So what's been going on?

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To be honest i can't really give a summary of what i've been up to as I can't remember. It seems as though not a lot has happend in the last week and yet I suppose thinking about it loads must have happened. My main problem is that I have'nt been keeping a journal and accordingly I can't really remember what's been going on. I know you are probably thinking that this is a tad bit lazy of me but I've got so much to do each day... reading, learning Spanish (mum, that's going quite well by the way) and teaching the odd English lesson takes a lot out of one. Also as I am now two and a bit weeks into the holiday i think it would be best if I just mentioned some of the good bits (in no particular order).

Firstly, the week before last Lizzy and i went to the grade school's scout camp which was fairly interesting, but afterwards we were taken with the village priest and Sister Kat to a funeral! There we were among the chanting, mourning family and friends, in front of the casket for around half an hour just sitting and looking respectful. This experiance sums up a great deal our experiances. To a Westeners it appears quite quite bizar but at the same time I am enoumosly grateful for being able to see this kind of thing and also as a result truly feel part of the comunity! Some people send flowers, others bring the resident foriegners!

Another main event of the last few weeks was the high school scout camp which happened one week later and in which we were much more involved. The days activities were much like a normal scout camp only that there was a lot more singing (the Banana song is surprisingly popular out here) and also the whole thing was slanted much more towards humiliating each other (example; face painting by the teachers was compulsory, but unlike nice flags and animal faces the students had to endure odd colours and painted on silly expresions!). This public humiliation reached its peak during a game rather like 'pass the parcel' only the parcel was flour and one had to either cover oneself in the flour, a neighbour or a randomer depending on the instruciton given, when the music stopped. Near the end of the game the instruction for a randomer to get the shameful treatment was given and obediently the person picked his victem... a pregnant teacher! And what was the reaction to the turning of this women into a white shaken mess? Histerical laughter!

To be fair though, nobody seemed to get upset and while harsh by English standards its all been in the name of fun.

Futher more there was a lot less child safety all round showed most clearly by an exercise in which the children had to crawl under a pile of branches. This sounds fair enough until you realise that an ants nest had just been put on to the said pile of branches and as the children crawled through others hit the pile with sticks to ensure that the ants filtered down to the children and were quite enfuriated! You may well not believe this and simply dismiss it as an exageration. All I can say is that I can hardly believe what I'm writing either.

On a less amusing but quite interesting point I've been invited to spend a night in the local buhdist monestary as well as spend the following day seeing how the monk lives his life. This sound awsome but there is the draw back of Liz being and evil, temptress she of course will be banned from the experiance. Further more I still have to deal with the complications surrounding the priest who invited me. He seems quite set on the idea of me experiancing a day and night with a Thai family (ie spend both a night with the family (good) and a hard days labour in the fields under the burning sun (not quite so good).

Anyway ruing out of time,

Dad please get in contact as it would be nice to hear from you and mum if just occacsionaly. As well as sending my brothers and relatives could you please get in contact with Luke Cod and ask him to send me an email as I can't seem to get his right.

Daisy send me your brothers email

Jix I'm not an idiot.

Gandi when are you going to Barce?

Everybody else hope you are well, write me an email or comment and stay well.

Oh, and sorry about the bad spelling and grammer, they don't give extra time in Internet cafes apparently!

Regards/Much love,

Macca/Christian

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Comments

[Reggie]

Brazil
You still goin to Brazil???? Oh yeah and i hope you having a wicked life changing experience finding yourselve in Bangkok of all places!!

[Matt]

Hey
hey lad. Sounds like your having fun. I thought I should write you a comment a) to make you feel loved and b) because you wrote you me an email which made me feel truely honoured. Anyway, this will be short as I have to delete every second word for being as i typed it wrong. One too many beers as usual but in fairness, Ireland did win today. One important thing which you should be very proud of me for though. I am finally going to, for the first time in my life, support england in a rugby match against France tomorrow. I will explain why another time. Well, gonna go now but may write an email sometime in the relative future. Just remember i get up at at half 6 every morning to start a day of manual labour so don't be so lazy about helping a family out there. All the best and hope tyo see you in the summer. You will have to come over here at some stage. Maybe you could come over here with Reggie? dunno when or if hes coming but im sure it would be fun. All the best Your faviourite mate from across the sea Matt