Traveling the World

Hey ya'all!! I'm traveling the world! That's right, I'll be traveling until June 7th when I head back to The States! Traveling is going to be a blast, but I can't wait to be home, I miss everyone! Anyways, just wanted to let you know my traveling schedule:

April 27th-May 2nd: Phuket, Thailand
May 3rd- May 5th: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
May 5th- May 8th: Singapore
May 8th- May 14th: Darwin, Australia
May 14th- May 19th: Sydney, Australia
May 19th- May 24th: Wellington, New Zealand
May 24th- May 27th: Greymouth, New Zealand- Hiking the Franz Josef Glacier :)
May 27th- May 29th: Christchurch, New Zealand
May 30th- June 2nd: Angkor Watt, Cambodia
June 2nd- June 7th: Bangkok, Thailand
June 7th: Flying back to good ol' America!
June 8th: Morning flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix!!

Anyways, I'm going to try and write blogs of my travels if I get time, so keep checking every once in a while if you get time :) Can't wait to see you all!!

No more English Camps

The week of April 21-26th marked my last week at Agape and my last English Camp. English Camp was really fun and a great way to finish my English teaching at Agape. It was funny too because we had a visitor to Agape. His name is Don and he is a supporter of Agape. He wanted to speak to the children, but he doesn't speak Thai and he heard that I can speak a little bit of Thai, so he had me translate for him. I think it was really neat for the kids, because they were able to hear my Thai. I actually did a really good job translating, so if anyone needs a translator I'm your girl :) It's hard to believe that I was already down to my last week. My Thailand journey began on July 24th. I arrived at Agape, and had no idea what the next year of my life was going to look like. I trusted God, but when I arrived at Agape at 5:30 in the morning and was asked to go up in front of the kids and introduce myself, I saw 130 faces staring at me, wondering the same thing as me "What is she going to do?" I told them my name was Andrea and that I was so incredibly happy to be able to be there with them and that I was going to teach them English. It was said like I knew what I was doing, but inside I wondered if I would really be able to teach them English and if I would be able to do a good job and if I would be able to reach them. From that day on, I fell in love with those children more and more every day. I trusted God and somehow I always had something to teach them. I had the opportunity to start my day every day with singing songs with my favorite kids and ended it by going into their rooms every night and telling them "Good night, I love you!" My every day started and ended with these children. As I tried to teach them English, they unknowingly taught me so much more. I learned so much about love, about God and about me. About the person God has created me to be. I learned what's important in life, and it wasn't what I was always putting such an importance on. They taught me true joy, true laughter, and true friendship. These children would come into my room every day just to sit and color and fill my room with their laughter and joy. In the beginning of my time at Agape, the sounds that filled my room would only be in the Thai and Karen languages, and as time went on it began to be filled with the English language. The children's English had improved so much and every time I heard them talk, it made my heart jump. I found lasting brothers and sisters and friends at Agape. The children will forever be a part of my heart. I will miss everything about them. I will miss not going into their rooms and telling them good night, not hearing them running around outside as I try and plan my lessons, their hugs, their kisses and most of all their love all the time.

My last night at Agape was filled with celebrations and tears. The children sang songs that theywrote for me, put on a little show, and gave me gifts that filled my arms tooverflowing. Each gift was a hand-made gift from their hearts that willtouch me forever. All three of us (me, my dad, and Cherise) were given a Karen shirt and skirt that were made by Pastor's wife and the children walked out to us and put them on us as they sang a beautiful song, where they stated they would miss us and would pray for us. As this all happened tears couldn't help but have escaped from my eyes and fall down to thebeautiful clothes that were so lovingly placed on me. I was also able to give the children the gifts that I had made for them (I made them picture frames, that I meticulously decorated with the help of Cherise. A penny was glued on each frame to give them a piece of my home. And I gave each of them some American candy bars because they love them so much) andI sang them the song that I wrote for them. I wrote the song and Teep translated it into Thai for me. I attempted to sing the song in Thai and the children all said they could understand everything I sang :) The children wrote me cards and they were written in English, thanking me for the knowledge that I had given them. It was one of the most rewarding things seeing how well they wrote and spoke in English. It was a night that encompassed a year of my life that I will never forget.

He shot me!

Chiang Mai was a blast! We landed and were greeted by Terra and Teep who picked us up at the airport. They laughed at us because we had our squirt guns strapped to our backpacks and were ready for Sonkran. Chiang Mai is the happening place for celebrating Sonkran. Sonkran is the Thai's celebration of their New Year. On Saturday we started our day with visiting the largest temple in Chiang Mai. We had our squirt guns in hand and we were ready to attack. We had a blast squrting people as they passed and bringing smiles to their faces. Sometimes we'd squirt people and they would have no idea where it came from and they would look up into the sky thinking a bird pooped on them. We'd always crack up. After our visit to the temple, Terra and teep picked us up and we all piled into the back of Teep's cousins truck with huge trash cans full of water, small buckets to toss the water, and our squirt guns. We drove along the canal, where there were so many trucks doing the same thing as us. The street was jam packed and we moved so slow. Some people put large ice cubes in their water and were throwing that at us. It was a blast! We squrited people as they drove by, got splashed with ice cold water, and refilled our water when we ran out from the canals. Sometimes Songtaews (the taxi trucks) would drive by and we would see people sitting in the back behind the protection trying not to get wet. So me and Cherise would jump out, run behind their truck and splash everyone who was sitting inside. It was insane! All around everyone was throwing water at each other, whether from a standing position in front of their shops, on the street, or from their slowly moving truck. I've never had so much fun with a squirt gun before. And every time I would get shot from a squirt gun, I would look up and see a very joyful face and then I would lift up my squirt gun and shoot right back at that joyful face :)

Sabai Dee Laos!

Our last day in Laos was wonderful! We spent our last day just relaxing, which was amazing after a long year of working with the best kids in the world!! Me and Cherise went for a 3 hour massage (which was only 15 American dollars....gotta love Asia :)) and my dad cruised around the city, talking with new people, and enjoying a lovely bowl of soup. We did our last bit of shopping so we could finish up buying our souvenirs for all our lovely family and friends, and then we had our last pizza in Laos for dinner. We had to leave our hotel at 11:30 the next day because our plane was leaving for Chiang Mai at 1:10. We did our last little walk abouts of the city and played with our squirt guns one more time. We became good "squirt gun friends" with a couple of guys who had a little store and we would stand in front of their store with them and squirt the passerby's. It was a blast!! We're really going to miss our new buddies :) We piled into our little Tuk-Tuk that we bargained from 50,000 kip to 20,000 kip and putted our way to the airport. Luang Prabang is a small city so we got to the airport in about ten minutes, unloaded our stuff and piled inside to check in. When we got there, they informed us that our flight was delayed and wasn't leaving until 6:10. We arrived there a little before noon, so now we had 6 hours to kill in the airport. Who knew you could play so many games of cards over the span of 6 hours. The plane finally arrived and we piled into it, looking like hi-jackers with our squirt guns strapped to our backs. They even asked us as we stepped on the airplane if we were thinking about hi-jacking it. It was funny! As the plane began the take-off we looked out at the beautiful city of Luang Prabang, said Sabai Dee (that's good-bye in Laos), and looked forward to our landing in Chiang Mai.

