Hi everyone,
Naomi here, I thought it was about time I left another message.......thanks so much to everyone for posting on our blog. Anyone who wants to send a more personal message can use our regular e-mail address....we can check it here petedeka@optushome.com.au
We have gotten to the end of our first week of teaching and it was quite sad to say goodbye to the kids that we spent time with this week........Peter and I are off to seperate locations next week, we spent the first week together with the kids so that if there were any dramas we would both be there to back each other up but since it went so smoothly I will be taking Luke with me next week and Peter will take the other 2.
I titled this post "I am in love with this place" because there is no other way to describe how I feel about it.......there is always something happening, everything is vibrant, and it feels to me like there is such an amazing rhythm here.....kind of like a beat....if that makes any sense...maybe sounds kinda stupid, but I know what I mean and I just cant describe it properly.
Daniel, I will get Jake to write to you soon, we spent the morning at this amazing water slide park on the roof of a shopping centre.....so the boys are completely wiped out.
Oh, something very funny........apparently the Thai girls think Jacob is a bit of a hottie.....Amy and a couple of her Thai friends came with us today and Jacob is feeling very embarassed about it all (I think he's secretly feeling pretty flattered)
A big happy birthday to Mel, I will send you an e-mail too Melly!!!!!!!
And Mum, about all I can think of that I would like for my birthday is clothes....but I have already bought quite a few at Khao Sarn road.......the shopping there is unreal and I will probably go back next week because Peter hasn't been yet. Sorry there is so much to say....I think you will have to wait for all the news until we get back.
Lots of mushy kisses (uuugggh)
Naomi (nomblies)
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Another Imaginative Title
Sorry - you can only say hello from peter or some other derivative of this title so many times...
Well, its Wednesday here and so we are half way through our first week of ESL training. Unfortunately is some ways we got the raw end of the deal being stationed in the Community centre rather than going to one of the other slums, as we only get 1 week with our kids and then will spend the second week helping at one of the other classes. We have already grown quite attached to many of the girls in our class ( we are teaching girls from 10-14 years of age if we have not already told you). One stands out in particular as our star pupil her name is Mook and she lives in the same slum neighborhood as Ash & Anji. Her English is really a lot ahead of the other kids. She spent quite a long time with Naomi today, just talking about different things, trying to ask questions about our family and life in Australia etc... It was great to see her thirst for knowledge - In many ways, she is what this is all about - helping these kids that otherwise would have no chance, to get a leg up in life. I do not know the actual statistics, but apparently just a little bit of English improves these kids earning potential phenomenally... The other side of this is that you need English to work in somewhere like McDonald's, just so you can Earn a mere $1 an hour - Though I guess this has got to be better than many of the other alternatives out there for a girl like Mook...
We have not had the experience of seeing any of Thailands Seedier side of things yet, though seeing some of the guests here at the hotel and some of those walking the streets it is easy to see why foreigners (ferungs we are called - spelling is probably wrong) have such a bad reputation in this country. The difference in peoples attitudes towards me when I am out on my own versus when I am out with my family is staggering - and it does not all boil down to having three cute blonde haired blue eyed boys I am sure.
On the subject of cute blonde haired boys - Sam has pretty much been adopted by one of the workers in the community centre - she is taking him out to show him off to her friends - stuffing him full of all sorts of sweets and drinks, The girls are dinking him around everywhere on their bikes & and he is having a great time!!!
anyway I should leave it there ... Tonight we are going out to a night market as we have finally organized a baby sitter, so that will be a new experience for us... The first really touristy thing that we will be doing since getting here.
Well, its Wednesday here and so we are half way through our first week of ESL training. Unfortunately is some ways we got the raw end of the deal being stationed in the Community centre rather than going to one of the other slums, as we only get 1 week with our kids and then will spend the second week helping at one of the other classes. We have already grown quite attached to many of the girls in our class ( we are teaching girls from 10-14 years of age if we have not already told you). One stands out in particular as our star pupil her name is Mook and she lives in the same slum neighborhood as Ash & Anji. Her English is really a lot ahead of the other kids. She spent quite a long time with Naomi today, just talking about different things, trying to ask questions about our family and life in Australia etc... It was great to see her thirst for knowledge - In many ways, she is what this is all about - helping these kids that otherwise would have no chance, to get a leg up in life. I do not know the actual statistics, but apparently just a little bit of English improves these kids earning potential phenomenally... The other side of this is that you need English to work in somewhere like McDonald's, just so you can Earn a mere $1 an hour - Though I guess this has got to be better than many of the other alternatives out there for a girl like Mook...
