Indonesia and my new home

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Well, yet again, it's been a while since I updated you all on my current status....and for that, I apologize...now, let's get down to business.

I think I finished off my last blog before I made it to Indonesia, so I'll start there. I left Vietnam a few days early in hopes of being able to make it to Bali before I had to go to the fair in Jakarta. However, due to troubles booking my flights, I wan't able to make it there. So with that said, I spent an entire week in downtown Jakarta. It was nice to relax but there are only so many malls there for me to spend my days at. Apparently, Indonesia ranks high on the list of countries with the most amount of malls. The Grand Indonesian was by far the most elaborate and largest mall I've ever been in...housing such high end stores as Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, etc. Other than a huge mixup with the laundry which resulted in me paying almost $50 to get it done, the stay was nice and the recruitment fair was fun, as usual.

After Indonesia, I made my way back to Thailand to embark on a whole new adventure with the Pennies for Papa Foundation. But before I made that leap, a few of my friends and I had a reunion at the Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok. The Shangri-La is rated in the top 5 hotels in Bangkok. My friend somehow managed to make friends with the hotel manager and was able to get us an amazing deal. We were VIP status with almost everything included such as free breakfast, free tea time, and free happy hour. The food was amazing and both days we never left the dining room from 2:30 to about 7pm, enjoying the free treats and drinks which always turned out to be our dinner (not to the liking of the hotel staff). Our one friend, Kate, was returning to the States after going to Bali first so it was a sad goodbye as I don't know when I'll be able to meet up with her again.

After a relaxing few days in Bangkok, finally made my way up north to my new home. I stayed a few days in Chiang Mai meeting up with a friend who took care of me. Unfortunately, my boss, Rocky, had issues with his galbladder causing us to stay down there a few extra days. But finally, after much anticipation, we made out way up to my new home. It truly is a hill tribe village with the majority of the families living in bamboo huts. The first 5 days I was left alone while Rocky was in the hospital allowing me to adjust to my new life on my own. Once he was out of the hospital, him and his wife were there for about a week and then took off again to Chiang Mai. Basically, they live down there for about 10 days at a time then come up by me for a few days and then head down again. Living this way for almost two months got rather lonely at times. But I pushed through and am now happily enjoying the company of two new volunteers, Ian and Missy.

As far as teaching goes, it can be quite a handful. I only teach 3 hrs a day in the evening, but almost every day a new kid comes causing the classes to become large and unmanagable. With the holidays approaching, however, the classes are going down in size because the kids are being forced to work to make money rather than come to class. However, with the new volunteers, we plan on developing the foundation into something much larger and more sustainable so that we can get a more legitimate school with a real building and branch out to having more schools in the area.

In doing so, we are really focusing primarily on social media and just getting our name out there. The social media scene to me is all completely new, but I am learning and hope to become proficient enough at it to really make a difference.

I am for sure coming home in January, but if we can really get this foundation up and running, there is a very realistic possibility that I may find myself back here.....I'm keeping my options open so I can't say for sure what the future holds....but I'm excited to see where life takes me (^_^)

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