A New Begining

Hi all, back again, I know it's been a long time, I have given up pressuring myself to get this done on a steady schedule and have decided instead to write when the mood strikes... who knew you would get an update today :D

 

I have been living here for a while now and as I get more comfortable in a country that is not my own things get a little easier. Things still get hard, things still get stressful, things still get me down and I still don’t get things done as fast as I would like but, it does get easier day by day.

I have learnt a lot about me, about my life, about my past, my present and my future and it hasn’t always been fun to learn or know but it has been an incredible journey so far. There are days when I am really happy, when I am comfortable and secure in the knowledge that I am doing what I am meant to be doing and that one day things will come together in a way that will have a positive impact on the people of this beautiful country that I have loved since the start. Then there are the other days, the days I am sad, I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss life being comparatively easy, I feel scared and alone and wonder if things will ever come together in a way that is meaningful and positive.  While those days are hard (sometimes very hard) I often find myself grateful for them, because invariably those are the days I reach out, I reach out to God, I reach out to those here that love and support me and to those still at home and no one ever fails to reach back. For that and so much more I thank you all.

People ask why I am here or how I do it or why I stay and I tell them it is not me. It is the love encouragement, support and direction I receive from God, it is my friends and family who encourage and congratulate when things are going well and encourage and support when things are hard. The reality is that I could never do this alone and I am so thankful that I don’t have to.

I know I have been a little slow on the update and for that I am sorry, things have been supper busy and a lot has happened but I will try and keep this short and sweet.

Towards the end of last year things got super busy but in the middle of all the chaos I FINALLY GOT MY VISA :D no more trips across the border, no more hemorrhaging money, no more stress and worry, hello visa. I am so grateful for this so blessed and so happy.

Their were some festivals and fairs:

Loi Krathong

Loi Krathong



CROWDS

Agricultural Fair

Silk Festival

A bunch of cute kids:

Falling asleep in class, nawwww.



Learning all about science.

Christmas preparations:

 

Tree decorated :)

Our group in drawings.

As well as an amazing visit from my family:

They go all out at the Sukosol.

MUM

ICE SCULPTURE

Mum and Aunt Marie with the carollers



Meeting the children.

Laura in Vietnam.



Mum and Dad hiding in the background.

Thank you for coming, you have no idea how
much it means to me, I love you all.

Well that's about it for now, a brief brief summery of my last few months, again a huge thank you to all of you who love and support me in so many ways.

God bless you and keep you safe and well ooo xxx.

When you see only one set of footprints my child, it is then that I carried you.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 New International Version (NIV)

9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong.

Hi All,
I figured it was about time I got down to the business of writing a new post :D.

I have given up on trying to get these out regularly and close together, I figure if I aim for once a month there is a small chance that I might occasionally hit the target :D.

So last time we "talked" I was a little on the mopey and depressing side (sorry about that), not going to lie, after my last post things got "worse". But on the plus side, they also got much better, thanks to some very timely clarity and finally remembering to seek straight from someone infinitely stronger than myself.

In the interest on not dwelling on the past I am going to skip almost everything that happened except the moment that I finally saw clearly.

I know it might seem odd but the thing that really brought me back so to speak was actually getting hit by a van. Pausing here to say that I am well and truly ok, there was some minor bruising and some painful joints in my hips and lower back from the impact but after some rest and a massage (or 3) everything is healing well :D. In the interest of saving time I am going to copy and past the story from a note I posted in Facebook.

         I was on my way to work riding along at 60km/hr on a straight stretch of road with limited traffic. As I rode I felt as tho I was being told to pray, not knowing what to pray for I decided that since I was on the bike and I live in Thailand it was fairly pertinent to pray for safety. 1-2km later I was still praying when a van that had been parked on the side of the road swung out across my entire lane to attempt a u-turn. Right in front of me, no indicator, no warning and a car coming the other direction. I did the best I could and tried to swerve around the front of the van (there was no room behind) with out hitting the car coming the other way. The van clipped me in the left leg with the front right fender. As the bike veered out of control all I did was pray and try and keep it up right. The bike stayed on both wheels and I know that had nothing to do with my 'level of skill' the van drove off. After I stopped I assessed the damage, the bike is perfect not even a scratch, my leg is a little tender and will probably bruise from my knee to my hip and I have a bit of a sore back and neck from the jolt.

