Well it's been a pretty busy time since my last post. I know that's no excuse for it being so long without writing anything, but I'm sure you'll all get over it in due time. (If not, feel free to seek help from a counselor or something.)
Here we go again:
This first set of pictures is from a concert a couple of my students and I played in shortly after my last post. It was put on by Payap University as a fundraiser for relief-aid in Burma with all the refugees there. They had a pretty decent turnout-- around 250 people all-in-all I'd guess.
These were some of the people that played before us. Sorry I couldn't capture the humor of the guy on the right in a picture... videos are too slow to load on here. Suffice it to say that he's wearing a sparkly armband on his left bicep and flourescent yellow shoes... and at one point he sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in his best Marilyn Monroe voice.
Trying to put together a last-minute setlist.
"Here ya go... all tuned up... that means "well..." nevermind... just play man" 
Rockin' and Rollin'... Thai/Burmese style.
Rolling Stone sent a journalist and we had a nice long interview, so look for this picture on the February 2009 cover.
Back at the school, Lainy takes a little nap in front of her desk. Sadly she thought this was more comfortable than her bed.
Atonement -- 'nuff said. 
The official FIFA Legacy 2008-2009 football team photo. Apparently WiChai and I missed the "no smiling" memo.As of now, we're 0-2 in the tournament. But good news! Ben and I will be out of the country for the next game, so we'll probably actually win one.
So this brings us to the Feast of Tabernacles. Most of you should know what this is even if you don't celebrate it. It's that "church trip" I go on every year. (Normally to Destin) This year we had it here in Chiang Mai and my parents and Ms. Melodee Overton were able to come over and visit me! It was so great to see them and everyone had a blast. I wish I'd had more time to spend with them. I stayed really busy the whole time trying to help coordinate things with Aj. Leon still being in the hospital in Bangkok.
Lahu students in their traditional stuff.
We took the students bowling one day. Asians bowling is almost as funny as basketball... almost.
There's 60 baht unaccounted for. Somebody call the police. :)
If my students remember one thing I've taught them, I hope "peace out" sticks.
Sisters - Dola and Nora. (also my Thai tutors sometimes)
Nora with her two daughters, Mahuli and Mahula ("Narak maak!" = very cute)
Beka - dude's got pipes.
Yea, that's me waving my arms around trying to look like I know what I'm doing directing a choir. They did so well... I was very proud of them.
My keychain flashlight saves the day once again. Mom and Pops out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants. My poor Mommy... she doesn't care for spicy food at all so she was definitely in the wrong country culinary-wise. :)
So this brings us to the Feast of Tabernacles. Most of you should know what this is even if you don't celebrate it. It's that "church trip" I go on every year. (Normally to Destin) This year we had it here in Chiang Mai and my parents and Ms. Melodee Overton were able to come over and visit me! It was so great to see them and everyone had a blast. I wish I'd had more time to spend with them. I stayed really busy the whole time trying to help coordinate things with Aj. Leon still being in the hospital in Bangkok.
Lahu students in their traditional stuff.
We took the students bowling one day. Asians bowling is almost as funny as basketball... almost.
There's 60 baht unaccounted for. Somebody call the police. :)
If my students remember one thing I've taught them, I hope "peace out" sticks.
Sisters - Dola and Nora. (also my Thai tutors sometimes)
Nora with her two daughters, Mahuli and Mahula ("Narak maak!" = very cute)
Beka - dude's got pipes.
Yea, that's me waving my arms around trying to look like I know what I'm doing directing a choir. They did so well... I was very proud of them.
My keychain flashlight saves the day once again. Mom and Pops out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants. My poor Mommy... she doesn't care for spicy food at all so she was definitely in the wrong country culinary-wise. :)One morning we took everyone there to the elephant farm to watch them do tricks, go for a ride, etc. Most people said this was the highlight of the Feast.
Beautiful... just beautiful
Squeaky clean.
Yea, we actually watched them do these paintings. Pretty impressive. They also played soccer, basketball, etc... pretty incredible what you can train an elephant to do with a big, sharp, pointy metal stick jabbing in their ear.
Ms. Melodee and Ms. Brenda.
A floater.
As you can tell by the huge grin, my mom was all about this. She loved it.
No saddle necessary for this guy. There's a place in the mountains close to Pie where you can go ride elephants with no saddle... they say its a blast so maybe I'll get a chance to do that.
Back at church again... it's so funny how the special music always worked out. Techinically I was "in charge" of scheduling all the music for the whole conference, etc. But it's like pulling teeth to get them to actually plan something. It would be ten minutes before church starts and they come up to me, "Ajan, you are playing with us for music today", "OK... what key is it in?", "etc..." It all worked out though, they're all so musically talented and we play together a lot anyways.