Same Same But Different

It was so wonderful just letting myself wake up when my body said it was time to wake up and not getting up at 5:30. Once we were all awake and ready we walked out of our room and we were greeted with a good morning from the guy the day before that told us his guesthouse had the “best price….really”. We made our way to a restaurant that was serving “American Breakfast”. All 3 of us ordered an American breakfast and enjoyed every bit of it. We finished our breakfast and paid our 34,000 kip each (the conversion was 1 dollar to 8,700 kip….it’s good to be American J) and walked out into the beautiful Laos sun. We walked a bit down the road, looking up at the temples that towered over us and our thoughts were interrupted by a couple from Spain asking us if we wanted to go to the waterfalls today. It was a perfect invite because we didn’t really know where our day would take us, and it worked out great for them too because they needed a couple other people to fill up the tuk-tuk (which is what the little truck taxi’s are called) so they could get a better deal per person. We agreed and we found 3 other people who were from Sweden, so we got an even better deal. We decided to go to Kuang Si Falls, which also had a shelter for the endangered Moon Bears. When we arrived, we made our way around with the couple from Spain- their names were Oscar and Racquel. Oscar had already been to the Falls, so we designated him our tour guide. The Falls were tiered with beautiful limestone deposits everywhere. We walked up and stopped at each of the tiers, that became more and more beautiful. As we made our way up to the very top, there were men making steps out of concrete. We asked if we could write our names in the wet cement and they smiled and told us “dai, dai” (which means “can, can”- they also speak Thai in Laos). Each of us wrote our names and the date, so we will forever be a part of Laos. Then we continued our uphill journey to the top. I have decided that Thai flip-flops are not the best thing to hike in. I ended up just taking them off and hiking barefoot because it was easier. As we climbed to the top, we found a little path (well it wasn’t really a path, we just turned it into a path) that took us to a pool at the very top tier. There were hardly and people there because it was off the path. We cannon-bombed off the rocks into the pool and then rested where the water fell over the edge. It was exhilarating as we lay there, the water rushing over us and falling over 5 stories to the bottom.
We decided we couldn’t stay there forever like we wanted, so we got out and made our trek back up trying not to slip on the rocks (they become a lot more slippery when you’re wet) and walked across the top of the falls and then back down. There was a small wooden railing between us and the bottom, so we gripped it as we slowly walked across the top of the falls. As we walked down we passed by the other tiers and we stopped in the pool with the rope swing that I was wanting to stop at since we saw it at first. I climbed up the tree, reached over the edge, grabbed the rope and stepped back to jump. I didn’t realize how scary it was until I was up at the top having to jump. Everyone down in the water kept encouraging me. It took me about 3 minutes and then I finally went for it. It was a blast! I did it 4 more times…..I couldn’t do it anymore after that because my hands were killing me. I never realized how hard it is to hold yourself up on rope. Racquel took videos of me and they were hilarious! One time it even looked like I walked on the water and then biffed it face first. We saw our friends from Sweden and we all joined back together and headed back to our Tuk-Tuk. As we drove back, we were all immersed in conversation about Borat, as we were deep into laughter we got slammed with water. Right now in Laos and in Thailand they are celebrating their New Year. The way they celebrate is by splashing people with water. So by the time we arrived back into town we were soaked, but we had so much fun! We spent that night shopping in the night market, where you can find the best deals ever and barter with the people selling their things. I am pleased to say that I am an amazing barterer (it probably comes from my cheap dad J). We found some really cute shirts that said “Same Same” on the front and “Different” on the back. In Thailand, and in Laos, everyone always says “same, same” when they’re trying to say similar, so it’s a big joke to say “same, same”. So me and Cherise each bought a “same, same” shirt, but we got different colors. We wore them the next day (because we’re so cool) and everybody kept telling us you guys are “same, same…..but different"

Is it Lao or Laos?

We arrived in Chiang Khong about an hour and a half after we left Baan Immanuel. I tried to sleep on the drive, but it was a curvy, bumpy ride that kept forcing my tired head to hit either the chair in front of me, the window next to me, or Cherise’s shoulder. I finally decided to just stay awake and Cherise and I translated the Thai worship songs that were playing on the radio and sang them with passion and the driver and his friend were just smiling as we sang. When we arrived I’m sure the two guys were relieved because they no longer had to listen to our singing, but my dad was still stuck with our lovely voices as we walked to our boat to take us across the Mekong River to get to Laos (or as the Thai people say, Lao). We piled into the long, wooden boat, with many other foreigners from all around the world, and sat as our boat driver tried 3 times to start the boat. He would start it, we’d move a couple feet and then it would stall- exactly what we pictured our boat would be like to get us to Laos. Five minutes later, we were on the Laos side getting our Laos visas, handing our passports to the border patrol and then waiting for our taxi that took us to the 2 day boat that would bring us to Luang Prabang.
We had no idea what to expect for our boat that would drive us to Luang Prabang. It was longer than our first boat, but still wooden and creaky and the fumes that emitted from the engine were enough to make you want to jump over the side for some fresh air. We sat on wooden benches that could barely fit two people, with small cushions on them- which didn’t even help once your butt was completely numb anyways. The first boat ride was 8 hours and had us moving from the seat to the ground to standing to try to get the feeling back into our butts. We stayed that first night in Pakbeng- a small village on the way to Luang Prabang. We had a cute little guesthouse and we spent the night playing card games on our balcony and watching the locals as they went about their normal business. There is a large French influence in Laos, so the architecture was beautiful and at every turn there was a small food stand that sold sandwiches on French baguettes- it was so nice to have an actual sandwich. Our boat left that next morning, and this time we arrived early to try and get good seats. We were so thankful that we did, because this boat actually had seats in the front. There were about ten rows, with two seats on each side. The seats were like bus seats and they reclined. Our butts were very happy that we woke up early. This boat ride was another 8 hours to get us to Luang Prabang where we met really neat people from all around the world (Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Germany, Canada, The States, Italy, Ireland, and more), had wonderful conversations, and filled up our time with more card games. Even though our seats were more comfortable, we were so glad when we saw the town of Luang Prabang approaching us. We gathered our backpacks and made our way down the plank, through the water, and up the hill. When we reached the top, there were the Laos people attacking us with “good price on guesthouse…best price, really I have best price”. We walked around the town, backpacks on backs, and ended up really finding “the best price”. We were exhausted but we treated ourselves to some pizza (which actually tasted like pizza), and then enjoyed a wonderful night’s sleep on our first night in Laos….or is it Lao?

