Uncle Sam’s last night. :(
The kids sang him a goodbye song, just as they sang us a welcome song on our first night. I almost cried; I couldn’t imagine leaving the kids. So I’m glad I’m coming back. PHEW. Two girls shared, thanking Uncle Sam for the origami (Saksiy) and for reminding them to close the lid of the pot while cooking (a girl). They gave some incredibly heart-felt words, and the girl said (in Karen): Even though we speak different languages, God hears us.
I taught them a song tonight; that’s always so much fun to do. Afterwards, Tete mentioned how we’re heading to Chiang-Mai, and she asked the kids what they’d like from there. Songs with motions. Hehe. And sweet curry chicken. Tete asked for the recipe, but the girls said, “We’ve never had it before!! We just saw it on TV & it looks so good!”
I figured out one of the more pleasant sounds that I’ve been hearing at night. It sounds like a wooden mallet hitting a piece of wood. I finally connected the sound with its real image when we passed by a small herd of cows. They’re always wandering around, and they have these things around their neck. Cowbell. :)
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Cock-a-doodle-UGHHH
I woke up & wished myself a happy 4th of July.
Then I went down to the little building where the kids have their meals, hang out, and watch TV (yes, there's a TV!)...and here I am now. I'm watching the kids watch the TV load from 1%-100%. Thrilling.
I fell asleep last night to singing. One of the girl dorms (they call it a "hostel" here, but I prefer "dorm"...I have too many bad memories from the one hostel I stayed at in Copenhagen) stayed up singing & praising. Beautiful. Joining the everpresent cricket & bird choir. :)
But I woke up to a cock-a-doodle-doo. I counted 50 of them before I stopped counting. And each "cock-a-doodle-doo" was echoed back by animal voices all around. Pretty cool, but not at 5am!
I mentioned to Tete how today's our independence day, and she marveled at how the British had its presence EVERYWHERE. Burma & Thailand (her connections), America (me), and Hong Kong (Uncle Sam). Interesting.
Then I went down to the little building where the kids have their meals, hang out, and watch TV (yes, there's a TV!)...and here I am now. I'm watching the kids watch the TV load from 1%-100%. Thrilling.
I fell asleep last night to singing. One of the girl dorms (they call it a "hostel" here, but I prefer "dorm"...I have too many bad memories from the one hostel I stayed at in Copenhagen) stayed up singing & praising. Beautiful. Joining the everpresent cricket & bird choir. :)
But I woke up to a cock-a-doodle-doo. I counted 50 of them before I stopped counting. And each "cock-a-doodle-doo" was echoed back by animal voices all around. Pretty cool, but not at 5am!
I mentioned to Tete how today's our independence day, and she marveled at how the British had its presence EVERYWHERE. Burma & Thailand (her connections), America (me), and Hong Kong (Uncle Sam). Interesting.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Blessed Are the Meek
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (I think that's right...right?)
We took a walk around the village today, and Tete shared the stories behind each building and garden. She also shared the dreams of the HRDC. Land is always an issue, as it costs money and usually already belongs to someone. But everything on earth belongs to God. It's not ours to fight over (some countries should remember this) or to worry about not having enough of it. Because it's not ours. Never was. Never will be. Someone far greater made it, and it's here for us to enjoy it and to cultivate it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I forgot to mention, the staff loved all the pens, laptops, and toys. I wish you could've seen their faces light up & let out their child-like squeals; it was wonderful. Even the smallest things had some sort of significance. Tete saw a toy truck, flipped the "on" switch, and the 4 wheels just roared with quick spins. Uncle Sam joked, "It's 4 wheel drive!" And Tete said this is the exact truck that they need. She'll put the truck on the shelf of the office, praying that they'll be provided with a real one soon. Who would've thought? It was quite a sight seeing all these things sprawled out. Truly heart-warming & totally worth the extra weight in my suitcases.
Right now, I'm writing from under my mosquito net. I've got four walls and a ceiling, with the occasional gap between the wood boards. Fresh air. :) I'm in the middle of God's creation, serenaded by a lovely chorus of ANIMALS. Animals everywhere. I turned on my computer, so I'm taking this time to Moleskine my day as the computer powers up. It's almost too beautiful for writing. I feel like I'm just supposed to lay here and enjoy. But I've gotta find some easy worship songs to teach the kids for tomorrow, so I'm reliant on technology, unfortunately.
It's pure joy here. Goodnight.
We took a walk around the village today, and Tete shared the stories behind each building and garden. She also shared the dreams of the HRDC. Land is always an issue, as it costs money and usually already belongs to someone. But everything on earth belongs to God. It's not ours to fight over (some countries should remember this) or to worry about not having enough of it. Because it's not ours. Never was. Never will be. Someone far greater made it, and it's here for us to enjoy it and to cultivate it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I forgot to mention, the staff loved all the pens, laptops, and toys. I wish you could've seen their faces light up & let out their child-like squeals; it was wonderful. Even the smallest things had some sort of significance. Tete saw a toy truck, flipped the "on" switch, and the 4 wheels just roared with quick spins. Uncle Sam joked, "It's 4 wheel drive!" And Tete said this is the exact truck that they need. She'll put the truck on the shelf of the office, praying that they'll be provided with a real one soon. Who would've thought? It was quite a sight seeing all these things sprawled out. Truly heart-warming & totally worth the extra weight in my suitcases.
