elephants and paint

Here are some long awaited photos of a little of what we have been doing. I havent been able to upload any of my own pictures but thankfully we have a ton of camera crazy people here who post their stuff onto facebook and tag me in their pictures! So here they are! 

We visited schools before we started to work with them 7 in all. Mondays are nationally declared "english days" so we will be splitting up in 2s and one group of 4 to teach english all day on Mondays starting next week. We loved the kids so much and they warmed up to us really fast. The kids are making a sign the means water buffalo above me and my friend sue jung had to wrestle them to all get into the picture. She helps me with my Korean and I help her with her English. I am speaking more Korean than I have in a long time and its really nice to have someone constantly there to correct your "little" mistakes. A guy named Steven and I wont be going to any of these schools. We have the special honor of going to a Buddhist monestary about a 2 hour truck-taxi ride away into the mountains to teach the new little monks english. we will teach grades 7-12. yes they all have shaved heads and wear bright orange robes.

some crazy elephant wanted my ice cream that I worked really hard for. what you didnt see was my flying back hand to the animals trunk. followed by him picking me up and tossing me into the river....we rode elephants for a half hour which was really neat. The only problem I had was it was super uncomfortable and there arent any "weed" restrictions here so most the drivers were lighting up and offering haha. I did not partake.

Here is just one of the now 3 schools that we have painted their playgrounds. We did this one on a Saturday and on monday came back and watched the kids play a little bit. They were stoked and were happy for our hard work.

Here is the group. Minus the two country directors.

Being so far out in the country forces you to be proactive. Sydney and I (girl in the white) stopped by this little mans house and talked to him about anything he needed us or HELP to do for him. He said he would keep us posted but told us that he was impressed by our sincerity.

The other day Steven, Nat (Country director) and I went to the Monk school and on the way back caught a taste of what is was like to be in rain. the back of the taxi is open because you are pretty much riding in a flatbed with no tailgate and a cabin over you. the water flooded into the cabin as we drove and the we heard a large CRASH. A tree had fallen right in front of us! we all looked at eachother and then Jumped out in the pouring, freakishly wet, rain to clear the road of the tree. in less than a second we were drenched to our underwear and when we got done there were a line of cars honking and saying their thanks. the little boy in the taxi with us russled through his back pack and pulled out a grape gatoraid and handed it to me. service tasted great.

This morning we drove out to the hill tribes and helped a local NGO set up a credit union in the tribe. Today was more of a "see what we do" and next week or in the following weeks we will be setting up more of them and creating a schedual to follow up with them and Audit their entries.

Its hotter than hadies and humid but you really forget quickly how miserable it is outside. So if I look hot and sweaty all the time in my pictures, its because I am.