Merry Christmas!

This is my first Christmas away from home and family. I've missed other holidays and birthdays, but never Christmas. And while I miss my family like crazy (especially since my nephew was born on the 23rd!!!) and wish we could be together on Christmas, I've had an absolute blast at school introducing my students to various aspects of Christmas. On Thursday, we played a game called "Running Dictation" (the teacher tapes a text to the whiteboard, and students are in the back of the room and have to send one runner at a time to read part of the text and go back to dictate it to a writer who is planted in the back of the room). For the winning team, I gave out Santa Hats and they were a huge hit. I was a little worried since the winning team had several of the "cool" kids in class, including the two boys in my class who probably spend more time on their hair in the morning than I do, but they loved the hats and then wanted to pose for all kinds of pictures.

After they took a few pics, they grabbed me to join them, so we had an impromptu photo shoot.   

Then we took a class photo. It was really cool because I'd been pr-ing on the way to school for the Father to really help me enjoy these students and bond with them because of the two classes I teach, I've definitely connected more with my other class. And then in class we just had so much fun together and I felt like it was a direct answer to my conversation with the Father earlier that morning!

With it being Christmas week, I've been carting things to and from school on my motorbike. Bungee chords are a motorbike driver's best friend. You can bungee just about everything. Friday morning I brought along a bunch of stuff to decorate my classroom for our Christmas play. 

Don't worry, mom! It's safe:)

I created a stage of sorts with a red sheet and some garland in the classroom and it served as a backdrop for our numerous photo shoots of the morning. Here I am with two angels and one of the Josephs (not in costume here).  

Basically I divided the story into 5 segments and then gave each group a part of the story to act out. When we put it all together, it covered the whole story and I think allowed them to understand it way better than if I would've just told it to them.

Here are the shepherds and the angels from scene 3. They really got into the costuming (especialy my shepherds as you can see:) Amazing what you can do with some bedsheets, towels and garland!

The Wise "Men" and narrator from scene 5 

My roomate and fellow teacher, Stephanie, taught this class last year, so she came to watch our play. It was great to have an audience and she joined in our picture-taking fun!

This is the group from scene 2 - Joseph and the angel that tells him to marry Mary.

Fun class picture of them all in costume

Some sweet girls from class...a narrator, angel and shepherd

I wish I would've videoed the play because the students did such an amazing job with their lines and their acting, but I only have a few pics to show for it... Maybe next time! This is from the first scene...Gabriel and Mary. 

Not sure why this picture is sideways, but here are the Wise Men bringing their gifts to the baby.

At the end we took a class photo. I've been wanting to do that for a while, and it was perfect since Stephanie was there to take the picture. And it's always more fun to take pictures when you're dressed up! :)

The last two days were some of my favorite days of teaching ever! Seeing my students enjoy learning about Christmas and then acting out the stories themselves just brought so much joy to my heart!  I'm thankful the Father allowed me such a great week, especially since the holidays are often really hard since you're away from those you love so much. Somehow sharing the joy of Christmas with my students who've had so little exposure to it has lessened that ache and really allowed me to have a lot of joy this holiday season.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Merry Christmas!!! :) Or, as they say in Britain, Happy Christmas!

Christmas Party!

This past Saturday, Heather and I hosted a joint Christmas party at her house for all the 2nd year classes. We had about 25 students come and we enjoyed decorating cookies....

This is my favorite one...didn't know people in Laos knew about ear muffs! :)

A group pic of some of the students who came to the party. They decorated pretty much every kind of cookie we had on the table.

Some of the students from my class who came to the party.

We also played pin the star on the tree and I had pictures, but for some reason my blog won't load the pictures right.  Another teacher, Kenton (the tall guy below), shared the story of Adam and Eve in the garden as a precursor to the Christmas story (after all, if it wasn't for the Fall, we wouldn't have needed Christmas and a Saving One at all). The students behind him are the fruit trees. Kenton was a theater major in college and has quite a knack for sharing stories in a really interesting, fun and meaningful way.  I think the students really got the idea of how Adam and Eve were born with a white heart, and after they ate the fruit they had a black heart. And that the Baby J came to give us white hearts again.