This was a Burmese song that we actually worked on a good bit and did the last day. I hope I agree theologically with whatever I was singing. :) Something about Jesus... I think.
Me trying not to be lame while introducing acts.
They went first and stole the show. Tough act to follow.
But he was up to the task. "Soulja Boy." An Australian kid in Thailand doing a dance to a song made popular in America by a African... good chuckles all around.
Something about radioactive frogs...? :)
"WHAT I GOTTA DO TO MAKE YA LOVE ME?!?!" This song was so much fun. La Nu Nan and Beka nailed it, too. Asians singing Elton John.
This one almost flopped. I'd never played it before and it was in Burmese. I just knew it was in A Major. They all got off one the words and stuff. But the crowd said they never noticed and it sounded good... so whatever I guess. "Mai pehn rai."
After all the Elton John, "Apologize", "Soulja Boy", etc. nonsense, I had to get up and represent some real music... Clapton and the Beatles.
We found out that Atiwat can flow.
This guy was awesome. He was from Malaysia. He saw that Thai, Lahu, Burmese, American, etc. songs had all been represented. So he was like "I'm gonna come do a Tamil (Malay) song just to even things out. I don't have an instrument, so here we go..." Then he just started clapping a beat and singing away. Everybody got a kick out of it.
We had a soccer game during the Feast, too. But the second half got rained out. We were losing 1-0 at the half. Then when we made the second half up a week later. A lot of our students had gone home, so we were playing with 9. Wound up losing 6-0... so much for playoff hopes.
There are two types of people I almost always back up in this world. (because of my life experiences) One is waiters. It's normally not their fault and you know it!
Beautiful... just beautiful
Squeaky clean.
Yea, we actually watched them do these paintings. Pretty impressive. They also played soccer, basketball, etc... pretty incredible what you can train an elephant to do with a big, sharp, pointy metal stick jabbing in their ear.
Ms. Melodee and Ms. Brenda.
A floater.
"Chang kii." I bet you can guess what that means.
Interesting Thai note - "chang" is "elephant" "kii" pronounced with a low-tone means "ride"
Interesting Thai note - "chang" is "elephant" "kii" pronounced with a low-tone means "ride"
"kii" pronounced with a high-tone is the slang word for "poop." haha... you're welcome.
As you can tell by the huge grin, my mom was all about this. She loved it.
No saddle necessary for this guy. There's a place in the mountains close to Pie where you can go ride elephants with no saddle... they say its a blast so maybe I'll get a chance to do that.Back at church again... it's so funny how the special music always worked out. Techinically I was "in charge" of scheduling all the music for the whole conference, etc. But it's like pulling teeth to get them to actually plan something. It would be ten minutes before church starts and they come up to me, "Ajan, you are playing with us for music today", "OK... what key is it in?", "etc..." It all worked out though, they're all so musically talented and we play together a lot anyways.
This was a Burmese song that we actually worked on a good bit and did the last day. I hope I agree theologically with whatever I was singing. :) Something about Jesus... I think.Then there was the Talent Show... which I was the "M.C." That was pretty fun, too.
Me trying not to be lame while introducing acts.
They went first and stole the show. Tough act to follow.
But he was up to the task. "Soulja Boy." An Australian kid in Thailand doing a dance to a song made popular in America by a African... good chuckles all around.
Something about radioactive frogs...? :)
"WHAT I GOTTA DO TO MAKE YA LOVE ME?!?!" This song was so much fun. La Nu Nan and Beka nailed it, too. Asians singing Elton John.
This one almost flopped. I'd never played it before and it was in Burmese. I just knew it was in A Major. They all got off one the words and stuff. But the crowd said they never noticed and it sounded good... so whatever I guess. "Mai pehn rai."
After all the Elton John, "Apologize", "Soulja Boy", etc. nonsense, I had to get up and represent some real music... Clapton and the Beatles.
We found out that Atiwat can flow.This guy was awesome. He was from Malaysia. He saw that Thai, Lahu, Burmese, American, etc. songs had all been represented. So he was like "I'm gonna come do a Tamil (Malay) song just to even things out. I don't have an instrument, so here we go..." Then he just started clapping a beat and singing away. Everybody got a kick out of it.
We had a soccer game during the Feast, too. But the second half got rained out. We were losing 1-0 at the half. Then when we made the second half up a week later. A lot of our students had gone home, so we were playing with 9. Wound up losing 6-0... so much for playoff hopes.There are two types of people I almost always back up in this world. (because of my life experiences) One is waiters. It's normally not their fault and you know it!
