From Vegemite to Pig's Blood

I know, right? Gross title for a blog post but let me explain.  I have written about Spencer and his eating habits several times on this blog, but the other day, when he announced, "I don't like Vegemite anymore" it left me speechless... what? I mean what Australian-born child would ever say that?  Seriously?  
I had no reply.
A week later as we sat around with our various Thai lunch dishes in front of us, Dave points and says to Spencer, 
"Oh just letting you know that pig's blood there.  You don't have to eat it.  Just push it to the side".
"Where?" Spencer quickly responds... spots it... and then gobbles it up!!!
Okay enough said!!

Speaking of pigs.  
Recently Dave had the privilege of helping with the 8 newly-delivered piglets in the ZOE pig farm.  Ahhh so cute.  
He even got to tie their umbilical cords!

Well some of you may've seen some of the ZOE camp photos on Facebook, but for those of you who haven't, you can check out Jessica Dodd's page for the updates. 
Below are a couple of pics here too:

We hope that you had a good Easter. Despite David being a bit unwell, we still managed to have a nice few days.
On Sunday after lunch, we all snuggled in bed (with the air on!!) to watch the kid's version of the Passion.

This year, we used our Easter-egg molds (from my brother) to make our own chocolate eggs and I made my own recipe up for some hot crossed scones (in our new oven).

Dave has had a week off this past week.  It has been so nice to have all my besties at home for part of the school holidays.  It's been eventful and fun.  We've certainly packed a lot in to the past few days.

One of the highlights was having some of the ZOE kids over for a play on Tuesday afternoon.  We had so many laughs decorating gingerbread cookies, playing games and pulling out the Barbies, Lego and blocks.  This was a memory we will cherish for a long time to come.

Dave is back at work tomorrow while the rest of us enjoy one more week at home before school goes back for the last 4 weeks of the year!!! What?? I can't believe that the older two will soon be finishing Grade 1 and Grade 2... yikes!

David is heading away with the ZOE youth at the end of next week for a trip to the village.  He is very much looking forward to this as he both loves spending time with the ZOE teenagers and loves going to the villages.  

Well it is currently Songkran here.  A crazy (dangerous) and fun time of the year.  Songkran is the celebration of the Thai New Year.

According to the Bangkok Post, in the first three days of the holiday there were 1,447 road accidents which caused 173 deaths and 1,526 injuries.  There are still a couple of days to go!  We have been out and about a few times this year with much of the action happening right around our house.  We had a blast yesterday going out with friends in the back of a truck armed with water guns and icy water.  It proved to be a lot of fun. 

Well there is so much more to tell. {I'm sorry my updates have been few and far between!} BUT, I will save the rest of the news for another time... seriously, the story about our cockroach infestation will just have to wait for another day- when the trauma of has become a fading memory. Ewww!  I know you must be really disappointed about that LOL!

I'll leave you know with a few pictures from this first week of school holidays.  We enjoyed going to our aquarium, visiting several waterfalls and just hanging out as a family.

And, in closing, Dave and I are working hard to keep "encouraging" Spencer back to a diet inclusive of the great Aussie icon Vegemite... we will never give up!!

Some Songkran Fun!

Check out this short video of us all out and about on the first official night of Songkran (Thai New Year celebration aka world's biggest water fight).  
So much fun!

The Flood Gates Have Opened...

Chiangmai has opened its floodgates for another huge Songkran (Thai New Year) celebration.

Beginning 'officially' today, there were already people gathering along the streets with buckets in hand and flinging water as early as yesterday afternoon.

You may remember my posts about this from last year and the year before.

But Songkran is not the only reason we've been getting wet this week. We are so happy to report that it's actually been raining! Whowhoo!

If you're not sure why I sound so excited about this, check out our posts about our desperate need for some rain to clear away the high levels of pollution in the air here as a result of the burning off season.

And thirdly, the flood gates were literally opened as we waved a very teary goodbye to my parents who have been here with us since the end of March.

It has been such a lovely couple of weeks. (Does that explain my absence here? Sorry!)

We do feel really blessed that we've had this time to visit special places and share this precious time but when the final moment came to bid farewell, so too did a flood of another kind caused by having to say goodbye {again}.

I've realized that we all cope with goodbyes differently.

For Eliana and I, crying hysterically whilst walking through the airport with no concern for who even stares at us helps us get it all out in the open ... Spencer thoughtfully summed it up in the car on the way home from the airport well by saying, "Now our family is back to just 5" and Tobi at bed time whispered to me softly, "Mum, I know you really miss your mum and dad. It's hard to always say goodbye... but I'm glad I still have you".

And the good news... the next thing to look forward to and begin counting down the days...

It's only 70 days until we're back in Australia! Yippeee!

Do you have a school, church, club or group that would like to hear more about what we do here in Thailand?

We are happy to talk about our experiences of being missionaries in a foreign country, as well as our passion relating to helping children in need.
ZOE Children's Home, where we are volunteers, proactively fight to abolish human trafficking as well as provide a safe refuge for the children that we rescue.

Combining multimedia, personal stories and an opportunity for  audiences to ask questions, we share about human trafficking, our journey of challenges, answered prayers and adventure.

For more information please check out http://sites.google.com/site/backforachat
There are printable brochures, biographies and a range of speaking options.