Right now, I'm writing from under my mosquito net. I've got four walls and a ceiling, with the occasional gap between the wood boards. Fresh air. :) I'm in the middle of God's creation, serenaded by a lovely chorus of ANIMALS. Animals everywhere. I turned on my computer, so I'm taking this time to Moleskine my day as the computer powers up. It's almost too beautiful for writing. I feel like I'm just supposed to lay here and enjoy. But I've gotta find some easy worship songs to teach the kids for tomorrow, so I'm reliant on technology, unfortunately.
It's pure joy here. Goodnight.
Walking on H2O
Walking on H2O
We have our meals in this open porch-like area. There’s a door to the kitchen, and a door to the area where Tete & her husband stay. No windows. Just fresh air. After eating, Tanin & Akhom usually go off and do the next activity with the kids or whatever crazy thing that’s on the agenda. Tete, Uncle Sam & I are left at the table, and we talk. About everything. Even though we’re in the jungle (essentially), the people know a heck of a lot about the world. But those of us living in the biggest cities in the world don’t know much about the rest of it, do we?
So today after breakfast, we talked about Michael Jackson. Now, everyone has their own take on him and are interested in different facets of his life. Tete talked about the orphanage he supported & how he would borrow money from the government to fund the orphanage & pay the debt back with his performance profit. Whoa. Another aspect of MJ, I guess. Not the first thing that comes to my mind, though!
We spent the morning at the hospital. Tete has been having chest pains (pray for her!), so we went with her to her check-up. The Thai government recently built this hospital, and it’s quite a sight! You take off your shoes at the ‘entrance’, which is this open area with no doors. Really. And when a stretcher needs to go through the lobby, you’ve gotta push back the rows of chairs so it can pass through. But a hospital is a hospital, which is a great luxury to have. (I’ll post a picture of the dog that was roaming around INSIDE!)
Uncle Sam & I spent the afternoon teaching origami & playing games with the kids. Origami=great idea! Apparently Uncle Sam got the idea when he went backpacking in Nepal & visited an orphanage there; some Japanese girl brought paper & the kids had a ball. Same with Musekee. Origami is a universal language. :) One boy, Saksiy, is AMAZING. Like, he kept asking to do more & more things until Uncle Sam finally went and got the origami book he checked out from the library. Bright kid. Sweet kid, too. But Uncle Sam thinks this kid’s name is “Sexy”, and being the exuberant man he is, every time he sees Saksiy he says, “Are you Sexy?? Huh? Sexy?!!”
OYE.
The story of Peter walking on water came into conversation today. Peter walked on water. It’s not an ordinary feat, and he was doing just great. But we all know what happened: he sunk. Why? 1. Maybe he had fear. He looked around & saw the vast ocean with no land in sight. 2. Maybe it was pride. He was walking on H2O after all! You don’t need a Jesus if you can walk on water. But both 1. & 2. are wrong!
Think about it.
We have our meals in this open porch-like area. There’s a door to the kitchen, and a door to the area where Tete & her husband stay. No windows. Just fresh air. After eating, Tanin & Akhom usually go off and do the next activity with the kids or whatever crazy thing that’s on the agenda. Tete, Uncle Sam & I are left at the table, and we talk. About everything. Even though we’re in the jungle (essentially), the people know a heck of a lot about the world. But those of us living in the biggest cities in the world don’t know much about the rest of it, do we?
So today after breakfast, we talked about Michael Jackson. Now, everyone has their own take on him and are interested in different facets of his life. Tete talked about the orphanage he supported & how he would borrow money from the government to fund the orphanage & pay the debt back with his performance profit. Whoa. Another aspect of MJ, I guess. Not the first thing that comes to my mind, though!
We spent the morning at the hospital. Tete has been having chest pains (pray for her!), so we went with her to her check-up. The Thai government recently built this hospital, and it’s quite a sight! You take off your shoes at the ‘entrance’, which is this open area with no doors. Really. And when a stretcher needs to go through the lobby, you’ve gotta push back the rows of chairs so it can pass through. But a hospital is a hospital, which is a great luxury to have. (I’ll post a picture of the dog that was roaming around INSIDE!)
Uncle Sam & I spent the afternoon teaching origami & playing games with the kids. Origami=great idea! Apparently Uncle Sam got the idea when he went backpacking in Nepal & visited an orphanage there; some Japanese girl brought paper & the kids had a ball. Same with Musekee. Origami is a universal language. :) One boy, Saksiy, is AMAZING. Like, he kept asking to do more & more things until Uncle Sam finally went and got the origami book he checked out from the library. Bright kid. Sweet kid, too. But Uncle Sam thinks this kid’s name is “Sexy”, and being the exuberant man he is, every time he sees Saksiy he says, “Are you Sexy?? Huh? Sexy?!!”
