We are less than 24 hours away from our next big adventure - helping lead a VASE trip to Thailand. VASE meaning - Vision, Action, Service, Evangelism. We have 13 middle and high school students and 4 adults on our trip and we leave early tomorrow morning, arriving in Bangkok in the morning. The first part of our trip will involve some hands-on work, possibly painting, in response to the flooding that happened around December. The second part of the trip is to lead an English Camp - middle school students from a Christian school will be attending, and we take a two-pronged approach - partly we evangelise and partly we teach English.
This is new territory for Mike and I in many ways - not only have we not been to Thailand, but we have not been on a short-term mission trip either. Nor have we had very much to do with middle or high school students - so it is excitement tinged with a little bit of nervous tension as we spend today relaxing in preparation for the 5 days ahead. It will be over too soon, I"m sure!!
We have had a busy 2 weeks back at school, both of us straight into our units of inquiry for this quarter and our kids getting straight into their learning again. Mike has 'exhibition' coming up - a very big deal for grade 5, and something that is going to take over his life for the next 2 months while they get their personal action projects underway. All part of the culmination of the "PYP' programme under the IB banner, a way of finishing elementary school and drawing together the threads of their learning into some form of social or community action in response to an issue they feel strongly about.
My class are studying the Human Body, currently looking at the skeletal and muscular systems. Great fun so far - they've made model skeletons and have undone owl pellets to discover animal bones inside etc etc etc. Great fun!
The last 2 weeks have gone really fast, but it seems ages since we were back in NZ with our families having Christmas and New Year with them. This week is Lunar New Year, so we are being wished 'happy new year' all over again! We were taken out to dinner on Friday night to a restaurant owned by some parents of children in our classes, where we were wined and dined to the extreme. The food just kept on coming,and we both felt so full - too full - but it was delicious!! The restaurant was called 'Bonsuwon Galbi' - Galbi is the local delicacy - seasoned beef BBQ with many different side dishes. Stunning food!!
Here's a few links to explain a bit about where we are going to in Thailand, and our VASE trip link.
I hope this post finds you all well - don't forget to drop us a comment!! It makes us realise that people are reading the posts and helps us to keep in touch :):)
flooding
This is where we are being taken on Friday after we are all finished...
Rose Garden tour
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