Pyboon

“Hello”….running around in circles, laughing, “Hello, Hello, How aw you?”….more running with a huge smile. “What’s his name”, we asked Teenoo- the man who picked us up at the bus station and brought us to the Baan Immanuel orphanage in Chiang Rai- “That’s Pyboon. He has so much energy! He has a physical and learning disability, but he always runs around and always has a smile on his face”. From this first greeting, I was already in love with Baan Immanuel (and Pyboon). We left Agape on April 2 and arrived in Chiang Mai that night. It was a long day with two bus rides to get us to Chiang Rai, but it was worth it. We waited in the station as Teenoo told us it would be about 15 minutes until he arrived. As we sat there, rain fell all around us where there was no shelter. We were luckily under shelter as we waited. He arrived and we rushed with all our backpacks from our shelter to the Baan Immanuel truck. Teenoo educated us on the history of Baan Immanuel. It was started by a man named Ron, from Arizona, and he simply had a heart for the children that are forgotten in Thailand. He started it 15 years ago and has been touching children’s lives ever since. They have 4 homes throughout Chiang Mai and they are able to feed, clothe, and send the children to school. Things they would otherwise not have. They work a lot with the Lawhoo tribe, but there were also Karen, Thai, and Mong children. We went to Baan Immanuel to be able to serve in any way we could. When we arrived, Teenoo took us back to the orphanage and let us get settled in, then he invited us to go to Big C (the large shopping center in Chiang Rai) along with him, his family, and the children. Pyboon was the most excited to go to Big C. He walked around with us the whole time and pushed our cart for us. He had so much energy, so while me and Cherise shopped my dad had to run around the store with Pyboon and our shopping cart. Teenoo bought one snack for each of the kids, and to them that was such a wonderful gift. They all savored their snacks on our drive home, while I had the opportunity to speak Karen (the little that I know) and Thai with the children and some of the staff.
The next day our morning started with a wonderful breakfast with all the children and staff. We loved how everyone ate like a family. Then Teenoo took us on a boat ride along the Rock River and our boat ride ended with a lovely Elephant ride through one of the Lawhoo villages. After we finished lunch, Teenoo took us to another one of Baan Immanuel’s orphanages. This one was beautiful. It was up in the mountains, and was very close to completely being self-sustained. They had their cows, fish pond, chickens, vegetable farms, and the children as well as the staff were responsible for taking care of it all. They were another big family. That night, after dinner, Teenoo took us to the night market. I can’t believe how much there is to sell in Thailand. So many different things and more different kinds of food than I’ve ever seen being sold!
The next morning, we started our day with another enjoyable breakfast, and this time me and Cherise moved to the children’s tables and ate with them. Cherise is learning more and more Thai (from a great teacher, of course) so she was enjoying saying what she could with the children. After breakfast Teenoo took us to Chiang Khong so we could buy our boat tickets to Laos, as we were heading there the next day, and then we were able to visit another one of the Baan Immanuel homes. The people seemed even kinder , if that’s possible, here. We enjoyed a lovely lunch with them and then headed to the Golden Triangle. When you stand at the Golden Triangle, you’re on Thai ground with Laos to your right and Burma to your left. Then we were able to go to Teenoo’s village and visit his home and his Lawhoo people. It was a beautiful village and as we drove down from it, he pointed out the King’s mother’s garden. It was incredibly large and beautiful. As we drove we enjoyed looking at pictures of when Teenoo had visited America. He was in Idaho and it was his first time seeing snow. It was wonderful! That night was family night at Baan Immanuel and we were able to have a BBQ outside for dinner together, play games with the children, do dramas for them, and teach them some songs. Then we all sat down and enjoyed our fresh fruit.
We all were exhausted, so we went back into our room and Pyboon stayed with us asking where we were going and when we were coming back until we were all ready to go to bed and then he happily ran to his room. The next morning we had to leave at 6:00 and Pyboon was right out there waving good-bye to us until he couldn’t see us anymore.

Don’t worry about food, we have enough we kill two pigs

My phone was ringing and I searched for it. I laughed at how full my Karen purse could be and finally found my phone, of course, at the bottom of my purse. I answered the phone and was greeted by a big hello and it was Solo’s voice. I was so excited because I hadn’t talked to him in a while and he’s such a good friend! Solo was calling me to invite me to the graduation of his students in the refugee camp. I had met his students before when they came to the villages to sing and celebrate Christmas with us. I also had the opportunity to teach them English a couple times. They’re so much fun to teach English to, because really the teaching is just having conversations with them. And they love to learn about me and I love to learn about them, so it leads to interesting conversation. Anyways, the next day me, my dad, and Cherise drove to the refugee camp and Solo had one of his students meet us at the gate. The graduation was a beautiful celebration. They opened and closed with prayer and had a sermon in the middle. Every student had their graduation cap and gown on (which I wasn’t expecting because it was the refugee camp, but I was informed they had very nice donors) and huge smiles. They were all happy to be finished. I think it’s wonderful they have the opportunity to have higher education, and any education at all, in the refugee camp. Many teachers donate their time and money for these students. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and hope and makes each day look brighter. We all really enjoyed the graduation and Solo was as proud as ever! He told me I had to bring my camera and that I was going to be the official photographer and he wanted me to take 1000 pictures….funny Solo. As they were closing up the ceremony, the man speaking asked all the guests to please stay for lunch, which we were more than happy to do, and he said “don’t worry about the food, we have enough, we kill two pigs!” We just about died laughing as we walked to the table and sat down to our pig feast.

HELP!! I’VE FALLEN THROUGH A BRIDGE!!!

After we got back from Yupaporn’s village, mine and Cherise’s days were dedicated to making picture frames. I know that sounds strange but my gift to the children when I leave here is a picture of me and them put in a frame. I was able to find frames for each of the kids and then I wanted them to be personalized so I bought super glue, sequens, markers, and stickers to decorate them. We started decorating them and writing on them and finished on the evening of the next day. All those hours later with super glue stuck to every part of our hands, we saw the finished products and it was all worth it! The kids are going to love them! We finished and had to start packing for our next journey to the last 3 Karen villages.
The first village we went to was Tupaw’s village. This was one of my favorite villages. We were able to drive all the way to the village and when we arrived at Tupaw’s house her grandpa (poo-poo in Karen) greeted us with a handshake and a big smile. He greeted my dad with a big bear hug. He was hilarious! Then Tupaw and a bunch of the other Agape kids who lived in the village gave us a tour of the village and their homes and we ended up at the river. Me and Cherise jumped in and took a little dip. It felt wonderful as the sun was so hot! We got right out because the kids were ready to head back to the village and we stopped at a home and had some shaved ice. It was the weirdest shaved ice I’ve ever eaten. It had cookies, strange jelly things, bread, and beans in the bottom of it, then the ice and then a weird flavor that tasted like tamarind poured all over it. It was actually pretty tasty. After we finished our shaved ice, we all went back to the river for a swim. As we walked we came to a bridge that went across the river. My dad and Cherise were a little ahead of me on the bridge and I was walking up behind, looking all around at the beauty that surrounded us. As I continued to look around, I was startled as my right foot fell straight through a hole in the bridge. I yelled to my dad and Cherise, and tried to get them to understand through my laughter that I fell through the bridge. It hurt a little (left a viscious bruise though), but I couldn’t stop laughing, because seriously who falls through a bridge. It reminded me of the scene from Shrek when Donkey falls through the bridge, and the bridge was pretty much the same as the one in the movie- wobbly, small, and obviously with holes in it. All the kids saw too and were laughing. I’m sure it looked funny from underneath the bridge where the kids were swimming because all they see is my one leg hanging through. Anyways, I got my leg out and walked back down to the water and jumped in. The current was strong, which only made it more fun to swim in. You pushed yourself through the current and then let yourself go and you were rushed down the river. We all had a blast and it was awesome time with the kids I love so much! Their laughs made my day!
We went back to Tupaw’s house to change our clothes and then we got ready to go to Tanoo’s (an Agape boy’s) farm. As I walked down the stairs from Tupaw’s house, all the kids were already down looking up at me, I missed one step and instead of walking down the stairs I, of course, slid all the way down the stairs. I had an orange in my hand and it got smashed and the juice squirted on me (but I never dropped it, so it was still delicious). I bruised my arm and the kids got another laugh from me. So not only was there a huge bruise on my leg, but now on my arm as well. I guess I just like to embarrass myself. We all walked to Tanoo’s banana farm and had a blast! My dad picked his very first banana straight from a tree. They weren’t ripe yet, but he didn’t care, he just wanted to pick one. Me and Cherise played with the little chick’s that would come straight up to us and sit in our hands. It was so cute!
The next day we got back into the truck and drove to Pahnee’s village. This time the truck could only drive so far and we had to walk about 4 km uphill (I’m thinking Karen people should build their villages in a place where you only have to walk straight to get there). A lot of my favorite kids lived in her village so I was so excited to go there and visit, plus none of the kids knew we were coming so I was excited to surprise them! We arrived and came to Veerayute’s house. This was the house we were going to be sleeping in. His parents as well as every one of the kids who were in there greeted us. They had a television (which always looks so funny to me in their bamboo/wood hut) and they were watching Rambo. Which was funny! We walked so far in the jungle and heat to a bamboo hut with a television showing Rambo. Funny!
We spent the day walking around and seeing the kids homes and the village. We watched the boys play a soccer game that evening and laughed as the pigs ran across the field and got in the way. That night we showered in a little stream with the girls. As we showered we heard trees crackling and falling in the not too far distance. The girls grabbed all of our stuff and moved it off the rock near the walk way and just in time too as a huge elephant walked through the jungle past us. It was a working elephant and it was towing large trees behind it. I have never been that close to an elephant before in it’s natural surroundings, and while I was taking a shower. It was really neat! After we finished our shower it was time to eat dinner. In the Karen villages everybody loves to feed you. So we have gained some weight I’m sure, as we’ve eaten 4 dinners, 3 lunches and 2 breakfasts in one day. It’s crazy! But you can’t say no, so somehow God makes our stomachs bigger. That night we had a wonderful dinner, then we layed a mat out and we all looked at the stars. There were so many because there weren’t any tall buildings or lights blocking our view. It was beautiful! We all sat around and ate peanuts that came from Songpon’s farm and we had the time of our lives. I slept with the girls that night in Pahnee’s house and it was a blast! While we layed there the girls asked me to tell them a story. They wanted to listen to me tell them a story and now their English is so good (the girls even translated for me when I gave the message in our worship service). So I told them the story of when I fell flat on my face at church camp, it got caught on the video camera, and how they showed it on the big screen at church. The girls loved it! I could hear though in their responses that I was talking them to sleep. Their responses were getting slower and slower.
The next day it was time to hike out of their village. All the kids walked out with us and we all stopped to play in this one beautiful waterfall. We all had a blast! We were posing on the rocks to take pictures, and me and Pahnee slipped on the rocks (of course) and slid straight into the pool of water. We all got one more good laugh. We hiked out and had worship at the top in a home then they served us a big lunch afterwards. It was absolutely wonderful! The Karen villages remain my favorite place to be!!

