Gone Gone And Coming From

The final weeks flew by. We did the last of our perspectives. Looking back they were a little bit of a drag. But somewhere along the way they did a bit of magic in me somewhere. I want to take on the world, live a missional life, here in a comfortable home, but also in the wide wide world. How can we as christians just sit around and do nothing with what we have been given? Lets use what skills we have to impact the world around us! Lets pray! Lets read our bible. Lets laugh about how we can take the discriptions of the song of solomon literally and think he's courting a woman who is a gazelle with honey dripping out of its mouth and myhr coming out of its hooves! Ha ha. Poetry is fun to rip to shreds mercilessly (also keeps some particularly raunchy imagery at bay.)

When we werent studying (Which wasn't really all that often to be honest) We were running around like headless chickens with blood shot eyes (yea, without a head, but with eyes never the less) staring into computer screens (Yes, Running around, but also being in a static position.) wrestling with non commital programs to make the year book and end of year celebrations a possibility. Ok, quick side note about the year books for the gappers that read this. I was talking to John (If thats his name), the head honcho who deals with all the cash at GCIM, about the pictures. A few picture files were missing from the year book. It was a giant montage of the begining of the year and the Philipeans. Ok so they were apparently ditched because they were so full of kick ass awesomeness that they weren't able to be sent over email (Since their file size verged on mammoth.) the girls spent FOREVER doing them. So I think he's gonna try and print em off himself and send them all to us. So maybe we should be prepared for a little surprise in the mail. Woops. Its not a surprise anymore, well act surprised, so you don't hurt his feelings or something.

Us guys got devious, and a little bored. So we decided to take the girls shower curtains (The showers are in like a corridor so they need to walk past each other.) and then steal their lights out of the toilet, and then the lights out of their room area places. I can't remember if it was before or after that Amy got a pair of Peakies boxers, and a pair of Jess's grundies and stuck them up the flag pole. Unfortunatly for them the camp inspector came that day to check some stuff out at camp. And to him putting undies up the scout flag pole is like sacralage. He was FUMING, muttering under his breath etc. Oops, oh well. Guess the christian gap year program won't be going back to Albany. ha ha. Oh yea. Then we got a pair of amys delicates and pinned them to the ceiling so it looked sorta like a half naked person stuck to the ceiling of the dining room. Funny idea if nothing else. We did a few more but they were a little to mundane to write down. But lets skip forward, back to the narrows. Us guys went to have dinner with Steven and Trisha (Our host parents from doing kiwi fruit.) While we were gone the girls collectively pranked the crap out of us. Im actually quite proud of them. It started with Frank noticing the glad wrap on the toilet seats. and the red bloodied tampons hanging on every single object, and the pads screwed up and pushed into our beds. Girls in general, don't bother with the glad wrap on the toilet seat trick, it doesn't really work with guys, We don't really use the seat. And its survival instinct to look in the toilet first, some guys don't flush. ha ha. Then we found confetti all through our bags, its spread out all over my room at the moment actually. (Don't worry, I actually vacuumed it up.) Then we found and disarmed their (was it?) disinfectant in the shower thingies, oh no, were gonna wash ourselves even more while washing ourselves! Not well thought out ah well. Then there was the salt (or something, I never tasted it) on our tooth brushes (Teeth brushes?) Now that one was a good one. But we didn't fall victim. Now my Fav one they did to us was the Vegemite on the light bulbs, it started smelling funky in our rooms for a while before we figured out what it was. We just nabbed their bulbs and switched em... move back to when frank found the glad wrap in the toilet. Its time for action! Us men had to take a deciseve counter attack, IMMEDIATELY, no time to loose. So we used the glad wrap they so handely left us and got peaky to (Girls, your aloud to skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read about vulgarity.) take a massive crap in it, and then put it in their sink. The girls came out from watch Mamma mia, seeing we had found their tricks they all were giggling and hiding in their room, I guess they didn't know what to do. Then they started to go into their bathroom. I followed with the camera. Their faces were hilarious! They gagged, they screamed, they ran in shock, They exclaimed, oh my goodness it was worth it. sigh..

