Free Day and Miscellaneous

Three week round-up:

Before we left it was CRAZY - we had our last week of lecture, good-bye parties, no Eliza (so sad!), Christmas with grandparents, packing, shopping, returning... It was a great week, we loved spending time with 100 Fold and the Garrigans before we headed out and also our last lecturer - Dan Bauman (he spoke on having a real and simple and wonderful relationship with God, he was very encouraging, peaceful and inspiring). 100 Fold had a Christmas party - movie, hot chocolate, pjs and praying for us before we left. We love being part of 100 Fold - they have been encouraging and supportive. We look forward to being back in February and getting to be full-time 100 Fold and full-time family :-)

Thailand:

Bangkok:

We flew into Bangkok and were only there 12 hours. Long enough to sleep, shower, have breakfast (bananas, toast/jelly, pineapple and yogurt), lunch (3 different Thai stirfry dishes over rice and egg), an orientation meeting to tell us the do's and don'ts of Thailand, how to use the bathrooms, how to greet others and a few words. Then we were on our way to Ratchaburi in a van (2 hour ride).

Ratchaburi:

We got here on Wednesday, Dec 12 and we will leave on Thursday, Dec 27. So far we've participated in a Christmas Party - it was for the neighborhood and very evangelistic. The pastor preached the gospel, there were really fun Christian songs that the band played. Our team did a skit, sang two Christmas songs and shared a testimony. There was so much food and ice cream for everyone! Pineapple, rose apple, guava, pad see yew, a spicy curry dish, papaya salad, rice, rice noodles, spicy bean dish, orange noodle dish (?), ... This is the church where the day before we prepared the area by spreading gravel for them.

There have been two days of construction and site work for another church about 1.5 hours away, close to Burma. I went with the kids the first day, but it was so hot and dirty and slightly dangerous, that I stayed home with them the second day.

Sunday, we went to church and also the above Christmas party. 

One day, on our way to spread gravel / level the area at a church, our hosts brought us to the floating market as a surprise. Apparently, this is the original floating market. There are others in Thailand, but this is the first one - at least that is what they claim :-) We took a ride through the floating market. It was SO cool!!! Thankfully we went with two team members (Ann-Kristin and Brent), they helped the kids remember to not put their hands on the outside of the boat. So mostly their are vendors or shops on either side of the waterways and if you want to buy something you point and your boat driver pulls over OR the shop owner has long wooden sticks with a hook on the end and they will hook your boat and pull you over.

We had a day off and went to the "Beautiful Cave", which was beautiful, but also VERY HOT. Hotter than outside and with 100% humidity. It was hard to breathe, 95 degree weather never felt better when we got out, at least it was only 85-90% humidity outside. Perspective!  At the caves, we had lunch and shopped at the markets. Out back from where we ate lunch, there were these puppies, they were born that day!!! The store owner came over and pulled out the puppies for us to all hold. Good thing we couldn't get the puppy home because they all wanted to keep one!



Also, on our free day we went to "monkey mountain", where there are hundreds of monkeys that would like to be fed. Someone on a moto was selling corn on the cob to give to the monkeys. The monkeys would take the corn right out of your hand - if you wanted them to, but also if you weren't paying attention. It scared Kiera (and me, a little), but Selah and Mason really liked the monkeys. Then we went to visit a temple. It was huge, apparently the biggest in the area. The feeling of desparation and being lost of the people there visiting was evident. It was so sad to see them praying to statues that could do nothing for them. It is so hard because we can't speak Thai, but we can pray!

Around the temple, there were a lot of monkeys also, but these aren't ones you feed. Crazy! By the end of the day, I didn't think seeing a monkey was that strange. At one point, Selah and Kiera were looking through a fence (on a bridge) at a monkey sitting up in a tree - the monkey was 4 feet away and eye-level with them. Selah tried talking to the monkey, or maybe taunting it, and the monkey jumped onto the other side of the fence from them - the girls were SO SCARED and ran the fastest I've ever seen them!

We also went to a bat cave to see thousands of birds flying out of the cave at sunset. Ross and Joe hiked to the mouth of the cave, the rest of us watched from the bottom of the hill.

I'm sure I've missed stuff, but this is a good account for now. Next time, I'll try to remember and take pictures of and document squatty potties and bucket showers. I'll also try to write about the do's and don'ts.

Love to all!