The only important detail I forgot when typing this the day I got hit was that the road that I travel to work would normally be heavily covered in cars, which would have meant the knock from the van would normally have sent me into the path of more than one car, that day it wasn't.

Why, you may well ask, why was getting hit by a van a good thing? I don't know, I guess I'm a little weird :D.

Ok in all seriousness it was 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 brought to life for me thanks to the grace and wisdom of God. It was at that moment, when I got hit by a van while I was praying to God for safety that it finally hit me (Pun intended :D), I was doing things all wrong. I was taking everything that had happened over the last month or more and becoming miserable and bitter. I was so weak and so low that morning when I woke up, I didn't want to go to work, I didn't want to try and speak Thai, I didn't want to see the kids or try and teach,  I didn't even want to get out of bed. All of those things I saw as weakness and became more unhappy knowing how weak I was. Getting hit by the van was the straw that broke the camels back, I became so miserable in that moment of pain and fear that I finally realised what I should have been doing all along, I should have been crying out for Jesus, lifting my face to him and praying that his strength save me. I had no business trying to get through that month or any month without making sure that my focus was firmly directed to him.

How is it that it took getting hit by a van to realise that? My only real excuse as it were is that I am human and I make mistakes all the time, this is a mistake I will try desperately not to make again but I know that if I do, God in his infinite grace and mercy will be waiting for me on the right path with open arms and nothing but love.

As I am running low on time and should fit in some study before my next Thai lesson I will leave you here, I hope to do another update in a few days with what I have been up to, but who knows :D.

Until then it's bye bye for now, may God bless you all and keep you safe and well ooo xxx.

After the storm it seems the sun is always at its brightest :D.

The truth of the matter.....

Hey All,

So, its been ages huh, sorry about that.

I know my blogs are normally happy magical places where I gloss over the bad and focus on the good (ok so maybe not magical, but fairly happy at least), but today it is going to be a little more raw and honest.

I'm making the switch for a few reasons, partly because this month was heavy enough on the "not great" that if I was to write a normal happy blog I would just feel like I was lying to you and partly because I want this blog to be a real place and not the happy fantasy world I would like to live in.

It's been so long since I last wrote that I can't actually remember what we were up to, but I will cover the highlights of the last month and see how we go from there.

First the "not great".

• Spending a night in hospital for the first time (that I can remember).
• A relatively expensive and reasonably unsuccessful boarder run.
• Missing my family and friends like crazy.
• Moving apartments.
• Feeling like I will never improve my Thai... ever.
• Having my credit card charged for things I am not buying :(.

There was of course some "great" to go with that.

• Realising, just how many awesome friends I have made.
• Those awesome friends looking after me, helping me find a new apartment, helping me move and helping me buy, transport and put together what I need to make that apartment comfortable.
• The prospect of a new and successful boarder run in the near future.
• Moving house.
• My first phone conversation in Thai with limited mistakes and only 2 English words (thanks in large part to Aui's understanding and patience).
• Having a bank that seems pretty set on reversing the charges for me.

Some expansion? ok.

First to clarify, I wasn't really that sick, I basically had some fluie thing that came with a nasty cough and a nice high temperature. I tried to go to work Monday afternoon a few weeks ago except that when I got there all the teachers took one look at me and started feeling my face and neck, next thing I was bundled into a car and straight off to hospital :/. 24 hrs in hospital, a nebuliser (or two) a drip and an assortment of drugs latter and I was all good.

Things I learnt from my stay in hospital, I never want to be on a drip again, that thing was nasty and left a bad taste in my mouth for 3 days. Travel insurance is so so so worth it, big shout out to cover more for their, service and support, including offering to fly me to Bangkok (they were worried about the quality of care) and calling two days latter to check that I was ok and that they didn't need to get me to an emergency medical team. It also only cost $100 (excess) instead of closer to $500, thank you cover more (and Kara for making me get travel insurance :p).

More importantly I learnt that the friends I have made here are friends for life, thank you to the people who visited me. A special thank you to May, Aui and Aw for, visiting, staying with me over night, helping me wash and stopping me from being completely home sick while I was actually sick, I love you girls so much, thank you.