That story over lets go back to Albany. Im skating around the building, down a narrow path with a hand rail to my left, my board quickly picks up speed, the gravel, doubled with the incline going to the left makes my board slide out from under me, my legs at about knee hight slam into one of the posts for the hand rail, they then come back onto the path and help to slow me down. A piece of gravel sits neatly at the end of a streak of blue jean scraped onto the concrete. Yay a new hole. I lie on the ground yelling profanities. Frank runs around the corner, " and you wanted me to do that lying down on the skateboard??" "YeeeeesssAAah.. Hang on.. I just gotta walk it off." I try standing, "AAAH, I can't walk it off!" I say as I give up that bad idea. So I then spend the next few days hobbling around like an old man. Stairs were particularly embarrassing to get up and down on. Heh heh. It still sorta hurts when I bend my knees. But don't worry I'm still skating strong. As J was saying about Emo's skating "Yea, of course Emos skate. Its like a new method of self harm."

I dont know what to say now. Things happened so quickly. So many precious memories I should probably write down Im going to leave unspoken, and unwritten. They were good times. We did the end of year celebrations with our parents there. At the end we gathered around and sung. We sung our hearts out for the lord and each other. The girls cried, the guys laughed and played it off. But inside all of us were loosing a huge part of our lives every time someone walked out with all their bags. I lost the community that we had that day, and for 10 months before. People that I had grown with, people that understand EXACTLY where I'm coming from, know almost exactly how I have changed. They shared the life changing God experiences with me. They shared the millions of laughs we had. From Mount Eden to Thailand, they were there beside me. Egging each other on to do Gods work. If at the begining you had asked me if Headspace would change me, I would probably say yes, on an academic level probably. But I didn't think my heart would be ripped out and replaced with an entirely new one. One which would want to serve God hard out. To do his will. To do the huge great big things he wants me to do. To live in a godly relationship, to live a godly life. I didn't just give one year, I gave my entire life. If I had full control over the catch phrase of Headspace it would probably look like this.

Welly and the Narrows

First off, Sarah, my numbers *******. call me. *wink*
Second, Hey thanks for the welcome back Quin. But I told you never to talk about those dvds! No illegal sex workers for you! Bad. BAD!

So I finished up my stay at home and took off to Cambridge. We picked up Zac on the way. It felt kinda cool getting the team back together. We have quite a spirit of comradery. We all met up in cambridge and then loaded into vans and took a 7 hour trip to Wellington. there was quite a bit of silence on the way down, but thats the way the guys van usually goes. It was only breafly punctuated by talk of the latest games and metalgear solid.
We were based in a little scout camp in the lower hutt. So we had a lot of bush to run around in shooting each other with our BB guns. Fortunatly ye old faithful which I got from the Wessels years and years ago still serves me well. (The Wessels were this really cool family me and the Holdings hung out with. Really great people.)
We spent a week in Welly. I love that place. The graff is awesome. And I found alley ways full of sticker art. and there are so many skaters there to. Awesomeness.
We got a few lectures in this time. But it wasn't heavy going. We gave short presentations of pictures from our respective countries.
I got to use my Dads suit again on Emma-lees 21st. Its amusing to see how much you can make her do, she's like a sillier version of me. She put a bra on over her dress. So shocking. lol. We all went to dinner at this Thai restaurant. Really nice place. Although it didn't actually taste to thai at all.
Sorry, Im not giving a huge exposay and a million anicdotes. I guess I just want to get this post over with.
We visited the bee hive and got to check out parliment. Man, the main chamber is tiny as, I thought it was way massive. They have economy class seating I swear. I found it a facinating place to check out. There was one man on our tour who was a real dick to our guide (an elderly lady who had an impecable english accent.) Every time we seemed to mention the maori parts of the building he seemed to get really anti, and started argueing at the guide (As if its her fault that its customary to speak maori in the special maori room thing.) She handled it admiraly I do have to say, she probably deals with them a lot. His comments were pretty.. awkward though. I think most of us wanted him to shut up, while I generally laughed at how innappropriate and red neckish he was acting. Later turned out he was an Auzzy. A sad representation of australia, but I guess it just goes to show there are still full blooded racists around. (yay /sarcasm)
The other thing I noticed about wellington, its a giant freakin slope. I caned myself more than once on my board. I had a gnarly as graze running down my arm.and I fell flat on my side and pushed blood out of my hand after trying to go down a flight of stairs. But that one was more my fault I guess. I didn't have to... But I did.