WWJD

“Bye guys! I’ll miss you! Don’t forget, when do you come back to Agape?.....That’s right, April 18th. See you then! I love you!” That’s what I said to the Agape kids as they piled in to the trucks and headed home to their villages. They were all so excited to be going home, because they hadn’t been home in over 4 months. I was excited too, because that meant I had the opportunity to go and visit them in their homes. Me, my dad and Cherise had the opportunity to visit four of the Karen villages and each village had many of our children living there! The four villages were the last ones I needed to go to for me to have visited all 102 of our children’s homes.
We took off March 21st for our first village visit. We were going to Yupaporn’s village (who is one of my favorite girls). We piled into the back of the truck and Pastor drove us to the entrance to a dirt road, helped us get our stuff out and then said his goodbyes. We picked our stuff up and started on our 12 km hike to the village. The sun was bright above us, but as we walked we suddenly got little sprinkles of relief. It felt like cool little rain drops falling all over our skin and face. We stopped for a second and let it refresh our skin and as we soaked it all in, the girls we were walking with informed us that “the cool rain drops” we were feeling was actually locust pee. At this, we frantically wiped at our skin and faces and ran until we could no longer feel it. As screams escaped from our running bodies, hysterical laughs was all that came from the beautiful girls who walked with us. As we continued our hike, we now knew that whenever we felt those nice cool drops, to keep our mouths closed and walk as fast as we could.
It took us 4 hours, but we finally arrived at Yupaporn’s village. Everybody welcomed us and the kids couldn’t wait to show us their homes. I walked from each home to the next and loved meeting all of the kid’s parents and siblings and seeing their homes. It was wonderful! And their parents’ faces were filled with smiles and their siblings hid anywhere they could but still being able to see us. It was so cute!
That night when we went to sleep we layed down on our mat on the wooden floor. I had a nice little spot in between Cherise and Terra on the ground. I am a very heavy sleeper (in fact I talk in my sleep and don’t even know it. Cherise sleeps very light and has informed me of this….I have even been speaking Thai in my sleep many times. I’m a real Thai), so I sleep through anything, but that night I was awoken by Terra and Cherise as they both were standing there with broom in hand and head lamp on head sweeping ants off their beds and trying gently to sweep them off my face. It was a pretty funny sight to dozily wake up to. I guess we were attacked by ants in the middle of the night. The house we were staying in had an ant problem, so each night we had ants jumping into bed with us. The last night we finally got smart and made a barrier around our mat with baby powder. I’m sure we looked like weird ghost worshipers with our ring of powder surrounding us, but hey it worked. The people who lived there probably thought we did weird chants and worship in the middle of the night. Anyways, it was really funny to say the least!
We had a wonderful worship service with the people in the village. We shared our testimonies, sang songs, and ate dinner with the people. Many of them were non-believers and they all piled into the house to listen and participate! It was wonderful! We also gave them soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. and we hoped we blessed them as much as they blessed us. They even killed their pig for us (we watched it from the beginning, and in the course of 3 hours it went from a walking and breathing pig to dinner on our plates. I don’t even like pork and it was pretty good. I’d like to dedicate this post to that little piggy who gave up his life for us)!
The next day we said our good-byes and my dad even had tears in his eyes as he said good bye to these amazing people. We walked about 3 km. to the next village. This village had no toilet or shower, so we all had a blast showering in the waterfall. The first time I’ve ever taken a shower fully clothed and underneath the pounding force of a Thai waterfall. It was awesome! It was also funny to just walk out into the jungle from your bamboo hut and go to the bathroom. We only had one head lamp, so that night me, Cherise, and Terra all had to go pee. We walked out to the jungle, lined up one right next to the other and went pee. Definitely a funny picture…..good ol’ bonding time.
The next day it was time for us to do our trek out. It was a 4 km. straight uphill hike. We each were carrying our backpacks, and me and my dad switched because his was pretty heavy and he’s an old man now so he lets the younger one hold it. Our backpacks were definitely slowing us down and forcing our out of shape bodies to work harder. As we continued to look up we could see nothing but more and more uphill, when would the relief come? As we continued to hike, our raspy breaths released from our mouths as our hearts beat faster and faster from all our hard work and out of nowhere comes the villagers. They hike up behind us and they took each of our backpacks and carried them for us. As many times as we said no and said we could carry it, they wouldn’t let us. They took our burdens and carried them on their backs and hiked in front of us and led the way out. As they did this I couldn’t get my mind off of Jesus. Jesus came and took all our burdens and put the whole world’s burdens and sins on his back. He said “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (mt. 11:38) He walks right up to us and tells us to give Him our backpacks and then He walks in front of us and leads the way. We follow as He carries the weight of our sins and burdens so we can walk easily. These Karen people were such a reminder to me about Jesus’ love. How He didn’t have to carry our sins, but He chose to because He loved us so much! I’m reminded to always think, WWJD? Jesus would walk up to me and take my backpack off and help me along the way….He would feed me if I was hungry…..He would clothe me if I was naked……He would love me if I was unloved…..He would, He would, He would……and He does.

