It’s been awhile since I have written anything new because I have been a lazy picture taker lately and I think blogs w/o pictures can be boring.
Andrew recently turned the big three-oh and it was quite anti-climactic as it seems all birthdays are now that we are – OLD. Here we are with his former co-worker friends (Phii Lii, Phii Jid, and Phii Nawy) and all this food. They were like mothers who watched over him when he worked here 5 years ago. 
Of course they ordered his favorites while I dodged interrogation questions (the ones I hear at least twice a day) that I am always asked: “When are you going to have a baby?” “Why don’t you LIKE babies?!” And as usual I just tried to smile and nod graciously, and politely ignored their comments. 
And we always have the obligatory Starbucks afterwards in their office building.
On the babies note, we have our newest team member! Pawn, one of our Thai staff, just had her baby girl! 
We recently had a shower for her which featured Crystal’s brilliant idea of having a pregnant beauty pageant but the only thing each team was allowed was a roll of toilet paper (of course).
Thais LOVE games and competitions, so it was quite the show. Look at Jan’s cake. 
Amazing!
Here our some of my English students on Saturday – 
I love to make baked goods, so whenever there is an excuse to do that, say a birthday or event or class or party (which we have alot of here, being in the ministry, naturally) I am glad to provide the sweet things. 
Thais do not like super-sweet things, as bread and cakes and cookies are not part of everyday Thai nutrition, but they still manage to take bird bites of my baked goods, through their groans of “this is going to make me so fat” and “ugh, this is too sweet” blah, blah, etc, etc. Thais don’t use ovens at all in their cooking, so ovens are quite difficult to find here and very expensive. I have a small toaster oven that I use for everything, and it has served me well over the last 2 years with all of this baking!
Lately I have also been going on campus – the Ram 2 University campus in our neighborhood – to meet college students. This proves difficult when most students on this campus are only freshman – as it’s a freshmen campus – and it’s also an “open” university. This means is basically open for anyone to enroll and study at any time, and almost all students are working full-time or part-time simultaneously to support themselves. When they are done with their freshman studies – which can take up to 4 years to complete while working – they move onto another campus called Ram 1, which is far away from our neighborhood. Part of the way we meet people on our campus is going to play badminton in the public, free gym. Between 3-6 everyday, students, adults, and kids in our neighborhood come there for badminton, basketball, ping pong or aerobics. Our group chooses to play badminton. This is a new sport for me! It’s fun but much more difficult than it looks!
And, finally, our latest outing to Rayong, a beach near Bangkok for our team retreat. 
Elephants always abound and we are never without entertainment with all the kids floating around. 
Our hotel was simultaneously hosting a huge travelling tour from China and they set up an outdoor stage, singing well into the night on a bass-pumping sound system for their precious karaoke. No party or get-together is a party or get-together without it. It never ceases to amaze me how loud Thais like to be with karaoke and yet they are not loud people: they talk softly and quietly and never show impatience or frustration outwardly. And yet their karaoke is the craziest, loudest, partying-est of karaokes I have known. paradox? Here is our other new team member – Preston, who is here for 5 months as an intern, from Birmingham. 
He arrived end of February and was promptly whisked off to our team retreat the next day. How’s that for a first day of work? A beach in Thailand!
