Grooming habits

Elaine erupts with concern during our English lesson and thoroughly distracts the whole class. I’m confused until Marie comes over and points to a small scab on my leg. ‘Oh’ I go, rubbing at it a bit ‘I just shaved this morning.’

Four sets of uncomprehending stares are levelled at me.

I act out shaving, pretending I’m holding a razor and running it over my leg. They don’t get it. Thai women, I remember, don’t often shave. So I have them feel the hair on my arm and then the lack on my leg.

Strange surprises

It’s strange, the way change can happen.

It can be a smooth and subtle transition, a horrible bumpy and juddering affair, expected, surprising.

Definitely surprising.

An Unromantic Reality

I read this blog post by my friend a few days ago, and all the teachers agreed wholeheartedly with its content. Instead of trying to re-write the sentiment in my own words Lucy agreed to let me just share the original with you. Enjoy.

'God shows up in our reality. He shows up in our weakness. His eyes are not running across the earth looking for the woman who lives in a romantic movie set of perfection. He is looking for the real, the weak, and the one who needs Him.'

A Burglar in the Garden

Yesterday evening was an interesting evening.

On Saturday morning Amber, Kenzie and I had headed to an early morning market about 30 minutes south of us. Among our purchases we had several plants; some parsley, some mint, some tomatoes and a chilli plant that had been given to us despite protests that we’d never eat the chillies. We hoped to put them in our garden or some pots (We hadn’t really thought beyond ‘We want a herb garden, let’s buy some herbs’) and didn’t realise until we got home that we had neither pots or tools with which to garden. There was a brief escapade with one of our kitchen utensils by Amber, but the soil turned out to be too hard. So we put them in the fridge and left it for a day.

Fast-forward to Sunday afternoon. We’ve just left a cafe we’ve sat in for a few hours, more for the internet than the drinks, and Amber and Kenzie are planning to catch a songtaow to an evening service while I’m heading home with the noble intention of lesson planning, writing emails, doing my washing and other such mundane week-end trivia.

Get home, hop in shower, hop out, put on clean clothes, throw nasty-dirty-smelly clothes in the wash, bring all my work downstairs and then...

Perhaps I’ll put the sprinkler on. I bet the grass could use some water.