I have a couple of days to catch you all up on. On Monday we took three of the boys from Soi 40 with us on the river-cruise. We had accompanied half of the Mercy 6 kids last Tuesday and Vanessa invited us to chaperone the other half on Monday. Instead of going to the memorable snake farm like last time, we instead took them to Temple of Dawn. Jodie and I had been there already but surprisingly the children choose the Temple over the snake farm when given the choice. The day was great fun and the best expressions were found in the faces of our three boys from Soi 40. They were full of smiles and they genuinely enjoyed every minute of it. One little boy named Folk who is Jodie’s favorite was definitely loving every minute. At one point he went to the front of the boat and was starting talking to the driver. Mind you, he is only 6 and when ever we hit a bump his face would light up. Bird’s expressions throughout the day were classic. During the picnic lunch, the hotel had prepared a variety of sandwiches. Bird REALLY liked them and he carried leftovers with him for the rest of the day. Every time I looked at him, he was stuffing his face with a sandwich. The funniest was when I looked over at him during our paddle boat ride in the park and he was stuffing his face while paddling.

After our boat cruise with Mercy 6, we got one of the drivers to drop us off at Lumphini Park. We decided to take full advantage of this time with the boys. We took them to the park, played with them on the playground and took them for a paddle boat ride in the big swan boats. After the park we took them to McDonald and treated them to ice cream. It was a grand day, one of the bests here in Thailand. The boys were so well behaved and so gracious.

Highlights of Tuesday and Wednesday include sharing lunch with our friends in the AIDS ward. On Wednesday we actually spent the afternoon painting nails with them. Momma painted Jodie, Si Jie’s and my nails. She took the task very seriously. She filed and painted each nail with three coats. They looked spectacular. I jokingly painted some of the male patient’s nails. A few of the patients painted Uma’s nails. Each nail a different color and a different pattern. He was pretty thrilled about it. I glanced over at him a few times and each time I saw him starting at his nails.

Today’s meal topped my list of favorite meals at Mercy. We had rice, friend chicken, papaya salad and oranges for desert. It was delicious, AROY in Thai. Speaking of meals, tonight we ate at street vendor with Boong and Dew. I ordered noodles which were really delicious. I’ve also come to the conclusion that Thai people over use the world delicious and beautiful in their language. I would estimate that we say those words around 30-40 times a day. Tomorrow I will keep a tally to find out for sure. On Tuesday night we ate supper with the boys. Eating with them is always fun. After their food was served they had to meditate for a few minutes before they could return to the table. All the boys were sitting crossed legged on the floor facing us and the house mom told us that we could start eating. So jokingly Jodie and I started to eat, flashing them funny looks while the boys attempted to meditate. A few minutes they returned the teasing by making fun of us in Thai and using their best English and saying “Misty, no beautiful, me, beautiful.”

On that note I will end this post.

Sending love from Thailand,
Misty