October 21, 2005

Dear Folks,

Watching CNN these days brings news of the impending storm, Wilma, which is set to hit Florida on Monday (Thai time), they say. My thoughts and prayers go out to those folks in the path of yet another terrible weather disaster. Since the tsunami last December there has been one disaster after another, each causing so many lives and loves lost. I am thankful for all the aid organizations—and that includes churches—that are able to help at these times. When two fighting groups are able to forget their problems and help, as they have in the Asia storm, I am encouraged.

Our school year has been interrupted three times due to the flooding of the Ping River here. The school is just a block away from the river and is on low ground. Fortunately, water only got into two lower rooms, the cafeteria, and the auditorium. But cleaning up three times was a lot of hard work for our workers. A total of nine days of school were missed, so now decisions are being made about make-up days.

The First Thai Church is just across the street from the river, and its grounds and lower buildings were flooded every time. They too received help from the government. Through all of this, folks continued to smile. We felt very lucky for the mildness of our troubles. The rainy season is coming to a close and the cool season will soon begin. I am more thankful for any dry stretch than I ever was.

The addition of seventeen new teachers from Great Britain, Australia, and the United States has gone pretty well. The new counselor did not work out and resigned early this month, but the others are settling in just fine. All but one have had previous teaching experience. They seem to enjoy living in Thailand and love the food as well as the work at hand. It takes a while for us to get to know each other, but as we work together it happens little by little. Keep us in your prayers.

My teaching assignment changed this year from half-day kindergarten to a full-day program. It was up to me to set it up and then make it work. I got on line to find all I could absorb on the subject and talked to a lot of parents and a few kindergarten teachers. Then felt ready to do what I felt was best for our 5-year-olds. I am pleased to report that all seems to be going well. I have a mature class ready to cooperate, and that is a great help. I will meet with parents after the fall break and will hear how they are feeling about it. This year’s class of 17 includes students from Japan, Korea, Germany, Great Britain, Thailand, and America. Five are children of mission workers. Two have no English and several have very little. Among the group is my granddaughter Siree—and that’s fun.

Bird Flu seems to be the big issue here right now. I am hoping that we in Thailand can stay calm and trust the researchers and scientists to come up with what is needed to deal with this.

Thanks for your continued support.

Peace to you and yours,

Michal Dobson