AFC Bangkok 2006

English camp was so much fun! Our team was excited about a weekend out of the city and the chance to appreciate the gorgeous scenery of the country of Thailand. The private land on Cha'am beach was purchased by this church many years ago, and now there are condos being built on both sides. Once we get pictures up, you'll know why because it is BEAUTIFUL! We had almost 30 of our students join us for the weekend as well as members from the church here who wanted to get away for the weekend. Another group from AFC was able to join us and help keep the conversations, games, and the fun atmosphere going. AFCO was an important part of our weekend, and they will be leaving Bangkok Monday morning to travel to Malaysia. We'll miss their smiles!

Watching the sunrise on Sunday morning was a highlight of the weekend for me (even though it happened at 5:15ish-- early birds got the worm on this one for sure) We also played some traditional games, learned songs, and played in the water together! Thai Christians cooked each of the meals for us, and although it was a little bit different from traditional "camp food" (squid was involved in two of the meals) it was wonderful especially eating Thai barbecue on Saturday night-- Moo ga ta. 

Monkey Mountain was a unique experience to say the least. Some of our new Thai friends had never even gone to the top of this place to see the temple where the monkeys have now taken over. We rode cable cars to the top of this "mountain", and once we were at the top, there were no cages or fences or anything of that sort, but there were monkeys. There were monkeys EVERYWHERE! They were holding their babies, climbing, and running around. We had to be careful not to bring food because the do attack and grab for food. Our group and the Aggies part of AFCO made it safely up and down-- no monkey business there!

It feels like coming home to return to Somprasong 4 Church of Christ in Bangkok, and we are eagerly awaiting our first week of lessons. The next two days will consist of practicing our lessons, smoothing out last minute details, and a little more site seeing before we get started. To help us understand a little more about the Buddhist background that most of our students and most of the Thai people come from we are going to see the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha-- a major source of national pride to the country of Thailand as well as one of the most sacred symbols in the Buddhist religion.