Summer in March

That’s right. It’s already summer break. It’s hard to believe, but I just had my last days at the schools I was teaching at on March 5th and 6th, and the kids had their last day a week later after they finished all their testing. It was such a fun last day! My last day at Huai Bong school was cute! Me and Cherise, with the help of some of the girls at Agape, made packages of cookies for each kid. I bought red, white and blue yarn and we all made bracelets. Red, white and blue are the colors of America, Thailand, and Karen. I told the kids whenever they missed me all they had to do was look at their bracelets. They loved it! It was funny to see all 300 kids at Huai Bong school walking around with their little bracelets on. For my last hour, the 7th-9th graders came out and I put them into groups and each group wrote a good-bye song for me. It was precious! Some sang their songs in English and then some in Thai and then it was translated to English for me. They were the sweetest songs. With the younger kids, we played games on the field. We played a huge game of duck, duck goose. I’ve never played with 200 kids before, so it was really funny!
My last day at the Mae Lamao schools was really fun too! We played musical chairs and made the bracelets there also. Some of the students were having a cooking class and me, Cherise, and my dad were served 4 different kind of Thai desserts and boy were they delicious! Then after we finished our celebrations with the children, the teachers took us to the Mae Lamao river. They had lunch all prepared for us and then we went white water rafting. It was a blast! The teachers were so sweet and it was a really neat time to spend with them! I have tried to be a blessing for them, and I continue to get blessed by them more and more! It’s been wonderful!
I can’t believe how time flies though! It’s already summer break in Thailand……and yes, it for sure already feels like summer! Bring on the heat!

Graduation....it's good to be done!

I had the honor of attending two of our Agape girls graduations. Yupaporn (one of my favorite girls) and Kawee both graduated from high school. They are both the first in their families to graduate from high school and go on to college. They both have been blessed with the opportunities to go to college, which many Karen people don't have and never even dream of having. Needless to say, the girls are both very happy to be done. I was so proud of them. They both worked so hard the whole year and now it's off to college. They do things a little different at these graduations. They don't do a large ceremony like we do. They bring all the students into the assembly hall and they do a buddhist celebration. The teachers and staff put white strings around each of the students wrists.

The celebration was full of many tears as the kids go on to bigger and better things. My dad and Cherise were with me to celebrate them so it was really nice.

We all had a wonderful time. After the graduation, all 3 of us got to help pass out the gifts to all the children and then we were invited to share in their lunch with them.

My dad and Cherise really enjoyed eating the authentic Thai food, and we all searched around for kleenex because the food was so spicy, yet so delicious!! I just love it spicy....if my nose isn't running, what's the point :)

Market Water

I just got home last night from a field trip with the 9th graders at Huai Bong School. It was a blast! Sakchai, one of our Agape boys who's in the 9th grade, went with! I really enjoyed being able to spend more time with him since I'll be leaving Agape soon. We left Sunday night and drove all night. We arrived early in the morning and our first stop was the Dumnoen Sakuak Floating Market. When I asked one of the teachers where we were going he told me we were going to the Market Water, and I was like, huh? We're going to a market where they sell water, and when we got there I realized he was talking about the floating market. It was really funny! We were the first people at the floating market, so we really got a taste of the culture rather than the crazy tourists. It was a very peaceful little boat ride through the floating market.

After the market we went to the Siam National Park. It was a beautiful park with beautiful, huge green trees lining the walkways.

When we finished our beautiful walk around the Park we went to the King's Summer Palace. It was built during the reign of King Rama the 5th and now it is used as a museum. It was a huge palace where the King also had a temple built for himself to worship in. It's called Wat Pra Kaew (which means the King's palace) and was modeled after the temple built in the Grand Palace which is in Bangkok. We had to take a little train up the hill to get to the palace and as we rode it there were monkeys all around.

The sign was hilarious warning us about the monkeys. I guess monkeys here are pretty vicious.

Then we finished our day with a trip to the beach. We all had a blast! Me and a bunch of the girls went for a ride on the banana boat (if you don't know what that is, it's a big tube shaped like a banana that up to 10 people can sit on. It's pulled by a jet ski and it's super fun). As we rode the banana boat, we got thrown off it so many times. As we flew through the air and then biffed it into the water all you could hear was laughing. I had more sea water flung up my nose during that hour than I think I have had in my whole life, but it was so much fun! After our boat ride it was time for a nice relaxing time at the beach. I got to just sit there and listen to my ipod and read my book and spend some awesome time with God as the waves hit the shore around me and the sun set. It was beautiful! Then we all finished the night eating fruit and laughing and talking as the sun set.

We did a little late night shopping in the town of Huai Hin. There were foreigners all around and I even saw a Starbucks. I never knew that little green Starbucks sign could make me so happy. I went in and had myself a nice Iced Caramel Macchiatto. A little taste of home to get me through :)

The next day started out beautifully. I spent my morning watching the sunrise, hearing the waves crash around me, and just sitting in God's presence. It's amazing how much closer I feel to Him when I sit in His creation! After the sun finished rising and was telling us it was time to start the day, we all piled back into our vans and drove to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is an old ancient city. It used to be the capital of Thailand and now it is just ruins. It's really a beautiful sight!

When we finished at Ayutthaya we went to a bird park. As we walked through I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. As I walked across the rickety green bridge, I felt like a giant bird was going to come and sweep me right off the bridge. There weren't any giant birds though, so I was safe :)

We finished our day with a lovely dinner and then me and the boys played some soccer in the parking lot as we waited for everyone to finish. Then we headed back home. Now my next adventure starts tomorrow. I'm leaving for Bangkok tomorrow night, and I'm so excited because I get to go and pick up my dad and my best friend, Cherise, from the airport. They are coming here to visit me and serve at Agape and I can't wait! It will be the first time I get to see family in almost 8 months!! Yay! Anyways, keep them in your prayers as they fly here and as we make our way back to Agape. Also, please pray for their time here, that together we can just be a huge blessing for Agape!

Happy Valentine's Day

Yes, they celebrate Valentine's Day here. Just like America, you see roses everywhere, big hearts and pink and red all around. People find their "valentine" and give them cards and roses and candy. Today I had an amazing Valentine's Day filled with so much love! At the school I was bombarded with roses and Valentine's Day cards. Everyone wanted to be my Valentine :) Then at Agape I was given even more flowers from the kids and Boonchoi even gave me a little rose with a little note. It was a surprise in my room. It was so sweet! All the children were just showering me with love! It was just a wonderful Valentine's Day!

(the rose and sign Boonchoi gave to me)

In the evening we went to a Thai wedding. It's so funny how they do things here, because me and Terra didn't even know the people, but we were invited to their wedding. This wedding was definitely unusual. Three couples were all getting married at the same time. It's the first time I've ever been to a wedding like that. It reminded me a little of a Las Vegas wedding in an Elvis chapel. There were hot pink neon lights in every other light socket and there was Christmas wrapping paper that was cut and lined the rows.

It is definitely not how I would picture a wedding but the people were happy. After the wedding we had some amazing food, and that made the whole thing worth it! Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day as well full of tons of love and joy and a couple unique experiences of your own.

Agape Bahller Store

We just recently had the grand opening of the Agape Bahller Store. I created bahllers (a combination between baht and dollars) as the currency for our store. Each day the children have many ways to earn the bahllers- helping a friend, cleaning well, coming on time to worship, doing their homework, memorizing scripture verses, etc. Each night we open up the store for 20 minutes and it is run by two different children each time. I taught them how to run the store in English and shop in English so it's a great way for them to practice their English. I love listening to them talk as they shop and run the store. The children have really just blossomed as they've earned their bahllers. They've worked at saving their bahllers to purchase the larger items and it's been a great opportunity for us to talk about tithing. I have taught about tithing on their bahllers and how the Lord only asks us to give 10%. It's really given them a feeling of self accomplishment and motivation. It's great positive reinforcement!

I've tried to put really cool things in the Bahller store and the kids love it! It's so cute watching them run their store and making all the transactions. I had them make bahller wallets out of paper and it's so cute watching them come to the Agape Bahller Store with their little wallets and scoping out what it is they want to buy. On the very first night, the kids were lined up outside the store and they couldn't wait to get in.

