(Written on Monday night)

It's hard to believe that I've only been here three days. I feel like I have already learned so much. And I'm seeing more and more how many things God lined up in my life to make this the perfect time for me to come.

All of the babies are a hundred times more precious than I had imagined. They're all so strong and smart and independent. There are five of them now - May (4 years), Peem (3 years), Kat (16 months), Chompoo (14 months) and Khawpaht (7 months). The two Monday through Saturday workers are Ou and Well. The Sunday workers are Well-Song, Air and Om.

Our first two days here we kind of got to pretend we were on vacation and do touristy things (while fighting jet-lag) like climb to Doi Suthep (300 steps up to a Buddhist temple complex, at the top of which my camera battery died), go to Phu-Phing Palace, have iced coffee, check out the markets, etc. Today was our first day of actual work. We started at 8:30, which is music time. After lots of spinning in circles, clapping, and "we all fall down"'s we went for a walk, played outside, fed the children, had tv time, then put them all down for a nap. At 12:30 Joyce (The Cummins' full-time volunteer) took us to Khun Auf's for lunch. It was literally a shanty on the side of the road (I don't think it even had walls), but still a popular restaurant especially for white visitors/tourists. Lily and I had the only thing we've been eating since we've been here - chicken and rice. Afterwards we went to a market to walk around. Lily and I bought lots of fruits, about half of which I had never seen before.

Life here is different, but I like it. We only use the air conditioner at night, even though it's just as hot and humid as it is at home. And when we wash our clothes we hang them out to dry. We only use the electric dryer if it's raining. Traffic is crazy.

The "There are no lines" song the Cummins played in chapel at Williams so many months ago is amazingly accurate. People drive in between, on, or around the lines, whatever they want to do at the moment. And motor-bikes (which are everywhere) drive wherever they want - always squeezing in between cars and trying to get to the front at stop lights.

Everything I've eaten has been so fresh. There are markets everywhere where you can buy fruits and vegetables that were picked that morning. My parents were a little afraid I would lose weight here, but I don't think that's going to happen. Everything is SO good!

So here's what the next several weeks will look like for me. We'll work with the kids most of the day Monday through Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are laundry day. Most week nights I'll have Thai lessons with Khun Jip. Thursday night I will teach English lessons. The the weekends I think I'm pretty much free, though I'll probably spend most of the day Sunday with the kids. The Cummins go to an international church on Sundays from 4:30pm-6:00pm then usually out to eat somewhere. I went with them this past Sunday and really enjoyed it. I think this coming Sunday I will go with Joyce (The Cummins' full-time volunteer) to her church in the morning then go with the Cummins in the evening.

I have to go get ready to teach a lesson now. I'll try to keep this thing updated.