Tanin & Akhom

Last night, I shared my story. The kids have "Worship" after dinner every night, where they meet in this big room and spend time together. One kid leads worship each day, which is incredible. They do the Korean-style praying, and their hearts are totally in it. Completely.

There are two full-time staff workers for the kids--Tanin & Akhom. They're on 24/7. I don't know how they do it. The other day, Tanin asked if I would share something with the kids. He wants to practice translating & also wants the kids to get to know me better. It was fun. I'll probably be speaking to the kids about twice a week with my trusty translator. :)

But seriously. Tanin & Akhom. They're not much older than me, but they're essentially raising 45 kids. Ahkom really wants to go to college, and he's hoping that Tete will be able to find someone/people to support him. They wake up when the kids wake up (5:30am...I guess this is when I wake up too), help serve breakfast, work in the fields/just do work in general, play with the kids, love the kids. And Tanin's enrolled in college right now, doing a lot of computer homework and taking the occasional online test. WOW.

Uncle Sam & I helped out with the dinner preparations. He helped the girls prepare the big pot of food, and we both helped serve the rice & meat/veggies/whatever it was on their aluminum plates. It was fun. :)

"Tuh soy". My new favorite phrase. One of the girls, Waraporn, taught it to me today. We all speak different languages, but it's so cool how you don't necessarily need words to grow close to people. You don't need words to love someone. And you don't need words to be loved by someone. So we went around saying "tuh soy" as fast as we could & as many times as possible.

It means, "You are beautiful."