I’ve missed all of you a lot. My heart goes out to all my Gunderson family relatives that lost their fun Uncle/Grandpa/Husband/Brother Bob Gunderson in this past week. I wish I could have been there for the funeral but my heart is grieving the loss with you.
The last two weeks have been a lot of fun. Before the last m team from Virginia left, we went yarp walking and did literature distribution in different Kui villages. This was a blast for me! After we had visited some of the homes, other teammates would see families watching the J Film in Kuy. Again, this is the only film ever made in the Kuy language. It is pretty exciting for them to watch! As we yarp walked, I was again reminded of how much I love the people here and how m work is definitely needed among this people group.
On November 11th, Naomi and I headed to Bangkok with our supervisor’s son Chris and MK friend Garrett Day. Once we got to Bangkok, Naomi, Garrett and I got on a train to Chiang Mai, Thailand! If you haven’t heard about Chiang Mai before, it is a beautiful city in Northern Thailand that is surrounded by mountains and is very tourist friendly. We stayed with the Days (Garrett’s family, they are m’s in Chiang Mai) and were absolutely spoiled. We went hiking and swimming in the mountains, visited the night and day markets, went to an amazing Export shop (I have gotten ALL my Christmas shopping done already!), visited the famous Chiang Mai Celadon factory, ate amazing American food, and got Starbucks a few times! I saw some Hmong Hill Tribe people for the first time selling jewelry at the night market. We also got to spend a little time with fellow SBU friends Megan and Melissa. Though we had a lot going on, the time in Chiang Mai was a real spiritual retreat as well. Mrs. Day is an amazing woman and provided a lot of wisdom and insight for us girls. We got to help out at her MK (m kid) high school girls Book study and tell the girls what to anticipate spiritually as they are going off to college. It was an amazing week!
As soon as we got back, we headed to the Elephant Round-Up in Surin Province. The Elephant Round-Up is held annually by Kui people, as they have been the “Elephant people” for centuries in Thailand. Most of the Kui live in the Surin Province. The elephants play soccer against each other and do all kinds of tricks. The neatest part of the show was watching the Kui actors and elephants depict a war scene from the past.
Thanksgiving is around the corner, and in two weeks it’s time go home. My feelings about leaving are bittersweet. There have been times in this trip where all I’ve wanted is to go home. Now that it’s almost time to go, I’m excited to get home but am filled with sadness. Living here has become normal and it’s hard to imagine life without the friends I have here. Our friend Ariel is leaving tomorrow and I have watched her say some of her good-byes. It is very difficult. I have loved my time and experience here, but saying goodbye to people almost doesn’t feel right. They are a part of my life now, and it’s hard to imagine not being with them anymore. Only if Thailand and America were closer to one another! That would be great! We’ll be spending the next two weeks packing up, finishing some homework (it is almost done!), cleaning out our house, giving stuff away , hanging out and saying goodbye to dear friends and our girls.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Jenn
P.S. Facebook won’t let me send out pictures anymore, so I'm sending you an album from PhotoBucket that covers the last month in Thailand!
Here's the picture link from Chiang Mai and the last weeks:
http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p250/caposonggurl/Chiang%20Mai%20and%20Village%20fun/?sc=3
This next link is from this update that I didn't attach pictures with:
http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p250/caposonggurl/
Hope you can view them!
jenn