Live Simply, Think Richly

-There's already so much on my heart.

-I feel like I've known Tete my whole life. (I will devote words upon words to her in future posts. Keep checking back here; she's worth it.)

-The ride up here was, umm, interesting. I made the mistake of writing in the car as Tete's wisdom went out of her mouth and into my Moleskine. So when we left the city and drove through the up & down, side to side contour of the mountains, YIKES. No, I didn't throw up. But I finally forced myself to sleep right as we hit the dirt road, which = BUMPYYY. So then we arrived & I got my first look of Musekee through my blurry eyes. And I thought, "Whoa."

-It's beautiful here. We were literally driving through clouds on our way up. I felt like an angel! (Haha) It's difficult to encapsulate this atmosphere in words. I'll upload pictures soon and post a link of the albums so you can picture yourself here with me. :)

-The HRDC is a huge organization. I'm staying at the 'main' site, which is where the children are. The children are Karen people (the Karen tribe originated in Burma--people here still call it 'Burma', so I will too--and then some of them migrated to Northern Thailand), and so they speak the Karen language. Some of them are orphans, some have a family that can't take care of them, and some are here because their village cannot provide an education.


The Karen people live simply but think richly. The world would be at peace if more people lived like them.


-The kids all learn Thai and English at school, and they are just incredible in general. They cook their own meals over a fire & just have the intelligence and life skills that's way beyond their years. There is so so so much more to say, but I'm going to wait until I can support my words with pictures. :)

-I just finished helping a girl, Pensin, with her English homework. She just knocked on my door & we sat down together on the floor. And used a lot of hand gestures. :) They're doing a unit on Neighbourhoods & Neighbours. (Yes, British English.) She had a bunch of reading passages with multiple choice questions and matching exercises. Like this: "What is your favorite thing in your room?" Or "What is the first thing your mom says when she walks into your bedroom?" Or "Do you like your next door neighbour?" ALL the questions were completely unrelatable to this poor girl, as she shares a room with many other girls, her mom doesn't live with her, and she doesn't have any next door neighbors. Yikes.

-There is so much to update you on already (including my room & bathroom...I feel like a mountain woman!), and I'll do my best in the coming days.