We have not had the experience of seeing any of Thailands Seedier side of things yet, though seeing some of the guests here at the hotel and some of those walking the streets it is easy to see why foreigners (ferungs we are called - spelling is probably wrong) have such a bad reputation in this country. The difference in peoples attitudes towards me when I am out on my own versus when I am out with my family is staggering - and it does not all boil down to having three cute blonde haired blue eyed boys I am sure.
On the subject of cute blonde haired boys - Sam has pretty much been adopted by one of the workers in the community centre - she is taking him out to show him off to her friends - stuffing him full of all sorts of sweets and drinks, The girls are dinking him around everywhere on their bikes & and he is having a great time!!!
anyway I should leave it there ... Tonight we are going out to a night market as we have finally organized a baby sitter, so that will be a new experience for us... The first really touristy thing that we will be doing since getting here.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Hello from Jake
Hello everybody,
I just want to tell you that we are having a great time here in Thailand and it's a very nice place.
We have had tons of fun, I have played lots of soccer and I got to feed a baby elephant. I am enjoying being in the english classes.
Now I am going for a swim
From Jacob
I just want to tell you that we are having a great time here in Thailand and it's a very nice place.
We have had tons of fun, I have played lots of soccer and I got to feed a baby elephant. I am enjoying being in the english classes.
Now I am going for a swim
From Jacob
Monday, April 24, 2006
Sawadeekaa from Naomi
Hey Everyone,
Looks like it's my turn to send a message home......but where to start??? Today was our first english classes and I have to say I loved it...I literally couldn't get the grin off my face the whole time, during the break the girls had me skipping rope with them (in very hot weather) I think this was the wake up call for the fact that I'm not young anymore....the girls thought my puffing was hilarious.
We are pretty blown away by how well our kids are fitting in....Jacob is outside playing soccer with the boys alot and Sam was the hit of the community centre staff today (apparently he gets points for cuteness) I think he actually got kidnapped (by some responsible older girls) for a while today and then he says he got taken on a motorbike ride, dunno of that's true or not.
Anyway, we are loving it here.....everytime I eat, I think maybe I am in heaven....yummy food.
Anyway, that's it for now.....maybe I will get more deep and meaningful later....maybe not!!!!
Heaps of love to you all
Naomi.
Looks like it's my turn to send a message home......but where to start??? Today was our first english classes and I have to say I loved it...I literally couldn't get the grin off my face the whole time, during the break the girls had me skipping rope with them (in very hot weather) I think this was the wake up call for the fact that I'm not young anymore....the girls thought my puffing was hilarious.
We are pretty blown away by how well our kids are fitting in....Jacob is outside playing soccer with the boys alot and Sam was the hit of the community centre staff today (apparently he gets points for cuteness) I think he actually got kidnapped (by some responsible older girls) for a while today and then he says he got taken on a motorbike ride, dunno of that's true or not.
Anyway, we are loving it here.....everytime I eat, I think maybe I am in heaven....yummy food.
Anyway, that's it for now.....maybe I will get more deep and meaningful later....maybe not!!!!
Heaps of love to you all
Naomi.
We are here - finally got to a computer
Well, we are on our third night here in Thailand and I have finally got a second in front of a computer to update you all!
What a rush it has been both literally and the adrenaline! We got in to the hotel at 10pm local time (1am aussie time) after getting up at 4am to prepare to leave back in oz. As a result we hit our mattresses and fell fast asleep. Saturday was a day to ourselves and we spent most of that just trying to do some basic grocery shopping and buying some lunch - do you know how hard it is to buy soy milk or sugar when you are faced with the weird squiggly letters of the Thai alphabet - anyway we did it!!! - and then headed out to the community centre in the slum for a bit of a get together and introductions night - Naomi went with the boys in a taxi, but Jake and me walked through the slum. We went over the rickety bridge of (almost literally) raw sewerage, dodged the cars to get over the highway and enjoyed the humor that the locals got out of seeing a young blonde, blue eyed boy walking through this part of the neighborhood!...
As soon as we entered the community center Jake was befriended by about 4 or 5 local boys and he was off playing his first game of soccer in a few minutes. His brothers were not too far behind him playing in the sandpit full of who knows what - and loving it!
Saturday night was for us a great night to catch up with the rest of the team and of course Ash & Anj - we all walked home after the meeting and so Naomi and the boys got to enjoy the sights and smells - I am really impressed with how they all are dealing with it the boys are just taking it all in stride, Naomi too is really enjoying herself and getting a lot out of the experience...
