I've arrived at my placement! When we flew into Krabi, I knew that I had chosen the right placement area. The south of Thailand is very different from the north. There are forests of tropical trees with bulbous rocks that jut upward (great for rock climbing!). The earth is often very red, and the limestone is stained beautiful colors. I felt immediately comfortable in this forested, more mountainous area.

We did not get into Krabi until Monday evening, so we stayed in a guest house overnight. We met the openmindprojects contact person, Mue, for dinner. She told us all about our placements and, in the morning, we road in the back of her truck for about 3 hours to get here. It was gorgeous. I just can't even explain how beautiful I find this place. There are forests of gum trees that are tapped--not unlike the tapping we do in VT!

So now about my new home! The school facilities are actually quite impressive. There is a new computer room that was provided by World Vision, so it looks like I will have easy internet access. Besides this, however, it is quite primitive. I think Kara is a little bit taken aback, but I am SO happy. We are way out in the country, and our little village of about 300 is 98 percent Muslim. (This was a surprise, but I think it should be very interesting.) We met some of the children in the afternoon, and they are just adorable. The other teachers are very friendly. The 6th level teacher, Kai, took Kara and I to his friend's house near the school. His friend lives right on the canal (the ocean being about 1 KM away, I think). There is a little dock that goes out into the water with numerous boats docked. Then Kai had his friend pluck two fresh coconuts from his trees and opened them up so we could drink the water and eat the fruit. Wow. Another teacher joined us on the deck, and we sat eating fruit for about an hour. Their English is not bad, and they are very eager to learn. Perhaps teaching the teachers is even more important than the one I had originally anticipated with the children.