Sleepover!

On Saturday night we had a sleepover! Erin invited us to join her for a party and sleepover with the kids at her Burmese migrants school not far from our guesthouse. We played around with the kids for a long time, then had a meal of rice noodles with spicy sauce from some kind of fish and and veggies and stuff, then marshmallows to roast on the bonfire! Finally, the younger kids got toothbrushes and toothpaste and went home. Then about 15 or so of the kids around age 8+ watched School of Rock with us before we all went to sleep on the floor. Just before bed, as I sat outside talking to one of the two other Westerners staying the night, staring up at the stars in the night sky, we saw a plane which we originally thought was a shooting star or something. Then, right as we had noticed its flashing lights, just to the left of it in the sky we saw a meteor streak through the sky! It was a very clearly orange ball of fire with trailing tail of smoke. So cool!

Here are some photos from the night. The stuff on many people's faces is thanaka. It's traditional for Burmese women and children of both sexes to have thanaka on their face pretty much every day. It's made from sandalwood and apparently keeps their skin very smooth and nice.











"You put your left hand in." Erin leading the kids in a round of the hokey pokey.





Hong Sar providing the musical accompaniment:




Some of the students took turns taking care of April, who was featured in a previous post on the 16th.










I met Matt last week and he joined us for part of the evening at the school. The kids loved him of course.














Roasting marshmallows:




He doesn't actually know how to play, but he still does a great job and sings with a lot of gusto!




Toothbrush and toothpaste distribution:




Up just after 6am! Just before I headed home after 7am, got my standard flag photo. The Thai national and royal flags are found all over this country.




The school is called Good Morning School. Who would have guessed...




In the afternoon I rented two motorcycles, one for me and one for Hong Sar ($5 for 24 hrs), and we took Claire and Rachel on a trip to the two dams outside town. We also taught them how to drive motorcycles!

Looking west from atop the dam:




Looking north along the top of the dam:




Posing for the camera:




Across the water:




Learning:




Sunset approaching:




On our way home we stopped to take this photo as the palm tree was perfectly positioned!




And Hong Sar took a short vid that shows me driving in a straight line. Not impressive or anything, but it wasn't convenient to film when we were offroading on the bikes.





And that was another weekend in Mae Sot!