After welly we went back to Cambridge area. We stayed in the narrows. Which is a spit of land between Cambridge and the tron.
It had nice grass to lax out in and play the guitar. Loved it. thats all I have to say for now. I have the weekend off, so Be seeing you around probably.

To work, to leave.

The English camp went well. Every now and again, me, Franks, and Jesses, lesson would bomb, but thats to be expected. So I didn't get to cut up about it. We were in charge of the Drama station (One of the many stations at the english camp, all of which were planned and operated by us gappers.)
I have to say, that most of the time It didn't look like drama at all. But thats fine. We still had a wail of a time. At the end we were all acuosted by every single girl at the camp. And I swear I signed a million books and stuff. by the end of it I was like, Ok screw pictures now, Im over camera phones, Im over cameras, Im over portraits painted in seconds (That last one didn't actually exist.)
That night we celebrated with the teachers, so out came the Karakoe machine and the alcohol, Which they got smashed on, while we sung our hearts out. Bohemian Rhapsody FTW*.
The next night we showed our appreciation to The Ngao Hostel. The leadership decided that a bit of spontanious "Gender Roll" switching would be in order. So guys were in charge of making salads, while girls were gonna do the firewood for the bomb fire. I wasn't pleased at all with this. But it didn't matter in the end. Because we all helped each other out anyway and.. *looks around carefully*.. The guys carried most of the firewood anyway. lol
The next day we headed back to Chang Mai (Where the Juniper tree is) and stayed at this trendy hotel thing with a pool. But I didn't get to see much of it, because who did I find sitting by the pool with 3 kids? John and Bex! Woot. So I got to see my nephew and nieces again. Its the first time in my life I have met Baby Sarah.
We hung out, had dinner at this american place (Kinda expensive) met some Burmese friends of theirs who worked at the night markets. Funnily enough they thought because I was related I could speak Burmese, Fortunatly I could speak a little Thai to them. anyway we got a Dvd, took it home and watched it before leaving for the hotel and crashing.
After a quick session at the Net cafe the next day we packed our junk, went to the airport and got frisked.. Because Peaky had a BB gun. -_-
We zoomed over to Bangkok airport, spent an hour walking to the next terminal (I swear that airport is the size of Hamilton)
We then shot over Australia and landed in the Auckland terminal.

Thailand experience... OVER.

Boy, our airport seems so scary in comparison. Police standing at the entrance of the plane (As if we would suddenly snap and kill everyone on New Zealand soil or something)
Not to mention our airport looks like it was originally meant to be a hospital or something. So depressing.
I had my welcoming party of Steven and Trisha, Zara, Phil, Sarah, and Aimee. Yay, thanks guys.
The rest of the day was still packed, hanging out, then going to a philipeans meeting. Yea thats right. My overseas invasion isn't over for the year yet kids.
I then crashed and didn't wake up till 2 in the afternoon the next day. Jet lag 1, Izak, nill.

Wake me up when September ends

hey ya'll, Were back In Ngao, where we taught at the High school and...

Yes Mat, I know I got daily fourth for the toon . Pretty awesome huh? Thats better than what some front page cartoons get. ah well, It didn't quite have the right taste to make it to front page. But it was such a quick project it didn't really deserve to make it any higher.
(Lol, I spelt your name with one T, for old times sake... To rark you up. I mean, Its not as if your name hasn't been shortened already, why not shorten it a bit more.. Or even shorten it again. Your name is now M, and you are now eligible to join a secret service of some type.)