After Kenton's story, we showed some of the movie the Nativity. The students seemed really interested in the story and learning more.  Unfortunately, in the middle of the part we were watching, there was a commotion outside and suddenly all the students darted outside saying lot pai? lot pai? which means whose motorbike? because the neighbor had come over saying someone had stolen a motorbike from Heather's driveway.  The students gave chase, but it was too late. The bike belonged to a girl from my class and she was obviously pretty crushed.  Honda's are stolen pretty frequently over here, but it was just a really unfortunate event and it happened at such a time in the party that it really seemed the original Deceiver from the garden had a hand in it.  It kinda ruined the mood in the party, understandably so, and I've been burdened this week with wondering how the Father would have me respond to best minister to my student in this situation. You can be "thinking" about me with this, if you would - that I would have wisdom and just know how to encourage her or help her as He would want me to do.

This week has been a whirlwind of activity - the four teachers from the Faculty of Letters (my faculty) - hosted a party for about 30 of our colleagues that included Christmas Bingo, a gift exchange and some singing of Jingle Bells and Silent Night. I've gotten really good at bungee-cording (I just made that a verb, oh well) things to my motorbike and even took my guitar to school on my motorbike. I don't really miss driving a car, because I love love love driving around on a motorbike, but I do miss the trunk space and being able to throw things in the back seat (those who know me well know I often had quite a collection back there!). But not on my motorbike!   The last party of the season is on Sunday with my level 3 class...Kenton and I are co-hosting and I'm going to attempt to make pizzas for my students and I think some of my students are going to come early to help me. I've never made the dough from scratch before, so we'll see how that goes. I'm learning that things I make in America don't always turn out the same way here. I'm really looking forward to Sunday's party because this is the class I feel like I've really bonded with, and it's the class my two Lao teachers are in too.

Tomorrow they are going to be performing the Christmas story in class...I divided them into 5 groups and gave each group a segment of the story to learn and act out. They seemed to enjoy it on Tuesday when we practiced and I'm hoping it'll help them to understand the story better.  

Well, that's all I've got now. Christa and I are going for a run at That Luang (gotta burn off all the Christmas goodies I've been consuming!!). 

Lao Lessons

Wow, this week has really flown by. It seems there are a million things to do this December! You'd think being away from all the Christmas craziness at home would make us less busy, but somehow being the instigators of the Christmas celebrations makes it evens crazier! But, in a good way. I've really been enjoying introducing glimpses of Christmas all this week to my students. Highlight for me from class this week was playing "O Holy Night" in my class as my students tried to put the lyric strips in the correct order (for a listening activity). As I was walking around, I had such a longing in my heart for the truth of that beautiful song to pierce their hearts. Oh, asking the Father for that!

So during December I'm studying Lao with my students and I'm having a total blast! We studied Wed, Thurs and Friday of this week and time just flies when we're hanging out at Sonexay's flat. They are so kind and generous to me and are always making me food and doing the dishes, so yesterday I told them I was going to cook something today. I was a little taken aback though, when Sonexay asked me today what the menu was...I hadn't actually expected them to let me cook something (it's not Lao culture to let the guest do anything). (It made me feel like perhaps they are beginning to see me as less of a guest and more of a friend, which is progress, I think :) So, we went to the market to buy food and I tried to whip something up that was edible.  The food is cooked out back on a slab of concrete about 3 feet by 8 feet, with one hot pot burner thing and a bucket to wash the dishes in. Pretty simple, but they can make some pretty tasty things out there! It's just been so fun for me to be able to do life with them these past two weeks, and through that to really learn some useful Lao phrases (and of course a few slang phrases too!)

My two teachers are on the outside - Thippachanh on the far left, and Sonexay on the far right. Two of my other students hung out with us today too... Palinya and Orn. They love correcting me and making me repeat words til I get the pronunciation right (or at least close enough!).  I try to write sentences with the new words I learn and then they take my red pen, mark it all up, and make me re-write it. Today Orn dictated the sentences to me and I had to write them in Lao. That was quite a challenge, but I really feel like it's helping the words to stick in my mind a lot better. My goal is to be somewhat conversational by the time my parents come so I can at least get around and figure out where to go, etc while they are here. Thanks to the strictness of my "teachers," I feel like I'm making progress!

Getting ready to eat lunch... Gin kao suwai

My mom sent me Sour Patch Kids - one of my favorite candies! - in my package so I told them yesterday that I would bring some kanome America (American candy) to share with them. Sonexay had never tried American candy before, and the others had only tried it once before so they were really excited to taste American candy. I think they liked them. And, mom, I know you're glad to know I didn't eat the whole box myself!

