Off to Thailand!!!

This has been a busy week for me. I am leaving tonight on the train for a couple weeks in Thailand (I will try to post pictures). I am really looking forward to the rest and the time with friends.

This morning started off pretty busy. Before 10 am (too early to even be awake in my opinion), I drove to the office to drop Beth off and get my nice shoes, drove to school # 40, enjoyed a concert, spoke to a group of 45 people, and drove back to the office. I was the plenary speaker at a seminar for English teachers in the city. I spoke about the use of computers in the classroom. They seemed to enjoy the talk.

Side note about the concert: At this specialty school the children study English exceptionally. They did a great job singing, reciting poems, and dancing. There were three times when I wanted to laugh, but contained myself. One was when a tall Kazakh boy started rapping. The second was when a cute little boy who had written a poem about a clock got up and was very expressive as he said “I am a clock”. He was wearing a paper clock pinned to him. (I wished I had my camera) The third was during a very dramatic rendition of a poem in which it at first sounded to me like she said “my heart is a deep bowl.” All jokes aside, they did a great job. Everything was in English.

I have been involved with a program to provide life-skills training to youth that have left the orphanages (Youth Impact) since November. This week was our last group time for this course. Of the seven Kazakh kids that we started with, three will be able to move on to the second phase, Employment Training. I will not be involved in teaching this course. A few months ago we hired a wonderful Kazakh young woman to lead the Kazakh groups of Youth Impact. For the last several weeks, she has been leading the groups that I was previously leading and I have been observing and giving advice. She has done a great job and the youth enjoy spending time with her. I am happy to turn this all over to her.