Oh the Many, Many Feet You Meet!

Students who went on mission trip leading out in AY meeting

Ku Ku Paw surveys the sea of sandals outside the chapel

The chapel

Shoes are always left outside of any house or public building

No, I am not Dr. Seuss. I do appreciate his books, although I'm slightly creeped-out by the illustrations of all the hairy creatures. However!
I alluded to feet, because I'm really referring to all the people that I have met here who own the many, many feet.

Actually, many of the people who own those feet have pink-eye. I'm really excited about this because so many of them have it that school is -

CANCELLED!!

For two days.

Big deal.
It is a big deal, actually. I'm not sure why I'm so excited about it, since I've already been laying around in my room for the past three days. I think it's because I can continue learning Karen and spend time lesson planning.

NOT.

I mean, I'm going to do those things, but that's not what I'm excited about.
I'm happy that I get to not teach for two days. Not that I don't like teaching. I would just rather spend time with the kids when I'm not yelling at them and trying to explain their assignments twenty times in a row.

By the way, I don't yell at them because I really like to hear myself roar. On the contrary; I have a really hard time being loud. It drains me considerably.
I yell because I have to in order to be heard over the noise from the next-door classrooms.

Oh, and I'm also excited because I do not have pink-eye. All the people around me have it, but I have so far escaped it through being careful to wash my hands frequently, and NEVER touching my eyes and asking God to help me not to catch it. Not that my asking helped me not to get it; it would be because God answered my prayer.

The people who do have it look awful. Absolutely frightening. Their eyes look like they are full of blood; you can hardly see the white part. Also the lids are swollen and purple and they have huge bags under their eyes.
I personally do not want to see what I look like with pink-eye. I actually think it should be called blood-eye. Or horror-eye. Or never-touch-your-eye-again-eye.

However, if I do get it, I will at least take a picture to remember it by.

Every time I feel something in my eye, I'm really paranoid now.
Don't touch it. Don't blink. Don't breathe. You might get pink-eye. 

Of course, the only reason I don't have it is probably because I simply can't get it when everyone else has it. I'll probably get it after their all better, just so I can be different. Ugg.

Anyways, enough about that stuff.

The people. The many many people.

Two of the people, Chit Chit Way and Moo Koh Paw have been hanging out at our hut while we've been bumming around. The people here are excellent bums. They're super good at just sitting and talking and spending time together. I really think that's the important thing for them; spending time together. It's something that I really used to enjoy, and and having to learn to get used to again. I typically feel really claustrophobic when people want to be around me a lot (maybe because I'm afraid I can't be quiet around them if I don't know what to say), but Chit Chit Way and Moo Koh Paw don't seem to notice.

These girls are pretty cool, though, I must say. Chit Chit Way stood out to me right from the get-go as being a different sort of girl. I was told that she is lazy and pretends to be sick to get attention, so I was drawn to her immediately. I understand hurting people really well because I've been (am) where they're at. She saw me watching her a few times, and decided to come up to visit me. Her English isn't good, but she chatters away in Karen and tries to teach me both Karen and Burmese words simultaneously.
"Teacha, you....sleepy?" she asks sometimes. Yes. Always.
"Teachaa...." she giggles because she can't think of the English word she wants to say.
One time she came while I was going to read my Bible. I heard her up in the hut before I went up the stairs, so I stayed at the bottom and started reading quietly, hoping she wouldn't find me. Of course, she did. She came down and sat by me.
"Teacha...you...crying?" she peered at me.
nooooo. no. no. no. NO I am not crying. I'm trying to read my Bible, child.
Karen people don't get hints very easily. Maybe it's because they just naturally want to be around each other all the time.

So I talked with her a little as I "read" my Bible. She still didn't believe that I wasn't crying. Ok. Maybe I was inside, and she could tell. I don't know. She's kind of alarmingly perceptive.

Anyway, she comes up all the time to hang out. Mostly it's to spend time. Sometimes it's to avoid going to work. We don't know the Karen way to tell her to go to work yet, so we let her stay until the Steck girls find her.

She's about 17.

Moo Koh Paw is a super spunky girl who swaggers like the best of the boys, wears pants mostly, or a sarong tied the way the boys tie theirs and always has her shoulder-length hair tied back in a ponytail.
None of this pretty-girl stuff for her. She's way too busy starting water fights, terrorizing the fat, little 2 year old Ku Ku Paw (who incidentally loves to be terrorized), or getting into some other kind of mischief. She's absolutely stellar. I love her because she is randomly physically affectionate (in a pinch-you, grab you when you're not looking sort of way), and also very smart. She probably wouldn't say she is, but I know she is because of her sense of humor.
She also has the brightest smile, and you can tell it comes from her heart, because her face always shows what she's thinking.