I feel like since I started studying Lao with my students, I'm learning Lao the way I learned Japanese...through relationships - just spending time with friends - and then using the words over and over. I'm such a relationally-motivated person, and being able to build a better friendship with these students has really been a strong motivating factor for me to study Lao more diligently. Please ask the Father to make me a diligent student of Lao - especially because I feel like you can go so much deeper when you are communicating in someone's heart language - and to continue to allow my friendship with these girls to grow! I'm so afraid of committing some huge cultural faux pas, but they have been really gracious with my bumbling understanding of Lao culture and the Lao language and are quick to show me grace if I get it wrong. In general, it just makes for a lot of great laughs as we are all both simultaneously teacher and student, and ultimately, they are becoming some of my favorite people to spend time with in Lao!

Whew, off to bed now. We have two parties for different groups of students tomorrow so it's going to be a busy day!!

Hmong New Year

It's been a busy weekend so far. Packed with lots of great cultural experiences and fun times with friends.  Friday night was our language tutor Touy's engagement party. She is marrying a Lao man who lives in the U.S. but they are having an engagement celebration here with her friends. Below is a picture of some of us ladies with the beautiful bride-to-be.

Then, we went to the bus station early this morning to meet some of my students to go together to Village Kilometer 52 (yes, that's the official name:) for the Hmong New Year celebration.  We were supposed to meet at 7 and they showed up a little before 8 and then were en route by around 8:30. Learning to pad my expectations with a few hours of leeway just to keep my sanity :)  The two girls I mentioned before who are my new Lao teachers came and another one of my students named Palinya. It was about an hour ride to the village from Vientiane and Sonexay taught me several new phrases in Lao. She also shared with me that her 25-year-old brother passed away last year of a brain tumor. He had been married only 6 months and Sonexay was really close to him.

Here is a picture of Sonexay with one of the little girls dressed up in traditional Hmong clothing.

We arrived at Kilometer 52 and went to my student Jao Lo's house. They had prepared an amazing feast for all of us teachers (6 of us went together, along with 3 of my students and then some other friends met us there) and then gave us a chance to try on the traditional Hmong dress.

Heather and I trying on some of the Hmong clothes.

Getting ready to get all decked out. 

Sonexay and I dressed up in traditional Hmong clothes.

Jao Lo's little niece getting dressed up.

So, at the Hmong festival, they play this ball game where single men and women stand in a row opposite each other and throw a ball back and forth...back and forth.... Somehow it's supposed to help you meet a significant other. Not sure exactly how it works, but it's a really famous part of the festival and culture. Didn't work so well for us, but that's probably because most of the people in our group were all girls. Oh well, can't date anyway til next August per our organization's policy.

We ran into one of my other students, Sialo, who is Hmong and was the MC for the tigo (Lao phone company) booth at the festival.

Sonexay and her boyfriend. Observe the midrift style.

 Steph, Thippachanh, Palinya, Sonexay and me at the festival.

The craziest part of going to the Hmong New Year was that all these people kept coming up to us and asking to take a picture with us. Since there are many foreigners (falang) in Vientiane, I'm not really used to feeling like a spectacle, but here it was very different. There weren't very many foreigners at the festival, but we were the only ones decked out in traditional Hmong garb so everyone was doing double-takes and all-out staring at us.  And a lot of Hmong people live in America and can speak English, so probably about 15-20 different random people came up to us, talked to us, videoed our ball game, and wanted to take photos together. It was quite the experience. But a wonderful time of hanging out with our students and learning more about one of the minority people groups in Lao.

All the single ladies, all the single ladies... Jao Lo, our Hmong friend and host, is in the middle.



My New Teachers

Today was such a great day. Since it was a Wednesday, I was able to sleep til 7 (!!!) and then have a yummy omelet breakfast with Christa. Class went well, I think (maybe you should ask my students though!) and then I had my first language lesson with my new teachers....

Touy, our language tutor, is getting married soon and her fiance is visiting this month so she isn't able to teach us. So I decided to ask a student to help me out this month and ended up asking two students from my year 3 class. I've had pictures of them up on my blog before, and maybe I'll take one during our language lesson tomorrow so you can see them again... But it was such a wonderful time! We had kaopat (fried rice) together for lunch and talked about the logistics of when we'll meet, etc. They refuse to let me pay them and seem really excited about helping me learn Lao. Sonexay said I'd be speaking Lao in a month! We'll see about that, but today was a good start.