OYE.
The story of Peter walking on water came into conversation today. Peter walked on water. It’s not an ordinary feat, and he was doing just great. But we all know what happened: he sunk. Why? 1. Maybe he had fear. He looked around & saw the vast ocean with no land in sight. 2. Maybe it was pride. He was walking on H2O after all! You don’t need a Jesus if you can walk on water. But both 1. & 2. are wrong!
Think about it.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
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.
-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.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Cinnamon Rolls??
Bangkok Airport.
We're sitting here, waiting to board the plane to Chiang-Mai. Uncle Sam's telling me how this airport is new. But when they opened it, it was so unorganized that people had no clue where to check in. Ha. And the floors had a shiny, mirroresque quality. So depending on what type of girl you are, you chose to either wear a skirt or pants to the airport. I think I'd wear pants. :)
There was an ever-present smell of cinnamon rolls on our flight here; we never got any. So it just made it weird to eat peanuts while smelling cinnamon rolls.
Uncle Sam's carry-ons got checked by security. The lady dug & dug & dug through all the neatly packed toys until she finally unearthed a sword (I took a picture of its exquisite plastic-ness and stickers). The whole security area had a big laugh about it while Uncle Sam got slightly upset that the lady broke his helicopter. Now it won't fly. Hopefully nothing like this happens to our airplane...
We're sitting here, waiting to board the plane to Chiang-Mai. Uncle Sam's telling me how this airport is new. But when they opened it, it was so unorganized that people had no clue where to check in. Ha. And the floors had a shiny, mirroresque quality. So depending on what type of girl you are, you chose to either wear a skirt or pants to the airport. I think I'd wear pants. :)
There was an ever-present smell of cinnamon rolls on our flight here; we never got any. So it just made it weird to eat peanuts while smelling cinnamon rolls.
Uncle Sam's carry-ons got checked by security. The lady dug & dug & dug through all the neatly packed toys until she finally unearthed a sword (I took a picture of its exquisite plastic-ness and stickers). The whole security area had a big laugh about it while Uncle Sam got slightly upset that the lady broke his helicopter. Now it won't fly. Hopefully nothing like this happens to our airplane...
Herro!
There's free Wi-Fi in the Hong Kong airport. This is my favorite airport in the world. Why? Just come here & see for yourself.
Sorry in advance for the typos. I've got a serious case of the shakes! (This is a symptom that is often felt by people who haven't had their Diet Coke or coffee fix for the day, ha.) I'm blaming it on the jetlag, as I've already had coffee today (& five cups of tea, but who's counting?).
I'm sitting across from Uncle Sam (my dad's brother #2) at the airport. He's typing away on his laptop (which has a Donald Duck sticker, a star sticker, and a cloud sticker on the cover...seriously), and I'm blogging from my laptop (which has a lot of scratches and took 10 minutes to power up...seriously). We're waiting to board the plane to Bangkok, where we'll connect to Chiang-Mai. Then Tete ("Tay-Tay") will pick us up to take us to the HRDC.
Here's my list of "Things That Amaze Me":
1. The girl sitting next to me on the plane to HK only went to the bathroom once. I went about five times. (I've got the smallest bladder in the world, but I'm very good at holding it in when I need to.)
2. My uncles. Uncle #2 (Sam) and Uncle #4 amassed a big box of toys & money to bring to the Thailand kids. As they are both childless, they asked all their friends to donate toys; they donated the money. So, along with helping me with my two suitcases, Uncle Sam's been carrying around this box of toys. They also went out of their way to make my stay in Thailand more comfortable, which lifts some weights off my shoulders. Uncle #2's also accompanying me to the HRDC and will be staying until July 6th. :)
Alright, time to board.
Sorry in advance for the typos. I've got a serious case of the shakes! (This is a symptom that is often felt by people who haven't had their Diet Coke or coffee fix for the day, ha.) I'm blaming it on the jetlag, as I've already had coffee today (& five cups of tea, but who's counting?).
I'm sitting across from Uncle Sam (my dad's brother #2) at the airport. He's typing away on his laptop (which has a Donald Duck sticker, a star sticker, and a cloud sticker on the cover...seriously), and I'm blogging from my laptop (which has a lot of scratches and took 10 minutes to power up...seriously). We're waiting to board the plane to Bangkok, where we'll connect to Chiang-Mai. Then Tete ("Tay-Tay") will pick us up to take us to the HRDC.
Here's my list of "Things That Amaze Me":
1. The girl sitting next to me on the plane to HK only went to the bathroom once. I went about five times. (I've got the smallest bladder in the world, but I'm very good at holding it in when I need to.)
2. My uncles. Uncle #2 (Sam) and Uncle #4 amassed a big box of toys & money to bring to the Thailand kids. As they are both childless, they asked all their friends to donate toys; they donated the money. So, along with helping me with my two suitcases, Uncle Sam's been carrying around this box of toys. They also went out of their way to make my stay in Thailand more comfortable, which lifts some weights off my shoulders. Uncle #2's also accompanying me to the HRDC and will be staying until July 6th. :)
Alright, time to board.
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