Second is sports officials. With my time as a Little League umpire, I'm the first one to yell back at some insolent guy in the crowd, "Hey! He's right there he can see better than you can!" HOWEVER... this was the single worst sports official I've ever had interactions with. He literally cost us the first game against the defending champions... I'll leave it at that.
Going tribal. We were Lahu for a day and did a little dance... pretty fun actually... even though my traditional Lahu dress was ridiculously small.
Then one day we went to the monkey farm where they train monkeys to harvest coconuts. They said that they can harvest up to 1000 coconuts a day each. And apparently ride bicycles, play basketball, lift weights, do math, etc.
What did that monkey eat?! Ugh!
My masseuse/Thai tutor, Fon. (Also showing my incurable inability to keep my eyes open while trying to smile for a picture.)
My folks and Hkawn Din. Thank ya'll for coming! It really meant a lot to me!
This is the view of Chiang Mai from the temple. I was actually right here taking this picture when my phone rang... (see below)
Lots of steps going up the dragon's tail to the temple.
Uh... some bells. :)
Well I don't guess it would be a blog post without a section for my ladies...
This one made me think of Grannie. (maybe I'll sneak you a seed home!)
Going tribal. We were Lahu for a day and did a little dance... pretty fun actually... even though my traditional Lahu dress was ridiculously small.Then one day we went to the monkey farm where they train monkeys to harvest coconuts. They said that they can harvest up to 1000 coconuts a day each. And apparently ride bicycles, play basketball, lift weights, do math, etc.
What did that monkey eat?! Ugh!My masseuse/Thai tutor, Fon. (Also showing my incurable inability to keep my eyes open while trying to smile for a picture.)My folks and Hkawn Din. Thank ya'll for coming! It really meant a lot to me!Then I went to Doi Suthep (the big temple on the mountain in Chiang Mai) with my parents before they left.
This is the view of Chiang Mai from the temple. I was actually right here taking this picture when my phone rang... (see below)
Lots of steps going up the dragon's tail to the temple.
Uh... some bells. :)Well I don't guess it would be a blog post without a section for my ladies...
This one made me think of Grannie. (maybe I'll sneak you a seed home!)That's that for the pictures.
Well... while we were at Doi Suthep, my phone rang. It was Aj. Leon. He asked me to come back again next year and to talk about it with my folks while they were here. So I did. I've taken a couple weeks to think and pray about it. So now I've decided (assuming everything works out in this crazy world we live in) to come back for another year. Next year I'll be focusing more on the Bible side of the school and less on the English teaching. This is good for me because I really don't see much of a calling as an English teacher. :) Aj. Leon got back from Bangkok a couple days ago, but will still be recovering from his strokes for a while to come. His vision on one side is pretty badly damaged, and his mobility has suffered as well. So in short, he can't travel for a while. So next year he wants to send me on his mission trips into the border refugee camps and around Burma. I'm really excited to be helping out in this aspect instead of just teaching English to a few students and preaching in church occasionally. I've got a lot of learning and growing to do personally to prepare for this, so your prayers for me and all of Legacy would be much appreciated.
For those of you who I talk to regularly, you might be a little surprised that I've decided to stay. Up until the Feast, I was about 99% sure that I was going to just come home, find a job, maybe a girl :), etc... start "living life" as I liked to put it. But I guess God had something different in mind for me. One of my good friends told me, "How many people do you know that are really living the life they envisioned 5 years out of college?" I thought about this and they were right. Life has a way of making plans for you sometimes. This was an opportunity I felt I just shouldn't (or in my mind -- couldn't) pass up.
Don't worry though! I'll still be coming home in April to visit for the summer. Hopefully I'll be able to travel some then and visit friends/family and give a few presentations sharing my experiences. (maybe soliciting future volunteers and/or donations... who knows) haha... I really look forward to seeing everyone, though.
In other news--
I leave tonight for my next visa run! I'm taking the bus down to Bangkok then flying down to Singapore tomorrow. We'll stay there a day or two then take the train up into Malaysia to Kuala Lampur. We'll stay there as long as we feel like then train up to the island of Panang and hang out on the beaches for a few days. Then we keep taking the trains up to Bangkok, and eventually back to Chiang Mai. So I'm really excited to get to see two more countries, try some different food, etc. I'm sure I'll have a lot more interesting pictures. (That's why I really wanted to go ahead and get this post published before I went... lest my next post take you 5 hours to read.) So hopefully it won't be another 2 months before I post again.
So that's that! I miss you all very much and look forward to seeing you in a few months. Oh yea... I figured it out... if you start saving like 100 bucks a month now, you'd have enough saved by sometime next year to come visit me! Just think about it... :)
Much love to all of you,
Nathan Kimmons
Chiang Mai, Thailand