Me and Terra had so much fun setting it all up, knowing that the kids were so excited! They kept walking by the room as we were setting it up and they all kept looking in and saying what they were going to buy when the store opened up. I decided during my last week here, I'm going to have a close-out sale on everything in the store. We're going to do a "50% closing sale! get it while you can!!" I know the kids will love it!

Beautiful

Tan skin, white skin, black hair, brown hair, black eyes, blue eyes, straight hair, curly hair, what's beautiful? Are blue eyes more beautiful than brown, is brown skin more beautiful than white? The Lord has told us "you are altogether beautiful, my love, there is no flaw in you" (sgs. 4:7). If the Lord has told us this it has to be true, and yet we spend hundreds of dollars on beauty products, hair dye, bronzing lotion, whitening cream and yet the Lord has told us we're already beautiful the way He made us. We don't even have one flaw. We are altogether beautiful. Here in Thailand it's so funny because they love white skin. Everywhere you turn you find whitening lotion, face cream, even whitening foot scrub (why your feet need to be white I'll never know), and yet in America, where we have white skin, we strive to have that beautiful bronze skin. We spend tons of money to sit under a UV light and we rub the cream on our skin hoping it will just be beautiful, yet we already have the skin the Thai people are craving and they have the skin we want. In America so many people put so much time into shaving their arms and they don't want any hair on their arms and here they love it. I think the girls straight hair is beautiful, and they all want curly hair. I look at all these girls here and all I see is beauty and they look at me and they see beauty, so maybe that's telling us something. "WE ARE BEAUTIFUL, EXACTLY AS WE ARE". Whoever decided that brown skin was more beautiful than white, or that white skin is more beautiful than brown? God didn't make a mistake in creating anyone, and He has told us we're already altogether beautiful. You don't need make-up, or affirmation from anyone because the one whose words mean the most looks at you and is stunned by your beauty. And God sees past all the junk we try to use to make us beautiful. He sees straight to the heart and he sees beauty. He doesn't see any flaws at all. I want to see with God-glasses. I want to see the beauty in everything....."He has made everything beautiful....." (ecc. 3:11). I want to see the beauty that goes straight to the heart. I want to know that I am beautiful because my creator says I am, not because of the color of my skin, or how much money I spend on my hair, or the type of clothes that I wear but because the Creator of the Universe and the Creator of me says, "Andrea, you are altogether beautiful, my love, there is not one flaw in you".

Honey Mustard

Yes that is the name of a condiment, but it is also the name of my new dog. I know it's not the smartest thing to give a ccondiment name to a dog in Thailand, but it's ok, I've shortened it to Honey. So Honey is the name of my new puppy. Pastor Winai's brother and his family are being sent to America from the refugee camp, so we got their dogs.

The mom dog, who we've named "momma" and her puppy were given to us. Momma is beautiful and her puppy was adorable.

So I gave Honey a flea/tick bath and put a cute little pink collar on her. When all the children got home from school I called them into the worship hall for our normal meeting and cleaning time and I held Honey in my arms. I explained to the kids how we treat a pet. They usually kick the dogs, throw them, hit them, eat them, etc. So I had to explain that we love Honey and we don't eat her because she's our friend. It's been so cute watching them treat her nicely and the girls love to play with her. I think some of them think she's their baby. It's funny how big a difference a cute pink collar and a name can make :) Anyways, Honey Mustard is adorable and she's been a blast! The kids keep telling me when I go back to America they're going to eat her, but I tell them I'll be back and if she's been eaten they'll all be in trouble. So I'm hoping Honey Mustard doesn't become a topping for their rice :)

A visit to Taiwan at the Chinese school in Thailand while speaking English

Confusing? Well, let me explain. Ok so January 31, there was this performance at Terra's school, which is a Chinese school, where she teaches and she invited me and Becca to join her and Teep to the performance. It was a singing group from Taiwan and the whole performance was about Taiwan and the culture there and the villages there. The whole program that they gave to us was in English and they even spoke in English a couple times. And this was all happening in the beautiful country of Thailand :) I thought it was so cool to have all the cultures mixed together!

We decided that we would all go and we took 10 kids with us. It was so fun, because we decided we would take 10 of the younger kids with us because they don't usually get to go places! We all went out for dinner and we all ate Pad Thai. I got the kids some cookies for dessert and they loved it! When we got to the performance, each of us adults made sure we always had two kids in hand. I loved walking with my two kids in hand- I had Sootrachai and Gafe. They were the two youngest kids, so I held them tight! The kids are so funny! We have two who are like best friends- Paradorn and Nowah and they were cracking me up the whole time! The girls were too! I just love all of them so much!

While we waited for the show to start, Terra gave us a tour of her school and we went into the classroom where she teaches. We had time to kill, so we played scharades with the kids! They loved it!

The performers from Thailand did an awesome job and they sang really, really well! It was just a wonderful time with the younger kids. I decided that I'm going to make it a point to take all the kids, at least once, for dinner in Mae Sot. It's such an awesome bonding time with the kids! I loved it!

Free Cooking Class (January 23)

So there are some Thai foods that I have fallen in love with. That's right. I have fallen in love with food. I have always loved food, but there's something about a good meal in Thailand. They have the best food. It's so fresh! I eat so much fruit and vegetables and they're so cheap! I couldn't definitely stay here forever (don't worry mom, I'm coming home ;)). Well the teachers at Huai Bong School now I just love food, so while Becca was here KruSookit invited us all (me, Teep, Terra, and Becca) to his house for dinner. But this wasn't just any ordinary dinner, this was a Thai dinner that we were going to be cooking ourselves. We got to the house and we were put right to work. One of my favorite meals to eat in Thailand is Som Tom (Spicy Papaya Salad), Cow Neow (sticky rice) and Gai Yang (Roasted Chicken). It's so delicious and it's a meal we get to eat with our hands, and that's always fun! We all got put in our little stations and started making our part of the meal. In a Thai meal there's always tons of different foods. You get your bowl of rice and then all the food is placed in front of you and you eat family style. I love it!


My job was to chop up the papaya. After I was finished chopping up the papaya, I got the mortar and started making my papaya salad. I like it pretty spicy, so I tried 5 chilis the first time I made it. It wasn't hot enough for me and KruHawm, so the next time she put 20 chilis in it. I can tell you that one was hot. I think tears even came to my eyes :) After I finished making my papaya salad, I moved onto making the sauce for the fish. It was a spicy chili sauce and we poured it over the fish.

Becca helped me to make the papaya salad and Teep cut up the fruit and Terra cooked the vegetables. I can say it was the best meal I've ever tasted.....probably because yours truly was the cook ;) So, be prepared for some delcious Thai meals to be cooked when I come back to America......I'm an amazing Thai Chef now :)

Huai Hin Dam

We'll let this blog entry teach you a little Thai....ok so Huai means village Hin means Stone and Dam means black, put that all together and you'll have the place I was priveliged to travel to on January 11th, Blackstone Village. It is a Karen village, which, other than Agape, the Karen villages are my favorite places to be, and I got to spend about 6 days there. There's just something about the Karen people. They are full of so much joy. Their smiles can light up the world. I have fallen in love with the Karen people and every day I can't help but love them more. I just love to be with them! Their joy and their spirits are contagious! Anyways, I really enjoyed the drive to Blackstone Village because it was just me, Pastor, and his wife. On the way there we stopped at a monkey zoo (i'm just calling it that because I don't know the name).