I still have no idea what was in the little baggie on the right, but until they hung that I was sure I wasn't getting out in time to make my border run the next day...

A newspaper in English!!!

Allergic to the tape that was keeping my drip in.

Great view :)

Aui and May keeping me company :D.

I kept the bracelet, is that weird?

Pretty pattern on the scrubs I had to wear.

The view after I had been there a few hours and the medicine had started to work :).

After spending Monday night and all of Tuesday in hospital, I had to leave the country on Wednesday (it was the last day before my visa ran out). I still wasn't feeling super well but the bag full of various pills kept me from passing out while waiting to do my visa at the border (just). My trip to Laos was supposed to be a chance for me to change my visa from my existing visa to a non-immigrant so that I can change it from that to a work permit. The best part about Laos is that my school sent someone with me to do their part in the visa thing :D thank goodness for Crew (teacher) Dtom. Although I would normally have done my visa for Laos in Khon Kaen before heading off I didn't get a chance to do it Monday or Tuesday due to being sick. Between the bus running late, having to wait in line for a visa on arrival and the immigration office in Laos refusing to take any requests after midday there was no hope of day one going to plan. After running around like mad ducks trying to get things to work out we finally got to a hotel room around 2pm where I went straight to bed and slept until almost 7. Crew Dtom was keen for some food and I needed to eat to take the next lot of pills so we caught a Tuk Tuk to a market with an eating street right near it, we found a great Vietnamese restaurant and I could almost taste some of the food :D, after dinner and a short (short) stroll in the markets it was back to bed for me.

Day two rolled around and we rocked up at immigration bright and early only to sit around for 2 hrs before discovering that due to two different sets of information (given to the school by the same immigration office) we were one piece of paper short of what we needed to change my visa :(. This made me very sad as what should have been a relatively cheep visa run ended up costing an extra 3500B (not a lot when you convert to Aus $ but a lot to me, especially since I had just paid the same amount to the hospital to cover the excess on my travel insurance :( ).

Back to the bus station and into Khon Kaen we went, ahhh well, you live and learn. Looks like I will be doing another run in a few weeks and I am sure that this one will be more successful *crosses fingers.

Due to not being super well and being sad and grumpy on top of that I didn't get a lot of photos of Laos, but here are a few I did get.

I was so happy that I didn't have to try
 and stand the whole way :(.

Dinner in Laos.

Crew Dtom :D.

Pretty pot plant outside hotel.

Short walk at the markets.

Trashy mags in English... Did not get to read them
as I was either at the embassy or asleep.

Interesting leaf stopping me going insane at the embassy.

Still at the embassy.

On the way back to the hotel after
not getting a new visa :(.

Tinsy tiny bus, sooooo many people got out of it.

By Friday morning I was so tired, I managed a quick stint at work before heading back to my apartment to pack my things so I could move on Saturday.

A big shout out to Aui and Aw for helping me find my new place, it has everything my old place did, is brand new and everything works and it is cheaper, check, check and check. Also thank you to Aui, Aw, May and Jason and Doni Weimer for helping me to move and settle into my new place. I was so exhausted and you all made moving infinitely easier.

Through a series of unfortunate events it has been 3 weeks since I have had a Thai lesson but it looks like I will be getting back into the swing of things latter this coming week and I am surprised at just how much I am looking forward to it.

I know I mentioned the credit card thing up there but I just can't deal with talking about it right now, I am thankful both that I caught it early and therefor it is only about $40 worth of charges so far and that my bank (plugging the commonwealth bank here) has been really helpful and willing to listen to me when I am saying someone is buying things online and it is not me. Praying that it is all resolved tomorrow :).

This blog was going to be longer and more detailed however I started writing it on Monday and it is now Sunday night and I am only just nearly done so I am giving up and will try for more detail (and less time between blogs) next time.

Thank you for reading, I am sorry it is less cheery than normal, the truth of the matter is that this month was really hard and I am so thankful to God and to my friends and family who made it bearable. I am looking forward to a much better month next month.

Cheers Cleo xo.

Onwards and Upwards

So I know last time we spoke I promised to update more regularly... :/ clearly I did not at all manage this, but I will try again this time :D.

