March and April

I don't have any pictures of March. There wasn't much exciting happening in March. Hot season started and we just plugged away at work. Most of March is spent thinking about the long break in April and what has to happen before the break, then preparing. The 2nd of April we left for Thailand to attend our group mission conference. This is an annual get-together for the members of our regional group. It's always good to reconnect with members from other countries and to hear what God is doing. We arrived on a Friday night and were shocked by the traffic we encountered. We had planned that we would have 2 hours to get from the airport to the train station in another part of Bangkok. Our taxi driver pronounced this impossible and told us we'd be better off driving 2 hours north to the next train stop and embarking there. The heavy traffic volume was due to the large protests happening in Bangkok. Lots of people were coming into town to join the "Red shirt" protests. Thankfully, the traffic thinned out and we made it to the train station with one minute to spare. Then the train was 1 1/2 hours late:)

Conference was a really nice time and Eric, especially, enjoyed the chance to see some of his former students before they graduate. One of the sad realities of our life is that these students become sort of like family over the years that we get to know them and then we never see them again. It is rare for us to ever see them again once they leave to start life in their home countries. This was a particularly sad year as we said good-bye to a boy from New Zealand who lived with us for a short time. We have known him since he was 9, have gone on many vacations with his family and he was part of our family. It's hard to know when and if we'll see him again. Sad:( This year's graduating class also included our next-door neighbor and Gabe's favorite baby-sitter since he was 3 (the same person) On the plus side, these are some spectacular kids and it's wonderful to see the people they've become. We're excited to see what they'll do with their lives. Here's a picture of us praying for the kids at conference.

After conference we spent a few days in Chiang Mai and then headed back to Bangkok. We stayed down in the city center for one night. We were a bit nervous as we were in the heart of the protest area and just a few days before many people had been shot during the protests. However, it was the New Year holiday and everyone, including the red-shirts, was celebrating. Here's a picture close to our hotel. As you can see, it's water-play pandemonium. Poor Eric went to check his e-mail at a cafe and this is how he looked when he came back.

In past years Gabe has often been scared by the water fight, but this year he took is water gun everywhere he went and really enjoyed Songkran.

We returned to a quiet and steamy Phnom Penh 2 weeks after we left. It has grown steadily hotter as the weeks have gone by, but we now have only 5 more weeks of school until we can take a break!