Less than 2 months before I’ll be coming home. It’s so hard to believe! Mae and Pa (along with our other Thai friends) are constantly reminding us that our time is running out and how sad they’ll be. They say that we will forget them altogether, and that our neighbor girls will call for us and they will get no response. So sad! We won’t forget Mae and Pa ever, and it hurts thinking about the girls coming over and not finding us there. I have already cried many times about leaving them and can only wonder what it’ll be like to really say good-bye for the last time!
We have had some great talks with our girls. We’ve been able to share a little more about the Father. I got to share with Ayo and Yat about how I’m not afraid to die because I will live with Dad. Both the girls got all giddy and Ayo said “I want to live with the Father!” They’ve just been given CEF workbooks to read and fill out. After they’re done, our supervisors will send them to Bangkok for them where people answer their questions and correct their answers. The girls think the books are a lot of fun! A Thai C girl named Ah (age 13) is staying with Mike and Amy for a few weeks and she said she would be more than willing to talk with the girls about the Father, so we’ve been very excited about this! As I’m writing this letter, the little girls are over and they’re taking turns yarping with each other. Their yarps are so cute and genuine, oh it’s such a joy to watch!
We have started writing our papers for our Ethnography course. We are studying the Kui people and coming up with a practical strategy of how to possibly reach them. We interviewed Booey, a Kui woman who is friends with Amy and Mike, and she provided us with great information. When we asked her if Kui and Lao people get along, she said they don’t really. She then said, “Dam and Boody (her daughters) don’t mind each other unless they bump into each other; then they fight. This is the same as the Kui and Lao people.” Interviewing people has given us amazing insight into the culture and has actually been a lot of fun!
Our time in Kuhn Han is still a lot of fun. Though we teach English three times during the weekend, this is nothing in comparison to what they do for us! Two weeks ago we got to participate in the Sports outreach with the Compassion Kids and their families. Naomi and I were on the team with all the moms, and it was a lot of fun! We played soccer, this funny race game (that tore up my feet!) and water balloon volleyball. My partner had a big wad of beetle nut in her mouth, so I couldn’t understand a word she was saying! This last weekend there we made a lot of Thai candy. It almost tastes like a waffle cone. Anyhow, it was a fun time!
This last week, our supervisors were out of town so we spent every night at their house with their kids and Ariel. It was a good week to be at their home, because the electricity went out a lot! It’s been raining like crazy and it makes the power go out. The streets and everything else have been getting flooded. The fishermen are happy though! But anyway, we got to use the internet almost every morning and got warm showers!
Working with our supervisors has been a lot of fun. We did a clothes giveaway in Muu 1 in our village, and that was a lot of fun. The people were really shy to take clothes at first, but pretty soon tons of people started swarming the place and all the clothes were gone in no time. A cow decided to join us and plopped itself right in front of the clothes, it was really funny!
Some new IMB m’s have just transferred from Nan, Thailand to Sisaket. We had a pizza night with them and some of the Thai neighbors. We got to make our own pizzas and it was a lot of fun! It’s been really cool to see how different m's live on the field.
One of our neighbor girls, Yat, told us that she would be dancing at our school. We found out from a teacher the time that he thought it started. Naomi and I left our house at about 8 AM to go to the school. We got to the school…but we were in a parade first! Last Tuesday marked the first day of the Sports Week at the school. We missed SBU’s homecoming, but we definitely got to participate in our own parade! The whole community gets involved in this. Instead of going to class, the kids and their parents come to the school to play soccer, volleyball and other games. Pa even dressed up and gave a speech to start the event. We ended up seeing Yat dance and she looked absolutely beautiful! The dancers were so young but very talented.
I ended up giving in and getting a Thai hair cut. I really like it…however, even when your hair is straightened here, the humidity makes it POOF within seconds. It’ll look nice in America, hopefully!
Our phone decided to take a swim in the lake in Kuhn Han. Naomi sat down and it literally jumped out of her purse into the 8 meter deep lake. So, our phone is no more. We might be borrowing one soon! Sorry if you’ve tried to call and have gotten no answer.
Well guys, I miss you and hope you all are doing well!
jenn
PICTURES from all these events can be seen on this website: http://sbuniv.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007123&id=177500365&l=cd7ec