We are back home!

Today, ends our 2014, life changing, nine week Intercultural Studies trip.   Our last five days were at Camp Homelani (Salvation Army Camp) located inWaialua, Hawaii.  This gave us time to relax, rest, and reflect on what we have learned through our adventures in Albania, Thailand, and Japan.  In addition to our debriefing and planning time for our future we did some site seeing at the Hawaii Surfing Competition, Polynesian Cultural Center, swimming, shopping, climbed Diamond Head, and visiting Pearl Harbor.  Thank you very much for your prayers and for us during this amazing opportunity to travel together and to see God working through our lives.  Let us know if you are interested in hearing more details regarding this amazing travel experience and all that God was teaching us. 

Greetings from Japan

On Nov 28 we arrived in Sendai, Japan.  We went from 90 degrees F. to 50 degrees F.  Many felt that it was a refreshing change from the hot humid days in Thailand.  Our 12 days in Japan were filled with home visiting and a meal with Japanese families; ministering in the Baptist church with song and testimony; ministering at several temporary housing sites for the tsunami victims; helping a local farmer in the tsunami area harvest her lettuce and prepare her field for plowing; visiting a local shrine; going to a local bathhouse; walking through the Aizu Tsuruga-Jo Castle; and just relaxing.  The Japanese country and people are beautiful.  Although fairly reserved, they are also very kind and gracious.  

As part of our orientation, we learned not only some of the cultural do's and don’ts but also how to use chopsticks to eat all our meals.   A few of the students even learned to use chopsticks to eat peanut covered popcorn, a very nice way to keep your fingers from getting oily.  We viewed this humorous demonstration in separating and using chopsticks http://youtu.be/t4y5uOSOJa0  
 

Goodbye Thailand "Thanksgiving Day"

It is time for us to leave Thailand, our next stop is Japan.

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Thailand, and then we travel to Japan.  Our last day in Thailand began the same as any other English class day, but it had a few added perks.  All the UNW teachers taught their four hour classes, had a Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and...), hung out with students, did last minute shopping and headed to the airport at 8:30pm after the last English classes was taught.   The below photo is the Thai send off from Santisuk English School staff, students and friends we made during our four week Thai visit.   It was difficult to say goodbye, to all our new friends.  Now we are in our new country Japan.  Updates on our Japan visit will follow this blog post. 





 

Ancient City and then the Crocodile Farm

On Saturday November 13, the UNW students and Santisuk English School (SES) students boarded onto a double decker bus and spent the day at the Ancient City and Crocodile Farm (a zoo with Elephants and other animals).   The Ancient Siam city preserves the true Siamese heritage.   At this amazing cultural center we all rented bikes so we could easily visit the 80 acres Ancient City.  We visited some of the buildings with amazing gold wall and ceiling architecture and wall paintings that depicted the Thai culture.  Later we found a local restaurant to eat our meal, and finished the afternoon by biking around to more sights before leaving for the Crocodile Farm.  The Crocodile Farm was actually a zoo with all kinds for animals. 

Youtube from the Ancient City and Crocodile Farm

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kLLWssOXkBc&feature=youtu.be

 

  Ancient city buildings

 Ancient city buildings

 Than and Alison

 Alison

 

 Ruth

 Ancient drawing on the wall

  Ancient drawings on the walls

 

 

 Than and Ruth

 Peacock head emblems on the peak corners

Ruth playing a xylophone

 Large river boat

Buddhist temple in the Ancient City

 

At the Crocodile Farm we visited many areas. For example, the elephant section of the zoo.

 Meagan and Allie riding an elephant

 Than feeding bananas to the elephant

 Torsten with an elephant

 Alison and Selena riding an elephant (the trainer is riding behind Selena)

 Moriah and Brynne on the elephant

 

 Allie and Meagan bottle feed a baby tiger in the tiger section of the zoo.

 Meagan feeding a baby tiger

Allie feeding a baby tiger