It was a large mountain that was full of monkeys. When we drove in there were monkeys everywhere. They were surrounding our car. We drove up to this one little stand, where the lady stood holding a stuffed crocodile. I noticed, as she waved the crocodile around, that the monkeys were deathly afraid of it. We finally stopped the car and Pastor told me I was allowed to get out. I got out, purchased some goodies for the monkeys from the lady, and really watched my step as tons of monkeys ran up to me and surrounded me. There were huge, male, dominant monkeys that would practically bark at the little ones who would try to run up and get food too. I ended up scaring the big, nasty ones away with the crocodile so I could feed the little ones. I bought some bananas too and the monkeys would come right up to me and use their little hands and grab the banana right from my hand. It was so funny. As I was holding one bag of goodies in my arm, one of the male monkeys ran up to me and stole the whole bag of goodies from me. I couldn't believe what a stinker he was.....that bag cost me 20 baht (just so you know that's less than a dollar ;)) and he just stole it all. I don't think that he was a Christian monkey :) It was seriously crazy seeing all the monkeys there. I had never seen so many in my life. It was a blast! As I continued to use the big ol' stuffed crocodile to mess with the monkeys, Pastor told me it was time to go. When we arrived at Blackstone Village I was greeted by the beautiful, smiling face of Manimay. Pastor had told me a lot about Manimay before we went to the village. Manimay was a wonderful woman who is one of the few Christians in Blackstone Village. She leads the worship times and her heart really wants to see her people in her village be saved. I was so excited to meet her, hearing so many good things about her, and when I finally did meet her she was even more than I expected. Her heart was so big and she always, always made sure I was taken care of. The first night she prepared an amazing meal. Manimay is a vegetarian, so I was loving the food. I ate so many vegetables. I was so happy! A lot of pork is served here and I am not a big fan of pork, especially after seeing the pigs who live in Thailand. I eat it if it's what's served to me, but I would much rather never eat it. So the fact that all I was served was tons of amazing vegetables was like Heaven.

In Blackstone village I had the opportunity to teach the children English, love on them and learn with the women in the village. My first day there the women already had me slaving away ;) I got to help grind and poun the rice and help cook the food. I also got to participate in a village meeting. It was a blast! I also got to celebrate Kids day with all the kids from Blackstone. In Tailand they have "Wan Deg"- Kids Day- and this is a day where all the kids give each other gifts and we all celebrate the kids. I loved the celebration because there were games, free food and free ice cream. What could be better?

The kids I met were wonderful. They were all so helpful. I had 3 girls that were my favorite...Jig (she always took care of me and she loved to just walk around with me and learn English), Noy, and Lek. They were awesome girls! I had the best time with Jig. She was like my little sister and she will always have a special place in my heart. Me and her sat down and did Bible studies and she learned English songs and I learned Thai songs....it was wonderful! My last night in Blackstone Village she slept with me on my mat in my room. She was so cute!! I'm really going to miss her!
(Jig)

(Manimay (on the far left) and all the other girls and me)

After my time was up in Blackstone village it was time to go to Krungthep (that's what the Thai people call Bangkok). My friend Becca was coming to visit me, so I got to go to the airport in Bangkok to pick her up and bring her back to Agape. I got to Bangkok a day before she arrived and just traveled around Bangkok. I actually went and watched a movie in the movie theater. That was my first time in almost 7 months. They have really nice movie theaters here too. When you buy your ticket you pick your seat and the seats were huge, leather, reclining seats. It was the most comfortable I've ever been watching a movie. I got my bag of popcorn (I actually bought popcorn at this theater because it was so cheap. I wouldn't ever buy it in the theaters in America, I'm too cheap :)) and walked into my theater and enjoyed my little movie on my little vacation. It was really sad though because as I walked around I was just disgusted with what I saw. There was a lot of sex trafficking. You saw young Thai girls hanging all over older white men. As I looked at them I felt sorry for the men and for the women and just prayed for them. It even happens with older men and young boys. I saw an older man with a boy who was probably about 16 or 17. Bangkok definitely needs the Lord and lots of prayer. Anyways, I really enjoyed touring around Bangkok alone for a couple days but I've learned it's definitely more fun traveling with a friend. So I was excited when it was time to grab my taxi and travel to the airport. As I sat in the taxi I started up a conversation with the taxi driver. It was fun traveling in Bangkok because I really got to use my Thai. It's fun just using the words I know to have conversations with people. I'm getting so good....ya'all would be proud of me. It's tough though because many time I say things that I shouldn't because there are words that are said the same, you just go up or down in tone, but one word means what you're trying to say and the other word is something so far away from what you're wanting to say, so you can end up saying you like something that you shouldn't really like. It's pretty funny, but I hope everyone just understands that I'm still learning and hopefully they guess I'm trying to say the right word.
As we drove to the airport, I gave Agape a call. You would not believe how much I missed all the kids. I had only been gone 10 days and I was still in the same country and I missed them like crazy. I called them and Terra gave her phone to the kids and I got to tell them all goodnight. It was the first time in 7 days I was able to talk with them because I didn't have phone service in Blackstone village. I just loved being able to talk with them and tell them all goodnight. I got to the airport, held up my sign that I made for Becca (it said "Welcome to Thailand Becca"), and waited for her to come off the plane. Once she arrived we were excited to see eachother and then it was off to our hotel. It was fun just spending a couple more days in Bangkok. We got wonderful massages (a very needed and nice treat for me), went to Pattaya (the beach) and went and saw the Grand Palace. As we were walking to the Grand Palace it was really cool because it got so quiet. All the cars on the road stopped and everybody stood still and didn't say a word. Then we watched as many police cars drove and then we saw a limo mercedes. We found out later that that limo was driving the King home. How cool that we got to see the King....well not really see the King, just see the car he drove in. Either way it was pretty cool. Anyways, when we were getting on our bus to come back to Mae Sot, I was so excited! I really missed home and the kids. I just love my home here. Bangkok just doesn't quite do it for me. I was so excited to be back!! All the kids rushed up to me and told me how much they missed me and I told them the same! It was so fun seeing them all again! How am I ever going to go back to America, when I miss them ridiculously when I just leave for 10 days. You can pray for strength for me on that day ;)

4:00 am

I had yet another morning of waking up at 4:00 in the morning so I could go to the salon to get my hair done and put my face on. Krudam asked me to be part of another parade. We were doing the parade for sports day. I just love Krudam so I told her for sure I would be part of the parade. This time I was leading the parade. I was holding the sign that said Huai Bong School on it. This time we walked through Mae Sot which is the biggest town near me. It was really fun. I asked them to not put that white stuff all over my skin this time because I didn’t want to look like a corpse.

When we arrive at our starting point for the parade I gave PiYui (Krudam’s husband) my camera to take pictures. He kept calling me over to him because he was just finding random people who were either in the parade or teachers or principals and having me take pictures with them. It was so funny because I had never even met these people but I was taking pictures with them. As I walked I had to stop so many times because people wanted to take my picture. I’m so famous, I just can’t help it. People just love me ;) We had 4 girls who were in the parade as well. They were boxers. They looked so cute!!