Sunday (today) was a great day - Naomi and the boys went to ash & anj's place for the morning and got to meet many of the neighboring kids and have a great time catching up and talking with Anji. I got the honor of sitting through a 2 hour church service without any real translation, simply going off the vibe of the whole thing, as well as Pastor Suwat's passion about whatever it was he was preaching about.
I then got to visit ash & anji's place too for a while before heading back to the hotel for the mandatory dip in the pool (life is tough!) and then back to the centre for a bit of orientation.
Anyway, now that I have updated you on our movements and stuff, I'll probably get a chance to talk about a few of my reflections in future posts, I'm sure Naomi will like to share with you all a few of her experiences and thoughts too!!!
So to sum it all up, we are all doing fine and are excited to be here, things are going very well and we feel very at ease here (besides naomi's dog fears). We cannot wait to officially start out ESL classes tomorrow, and will keep you all posted - things should start to become a bit more routine once that has started!
What a rush it has been both literally and the adrenaline! We got in to the hotel at 10pm local time (1am aussie time) after getting up at 4am to prepare to leave back in oz. As a result we hit our mattresses and fell fast asleep. Saturday was a day to ourselves and we spent most of that just trying to do some basic grocery shopping and buying some lunch - do you know how hard it is to buy soy milk or sugar when you are faced with the weird squiggly letters of the Thai alphabet - anyway we did it!!! - and then headed out to the community centre in the slum for a bit of a get together and introductions night - Naomi went with the boys in a taxi, but Jake and me walked through the slum. We went over the rickety bridge of (almost literally) raw sewerage, dodged the cars to get over the highway and enjoyed the humor that the locals got out of seeing a young blonde, blue eyed boy walking through this part of the neighborhood!...
As soon as we entered the community center Jake was befriended by about 4 or 5 local boys and he was off playing his first game of soccer in a few minutes. His brothers were not too far behind him playing in the sandpit full of who knows what - and loving it!
Saturday night was for us a great night to catch up with the rest of the team and of course Ash & Anj - we all walked home after the meeting and so Naomi and the boys got to enjoy the sights and smells - I am really impressed with how they all are dealing with it the boys are just taking it all in stride, Naomi too is really enjoying herself and getting a lot out of the experience...
Sunday (today) was a great day - Naomi and the boys went to ash & anj's place for the morning and got to meet many of the neighboring kids and have a great time catching up and talking with Anji. I got the honor of sitting through a 2 hour church service without any real translation, simply going off the vibe of the whole thing, as well as Pastor Suwat's passion about whatever it was he was preaching about.
I then got to visit ash & anji's place too for a while before heading back to the hotel for the mandatory dip in the pool (life is tough!) and then back to the centre for a bit of orientation.
Anyway, now that I have updated you on our movements and stuff, I'll probably get a chance to talk about a few of my reflections in future posts, I'm sure Naomi will like to share with you all a few of her experiences and thoughts too!!!
So to sum it all up, we are all doing fine and are excited to be here, things are going very well and we feel very at ease here (besides naomi's dog fears). We cannot wait to officially start out ESL classes tomorrow, and will keep you all posted - things should start to become a bit more routine once that has started!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Less than 2 days to go...
Hello everyone...
Less than 2 days to go!!! - thankyou everyone for your support and prayers - they are really appreciated!
We are very excited at the moment and can't wait to get to the destination that has been such a big focus for us all for soooo long!
There are 3 prayer points that we have for our trip - so if you could remember us in your prayers (if your into that sort of thing) that would be great.
Less than 2 days to go!!! - thankyou everyone for your support and prayers - they are really appreciated!
We are very excited at the moment and can't wait to get to the destination that has been such a big focus for us all for soooo long!
There are 3 prayer points that we have for our trip - so if you could remember us in your prayers (if your into that sort of thing) that would be great.
- A safe trip - that nothing bad would happen to any of us - but that we would still be confronted and challenged by our surroundings
- clarification and confirmation - is Thailand to be a realistic goal for our future or are we to remain in Australia working in Noble Park.
- That we would be effective in the work that we are going to Thailand to do - ie teach English to the kids in the slum.
Thanks for that - and we hope to hear from you while we are in Thailand!!
Saturday, April 08, 2006
less than 2 weeks to go
Hello everyone. This is just a quick post to start off our blog. It is less than 2 weeks until we finally head off to Thailand to teach ESL to kids in the Slum of Klong Toey. This trip will be a real time of discernment for us as we decide if living in the slum with our 3 children is a possibility in the future. Thanks everyone who is interested in our Journey and we hope to hear from you along the way! - The Dekkers
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