I hope this post finds you all doing well. I wish you a very happy, healthy, successful new year, full of peace, love and happiness. The end of 2012 was super busy for me and I wanted to fill you in on all of the happenings and update you from the last post.

Still at the Wat Don Chan and as crazy as it is there things are going well for all of my classes. On Mondays I have been teaching a college English course and the students are doing really well. I like this class so much because I am the only teacher. Sometimes when sharing the class with a Thai teacher the kids will start to ask them questions and get the answers in Thai. When it is just me I make them really work for it and if they still do not understand, we just work harder. Not to say that I do not enjoy my other classes because I do but it is just different. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am teaching English with another teacher, a very nice Thai man, Arjan Narin. Sometimes he has a meeting or some other commitment so I will do it alone. The Tuesday class is much better then the Thursday class. On Thursdays there are on 7 boys, 4 of which do not understand anything. They just moved in to the WDC a few months ago and have never had English class so we just try to get them to understand some of the basics, “hi, how are you, my name is, I come from….”, you get it.

On Wednesdays I am assisting with 2 classes where we teach about Ice Cream, Beverages, Coffee, Tea, Fruit Shakes, Wine, etc. This has been a very fun class. 95% of the class is taught in Thai but I get to chime in with my experiences on these topics. 2 weeks ago we made some of the things the kids have been hearing and learning about. We made Chocolate-Brownie Ice Cream and Watermelon-Chocolate Chip Sorbet. It was a great time and we are looking forward to the next time we can get into the kitchen to make some other food or drinks. I think this will happen soon but we have to wait to see if the school has some money for this. If not I will pay half and the teachers will pay the other half. It really is not that much so not a biggie. It is about $20 per class, so like $1 a kid. We are in talks with a local coffee shop and wholesale tea company to take the kids there and let them order a beverage of their choice then they will go behind the counter and learn how to make it. FUN……

Last time I told you about Mix and how I have a friend here, Siriwan that wants to help her to get into University. She will get in for sure but we need to just talk about all of the details. Mix has a father but very poor. He is excited for his daughter to have this opportunity. He said he will do whatever he can to help and right now it looks like he will be able to pay for here food. We are wishing Mix all the best for a great start in Uni. The other boys are doing well in school too. I will take them all out for dinner next week with Mix, kind of like a stuandthekids New Years Celebration. I am hoping to raise enough funds to have 10 kids in University by late next year, wish me luck.

I also met with some ladies promoting a care-giving program for the elderly and or babies. There are 4 girls at the WDC that are very interested in this. The cost is only $1200 USD for a 6 month program. This includes, housing, food, books, classes, uniforms and after the course they place them with a job. Most kids after graduating get a good starting salary  and housing and food. I will keep you posted with any new info about the girls interested in this program. I am going next month to check out the school and where they will potently live.

Lastly I went to a Lawa village about 5 hours out of town with Atma Seva to do an English camp. It was a blast! There were 64 kids and we did 6 different stations where they got to play, compete and learn. At the end of the 2 day camp the kids all won prizes at the ending awards ceremony. This village and school was really so great, oh and the villagers, AMAZING! Check out www.atmaseva.org for more info about this camp and their other projects. They took such good care of use while we were there. They cooked every meal, gave us a great place to sleep and even did a chicken and rice-whiskey, blessing ceremony for us. This is were they offer a chicken, we get blessed then eat some, drink some and then they put a bit of all of it in a banana leaf and offer it up to the spirits. They then attach bracelets made of yarn to our wrist so we can carry that blessing with us. It truly was an amazing experience and I look forward to going to the village again sometime in the near future.

I was lucky enough to find several talented women in the village making hand-made bags in their true village style so I bought 30 of them (I could not say no) to sell and raffle off at the stuandthekids fundraiser. When I got back here I met a really nice couple from Corsica and they have a shop where they sell such items to help out Hill Tribes and the like. They bought 20 from me and next time they visit they want me to get them more from other tribes. So thank you to Fred and Lydia for your kind purchase and donation. If any of you are interested in any of the bags just let send me a message and let me know. OK thats all for now….Peace, always. -Stu