But yes anyway, back in ngao, but now our teams double the size and we no longer have Mark and Ema. Sniff. We'll miss you guys. Probably the best rollmodels ever. If you guys wanna meet Mark I suggest you go cause some havok and get arrested. He'll be the one visiting you when you call and say your having a domestic. If its not him the first time just call again. Luck of the draw and all that.

The Phili team reunited with us wednesday last week. They took the night train like we did. Except that this time the night train couldn't make it up the hill. So it rolled backwards for a while. Making a delay of a few hours. So im guessing they rolled backwards back to Bangkok or something. XD
The night before we were like, meh, I don't really care if we meet up again. But by the next day we were all fidgity, and every time a car went past the Juniper tree we would all look up quickly, and then drop our heads in dissappointment for the millionth time.
Its been good seeing everyone again.
At the moment we're all preparing for the english camp which starts tomorrow. 6 lessons tomorrow. 300 kids in total at the camp. 2 days. Now the two days part isn't so good. They had budget issues. But also I think the authorities caught wind of who we actually are, and so their limiting our capacity to work now.

So keep praying for our final days here in Thailand. Thankyou...

*Feverishly runs off to do a as of yet non existant news letter that was due this morning.*

Summer time and the living is busy

So we left our cushy teaching positions of paper pushing and brain press ups to the real deal. Manual labour, probably the first decent batch of hard work we have had all year. Finally, something that doesn't involve planning and reading. Although those are fun.


We mished it to Chang Rai, which shouldnt be confused with Chang Mai, which is where the Juniper tree is. Chang Rai is about as close as you can get to Burma without getting shot. In the space of about 5 minutes we made it into Burmese waters (I refuse to say we were in Burma, water just does not count, try starting a civilization on water. Waterworld being the exception, but thats cause they had nowhere else to go. So for the record I haven't been to burma, and neither has the rest of the team, so when the thailand team tells you we went to three countries in one day just slap them and say that water doesnt count.) three countries you say bemusedly? Yes, Laos was also right there, the three countries all meet at the fork in a river, which consequently runs through China as well. We spent about an hour on Laos, they seem to deal mostly in Vodka pickled snakes. I think its meant to improve how verile you are. Or how much a tourist is willing to pay for a poisones pest sitting in a bottle of vodka. No. I didn't buy one.

So on my birthday I got to visit two and a half countries. well, when I say visit for Thaialand I really mean spend three more weeks in. So in actual fact I got to visit 1.5 countries on my birthday. In fact I cant even legally say I even set foot on Laos. So I actually Visited .7 countries on my birthday... Ok thats just rediculious, Ill stop there.

My birthday was alright, although it was mostly spent in travel to Chang Rai. The team still managed to suprise me with an upside down cake.. It wasnt actually meant to be upside down, its just the way it came out after a few hours travel. But that didn't stop it from tasting alright. And over the day I got given a few bottles of death syrup (AKA, fizzy drink)

Also we got to visit the white palace. Its amazing, until you realize that in buddhist culture it all represents hell. Poetic and grotesque. Inside the main hall is a huge painting, which is still being worked on, its done in a traditional style, but interlaced into it is guns, starwars characters, bombs, Neo, Alien, sexual stuff, Predator, oil fields and other blatantly western things. And up the top are two eyes. If you look closely you can see George bush in one eye and Osama in the other. Haunting, but at least now I have a good excuse to not wear white.



Now I started talking about building, yea, I did that to. Lol. We spent most of the week helping to build a rabbit hutch. Its going to be used for a breeding program, The christian organization we were working with wants to make hilltribes self suffisient, and not having to rely upon drugs and prostitution. They are bringing over NZ rabbits, which are apparently very plump for eating, sorry Bex, they eat rabbits, not pet them and give them wack names. But Like most New Zealanders the wee jumpy things have problems with the weather, so they need a cooler shed than most other animals so they can multiply properly.

