Courtney Ladell: "Hello Class! Hello CoCo!"

Things here in Thailand have been running very smoothly especially now since we have all of our projects rolling and we, as a team, are extremely busy very day! I have been spending most of my time over at DEPDC like I have mentioned before. I'm working on filming and putting together a video for their website. The video will also be used in presentations when visiting English speaking countries helping to spread awareness of human trafficking and also to better inform the world what it is that DEPDC is all about.

I am also team teaching a Kindergarten class there once a week with Jamie.. (one of my roommates I love her)

We leave every morning at 6:30 am and ride on this bad boy for two hours to get to our little kindergartners.. but it's worth it!

These kids are absolute DOLLS. I love them all so much and they are so stinkin smart! Their ages range from 6 to 15 in this kindergarten class because some speak Burmese and some speak Thai..They are all learning Thai and whatever English we teach them. Sometimes I feel bad for the little kiddos as they stare up at me and have NO idea what I'm trying to say but as soon as we start activities and we lead by example, they all quickly catch on.

Sometimes though, I think the people here in Thailand are little backwards.. Jamie and I were in the middle of our lesson this last Tuesday when out of the middle of NO WHERE SMOKE EVERYWHERE!

They decided that it was a good idea to shoot deet EVERYWHERE to fumigate for mosquitoes.. don't worry about our lungs or the the little lungs of our kindergartners..

I think I probably scared the kids even more than they were already were.. My country director Dave and I were like "RUN!" We were the first ones out followed by the children..

The kids here in Thailand.. well i guess I shouldn't say kids.. EVERYONE here in Thailand has a hard time saying my name.

I say "CourT-NEY"

they say "COR-Y" or "CorN-y"

I try again "COURT-NEY"

They say "Co Co"

So it's official my name here in Thailand has become Coco. haha

But with all the work we do we still find time to go see cool things on the weekends and usually end the week with a little American food.. ;)

This last week we had a chance to go visit the white temple here in Chiang Rai! SO COOL!

The Girls!!

After visiting the white temple we headed over to the black temple to do a little compare and contrast and tap into our sophisticated philosophical sides.

This guy was the designer of the black temple..when he spoke I felt like I needed to listen.. He looked very wise.

The Snake!

We thought we were being so brave climbing in the snake cage..

(even though we were still like 5 feet away haha)

I hate snakes.. this was terrifying. Some of the people in my group picked up the snake but this is as close as I would get!

We also celebrated Rachel Rick's birthday! We walked around the night walking street, got 2 hour massages, AND had our own real life "Tangled" moment and lit off lanterns!!!