Khaodee Orphanage

We had a Saturday work day at an orphanage about an hour away from where we live. Khaodee translates to “good news”, and is an orphanage based around Christian values. We arrived just in time for Saturday chores, and Justin and I were fortunate enough to be assigned to help a group of girls weed a very overgrown and very muddy portion of the yard by the restroom. We trimmed a hibiscus tree, used a rice machete to cut down the tall grass, packed the leaves and branches into rice bags, and carried them down a steep muddy hill. Phew! We got incredibly muddy because it kept raining, and found more spiders than I ever wanted to see in a combined 30 minutes, but we all worked together to get the job done! 

Over-grown awesomeness

The craziest non-creepy bug we found while weeding.

Our happy crew. Someone handed me that random plaid shirt..I’ve learned not to ask questions. These girls were cute: they just kept giggling and having the oldest one ask us about ourselves and America. They asked if I had a boyfriend and were very surprised when I told them Justin and I were married, and they were very pleased when we told them we are Christian. We haven’t met very many Christians in Thailand so we were just as happy to be hanging out with them as they were to hang out with us!

Another Saturday chore that some people in our group were privileged (?) to participate in was slaughtering and butchering a pig. They told us all about how the pig was hung from a tree, killed, doused with boiling water, and gutted. We first saw it when it was in about 500 small pieces spread out on a thin mat by the cafeteria, with a team of about 15 widows sitting crossed-legged cutting it up. Everything up to that point sounded like standard procedure for killing a pig, but watching it be slice and diced on a mat on wooden stump cutting boards was a little too much.  We watched the skull cracked open, the brains come out, the teeth be cleaved off, and the skin be sliced. There was blood all over the mat and we could only guess it was the same mat they use every two weeks when a pig is killed. Every meal we ate at Khaodee was a little bit harder to get down than most of our meals in Thailand, just knowing how unsanitary it was. And we did have pork for every meal!

 All that pork and there's no bacon..unbelievable.

 The point of us going to the orphanage was to carry out an activity day for the children. Many children there are orphans, but others are there because their parents are drug addicts or cannot provide for them. Our group had the idea to do an activity day with soccer, four square, jump roping, yoga, hat-making, hair styling, and face painting, and it was a huge success! Justin and I were in charge of four square, although when we first prepared for the game all the kids wanted to do with the basketball we brought was (you guessed it) play basketball.  They started just shooting hoops but eventually organized a game.

Since most kids here grow up playing soccer and Tacraw, they were pretty awkward with a basketball, and after awhile we taught them how to play four square.  They caught on faster than we thought they would! After about half an hour of playing nonstop, we noticed the ball started to look a little egg-shaped. One of the kids picked it up to show us that the rubber was slowly splitting, revealing small stringy black fibers underneath. We gathered around watching it, when all of the sudden it EXPLODED!! Everyone jumped back and I screamed a little, and then we all just busted up laughing. We kept playing with a soccer ball, but the kids talked about it for like 20 minutes afterwards—we could tell because of how they pretended to hold a ball and make an exploding noise.

Before the big explosion

After so much hard play we ate dinner (cautiously) and freshened up for the evening in the amazing guesthouse they let us stay in. Seriously, it was nicer than the house we live in here!

Later we went to one of their services, which is most easily described as an EFY singalong session. There was a group of teens playing instruments and being the lead singers, but the rest of the kids in the audience were singing the words to all the songs as loud as possible. It was a really good time, and you could really feel their enthusiasm for Jesus Christ. We could hear it in their voices as they sang, and we saw it in the cafeteria during meal times when everyone loaded up their plates but no one ate a bite until one child was chosen to pray.

Our first meal when we didn't know to wait for the prayer..awkward! And ignore my crusty face..haha.

Especially considering what they’ve gone though, they are a strong group of children who will have better futures than the pasts they have behind them. All made possible by a group of loving Thai Christians who care!

