Jr. High OE

Well, for those of you who don't know what OE is, it stands for Outdoor Education. And it is basically a annual missions/ educational trip. Rob and I are squad leaders. We have 9 Jr. Highers on our squad. Our squad name is Buy Ontake one. Ontake is the name of a volcano in Japan. Well, we leave for OE on Sunday. It is a week long trip. If you think about it, we would appreciate your prayers. I mean, just look at this picture of them... It's going to be a fun week! In case you want to pray more specifically, here are their names (from Left to right in the pic): Heong Young, Colin, Jeriah, Luke, Elizabeth, Josie, Deborah, Jeen, and Grace!

Field Trip

This past week was the high school ISAC tournament. The boys were playing soccer and the girls were playing basketball. The tournament was on Luzon, so all the high schoolers on the teams had to fly up to Manila on Wednesday and stay there until Sunday. Most of the students here at MICA are on the sports teams, so we were left with about 1/4 of the student body. Instead of just going on with classes, we decided to take the kids to a ropes course, where they did low elements and high elements. They stayed overnight on Wednesday and came back on Thursday. On Friday we all went on a boat trip. Rob and I have not been on a boat trip here in Davao, so it was really fun to be able to go! Although Friday was cloudy and windy, everyone had a fun time snorkeling. The principal here at MICA teaches marine biology and knows A LOT about underwater life. He would have the students go looking for certain creatures and bring them back to the boat and he would talk about them. It was really fun. My favorite part about all that we did was getting to know the students better. I only teach one class here at MICA, so this was a good opportunity for me to get to know some of the students I do not have in my class. My other favorite part: Taking pictures!! Of course I have to share some of them with you!! The trust fall

I'm not so sure if Rob trusts these students to catch him.
You have to get your whole team from one side of the spider web to the other, without touching the web. You have to get your team from one side of the wall to the other.


Gotta love the zip line!
Two of the students enjoying the boat ride
Rob very interested in this sea creature A cool star fish

Coach Rob

Well, Rob has been the Junior High boys assistant basketball coach this year. He has had fun getting to know the kids. Saturday they had their last game of the season. Although they did not win their last game, they have improved. Here are some pics of the b-ball season:
Coach Rob!
The two coaches


This is a sight often seen at MICA and FAD sports games. Rob is often in charge of the score board!

Thailand Pics

Back to school...

Well, the second semester started yesterday. Rob is still teaching 9th grade OT and 3-4th grade & 7-8th grade PE, as well as supervising all the maintenience at Faith Academy. My role has changed quite a bit this semester, and will continue to do so. I am still teaching yearbook at MICA. I have 3 more students this semester, for a total of 6 sudents in the class, which is good. I am still the Student Council Advisor. For the next 3 weeks I will be teaching 1-2nd grade and 5-6th grade PE over at Faith. It has been fun getting to know the elementary students. They are a lot more energetic than the high schoolers, especially for PE. Today I had the 5-6th grade, so I have not met the 1-2nd graders yet. Rob and I are also squad leaders for the juinor high Outdoor Ed (OE). OE is a trip they take every year that last for about a week. It is a time where they do outreach together, learn about the Lord and bond. The Juinor High always does their OE with Faith Manila, so there are tons of students, but we are just incharge of our 9 students. The Squads meet twice a week, during school hours to discuss OE, come up with a team name, cheer, etc. We met with them yesterday. They really are a great group of kids.
Rob and I were also asked to teach some Korean students english. We are not sure what level they will be at. This is not with either school. It is actually being run by a Korean missionary. We will be teaching 2 night classes a week for the next 7 weeks. Tonight is our first class, so we will see how that goes. All we know is that there are 19 students from elementary to high school, so Rob will take the jr high and high school and I will take the elementary students. So, our roles have changed again, but we are happy to help out where needed.