It's a really good mix too, because Thipphachanh is the sweet, relaxed one who has slightly better English and is able to understand my questions and explain things. Sonexay is the strict one who makes me say the word over and over til I get the tone right or the right length of the vowel, etc. At what I thought was the end of our lesson today, Sonexay pulled out a piece of paper and said dictation, Teacher. She then proceeded to dictate the new vocabulary that I had learned that day and made me write out the correct spelling for each word (spelling in Lao is soooo hard!!!). 15 minutes and 15 words later, I was quite proud of my list of new words and my progress. I asked them about my homework saying I should write sentences to practice the new grammar point I'd learned. They assigned me 10 sentences (I usually only give them 5 in English class!) ... very strict, but after spending about an hour tonight writing those 10 sentences, I felt a real sense of accomplishment. I think my motivation to learn Lao is at an all-time high. I'm such a relationally-motivated person so the fact that two of my students are willing to spend several hours a week with me teaching me their language is really motivating for me. And, I'm hoping it'll be a fun way to bond and have an excuse to hang out together.  Please be thinking about that and asking the Father to bless our friendship and just allow our schedules to not be too crazy because it's often easy to get off to a good start and then things fizzle out when life gets busy.

  Speaking of busy, December is slammed!! Wow, I'm tired just thinking about it! But, hopefully it will be a fun time of year and a strategic one as well, as we seek to share not only the cultural aspects of Christmas, but the true reason for the season!  We had a team meeting tonight and were trying to iron out the logistics and brain-storm ideas. Please be thinking of us during this time - that we would be wise and bold, and culturally sensitive and clear - a good mix of fun and deep.  I can't wait to bring my guitar to class and play some carols for my students!

This is random, but here's a pic of our team at dinner tonight. I made Fajitas with the stuff mom sent from home.... Everyone on the team was so thankful, mom!!! :) Not exactly like in the states, but delicious nonetheless!

Ok, off to bed now!

Wow, Feelin' the Love!

Ok, I just want to say that my family and friends on the other side of the "ocean shores" are totally amazing! I have felt so loved and not-forgotten these past weeks and months, especially as I've been transparent about my struggles here. You have embraced me and joined me in this journey more than I ever thought possible. I have been so blessed with notes, packages, emails, messages, etc, etc.

Ok, so I kinda expected it from my mom. You know, she has to love on you 'cause that's what moms do. And, she is probably like on a first-name basis with the people at the post office (or maybe they've blocked her number because they just don't know how long it takes for a package to leave Miami!). My mom is completely awesome, she should definitely win the "I'm my child's biggest cheerleader" award, hands-down.  But I've also just been blown away by the thoughtfulness of other friends too... Notes from growth group friends, a package from the Oviedo Growth Group (just came today! I'd just finished my last bag of peanut mms from Jayde and Kevan yesterday, and reinforcements arrived today!!!:), a package from Jayde and Kevan filled with amazing spices (and more!) that I have been thrilled to season my food with (makes me feel like Julia Child:), and an envelope filled with adorable triplet art from Jill and Co!

I cannot even begin to say how it has lifted my spirits to know that I am indeed surrounded by "such a great cloud of witnesses."  This blog post will give you a glimpse of the amazing goodies and love I've received these past few weeks....

Notes from my family and friends...adorning my headboard.

Last week I got a package from Jill loaded with triplet art! I love it! I call this area my "triplet shrine" - not really, but everytime I walk out of my room I see their art and think of them! By the way, I learned how to say triplets in Lao this weekend ... Fet saam kon. Very useful phrase right there!

Mom sent me Velveeta (Mmmmm!) so I made broccoli with cheese...such a good comfort food and a wonderful taste of home!

At our OGG, we always used a big sheet of paper (you know, like at the Macaroni Grill)to write down group ideas/discussion and then we'd share with the group...So they all wrote notes on a big sheet of paper to remind me of those times. So wonderful and encouraging. It's going on my wall as soon as I find tape to hold it up!

Just in today! Goodies from OGG!! :)

Mom went against her better judgment and instincts and sent me some of my faves...Reeses pieces and Sour Patch! I guess I had to leave the country for her to approve of my sugar consumption! ;)

Mom also sent a variety of packets - chili, taco and fajitas...I'm making fajitas for our team tomorrow night. Trying to share the wealth! :)

Delicious ranch dip and veggies that I made with the packet mom sent me...

And, for tonight...mac'n cheese...though for some reason my blog is being weird so it looks like my mac'n cheese is defying gravity. Oh well.



Ok, so I guess this blog turned out to be a lot about food...but I guess that's because everyone has been so sweet to send love in a way that communicates love to me, and you all know I love cooking! And just being able to make some things the way I do at home has brought such joy to my heart! Being known and loved by so many back home also brings joy to my heart! I'm so thankful for the wonderful family (blood-related and beyond!) that the Father has blessed me with! Just like His love, I'm so undeserving, but so grateful!