Please stay tuned for some more posts really soon {promise} as I begin to catch up after the past couple of weeks.  

A Wet Start to Songkran

Do you remember last year when I described to you what the Songkran water festival (Thai New Year) was all about?  If not, check out the archives and see the unbelievable photos taken from the front seat of our car.

Well today is the first “official” day of the Songkran festival 2011 and, here in Chiangmai, were got off to a VERY wet start... but not the sort we were expecting!

Let me explain.  After a few really loud claps of thunder this morning, the kids and I witnessed one of the biggest storms we’ve ever seen here in Thailand.  With the mood becoming a little uncertain with each shuddering roar from the sky, all four of us snuggled on the couch (still in pajamas) to watch a DVD.  

Well after the thunder and lightening had finished and just the heavy rain remained, the kids ventured in to their toy area only to discover a Songkran surprise they hadn’t been expecting- the area had flooded!

We set to work, moving everything that had been soaked, throwing out some of their art work that had been ruined and mopping up the pools of water on the ground.

Thankfully there was minimal damage and most of the items were able to be dried out.

Despite this extra wet start to the Thai New Year, the spirit of Songkran did not seem to be dampened (LOL) as we experienced the water throwing in full swing tonight when we ducked out to get some sticky rice and chicken off the side of the road for dinner!!

Step 1: Line up your target. 

Step 2: Launch!

Step 3: Mission accomplished. 

Step 4: Satisfaction!  Refill...

Songkran! Soaking up the Celebrations!

Have you ever been in a water fight?  Yes?  A REALLY big one… involving all your family and friends?  What about your family, friends, neighbors and all their friends?  What about one with the WHOLE suburb?  What about, a water fight that the entire state participated in?  Or what about the WHOLE country?

Well while you stop and think about that for a moment, I’ll try to describe to you what we are experiencing here in Thailand at the moment, known as SONGKRAN!

It’s hard to articulate just what Songkran (traditional Thai New Year’s celebration) is but if you can picture the biggest water fight you’ve ever seen and times that by millions of  people (that’s just in Chiang Mai) you may start to get the idea.  

So the official dates of Songkran are April 13-15th but the water throwing started as early as mid last week (Apparently the ‘unofficial’ celebrations start earlier each year LOL).  It’s all in good spirits though and you never know where the next bucket, hose, scoop or water pistol soaking will be coming from next.  You could be driving down the street, walking out of a shop or just winding the window of your car down to try to get a mosquito out and then “splash” you get hit!  

You may have seen some of the photos I posted on my Facebook page depicting a little of what it is like here at the moment… it’s a little crazy and a lot of fun!

I took our three children in to ZOE today to watch the water sports that Dave had organized.  He’d come home on Monday and explained how they had ‘gone off’, so we wanted to go and see for ourselves.  

Tobi, Eli, Spencer and I all watched on in glee as the ZOE children, staff and camp leaders all completed their games and got absolutely drenched in the process.  I’m not quite sure how we managed to stay as dry as we did, but it was certainly a site to see.

After the games finished and everyone had dried off, we enjoyed some morning tea before staying for one of the elective classes.  The elective we stayed for was rocket launchers!  Sound familiar?  Tobi’s teacher, Mr Todd, ran it.  Mr Todd had volunteered to come and help teach a class at ZOE during the Songkran school break so we suggested to him doing the rocker launcher activity that he’d done with Tobi’s class last term.  

Well it was a hit.  Yesterday the older children and teenagers made and decorated their rockets, and today they launched them.  We literally had a “blast” watching them take off and seeing where they landed in the playing field out the front of the children’s home.  Each rocket launched was accompanied by many, “Oooos and ahhhhhhs” from the spectators.

From their electives, the children and teenagers then went on to “huddle” in the meeting room before lunch.  Tobi and Eli saw that the kids were all getting their passports reissued with their next boarding pass for the night session and just had to be the same.  Thankfully Dave had some spare Thai passports in his office to appease them and Garrett (son of Lynne and Les) helped to fill them out with their favorite colors, birth date etc.  I even over heard Garrett asking what Tobi wanted written on one of the blank pages to which he replied, “I love Eli”… how cute!

Not being able to resist all the buckets and tubs for sale during Songkran, I purchased a good-sized plastic tub for Spencer.  Sitting it just outside the kitchen door, I was able to cook dinner tonight while Spencer had a wonderful time splashing in the cold water alongside Eli dipping in her washcloth and detergent and busily playing at, and cleaning, her little kitchen.

I have loved the happy noises of the children settling in to their imaginary play these holidays.  I laugh to myself as I overhear Tobi and Eliana playing shops and asking each other the price of things and answering in baht… or yesterday Tobi loudly announced to Eli to “Hurry up” as her tuk tuk had arrived to pick her up.

As busy as it is ... and as messy as it is, with the three of them all home for longer periods, the children and I have certainly had some good times during this break.  

Dave is doing a lot of hours, however it’s been a privilege to have him come home for a couple of hours in the middle of the day this week while camp’s on as he then goes back to ZOE in the afternoon and stays until about 9pm.  Due to his different ‘work’ hours this week, we have been able to drive around the city moat and experience some of what this Songkran holiday is all about… which is?  Getting VERY wet!!!!

Andie :)