Learning Thai

Yesterday the girls came home from school with medical face masks. Swine flu (or "The 2009 flu" as it's now called here) has been spreading and several schools around the country have been temporarily shut down due to outbreaks. I took our camera along this morning when I dropped off the girls and took some pictures during the opening assembly. As you can imagine, it's pretty much impossible to make a school-full of kindergartners keep these too-large masks on for very long!

Claire was chosen as one of the flag-raisers today - they have one boy and one girl raise the flag each morning while they sing the national anthem. This is one of the highlights of the day for Eliza - she loves to belt out "Prateet Thai ruam..."

Apparently the sight of "Teacher Tom" with his camera was enough to distract these boys from their chanting.

Eliza and two of her classmates. She's learning the names of the kids in her class and likes to come home and tell us which ones are naughty.

In a development that we hope is unrelated to the swine flu, Candice and I are both sick today. Thai people say that this time of the year has "bad weather" - it gets really hot, then it rains, then it gets hot. Thankfully the kids are all still healthy - so you can pray that they stay that way and that we make a quick recovery. Thanks!

-Tom