His Name Is Ice Cream

Well, things are finally getting settled in here. TinMan and I had our first two volunteer days this past week. We're working at a place called Starfish Home, which is a sort of daycare/orphanage/school for children from the surrounding Hilltribes. Essentially, we help them practice English on a worksheet for about fifteen or twenty minutes, then play a board game (mainly Snakes and Laders) using English vocab cards, then they eat. After that, we go outside and run around with them for about half an hour. Both days, TinMan and I have walked our way back to catch a ride home slowly, trying to catch our breath.

Our first day just so happened to be their outdoor barbeque dinner night. We were each put in charge of a Thai grill (essentially a bucket of coals with an pan on top that has a sort of moat around it to hold broth on top of which the grilling actually happens). We grilled everything from bacon and turkey to squid and fishballs. The kids went apeshit for the fishballs, Artit (who was seated at TinMan's grill) downed two chopstick/kababs full of fishballs in about ten minutes. Raw. He and Te (seated at my grill) each ate about two pounds of meat easily. As the regular meal ended, we could tell Artit and Te were wearing down and Ai-dtim (which means Ice Cream in English and is one kid's nickname) was still running back for more meat. That's when they brought out dessert, comprised of fresh strawberries with a little sugar sprinkled on them, sticky rice pasteries filled with red bean paste, and what tasted like sticks of Life cereal. By this time, Artit was laying down and grumbling about his stomach. Shelly (our New Zealander supervisor) offered to rub his tummy for him and, as he rose to accept her offer, stuffed another handful of strawberries into his mouth. Crazy kids.

Sidenote: Shelly's New Zealand accent instantly makes me feel like I'm watching Flight of the Conchords. Makes it really hard to take her seriously. But she's cool.

I haven't broken anything in a while.

Today we cooked Thai food on a farm. It was unanimously delicious, but there was far too much. So it goes. I have a bag of Pad Thai in my room for later. That, friends, is the way to be.