After the parade I had some things I had to do in Mae Sot and Krudam wanted to drive me around to do it so we got to spend the day together. We had a wonderful lunch and she said she really enjoyed our day because she only has 2 sons and no daughters so she always tells me I’m her daughter. When the parade was finished I had some crazy hair and make up all over my face so Krudam took me to a salon to clean it all up. The lady cleaned my face and gave me a facial and then I got my hair shampooed and a head massage. I felt so spoiled. It was so nice! Another rough day in the land of Thailand ;)

Sawadee Pi Mai (Happy New Year)

I can’t believe it’s already time to say Sawadee Pi Mai. Time seems to be going by too fast! I’m already half-way done with my time here and it seems like just yesterday I came and today I’m saying Happy New Year! It’s crazy! We had a really fun New Year. Terra’s 3 friends were here to celebrate with us. They ran a little 3 day New Year’s camp which included games, crafts and singing. One night was so funny because we had the children make puppets out of brown paper bags and then we had the kids get into groups and do a puppet show. They were so funny. Half the time they were talking and their puppets mouths weren’t even moving or they weren’t talking but their puppet was. I was laughing so hard. I loved it! We also played a game of tug-o-war. Each time had to compete against each other and the team that won had to compete against the staff. It was so funny because the kids were a lot stronger than we were expecting and they were actually winning. They pulled so hard I actually got pulled up onto Boon Choi. I was so embarrassed because I got pulled up onto Boon Choi’s hip and it looked like he was carrying me like a baby. I jumped off as quckly as I could but it was still hilarious! It was recorded on video so you all will be able to have a good laugh when I come back to America. New Years Eve was really fun. We had a BBQ out in the field and we all sat out on our mats and hung out in the field and roasted our chicken and beef pieces. They were really yummy. Terra’s friends also found marshmallows with chocolate already in them and little crackers and we made smores with the kids. It was their first time ever making smores. They loved it! Terra’s friends bought fireworks, sparklers, and little bottle rockets for the kids. At midnight we lit the fireworks and all had fun with the sparklers and bottle rockets. All you could hear was the loud boom from the fireworks because they were being lit about 5 feet from us (seriously the sparks were falling right on me) and everyone saying a mix of Happy New Year and Sawadee Pi Mai. So I would like to say to you Happy New Year and Sawadee Pi Mai. It’s hard to believe it’s already 2008, but it’s here. I have had an incredible 2007 with so many experiences. I have grown a lot and learned a lot and I have loved just handing over my life to God. 2007 was one of the best years of my life and I know 2008 is going to be even better and I’m excited to see what kind of adventure 2008 is going to be. I love not knowing what tomorrow looks like but just diving right in! I pray your 2008 is bright and wonderful and finds you on an adventure of your own!

How many times was Jesus born?

Well, He was only born once, but who says we can’t celebrate the whole month of December? The whole month of December was spent celebrating Christmas! It was a blast! I had the opportunity to go to so many Karen villages, which are my favorite places to be, and experience Christmas in a whole new way. After we had our wonderful Christmas here at Agape, we went on a 4 day trip to Teesano Village. A couple of our children live in this village so it was really fun seeing their homes and meeting their familes. Me and Terra stayed in Soritoo’s house. He is such a sweetheart. He really took care of us making sure we always were nice and full. To get to this village was an adventure in and of itself. We went on a trek through the mountain in our truck and our truck is not a 4-wheel drive truck. We got stuck so many times and we had to get out of the truck. The boys loved it though because they all stood on the back of the truck and jumped up and down to help give the truck traction to get up the hill. Then there’s me who is also loving it all cracking up and taking pictures of it all. It was hilarious! I loved it! The trucks finally could not go any farther so we ended up leaving the trucks at a village on the way and hiking the rest of the way. I love hiking, so it was exhilarating. We were hiking through the Thai jungle to get to a village that couldn’t even be seen. It was tucked away down in the mountain about 10 km. away. It was a beautiful hike. Being in the village was even more fun. I felt like a disciple back in Jesus’ time. I would just walk around from house to house and they would invite me in. They would feed me and then I would ask them if I could pray for them. It was such a blessing. I felt like I was a disciple who Jesus told to go into the villages and not bring anything with me because they would take care of me. They really did take care of me. The Karen people feel very blessed if we eat in their homes, so let’s just say it’s a good thing I did a lot of hiking because I also did a lot of eating. One day we were eating lunch at Soritoo’s house. The food was delicious and I made sure I ate enough of it (as I always do). Then Pastor came in and informed us to not eat too much (it’s funny he was informing us of this after we had already finished eating and finished eating too much) because we were going to have to go eat lunch at other homes as well. I ended up going to four more houses after I was already stuffed and eating and fellowshipping and praying with them. Somehow God gave me more room in my stomach, which was good because my stomach was definitely not used to eating five lunches in one day. It was really fun celebrating Christmas. We were able to give all the villagers gifts and we had a wonderful celebration full of singing, dancing, and even mine and Terra’s lovely duet. The journey out of the village was even more fun. I hiked out with some of the little kids and one guy who speak English pretty well. He was hiking with his guitar and we just sang worship songs the whole way. I had Nunu’s and Emu’s hands in mine and every once in a while they would run a little bit ahead of me pick flowers and give them to me. By the time we got to the top I had a huge bouquet of flowers. It was the best bouquet of flowers I’ve ever been given.
After Teesano Village we went to Mae La Village to celebrate Christmas with them. I love Mae La Village, it’s one of my favorites. There is one family that I have just fallen in love with there. The little girl, who is about 3 years old, follows me everywhere. If I sit down she’s right there on my lap. If I stand up and walk around she’s right next to me, hand in hand. Wherever I go she’s right there, and when it’s time for me to leave she holds onto my leg. I love her so much. Every time I go there she remembers me and she runs up to me and doesn’t leave my side until I go back home. This last time her mom gave me a beautiful Karen purse she had made for me. It’s my favorite purse of all the purses I’ve been given. At this Christmas celebration I was supposed to do a dance with Prapah and Nawmyo. They called us up onto the stage because it was our time to dance. The DVD ended up not working, so we didn’t have our music. So I decided I would just sing a song instead. The girls were so embarrassed to walk off the stage. It was so funny. They covered their faces and bashfully walked off the stage. I didn’t understand why they were embarrassed, they got to leave the stage. I had to stay up there and sing in my dancing clothes. It was fun though because there were all these guys in the back who were cheering for everyone really loudly, so of course, when the Callowah (white person) gets up there they were going crazy! In Mae La Village we all slept huddled together on the floor in Sakchai’s house. I just love Sakchai’s family so I loved staying there. It was pretty cold that night, but I had all the kids around me keeping me warm.
We also went to Ma Ka Mu Noie to celebrate. All the celebrations were the same from village to village. A lot of singing, dancing, dramas, and a sermon. They were so much fun. Karen people are so talented. Another village we went to to celebrate was Mong Ta village. This is the village where we have another Agape. We have 28 children who live here and Pastor Winai’s sister-in-law takes care of the kids. It was really funny at this village because Pastor had told me I was going to sing a song but I didn’t know when. I was just walking around and I saw these two ridiculously cute girls. I started taking pictures of them and every time I would show them their pictures they would fall to the ground laughing. It was adorable. Well, as I’m taking pictures of them I hear my name being called from the stage. It was my turn to go up and sing. I thought that Boon Choi or somebody would play guitar for me so I could sing a song I knew, but they already had the designated “piano man” up there so I just had to tell him a song I wanted to sing. So anyways, he knew the song Hark the Herald, so I ended up singing that one. After I was finished I said Tabloo (thank you in Karen) and I was ready to walk off the stage, but oh no, they wanted me to sing another song. So I sang Silent Night, when I finished I said Tabloo again but then they told me they wanted me to sing it again. Then I finished and they told me to sing another song. I was just laughing. So I sang Jingle Bells and when I finished, yep, you guessed it, they told me to sing it again. It was so funny. While I sang it two people came up on stage and they put these candy lei’s around my neck and gave me bags of chips. It was so sweet.
I have had the most amazing time celebrating Christmas in Thailand with my favorite people, the Karen people. It has been the best Christmas I have ever had! I think it’s one of the best ideas to give a whole month to Jesus and celebrate every day!