Last time I think I posted just before heading to Bangkok, yes? Yes ok.

As I mentioned Bangkok had a few different purposes, the first being to say goodbye to Josh, an amazing volunteer from Australia loved by all.

To get to Bangkok it was decided that we would travel by train, this was not my favourite experience of travelling in Thailand :/ but the boys enjoyed it quite a lot :). The train trip was about 10 hours so we had beds in the sleeping section for the trip, the beds were surprisingly comfortable however the air-conditioning was so cold that it felt like we were travelling through the arctic (a remarkable achievement for Thailand).

Josh and Jason



Goodbye dinner for Josh.



Mum and daughter.

Wayne

Aw and Aui before the others got there.



Playing around.





Aui and Josh.









All in all we arrived in Bangkok in one piece around 8:30am, ready to drop off our things at the hotel, have an amazing breakfast and take care of some last minute shopping for Josh and some helmet shopping for Jason.

The boys waiting while I get my instaspam on.

Josh enjoying a rest on an awesome seat.

Oh Bangkok, I do not miss your traffic.

Jason with big bunny.

Josh with big bunny.



INDIAN FOR LUNCH

We spent a lot of time on the subway.

Josh realising that he was being photographed.

Off to the airport :( all round.

One last goodbye.

Can't wait till you are back Joshy.

After saying goodbye to Josh very late Thursday night we were up bright and relatively early to head to the massive immigration centre in Bangkok and I do mean massive (although I seem to have misplaced my photo of it). Last time I did this sort of visa extension I did it at a different processing centre and it took ALL DAY so we went with not much hope of leaving anytime early and had written the day off as 'stuck at immigration'. After an hour by subway and bus to get there we arrived not long after 10am AND WERE OUT OF THERE BY 11:30 a huge thanks goes out to all who were praying for my visa to go smoothly, it went very well :D.

So with some time up our sleeves we went off and had tacos for lunch and SUBWAY for dinner (if you are wondering why Indian, Mexican and Subway rate a mention in my blog it is because there is nowhere in Khon Kaen to get any of those things unless you make it yourself or are lucky enough to have friends who will :D).

Jason looking quite happy to be eaten by a shark.

More subway trips.

Most adorable Kleenex box ever.

We also found a great
cupcake shop :D

Went to a market.

Bonsai.

As much as it was lovely to have a few days in Bangkok I was happy to return home Sunday in time for my first day at the school on Monday :D.

School so far has been an amazing experience, there are about 15 children in my class (6-7 years old) with everything from minimal English skills to a little girl who is virtually fluent in Thai and English (this has been a massive help). A lot of the learning is self directed so I move between stations and the children that are ready to learn English will normally get an English book off the shelf or some letter cards and start practising while they wait there turn. There are some children who are a little shy so I am working on encouraging them to have a go, 2 of them actually let me hear them speak English today :D.

Three afternoons a week I get to teach English to the teachers which has also been an amazing experience, my Monday and Thursday class are particularly fun :D.

After work Monday afternoon Aw and Aui came over for a girls night in, they brought burgers from the only burger place in town and we had a great night :D.

Aui and Aw enjoying dinner.

Nail art (and a little hand painting) Thank you Aui.

Nawww a star.

The party was so girly it involved cuddling teddies.

Aw and Aussie.

Me and Squishy.

We also visited the large Wat on the lake, we got there a little late and almost got locked in :/ oops.

All lit up.

Aui and Aw.

A giant gong and some Elephants.

It was also Aui' birthday this week :) so on Thursday we headed off the dinner :D.

Earn and Aw.

Earn.

Bow

The beautiful birthday girl Aui.

L to R: Bow, Earn, Aw

All together :D

Dinner was followed by some
fun posing like the models
in store windows.

There are a few of these :D.

The birthday girl.

More fun than it looks :D.



At Starbucks.

Even tho it was closed.

My last few weeks have been so busy and I am a little tired but I am looking forward to blogging slightly more often. Blogging so far apart leads to mammoth blogs, which are probably a little long to read and are a little long to write with a less than sound internet connection :D.

Until next time Guys and Dolls, stay safe and thank you for reading :D.