I had just gotten back from Vientiane, Laos with another 90 day visa thanks to a lot of prayers, research and filling out the correct forms. I had about a day to unpack from the previous travels and settle in before BHJ's founders Uncle Bill and Auntie Mary Lee flew in for about 10 days. They spent the first few days adjusting to the time change and visiting with the girls, while I did a little scooter shopping. With extreme thanks to very generous supporters I was able to purchase a used Honda iCon scooter with which I am extremely pleased. The price was right and even came with a 1 year full guarantee and free maintenance work. So from then on I was mobile and able to go to meetings, start making and visiting friends and basically stop relying on the staff or Matt to get me into at least Songtaew (local taxi) or TukTuk range of where I had to go. (Imagine the excruciating several months before you turned 16 and got your license when everything REQUIRED you to drive and then the glorious days after your birthday when you were ABLE to go to the grocery store or visit a friend by yourself without bugging your parents or older sibling to take you there.) Hence the feeling of immense accomplishment that soon followed the signing of the dotted line.
Ok, so back to Bill and Mary Lee; they had come to really grind out some big plans and goals for the ministry as a whole in the future and spent a lot of time typing up job descriptions and future aspirations and restructuring the board of directors a bit. This involved me a little because Bill offered me a full-time position rather than just an intern with the ministry and am now "officially" connected with New Horizons Foundation (not like I wasn't beforehand; it just wasn't on paper). The several days with them I continued teaching English to the staff, acted as translator and chauffer for them a few times and eventually said good-bye when they headed back to the States.
One week followed which would have been somewhat of a respite, however with the new visa I had obtained and also thanks to the funding I received, Chat Chai and I met up with a paralegal and began the immense task of filling out all the required paperwork for getting a Thai Work Permit, which is basically my ticket to staying in the country indefinitely. Without which I would have to be border hopping every 3 months (and losing quite a bit of money with each trip), and never being able to have a set foundation in this country. So fast-forward past all the mundane trips to the office supply store for more printer ink, back and forth emails between previous employers, tedious translating of resumés and trips to passport photo shops (thankfully extremely affordable at 100 Baht ($3) for 4 photo compared to $10-20 for 2 in the States), we finally got the paperwork together and submitted the application to the Government.
By the time this was finished another 8 days had passed, just in time for two long-time and basically co-founders arrived from Washington state. Uncle Scott and Auntie Rosalie came to spend time with the girls and enjoy Christmas with everybody out here. With Matt having his parents staying at his house, I spent most days teaching English in the morning and then enjoying the company of the two visitors. We spent time with the staff and running errands into the city and back; in the end we put together a great celebration for Christmas complete with a new thick blanket for each girl and even a new TV to watch their favorite shows on the weekends! (Imagine the squeals and screams when the secret got out!) Scott and Rosalie went back home on the 26th.
The last week of the month was spent with a little rest for everybody; all the staff took a day to stop all the errands completely and breathe for a minute before the next holiday happened. New Years Eve was spent on the lawn outside cooking over small fire pots and shooting off home-made fireworks. (Literally made out of grass and gun powder!)
Now the holidays are over and this mon
th things are gearing up for a lot of different things but at a slightly slower pace. The Parkers and I are heading for Thai class, I'm continuing to teach English to the staff and helping out with the every-day errands, and all in all its a pretty good start to the year 2554, or 2011 rather.
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