Wednesday's

I am in love... With a handsome little 8 year old who plays with my hair. His name is Leon and if I were to pick a future career for Leon, it would have to be a hair-dresser. Not a barber, nope, no buzz cuts from this kid, he will definitely be a stylist. He is going to create master hair pieces or masterpiece hairs or something. For those of you who know me, even if only a little and I have think I have mentioned it on here before, you probably know that I LOVE (do I need to stress that a little more) love to have my hair played with. So the day that Leon first started playing with my hair was the day that he took up permanent residence on my "favorites" list, you know, the one that teachers are not supposed to have but really do. Some days he gets a little confused and sort of just holds my hair as I am trying to walk around the room, but I think I am starting to adjust to having a small child hanging onto my ponytail. I hardly even notice it anymore. If he starts trying to defeat the laws of gravity whilst anchoring himself to my head via my hair, I may have to do something about it, but for now it is nice.

Wednesday is my day to teach at the middle school, so my time with the students is fresh on my mind. Wednesday's are different than every other day. I have to plan twice as much for this day and work twice as hard to teach, so the days leading up to Wednesdays are not the best of the week. But once I get to the school and walk in the door, it is twice as fun and I get twice as many hugs. I would say it is a good trade off. And just in case you can't tell, I am not in love with only Leon, the rest of the class just doesn't play with my hair.

Apparently, I like junk. Added to that trait is a proficiency in accumulating it. Put those two together and viola, you come up with my present situation. I have recently moved into a new apartment and while the apartment it wonderful (it even has a bathtub!!!) I just have entirely too much stuff. Yeah, at this point you are probably calculating just how long I have been here (6 months) and thinking to yourself "how can you get that much junk in such a short time". I agree and believe me, as I am shifting through the left over junk, uh, I mean treasures, from previous tenants and shifting through the junk that I have have brought over from my apartment, the picture of a trash bin keeps springing to mind.

But for some reason, and I do not know when I developed this trait, I keep telling myself, "one day you will be glad that you kept that." You know they are small things like plane tickets from trips or a little note that someone wrote me. Like I said, I don't know when I developed this trait, because in the past I have been a less than sentimental person. I threw everything away. Now I can throw nothing away. I am going to blame it on Heather. You must have rubbed off on me. Who knows, maybe I will take up scrap-booking... Nah.

Oh yeah, and if you are wondering the point of this rambling entry, it was to inform you that I have moved:)

the Latest Goings On

Ok, so what has been going on since... whenever it is that I last updated everyone. I wrapped up the first semester at the middle school and university where I teach, finished up the term at the English center and headed off for vacation. The first trip was to Bangkok, Thailand to visit some friends from orientation, see the city, and to make a new friend. Upon arriving at Robin's (aka Birdie) home, I was told that a student new to the center had offered to show us
around Bangkok and a nearby city. She was to be our own personal tour guide. The places that she showed us were amazing enough, but it was her
hospitality that made our trip such fun. I
think that my idea of hospitality has forever been altered and I only hope that in the future, whenever it is tourist season in Lafe, Arkansas (pop. 316) I will be able to be as gracious a host as she was.

After that it was off to Indonesia. This trip was such a blessing and a stretch of many, many things, but God is faithful and did more than just get me through it, He blessed me through it. Myself and four others working in Taiwan and Macau, headed off for Banda Aceh, Indonesia to teach English in schools that had been devastated by the tsunami a year ago. Teaching in this school system was a trip. There was no organization in the form of a teaching schedule, or if there was then I was not made aware of it.

This is sort of how the day would go. School officially started at 8:00 am, so I would be dropped off at the school at 8:00 or around there (they operate on "rubber time") to be whisked off to a classroom, with no idea of what level I would be teaching nor for how long I would be teaching them. As the week wore on, one more area of uncertainty was added to the already confusing mix of questions... had I taught this class already?! I had no idea whether these children would understand what I was trying to teach or if it would be so easy they would get bored. So there I was standing in front of a class full of sweetly expectant and eager faces and in my mind I was calmly analyzing the situation and thinking through a series of questions. You know, the normal sort that most have whenever they are faced with uncertain situations... "WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!?!"

Well, the logical answer came to mind. If you do not know something, ask questions. Perfect! Why didn't I think of that to begin with? That became part of my lesson plan, find out what I am supposed to be doing and then plan a lesson all within 5-10 minutes. I would then have a class that could last from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. I never knew for sure when the class would end and my signal that class was ending usually appeared in the form of someone coming to the door say, "Ok, you stop now". Then it was off to another class to repeat the entire process again, until it was time to stop at around 2:00. Perhaps I am exaggerating a small bit, but that is what it felt like at first. Sort of like an improv, stand-up comedy act. Regardless of the difficulties, it was a great experience. I met some absolutely amazing people that I am privileged to call friends, I saw more of God's amazing creation and I was able to experience once again God's strength in the place of my weaknesses. It was a good time.

This is me with some of the teachers from the school where I taught and below are some students from one of the 17 schools in Banda Aceh.

And below are some of the wonderful people working in Banda Aceh that I can know call friends.

After returning from Indonesia, Chris and I headed off to Singapore. It is an amazingly clean and modern city, which I must say was quite different from Indonesia. Chris and I did the typical tourists things in Singapore, but I do not have any pictures right now. They are still on Chris's camera. I hope to be able to share those with you soon.

Now, it is back to Macau and teaching, which I must say is great also. After being away from everyone in Macau for nearly a month, I was so happy to see my students and friends. And quite honestly, I struggle to come up with something better than being greeted by the smiles and hugs of 38 lively children.

Well, that was a quick overview of what has been happening lately. If you would like more details and stories, I would love to tell you. Send me an email, write me a letter or give me a call. I would love to hear from everyone. Wrapping up, I ask that you would please continue to pray for the people here in Macau and for the continued strengthening of relationships and that our Lord will be glorified through them and I thank God for your prayers, support and love.

In Christ's love,

Cassie

Indonesia

Hello All,

I am back from Indonesia and with many stories to tell. However, Chris and Anna have done such a wonderful job of documenting much of our time in Banda Aceh that rather than struggling to write catchy lines and witty jokes that will probably just flop anyway... I will let them tell about it. Here is Chris's blog http://macauchris.blogspot.com (it is not linked because I have not figured out how to do it and do not really have time to at the moment) and here is Anna's blog http://amazingadventuresaway.blogspot.com Enjoy!

Well that is all for now. I am hoping to have more time soon to keep you updated about things here in Macau, but for now this will have to suffice. I pray all is well and may God keep you in His peace.