every day is an adventure.

Where to begin? So, as you may have noticed I’m not the most faithful blogger ever but here’s what I’ve been up to lately…

(NOTE: there are 6 main hilltribes in Thailand that does not include ethnic Thais. They are: Lahu (the place I live in Chiang Mai is a Lahu Bible school), Akha, Mien, Hmong, Karen, and Lisu.

After 3 days of working in the office on blog/website things and some other research and fun… we left Thursday for an overnight in one of the staff member’s home village. We rode in the truck for 3 hours to the Karen village called Mae Chang Kaew… such a cute little place with wooden/bamboo houses on stilts, no electricity, and red dirt everywhere! The dirt mountain roads (a colossal reoccurring theme in this blogpost) were so fun but not for the weak of…stomach. As we got to the village it began to thunderstorm… I.LOVED.IT. I helped the women make dinner, and by helped I mean chopped tomatoes and garlic with a machete and then crushed hot chilies with the mortar and pestle. For the many travels I’ve already enjoyed… a new experience was cooking over an indoor open fire in a thatch-roof hut. Needless to say, that was an extremely exciting moment given my love for cooking and cultures. The next morning we took the craziest (by the way the Karen words for “thank you” and “crazy” are very similar, so be careful in order to avoid awkward and confused looks) 3 kilometer drive through an tiny mountain road to the local Thai school that 4 villages send their children to. There are about 30 kids of all different ages and grades with only one teacher and right now the dilemma is to close it and send the kids to a better school further away or to try to fix what is already in place. So those were the highlights of Mae Chang Kaew.

On Saturday we did a 2 hour English lesson with games and songs for Akha children at a nearby village’s daycare center. It was such a fun rewarding time and I loved being a kid myself/ summer camp counselor again. :D Also, had the privilege of devouring some Akha food for lunch with some of the MMF staff to help out at the daycare. After the fun in the morning I went home and did laundry for probably 2 or 3 hours (no, I didn’t have THAT much… I takes a LONG time to handwash everything and scrub it good in buckets, but I feel like my clothes got cleaner that way). The four of us girls went to downtown Chiang Mai for dinner and got caught in a torrential downpour! Yes! Adventure! Loved it!

Sunday and Monday were eventful (as every single day is…) but there’s nothing too important to “write home about” as they say ;)

Tuesday during the day we went to the migrant day care center again! Also, we had the opportunity to go with the staff and one migrant worker to advocate for backed payment from his former boss. During naptime we went for a walk in the rain and found a GIANTIC buddha statue and took some very silly picts (check facebook for those).

OKAY! Now for Nan province! (Thanks for sticking with me so far!)
Begin: the most insane mountain roads with the sick-nastiest S curves and hairpin turns and cliffs and did I mention it was still pouring rain??? The bus trip was 5 hours and was very nicely air conditioned except for the fact that we were FREEZING cold! Also, the bus/possibly people nearby smelled a bit like smoked rotten meats and other assortments of odd things. We were in Nan for Wednesday to Saturday and it was incredibly cold and rainy (which is super rare for this season!) for the majority of the time. We pretty much drove through the mountains to different villages for 4 straight days! It was gorgeous/amazing/awe-inspiring/risky/wonderful… if you can get passed the occasional car sickness. We went to a Lua (another hill tribe) village to deliver palm pants for their new sustainable agro-forestry project. We also went to a Hmong village where the MMF staff had done a training for the youth in herbal medicines recently. Later on Friday we drove again through the mountains to a Malabre village (once again another little hill tribe). Malabre are traditionally nomadic hunters and gatherers, but massive global culture change makes that no longer an option for them. Consequently, this village was extremely poor and probably one of the most difficult experiences with physical poverty I’ve encountered. They all had homes (mind you they were bamboo/thatch shacks) and clothes, but they seemed so disheveled and defeated. It’s such a struggle since they’ve lost their original livelihood strategy and battle food security issues. Also, on a lighter note… the old traditional men wear nothing but leaves or LOINCLOTHS! THAT was interesting! Although it was more relief than development, we passed out blankets and hats that had been donated from Australia (in good timing I might add since you already know how cold and rainy it had been!) Also, since many have asked more about and commented about it: I SHOWERED-ish aka WASHED my HAIR thoroughly at the end of day 3 because I noticed that I was beginning to have DREADLOCKS in place of my curls in the back of my head. For the pop culture lovers… yes, the back of my head was ridikalusss! There are so many other things to say about the Nan trip, but that will have to wait for another time and place.