Man im tired of writing, Ill finish this later.

Sorry for the lack of updating. Lets just say its a gauge of how busy/how much life I have at the moment. Im gonna try and split the updates into weeks. so heres the first.

week 7(?) we spent in Ngao. pronounced "now" which made for quite a few cheap jokes for the here and NOW. woa. that one still sucks. Ah well. Better luck next time huh.
Last I left off I was freaking out about teaching. Well it wasnt so bad. Because I got Jo. So she talked, I drew like a mad man on that board. Our first lesson was pretty hilarious. The board had scrawls all over it, and we were furiously rubbing out what we had just written up and woa.
One thing about schools in Thailand. In NZ we are coming to realize that the education system is more suited to females. Well Apparantly they realized this many years ago here in Thailand. In an average class there is usually about 3 guys in a class of 30 or 40. Two of those guys are most likely lady boys. Meaning they realized they were out numbered so they decided that if you cant beat them you may as well join them.

The Hostel we stayed with were really awesome. They are actually closely linked with the first hostel we stayed with in Bangkok. A lot of the guys from Bangkok actually started off at this one. Each night we would do a worship service. The hostel guys would just rock out. and all the songs would be uber awesome. Albet garage band sounding. But fun none the less. I got to learn a few songs. And we would jam out all the time. Since leaving I have been craving a guitar. Ah well. We'll be going back on our last week for english camp. So it should be swell to hang out with em all again.
On one of our last days we had an NZ birthday style day of games and stuff. I got to make the kiwi for pin the beak on the Kiwi. lol. but the best part was when we started a water fight, which then turned into a mudfight, because not long after the water fight started, the rain decided to have a go (And ultimatly won) and the mud also came along for the show. Although it felt like I was actually pelting Terresa and Grace with gravel rather than mud. Ah well. Its not cheating if they don't catch you.

the Primary goal

Last week we were hanging out in the Juniper tree. Nice resort place for burnt out missionaries, as it likes to be described. Its more like a private club, but thankfully their nice people, so the little gappers were aloud in. Oh yea, the train trip was aight. We had beds that popped out of the walls and stuff. It was awesome. Although the sleep was pretty bad. Bumping around and just in general not being able to sleep.



We have been hanging out with a primary school in chang Mai. Twas a fun place. Me and Jess got the little little ones. One the last day we took them to the Zoo. So much fun. I got designated leader of our small group, so they push me and Jo out into the Zoo with a hastely nabbed map to get a bunch of little kids. My basic leadership model was to look at the map thoughtfully for a while then point in the direction and say "PANDAAAAAAAA." where the kids would follow suit and go chasing off in the right direction. I was a bit gutted we didnt get to see the panda in the end. Ah well, we got to see a show with the seals. and another wildlife show. Where parrots climbed ladders and went down flying foxes and did in general, un birdy type things. Oh yea, there was an eagle who did two reggle swoops over the crowd then stollidly decided it didnt want to move any more, and just sat on its roost and eyed small childrens, uh, eyes?

J had his 20th on the 30th. We blind folded him and took him into town to have big icecream.. Then we went home and ate icecream.. Then we had icecream for breakfast.

Today we went to the school we were teaching at today, not knowing ANYTHING. We had little to no teaching plans laid out or anything. Thankfully God heard my prayer this morning and they let us skip out on our classes, Were going hard tomorrow though. Good thing, Jo and me are teaching together this time around and this morning she was just so wasted. No one slept good last night. I Swear we wandered into a bugtopia or something. Zac keeps finding massive spiders and I got a firefly in our room last night. I was so amazed, I had to wake the guys up "look look look look, check it out isnt it awesome!" And then Zac got a toad in his bag this morning, it jumped out while he was getting junk out.

ooooooooooooooh k, gotta go.