Sticky Rice Rocks My World.

Choose your fried grasshoppers size, gastronomically acceptable here.
I'll admit the small ones are tasty, the large are a bit too chewy for my liking. 

My friends! 

Hello again! It has almost been one month since I left Australia already. Whoa. That's a bit ridiculous! I do feel like I have been here a while I guess and am feeling as though I am at home to a degree. I'm sure I still look fairly out of place on occasion.. on many occasion actually. 

So many things happen in a week, or even a day. This day however, I will attempt to be a tad still. Quite unwell with some sort of fever thing. Flu and cold symptoms aren't overly enjoyable at the best of times, let alone adding some Thai heat. But it's all fine- I'm living off pink dragon fruit, if it's as hardcore as its name sounds, i should be better soon :) 

The cafe is approximately 1 year away from completion… Not really, maybe 4 weeks?! Sometimes it looks like it may be a while off- it doesn't really bother me though. It means the girls have more to time to train, gain confidence and learn that you don't need to upsell with "Would you like a drink with that?" when the customer has already ordered a mango smoothie. There is a small disconnect between English understanding and English rote memory maybe?! It's pretty cute.

 The girls are hard working and want to learn, western cooking is so different from Thai.. I like that we will have a duel menu; they are practicing all their Thai dishes this week which will be excellent. No sickness I have cannot be cured by some good chilli I am sure! 

I am really proud of them because I took them to the market this morning and they priced and bought all their ingredients for 3 beautiful thai dishes wish were TOTALLY delicious.. It was fun going to the market and just hanging out with them. I taught them Ghosting.. Haha. For all you Hamish & Andy fans out there- They rock at it.. ;)

The worst thing about Thai cooking (just to shatter a few preservative-free hearts out there) is that MSG is in many many  of the dishes here. So to tell them not to put MSG into the dishes we will serve at the cafe sounds like not putting an egg into an omelette to them. Sigh. This WILL CHANGE if I have anything to do with it. Which I do. 

Good. 

Settled that issue. 

(Actually, I think they bought a sneaky bag behind my back)… I haven't done much research on the prevalence of ADHD in Thai kiddies, though it is tempting.. 

Two more girls have joined the cooking crew- word spreads fast that it is AWESOME to make eatable things. I am teaching the girls to present their food nicely on their plates- I usually take some photos of their dishes  and show them how they look. They are now all whipping out their phones and doing the same. I've created a few hipsters up here. They will all be listening to Boy & Bear and  wearing mustard/maroon tight jean combos with fake black rimmed glasses in no time (that's still in right?! I leave Melbourne for one month, who knows what has changed…?!) 

One of the girls mothers has been bitten by a snake back in her home village, she has gone back to look after her- I am hoping that medication has gotten to her quite quickly. Ill find out tomorrow how she is. 

And so the Cafe may still need some more time, but a grand opening will be on the cards I assure you!! Dare I say that a flash dance mob at a night market may happen.  Just swishing it around in the brain. Oh yes, it will be awesome. Farungs represent. 

I have been able to start dancing which is cool, I'm definitely not quite as fit as I should be! Started a weekly dance class for Destiny Rescued and Prevention girls, plus any house mothers and workers who are keen for a bit of a jig. Ha, jigging. Hopefully not too much jigging, jerking maybe, not jigging (Sorry nana, if the idea of jerking sounds totally odd. I guess it is really). I've also started to do a few workshops with a local dance school for their young teachers. Contemporary and HipHop. This will likely be fortnightly, so I can recover for 2 weeks in between hits.. or rather so I do not over commit to too many things, for those of you who know me, I am very likely to do so!

There's a male dancer here named Lek whom Ash has befriended through him teaching her dance classes. He is a very sweet boy, with too much makeup. A bit confused one might say- but he is lots of fun and I think that there's some eternal purpose in his meeting a few of the DR community. 

We went out dancing with him and a chinese girl, Ling, a week back now. Before we went out he was excited to cook dinner for us. Ahem. About 4 courses with the last dish being a fried white bread sandwich with an egg, spam meat and plastic cheese. I am not sure how well Ash and I disguised our perplexed faces, but after graciously accepting these heart-attack filled concoctions, we palmed them off to Ling- who for a small female can DEVOUR food like a boss. 

I was able to speak at the local worship service last Friday, which was pretty cool. 'Namasagan' run by DR happens fortnightly in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. Worship in two languages always sounds sweet as. 

The local Thai church is pretty cool. There's a whole lot of joy, not that western churches are not joyful, but it's very public here and it's refreshing to see. 

So my Thai still sucks and I think there is a rat in the house, but life is sweet and God is constantly showing me how sufficient He is. How very inadequate I am, and yet how omnipotent and true to His Word He is. 

"Be Still and know the I am God" Psalm 46:10.  That is my encouragement for you. 

Peace out good folk. xx

Another tasty delight of Thailand. I was under the impression the a uterus should
never be eaten.
139baht is approximately $4.50