Pancakes, pancakes

This morning the church had a pancake breakfast fundraiser in the old school's gymnasium. I volunteered the kids to help out at the breakfast so they could say, "Thank you", to the church for letting them stay at the school.

 

We had to get up at 6:30am so the kids could be dressed and ready before people began to arrive. Even though I went to bed at 2am, I still woke up at 6 o'clock. So I ate breakfast and waited a bit before waking up the kids. Even so, there was still some grumbling when I turned on the lights.

When the church members arrived, the kids helped them to prepare breakfast. Dada, In and Fah got the sausages ready to cook while June, Didi and Carrot washed the dishes. Win and Po cracked some eggs while Japan helped to set up the tables.

 

The pancake breakfast also had a carnival run by children in the church. The kids used tickets to play games and win prizes. While they played games and ate their breakfast, I took the van back to Manitowoc.

I also took June in to stay with her host family, the Heckers. They had plans to take their kids to a wrestling tournament today and another event tomorrow, so they wanted to get June early.

 

After I dropped off June and returned the van to the rental place, my Dad gave me a ride back to New Holstein. I arrived at ten o'clock and found the kids busy pouring drinks and cleaning tables. Pat told me that once they had finished preparing meals, they all went back to their rooms to play games on their phones and iPads. So she had to go get them and push them to do their job. She told them that they had to be in the gymnasium until 11 o'clock so they could help clean up after the breakfast.

 

Po and Fah were doing a great job collecting used plates and filling drinks. They seemed very attentive and helpful.

 

However, soon after I finished eating, the kids had disappeared again. So I went to collect them and cajole them into finishing their job. At first, I couldn't find Carrot and Didi, but when I looked in their room a second time, I found them hiding under the desk playing with Carrot's phone.

 

That was the final straw. We've had a few issues with Carrot's phone this week, and so I made the decision to take it (and her iPad) for a few days. Technology can be a great help on trips like this, but it can also get in the way sometimes. Carrot seems very attached to June and Didi, and Pat and I are pretty sure she will be homesick once the kids are separated and go to their host families. We are concerned that she will be contacting her friends too much, thereby creating a problem for three host families. So it's better to remove the phone now before it becomes a problem. Hopefully this will motivate Carrot to assimilate with her host family rather than spending her time chatting with her Thai friends.

 

I observed Carrot after we took the phone away, and she actually seemed happier and more active. She helped out at the pancake breakfast, finished her gift baskets, played on the playground and made some scrap-paper art with Didi. So while she may not like having her phone removed, I do believe it's in her best interest.

 

The pancake breakfast lasted until 11 o'clock. Pat and I chatted with some of the older people in the congregation. One woman showed us a picture of a priest from the area who runs an orphanage in Nong Khai. He's been in Thailand over 40 years and has almost 200 kids at his orphanage. He still visits the church in New Holstein. It is kind of neat that this little church in Wisconsin has a connection to Thailand.

 

After the breakfast, the church held a raffle. The tickets were $20 each and the top prize was five thousand dollars! The church asked the kids to spin the basket and pull out the names of the winners. Dada pulled out the name of the woman who won the $5000 prize, so she brought that lady some good luck!

In the afternoon, I took a nap while Pat made the kids bacon and cheese sandwiches. Jet lag has been kicking my butt on this trip, so I am taking lots of naps. Today I fell asleep on top of the wrestling mats, and Dada & Fah said they were hoping I would fall off. Haha!

 

While I slept, the kids made their gift baskets. Pat and I brought Thai snacks and a nice basket & bag from Thailand. The kids prepared the baskets and made a nice card. They will give one basket to the host family and one basket to the principal of their school. Last year we gave everyone snacks too and they were a big hit. People enjoyed making their friends try all the weird and spicy Thai snacks.

I woke up when the Stier family arrived to visit In. They were her host family last year. They were going to come to the pancake breakfast, but they couldn't make it until the afternoon. Andrea Stier told all the kids to go outside and play with her kids. I had to thank her because I'd been trying to cajole the kids all day to go outside and play, but they wanted to sit inside and play on their phones.

 

When we first arrived, the weather was bitter cold, and since then the kids have been reluctant to go outside. However, when the Stier kids arrived, everyone went out to the playground to play freeze-tag. Pretty soon, their jackets were off because they were too hot from running around. Carrot was even running around on bare feet! It is so funny to see the kids adapt to Wisconsin weather. If they were on a mountain in Chiang Mai and it was 5'C outside, they'd be bundled up in parkas and shouting "Nao mahk! (so cold!)" while their breath clouded in the air. But in Wisconsin, after a week of -10'C temps, when the sun finally warms up to 5'C, the kids are running around in T-shirts because it's "so warm" outside. Hahah!

 

After the Stiers left, I made dinner while the kids played in the gymnasium. Today I made some spaghetti with the leftover bratwurst we had from yesterday. The kids loved it.

 

While the kids were eating dinner, the Miller family came to pick up In early. They have plans tomorrow too, so they wanted to get In settled before school on Monday. They just got back from Mexico, so they are a little sunburnt. I think In will do well with their family. She and Emma will be good friends, I'm sure.


Divine Savior School visit and Beerntsen's Chocolate

This morning we woke the kids up early to get them ready for school. Last year, we had arranged a day at Divine Savior School in New Holstein, and so we wanted to do it again. However, the school in New Holstein closed (we are staying in the old school building), and the students were moved to the other school in Kiel. So this would be a new experience for all the students.

We arrived a little early, and so the teachers took the kids on a tour of the school and then matched them up with buddies for the day.

I saw something interesting on the walls in the hallway. The students must have just finished a project on other religions, so they had a bunch of drawings about Buddhism and the life of the Buddha. Most of it was pretty accurate, but some of it was from other stories about the Buddha that may not have matched Thai Buddhism. I'm not sure. Someone who's actually Buddhist is going to have to tell me if these drawings are correct.