Weekend! The SUN came out! FINALLY! Saturday I randomly made a new friend downtown. She was a student from Germany who was just taking a lovely holiday to travel around Thailand and was alone so I invited her to come eat and shop around with us! I love making random connections with new people. Sunday I went to the Lahu church and then played some ultimate Frisbee in the blazing hot sun (which was fantastic!) and then went to an English fellowship. Sidenote: that night I played Dutch Blitz for the second time ever in my life… hated it the first time, but love it now!

Monday- a 12 hour work day. Staff devos was incredible and we discussed experiencing God, having a relationship with Him, and challenging ourselves on how to really show we love Him. It was a great day of spiritual encouragement overall and I got roped into sharing that night for the Congratulations Party for the 4th year students in the MMF scholarship program (or CONCRETE-SOLUTIONS… you’d understand the reference if you faithfully follow my silly blogposts!) I shared some thaaaangs about God and His role in our past, present, and future. Basically, how 1. We have to learn from the PAST but not dwell in the negative aspects or regrets (see Isaiah 43:18-19). 2. Learn to embrace and serve God in the PRESENT… not be stagnant (see John 10:10 and getchusome of that life abundantly!) and seek God’s face and not just His hand/blessings. 3. One thing I’m really learning about the FUTURE is to trust God and follow His leading (see Prov. 16:3) and then BLOOM where you’re PLANTED (shout out to my dad who shared that with me at the perfect timing in my college career and changed my life!) and also that God gives a lamp unto our feet not a searchlight (life lesson from Ps. 119:105 and from Swaziland… pretty sure it’s mentioned on this blog from 2.5 years ago!) Also, the students who finished this year shared their testimonies and all cried… such a beautiful time. So there’s some food for thought! Speaking of food… we ate it… at the party… and then I got really sick for about 24 hours. (BUT, HEY! That’s the first time I’ve been sick in about 3 weeks! We’re doing well here!)

Tuesday- this was a huge highlight of the month working with MMF. We drove through even more ridiculous dirt mountain roads along the river to a Lahu village where 4 organizations (MMF, Upland Holistic Development Project, Compassion International, and some micro-enterprise program) are working together in the community to be more effective. During their meeting we went to observe their sustainable agro-forestry project that’s been in place for 5 years. SUPER COOL! They had tea bushes, rattan/wicker plants, pineapples, and lychee trees growing… some of my absolute favorite things! The problem is people aren’t very interested because it takes time (many years) and patience and doesn’t provide as instant gratification as rice and other cash crops that only take months. Also, I witnessed a couple pigs and a dog getting vaccinated for parasites and a fever. It was neat yet terrifying and almost traumatizing. Mental note: animals don’t understand that pinning them down and shoving needles into their flesh will help them in any way. We also drove to an Akha village and another Lahu village. The first and second villages were mostly Christian, but the last Lahu village only had 2… the pastor and his wife. There has been that one family of Christians in that village for 20 years trying to share their faith, but has seen zero results. We prayed with the pastor and now I’m asking you to pray for them and their village too, please. There are so many different needs that makes life overwhelming at times.

But that’s my what I wanted to share with you all… whoever and wherever you may be right now. Such is my life…

Game plan… 3 more days here at MMF and Chiang Rai. Then back to Chiang Mai for a quick 24 hour turn around to fly down to Phuket (the amazingly gorgeous beach) for our “post-practicum excursion” aka SPRING BREAK 2011! Wow, the last break of my undergraduate college career. Weird. Exciting! Let’s go!