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 ;)