She said a few times this evening while teaching me Karen, "Teachah, I miss Sabrina..."

I smiled and agreed with her. She looked at me for a few moments and repeated, "I miss Sabrina."

I'll probably never understand the attachment between her and Sabrina, but it's real. She misses you, Sabrina. A lot. I told her I would tell you that.
She grinned.


Let's see, other people here. There's Nay Kaw Lweh (said: Nickalaway), who is in my fourth-grade class. The staff are praying for him because he seems to have a gender identity problem. We're not sure how to address his belief that God originally wanted him to be a girl, although Satan messed him up and made him be a boy. However, he's also very out-going and practices his English on me.
Today he approached me, "Teacha, do you play violin really good?"
I nodded appropriately, "Yes."

He puckered his forehead trying to think of how to say what he wanted to say, "I...would like to learn...you teach me?"

I smiled at him, "Yes, I need to go see if the violins in the grade 10 classroom are any good. If they are, I will teach a class. I will teach you violin."

He smiled back, "Thank you, teacha."

I can't do much to help him, since I'm a girl, but I hope he knows I care about him.

There's thirteen-year-old Eh Soo, who is in third-grade. He lived in the States for a few years, so his English is really good. He reads out loud everything I write on the board, as I'm writing it. I use him a lot in class to explain what I'm saying to the other students.
Unfortunately, he's often unavailable for translation because he is wrestling with the 18 year old Saw Eh Mwee in the row in front of him. (why an 18 year old is in third grade is beyond me)
One day I walked over to find out that Saw Eh Mwee was not at his table, but had slipped back to scrunch in beside Eh Soo on his already crowded bench.
I looked at Saw Eh Mwee curiously, then at his empty seat, then back at him. Then I narrowed my eyes, and crooked a finger at him, "You, come back and sit in your seat."

He shook his head, as if to say, "I can't."

I raised my eyebrows and pointed imperiously at Eh Soo, "Then YOU come up here and sit."

He quickly dropped under the desk in front of him and tried to come up to sit in Saw Eh Mwee's spot, but he was too big to fit easily under the desk, and got stuck. The other boys beside him happily pushed and shoved at him with their feet, trying to "help" him get out, but by the time he was free and had fallen out on the floor, Saw Eh Mwee had squeezed past him under the desk and was also sprawled on the floor beside him. They both jumped up and dove for Saw Eh Mwee's seat, but he got their first, and Eh Soo retreated back to his desk.
I tried to stop laughing and turned to help cute little Jaw Law Clay with his assignment.

Oh, those boys. The girls are never a problem, but the boys...
Of course, I knew it would be like that. They are always the goofy ones.
The older ones in the third grade sit there and smirk at me, or imitate my expressions, which is kind of funny. One of them half-heartedly showed me a flower, but didn't actually give it me because the other boys started teasing him.

In the forth grade, there is one whole 1/3rd of the class that are boys who don't really understand what I'm saying. Either that, or they have all conspired together to pretend not to understand. I like all of them, but it's a little scary going to their side of the room, as I have no idea what's going to happen next. One of them refuses to sign his name on his paper with more than just three letters.
Of course, I'm supposed to understand that T N L means Than Nyo Lay. Ok. I'll try to remember that.
Nay Kaw Lweh is in that class, sitting close to the girls, and always calling out to me to make sure he's understanding everything correctly. I think he just needs some really healthy attention from a nice older guy. He's a likeable kid.

In the fifth-grade, the kids are all pretty well-behaved, except for chattering constantly in Karen. I can't tell if they are explaining what I'm saying to eachother, so I mostly let their talking go, if I'm not trying to talk at the same time. I sternly told them the other day, "If you are talking in Karen to explain, that's ok. If you are not explaining but just talking, that's NOT OK."
They looked at me solemnly, and understood.
The silence lasted for about five minutes. Maybe. Then they were at it, giggling again.

Oh well, I understand that I am the new teacher and infinitely interesting to them, so I don't frown at them for laughing at me. I also understand that they are learning Thai, Burmese, and Karen, as well as English, so I'm not too hard on them.

They will grow out of it soon. Then they will be bored, and I'll start playing tricks on them. Mwahaha.
Of course, if I have the energy.

I haven't been even at my normal low-energy level, so I'm hoping I'll still be good to teach for a few months. Hopefully I'll figure out what is wrong when I get back to the States. God brought me here, so I know He'll sustain me while I'm doing His mission. No worries there.

This post was really poorly written and unstructured because I'm tired and up late, but at least you have a better idea of what's been going on around here recently.

Nalaghay. (goodnight)



Update: I got pink-eye not an hour after finishing this post. Here's the picture!

So far, it's only in my left eye. I'm NOT touching the other one.