Since it has been very cold here, the heat is still on in most buildings, and that means the air inside is quite dry. Po's lip has been bothering him and he's got a bit of an allergic reaction on his upper lip. He's pretty shy about it and keeps trying to cover it up or rub it. We will talk to his host family about remedies for this problem.

In got matched up with Maggie, her friend from last year. They've been keeping in touch by email since In's last visit, so it was really cool to see their reunion. In seems a lot more confident around her American peers. She is very talkative and social with American kids.

Fah got put in with the seventh grade. I guess they thought she was older since she is taller. The first thing they had to do was take a spelling test. It was very hard and Fah looked a bit overwhelmed. Po, on the other hand, seemed to fit right in and he did very well on  the quiz.

The school had "Twin Day", so the students and teachers were trying to dress in similar outfits. It just happened that the two girls sitting with Fah were also wearing sky blue jackets. Fah looked like she was a part of their gang :-).

The eighth graders had an exam so Win, Carrot, Didi and June went downstairs to play with the kindergarten children. The Thai kids seemed really happy to go play with the little kids. It was a nice, low-key way to spend the morning. Certainly less stressful than taking an exam!

Po and Fah worked on an art project. I always like visiting schools in America because I pick up ideas for projects in my own center. I really liked the art project that Po was doing, so I think I will try it in my classes when I return to Thailand.

Dada, In and Japan had a science class. They played with magnets and iron filings. We've seen a big improvement in Japan this year. He is more active and happy. He smiles a lot more. We observed him talking and playing with his buddy very well. Dada was a little slow to warm up to her buddy, but by the end of the day, they seemed like very good friends. In fact, her buddy wrote a very sweet note to Dada. Divine Savior is such a friendly school and the students seemed genuinely excited to have visitors from Thailand. It's a really neat experience for them and I'm very proud to be a part of it. I really hope we can find a host family at Divine Savior next year because I'd love to place a student there. It's a great little school.

After the eighth grade students finished their exam, the older Thai kids joined them. Their teacher asked them, "What's special about you?" Then the students had to draw pictures of the things that made them special. Win drew a pudding cup (probably because I bought 60+ cups of pudding this week), and told his friends that he liked pudding. His buddy, Mitchell, said, "Me too" and told Win to try butterscotch pudding. When Win got home, he rushed to the refrigerator to see if we had butterscotch pudding. We did, and Win at all of it! Hahah!

The younger students seemed to blend very well with their friends at Divine Savior. Pat and I were impressed with their positive attitudes, their confident conversations and their big smiles. They really made an effort to talk to and play with their buddies. I think they will do very well next week when they go to their host families.

After lunch, the students went out to the playground for recess. Win and the eighth grade boys hit it off very well.  They all enjoyed sports and we overheard the boys asking Win what sport he'd like to play during the lunch break. Win really likes rugby, so the boys played with the American football. However, Win still used rugby-style to throw the ball.

June, Didi and Carrot wandered off by themselves during the lunch break. When they were in class, we noticed that they weren't making a very good effort to talk with students their own age. Pat and I have been discussing this, and we think that Carrot will be our most likely "homesickness victim" on this trip. She is an active and social girl back in Thailand, but over here we've noticed that she really relies on Didi and June to give her confidence. Once they leave to go with their host families, we think Carrot will likely suffer from some homesickness. Luckily, her host sister seems very sweet and friendly, so I think it won't be long before Carrot is back to normal. We'll have to see whether or not Pat and I have guessed right.

I did notice that Didi really seemed to want to get back on the playground to play with the other students, but she didn't want to leave her friend alone either. It took some encouragement, but the girls eventually managed to convince Carrot to join them on the playground. However, they still didn't go talk to the eighth grade girls. Instead they went over to the 5th and 6th graders to play with them. In and Dada were already playing "four-square" (the game, not the app).

Po, Fah and Japan played kickball with the other kids. I don't think Fah quite understood the rules because she kept trying to run the bases even when it was her team's turn to pitch/catch the ball. Hahah!

After lunch, the kids presented their ice-breakers to the kindergarten to fourth grade students. The American children asked lots of good questions and seemed very interested in learning about Thailand. One of the best parts of this exchange program is watching how both sides benefit from it. The Thai kids gain great experiences and lots of English-speaking skill, and the American kids gain a broader and better understanding of the world.

After the ice-breaker presentation, Win went upstairs and showed his album to his friends. He seemed really proud to show his school and the American boys were very curious about Win's life back home.

At the end of the day, the kids send their good-byes. June, Didi and Carrot asked Win to take a photo of one of the handsome boys in his class, so Win walked up to the boy and said, "Hey, the girls want your picture." Which caused the girls to run off giggling in embarrassment. Hahah!

We hope to visit Divine Savior again next year. It is definitely a highlight of our orientation week.

Back at the old school in New Holstein, I cooked up a Wisconsin specialty: brats. The kids loved them, but they were already pretty full and so they could only eat one or two of them.

After dinner, the girls put on a dance show for us. I'm not exactly sure what their show was about, but it was pretty funny! Hahah!

We took the kids into Manitowoc for dessert. First we tried stopping at the library, but it was too late, so we just parked the van on the street and used the public wifi. Then we went to Beerntsen's Confectionary. It is an old-fashioned chocolate, ice cream, and soda shop. They make all their own chocolate and ice cream and it is very delicious!!

 

Tonight was our last night as a full group until we meet again for the Chicago field trip. Tomorrow June will go with her host family early in the morning. The rest of the kids will help out at the pancake breakfast the church is holding in the gymnasium of the old school. It'll be a busy day!