Thailand

Well, we did not really have internet the entire time we were in Thailand, so I was not able to blog as we went. So, you will just have to settle for one big blog about our trip. I am so glad we went. Although it was one of the strangest Christmas seasons I have ever had, being away from family in another country, it was fun to do something different. Plus visiting a new place kept our minds off of being away from family.
December 23 11:30 pm- We arrived in Bangkok, got a taxi and headed down to our hotel. The street we stayed on was very busy. There were tons of people out and shops open even at midnight when we arrived there. We were driving down our street and all of a sudden, we see this baby elephant walking down the sidewalk. It was then that we truly realized we were in Thailand.
Dec. 24th- we went exploring around the city. We headed to a huge park and walked around, went to an enormous mall, and headed down to Jim Thompson's house ( an American man who who really established the Thai silk industry.
Then we headed back to the mall for a movie. You should have seen this movie theatre. They had all these different theatres where you could pay more and get a foot rest, or even get a couch to sit on while watching a movie. It was crazy. We were too cheap to pay for anything but a normal seat, but it was still nice. On our walk back to the hotel, we passed by a local market that was right on the street we were staying on. So, we had dinner and walked through the market. We finished our day with a foot and shoulder massage for about $6 USD!
December 25th- celebrated Christmas together, giving gifts and reading the Christmas story. For Christmas gifts to each other, we decided to go to a book store and get something for each other at the same time, without the other person seeing. It was a really fun idea. If you are limited to one store, you have to get a little creative and plus trying to hide it from the other person is fun too. After our Christmas morning, we went to a park and rented a paddle boat. We had fun paddling around the park, and feeding the fish. Then we went back to the hotel and got our free 15 minute massage. Soo nice! and just relaxed. Then we decided to head to the Night bazzar, which is this HUGE night market selling just about anything you could imagine. It was fun. We ate dinner there at a Thai place and headed back to the hotel.
Dec. 26th- we switched hotels, to stay at a cheaper place in a different part of the city. This one was on the river, which was really nice.
In the afternoon, we went to the Grand Palace, which has a temple with an emerald buddha, and the Palace which is where the King lives. It was a huge place, but very fun to walk through. After that we headed back to the hotel to rest.
Dec. 27th- we headed out early with a tour company to the floating market, which is about an hour and a half drive from Bangkok. At the floating market, there were ladies in boats selling food and people along the canal, selling all kinds of souvenirs
Yeah, it was a pretty touristy place, but it was fun to go to. After that, we headed to a place where you could ride elephants. You can't go to Thailand without riding an elephant. So, we took a ride, which was pretty fun. Then we headed to a place for lunch. the next stop on the tour was a place where they did a Thailand cultural performance. With dancing and music. It was neat. The final stop was a place where they make jewelry. We got to go into the work place where they actually cut the rubies and make the settings. .After our long day, we headed back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the evening.
Dec. 28th- The day we visited temples. The hotel we were at was right on the river and most of the locals get around the city by a river taxi boat, so we decided to try it out. And it was a really fun way to get around. We took the boat to the Temple that had this HUGE reclining buddha and then we went on the boat to Chinatown, which was really crazy. We went there to try to eat some Chinese food, but soon found out that we did not know what anything was, so we ended up at KFC. Then we headed on the boat to the Temple of the Dawn, which is this really tall temple that you can go up and see all over Bangkok. After that we went by boat to this road which is where all the backpackers stay. It was crazy. There were people and shops everywhere. We walked around for awhile and ate dinner there. Not to mention, got another foot massage. We could not help ourselves, massage places were everytwhere here in Thailand and they were so cheap!
Dec. 29th- We went on another tour to Ayutthaya, which is about a 2 hour drive east of Bangkok on our way there we stopped at a huge palace and walked around. Then we headed to Ayutthaya, which is ruins from the 1300's. It was really neat and our tour guide was great. On our way back to Bangkok, we took a lunch cruise boat back on the river. It was a really neat way to see thailand. We headed back to the hotel to swim and then went to eat dinner at a restaurant right on the river!
Dec 30th- Our final day here. We went to the King's Barge Museum, where you can sese the boats the king rides on for very special occasions. We decided to take the adventurous way of getting there, by boat and then walking. it was the most interesting walk I have ever taken. We had to walk through all these alleys with poor Thai people living on either side. We sure had the local Thai experience. Wow, words cannot describe... Anyway, after the museum, we went to the Weekend Market. Thailand has a ton of markets, but this one was probably the biggest most popular one. And boy was it big! We stayed there for most of the day! Then we took the Skytrain back to downtown and went and saw a movie ate dinner and then it was time to head to the airport!
WOw, that was really long. If you are still reading this, thanks for sticking with it. We had a great time and are so happy we went. If you ever get the chance to go to Thailand, don't hesitate.