This morning Jenny needed to get her visa so that she could go into Laos for a month and she didn't want to go alone so we both went. It was a long taxi ride but she was able to get her visa within an hour so it was worth it. The cab ride was very cold though. I used to find air conditioning in vehicles refreshing but now I'm getting used to the heat and I'm sometimes too cold on air conditioned buses and in taxis (and even sometimes when the air-con is on in the apartment). I was even somewhat cold out side the other day.... well not cold but it felt cool to me. Weird. When I come back to Canada I'll have to wear many sweaters and a parka all the time.

Jenny has been volunteering at the YWCA with the preschool daycare in the mornings and since I had the day off I went with her to play with the kids. These were the sweetest kids, they loved to be held and thrown around and some of them just wanted to be hugged. The little boy in today's picture is actually a very quite shy seeming boy but he would sometimes come and sit on my lap. He doesn't run as fast as the other kids do (I'm guessing because of his bowed legs) and I think he sort of hangs back with strangers, however, after a while he became more daring and friendly. He was really interested in the digital camera. There was another little boy that I made friends with who was also interested in the camera. This second boy would sit on my lap and wrap my arms around him and try to get me to hug him really tight and when my arms loosened he'd grab them again and pull them tight once more. The daycare children are very sweet but also very sad, they all seem to come from families who have a difficult time. The little boy who wanted all the hugs was blind in one eye and was very emotionally sensitive. There were other kids that just cried all the time. It was very heart breaking but they just wanted love. Even though it was the only time I'd been there they were crawling all over me giving me hugs and sitting on my lap. I think if I can I will try to go back to see them.

In the afternoon Jenny volunteers at a home for girls who used to be prostitutes or who are from trafficking families. She teaches the girls english so that they can go out and get a job that will help them to live a healthy life style. I didn't, however, attend the afternoon with her as I have been trying to work on a proposal for a junior youth leadership club for the school that I'm working at (since I'll be working with junior youth there starting in May). It was a good think that I went home too because I was as one inspired and wrote the entire proposal in one sitting complete with examples and possible activities. I think it turned out pretty well. I also was able to talk to one of my friends via msn which was really nice.

When Jenny got home she needed to pick up her train ticket at the station so that she would have a way out of town on Saturday night. Once again I took the adventure with her because she didn't want to go alone. Admittedly I didn't want to go on this adventure and perhaps shouldn't have because I was really frustrated with my shirt (it's gotten a bit stretched out of shape and I have no access to a dryer to shrink it at all) and I was a bit frustrated with Jenny running ahead through busy traffic leaving me stranded on the other side of the road (sound familiar Mattea?). I have had this difficulty with Mattea many times before and so tried not to be frustrated but I was putting so much effort into not being frustrated that I was really silent which I think annoyed Jenny and made her think I was angry anyway. We pretty much spend the rest of the evening not talking even though we attended devotionals together as well as dinner. Hopefully this weird funk between us passes by morning, I hate going to bed when I have tension with someone and it's even worse when people wake up still upset.

I made available some other pictures on flickr of some of the kids from YWCA this morning. There are two of the hugging boy and I've titled it so that there isn't any confusion as to who he is.