Bamboozled

We had an AWESOME time at church. It was testimony meeting, and while we've mostly just heard talks from the youth during sacrament meeting, we got to hear from some very solid adult members and it was amazing. They have so much faith! All they need is a branch of 80 people to be able to build a real chapel! They are humble and obedient to their leaders, and we hope they are able to have an actual chapel soon. Some of the people there have been members longer than Justin and I have been alive!

After church we hiked up to Khun Korn, a large waterfall near Chiang Rai. It was literally a hike through a bamboo jungle! We honestly thought we were on the island with the characters of Lost.

Bamboo falls over when it gets too tall and heavy 

 It also makes for lightweight, sturdy, and cheap building materials! Here we are on a bamboo bridge.

 

It was so big!

 Bamboo canopy

There were awesome bamboo steps along a lot of the path

Church is closer than you think!

On Sunday we left our hostel early to make it to the branch in Chiang Mai by 9 am. We left with an hour to find it and barely made it 5 minutes before the meeting started. Let’s just say the church’s website was not updated, the taxi driver had no idea what my English address meant, and the phone number we had for the church was not valid. He dropped us off at a random street corner, where we proceeded to wander until we called someone from our group who had stayed somewhere else for the night who called the missionaries who ensured us we were close and just needed to walk a bit further. That’s always a relief! The church’s logo is just as comforting in another language when you’ve been searching all morning for it, even if you can’t read what it says! Unlike the branch in Chiang Rai, this branch met in what you’d expect as far as a church building, complete with steeple and chapel. Other foreigners made up about half of the congregation, and we were happy to join in with other faithful saints from so many places. The missionaries didn’t have enough  headphones for all of us to get the translation of the meeting, so we listened to the whole thing in Thai. It made it hard to concentrate since we were a little sleep deprived (did I mention our room in the hostel didn’t have AC and only one of the two fans worked? Yeah it was a weird night..), but it was a good reminder that any church meeting can be a success when covenants and the Spirit are there, and we were grateful we’d been blessed to take part in both there.

Rather than spend more time exploring the city, we caught the next bus back home. We were worried about being late so we got to the bus station quickly and indulged in some Thai instant noodles we bought right at the station where they provide hot water for mixing. The little fork comes bend and you snap it open—a perfectly portable meal!

We had a windy but beautiful four-hour ride back home—home sweet home in Thaton where we were looking forward to our hard bed, two fans, and little lizard that has decided to room with us. We packed SO MUCH into a day and a half, but we’re looking forward to a more relaxing weekend right here in our little town. We still have a lot to do in Chiang Mai so we’ll be back at least one more time, but we’ve been going nonstop since we got here and we’re ready for a little rest and relaxation!

Beautiful mountains on the way home. Northern Thailand has amazing scenery!

Weekend in Chiang Rai

This past weekend we went on little vacation to Chiang Rai, a city about an hour away. On the way we stopped by a village where the HELP group last year had helped build a water pipe that still provides water to about 400 people. Pretty awesome! We’re hoping to get such a meaningful project this year. Before leaving we all took turns on the village swing. It was great!

 We like this picture because it sums up where we live: thatched roof, dog laying on the porch, scooter, clothes hanging out to dry, and jungle mountainside.

After an hour of very windy, very steep uphill driving, we got to the top of a really high mountain, and were surprised to be surrounded by what looked like swiss architecture.  We got out of the van, and asked Nat if we needed to bring anything, he just shook his head vaguely so we got out with nothing but our wallet.  That was the beginning of a lot of confusing surprises, as our truck drove away with our camera while Nat told us we were at the most important place in all of Northern Thailand.  Turns out we had a surprise stop at the royal family’s villa in a place called Doi Tung. 

Not knowing anything more about this place than you do, we bought tickets to see the three main attractions: The royal gardens, the summer villa, and the hall of inspiration.  We went to the garden first and almost cried because we didn’t have our camera! It was honestly by far the most beautiful thing we had ever seen.   Thousands of kinds of colorful flowers, bushes, and trees grown together in wild organization, with amazing fountains, pathways, and rock gardens along the way.  Luckily, everyone in the group offered to take pictures for us, so we have a few.  We spent a long time just admiring the colorful flowers grown into the beautiful tropical hillside, and looked out over the surrounding green mountains.  

