Teaching and Learning

       Yesterday was our first experience teaching English. The government made a decree that the judges and people that work at the courthouse need to learn better English. We were invited by the judges here in Chiang Mai to come for 10 days and teach them useful phrases and to just practice.  One of the judges is a member at the church here so we are helping him and getting to meet some very influential people in the city. They picked us up in a big fancy van and brought us to the courthouse. The people were all very excited to see us and were so friendly. We met in a big conference room with a microphone at every seat that you had to push the button on to talk. We introduced ourselves in English and they tried to introduce themselves. Some people, like Rung from the church, spoke very good English but some spoke hardly any. It will be a challenge to teach them all at the same time. Amanda and I had prepared a little conversation for them to practice with and they did splendidly! Most of them time Robert and James, who are both fluent in Thai, were answering questions about us and asking about the court system and generally getting a feel for what they want to learn. Afterwards,one of the ladies said she wanted to take us out on our off day and show us around Chiang Mai. They all seem to want to practice their English with us.
        James has been coming to the zone for a while now and wants to strengthen his faith and make it his own and so he has been studying the Red Book with Robert and Marvin and Bon and is going to be baptized this week. Last night we filled up the baptistery on the third floor and it took all of the water so we couldn't take showers. O the life on the mission field!
        We have had two Thai lessons now with P Bon who is an intern here too. He was starting lessons with a Japanese man who knows some English and wants to learn Thai so he said we could come too. So far we've learned greetings and question words and how to order food and days of the week. Its really funny because Ichiro has a Japanese accent and is learning Thai but is being instructed in English and it is just hilarious for all of us. We laugh a lot!
        Yesterday we went to a Mexican food restaurant, Miguel's. I never would have thought they would have Mexican food here but it was pretty good! We just spent a while talking to Robert and getting to know each other. For dinner I had some sort of rice with shrimp and it was a whole shrimp with the head still on. Amanda was a little freaked out but it was really good! And we are both trying to learn to like spicy food. It is pretty necessary here. Everything is hot!

Hilary