend a whole class going over how to tell time and i pull every ounce of resource i have into an hour-long blast of educational entertainment, and they still don't get it, and then the whiteboard marker didn't work (and i have to tell you, i live and die by that marker) and my favorite billowy skirt turned out to be a bad schoolroom idea, because the breeze from the ceiling fans hits the floor and rebounds up my skirt, and i had a few marilyn monroe moments before i gathered the excess material into one fist, and used the other fist to try and hammer some use out of the whiteboard marker. so, poop.

on a lighter note, we have two new farang from england. martin and hannah are a newly-married couple looking forward to a possible future of long-term missions, and so they are spending their summer break (they're at Bible college in england) in thailand helping out various endeavors. they'll be with us a few weeks...and they're funny. OH man, they're funny. they being funny and all, and me enjoying a good funny person from time to time (particularly ones that speak english, even if it is they do say 'trousers' and 'crisps'), we were hanging out in the church chatting after our english class last night, and i knew it was getting on in hours, but all of a sudden my phone rings, and it's ganniga wondering where i am. talking to her over the phone is nearly useless, so i go home to find out that max and bun had come down (we go to bed at 9:00, and it was now 10:30) saying 'ma, rachel's not home yet. you gotta phone her and find out where she is.' my little people were worried about me. i got home and went straight into their room to let them know i was there, and bun immediately asks 'you hungry?' as if he was going to hop out of bed in his pajamas and fix me up something if i said yes. don't mean to ruin this touching little story with a bitter pill, but they all have these horrible juicy coughs, and i was up a good hour more listening to them...bun's is one of those full-body coughs, to the point where i got out of bed and came down to see how he was...thank God he was fast asleep despite his angry lungs. they haven't been to see a docter yet, but they probably will be if this keeps up.

and as a quick flash-back story, carmen and karen (our last two new farang) and i spent most of the worship time at the church camp playing 'name that tune,' since it appears that all of thai worship is really old english worship reheated and served with rice (hey, is that 'I Will Celebrate?' yeah, and i'm glad someone else here is old enough to know that...)

also, i've realized how much I love a blog with pictures, and how much i love MY blog when there are pictures in it, and so i've decided that it's well worth waiting while blogger uploads my photos. even if sometimes they never materialize.