 On our way to the hall of inspiration we were wondering with each other if the garden was that big when it was just the royal family who lived there, and how much money they poured into something so lavishly enormous.  It wasn’t until we got inside the hall that we realized we were completely wrong!  The hall of inspiration is well named, it was inspiring.  The whole place was a tribute to the lives of the current royal family, and an invitation to follow their examples.   We learned a ton about them, but basically they were a humble family committed to the betterment of Thailand who never thought they would be its leaders.  Doi Tung, as it turns out, was one of the major redevelopment projects of the princess mother, a woman who was born a commoner, loved gardening, and married into royalty.  Doi Tung was the area of Thailand involved in the “Golden Triangle” of opium farming.  It was a land torn apart by poverty, slash-and-burn agriculture, drug use, and sex trafficking.  The princess mother came to this place in 1988, and started her project by planting a single tree on the top of a barren mountain.  This was followed by hundreds of projects in basically what we are doing: public health, agriculture, and micro-entrepreneurship.  Opium farmers were trained in gardening, tree-planting, and other forms of farming, former prostitutes were paid daily wages to plant new trees and offer help, and in 7 years, the entire region was transformed.  The villa was built (out of recycled shipping crates) as a place the family could come oversee and help with their projects, the garden was built to attract tourism for the locals to have business, and the entire area was reforested.  The royal family had spent much of their lives in Switzerland, so the buildings were intentionally a combination of Swiss and Thai architecture. And still, the entire place was run by locals.  All the food and souvenirs were made and sold by local Doi Tung people.  It was really cool and helped us understand why the people here place basically equal emphasis on their reverence for Buddhism and the Monarchy.  On our drive back down we noticed a lot of farmers selling potted plants and flowers.  It’s amazing the impact one good person can have!

Finally made it to KFC. It lived up to our expectations and more! We’ve fallen in love with Thai chili sauce and found it hilarious that KFC offers it in packets just like ketchup. We’ll take it!

  My view for 75% of the weekend. Our little bus was way fun!

The plan was to go camping and wake up at 4 AM  Sunday morning to see the sunrise on top of the highest peak in the province, the border between Thailand and Laos. Well, we got to the little village and all the camping stuff was in storage for the season, so we ended up getting two little motel-ish room with two low beds smushed together to make one huge bed..literally a BED room. We got up early and hiked through the slightly creepy fog to the lookout point, and made it with just enough time to enjoy the beautiful view. The fog kept rolling in and out so we only got about two minutes of really gorgeous sunlight, but it was amazing. The hills rolled o n forever!

 Thick, thick fog. When it rolled in you couldn’t see anything off the cliffs. It was the coldest we’ve been on this trip because it was darker from the fog, high in elevation, and damp—like standing in a cloud!

 

 

 

 

 We had the amazing opportunity to go to the branch in Chiang Rai. Sacrament meeting was in a small room and our group practically doubled the size of the congregation! There were missionaries there who gave us headphones and translated sacrament meeting for us, which was nice because I still feel like everything Thai people say is a mystery! There were several youth talks on the doctrine of Christ, with faith-building examples from scooter crashes to Facebook posts. It was so nice to be among the saints there! We hope to be able to go often.

 

After church we visited a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai. Apparently it’s more dedicated to the arts than most temples, and actually seen as offensive to more serious Buddhists for this reason, but the ornate decorations were cool. We’ve still only seen atypical temples so far; I’m looking forward to seeing the more traditional ones!

 The huge white temple made it really bright and hot outside.

 

 A neat wishing well with TONS of coins. People tried to get their coins in the very top tier of the underwater statue thing.

After eating pizza, donuts, French fries, KFC, and ice cream, we are all ready for another work week filled with English teaching, sink-building, and yes, plenty of curry.