You know you live in the jungle when.....

You know you live in the jungle of Thailand when

• You wake up in the middle of the night and a ferel cat is on your bed.
• Your nightly brushing of hair is done with a lice comb.
• You drive into a bigger town and marvel at the sizes of homes (which three months ago would have been classed as shacks)
• You clean and dress every scratch.
• You crave rice if you don't have it at least twice a day.
• You lace your food with Chilli instead of salt and pepper.
• Running water...hot water.... and a flushing toilet are novel.
• You go and have dinner (as Colin did) with the head of the Army and you then stay up all night vomiting after eating their chicken and pork (possibly raw saoked in blood!)
• You eat the whole fish and think it a real treat - scales, fins and suck on the bones. Ok, ok we don't eat the head yet....but hey, who knows!
• Taking patients to hospital on a motorbike (including babies) is common place.
• You are teaching one of the leaders how to drive and you have to include teaching them to avoid children, chickens, cows, bikes, laden trucks and potholes.
• You are happy and at peace.

Changes

We have been very busy - so busy that finding time to write a blog has been difficult. Our days begin at 5.30am and often don’t finish until 11.30pm, when Col and I finally have time to chat through the day and have our bucket shower. The nights are warming up and the days are getting sticky. The principal comes back next week; we have both enjoyed and felt exhausted with various aspects of our time in leadership at the school/orphanage/medical clinic. We have struggled to be at peace with our role amongst the Karen people. We are trying to determine if we are needed or if we are an intrusion – detrimental to their ownership of their futures. This and other factors mean a constant degree of tension in our hearts and minds. Tension of this kind is not all bad…it keeps us thinking and abiding in Christ. We feel at peace about the need to teach them English, and we certainly want to stay very involved in the lives of these Karen people (many of whom we are connected to deeply). We want to work alongside them, eat with them and worship with them. We want to remain accessible as their friends, mentors and in some cases parents. However, in order to protect our family unit and to remove ourselves from the politics of the school/denomination and release ourselves from the presumed role that because we are white we are in automatically in charge; we have decided to move away from the actual school campus. We will still be very accessible to Bamboo school coming out everyday for English week (every second week) and many of the weekends to work at the school with the children.

We are moving into Sai Yok a little town close to the school. In Sai Yok I have the opportunity to teach at a high School of nearly 800 Buddhist children. I have already done some teaching at the school and have loved the enormous challenge of it. I will teach for six hours a day and have just one break of 30 minutes for lunch. I will be able to get to know the teachers there (all Buddhists) and will be able to live and work as a Christian there. Colin will home school the children and we will have a lot more time as a family. It looks as if we may also start a church in Sai Yok (there is no church there yet). This will initially be a family gathering but one where others (including children from the school) may come to discuss the Christian faith. Quite a few of the older children from Bamboo School also go to this high school. It will be great to support them at school, where they are the only Christians among many peers. Last week (when I went to teach for the day) the school lined up for parade. During the parade children and teachers pledge allegiance to their country and salute the flag and then turn, bow and pray to Buddha. The children from Bamboo School (three at this stage) don’t turn, remaining still and facing the front. It is a loud and clear statement that tells everyone present that they are Christians. It is a statement which often results in taunts and laughing from others. I spoke that evening (at Bamboo School) to all the children during devotions. I spoke of how Jesus says that none of us should ever be ashamed of being his followers. I said that I was proud of these young people who stay committed to Jesus in light of teasing. I encouraged them to all continue as ‘hot’ followers of Jesus, never to go ‘lukewarm’ and to be confident that Jesus would then not be ashamed of them. The new school year begins in April, but I may begin before the end of the current school year. This is an exciting adaptation to our lives and mission here in Thailand.

I will be paid about $300 a month and will be given a house. This will be enough for food and internet connection and clothing supplies. So…if you come and visit, you can stay with us and we can take you out to teach and work at Bamboo School, you can also come and teach with me at the High School. Sai Yok is situated on the River Kwae (as in Bridge over the River Kwai) and the school is fed with children from the numerous surrounding villages- many of which are situated alongside the river.

I wrote this blog a week ago and never got to an internet place long enough to post it. We are now on our way to Cambodia to go across the border to then reenter Thailand. I haven’t as yet organized my teaching license and therefore had to leave the country after three months of being here and reenter. We have needed this break away from the intensity of the school and our children need us to reconnect with them. Our children have been 4 of 60 for the last month – so we needed this time to remember what they look like!

2007....

This morning, as with every morning, we woke at 6am (quite often before-depending on how loud the singing and guitar playing is from the boys dorm nearby) and had devotions, breakfast and headed off to Bangkok, dropping a lady off at the specialist hospital in Kanchanarburi on the way. It was a cold morning, but beautiful as we drove the school ute along the bumpy road past sugar cane, banana trees, motorbikes, school children walking to school and monks collecting their morning offerings of food and water. The sun was shining and the smoke from the constant burning off in the mountains and mist filled the air and caused the windshield to glare. I hard to drive slowly so I had time to consider my Maker - and I felt at peace.

Yesterday a lady walked many kilometers to the school to receive medical help….she was shaking and could not walk at all once she got to the school and collapsed. I was starting the schooling with our four children and had to drop that and attend to the lady as our visiting nurse was out visiting elsewhere! The only thing we could do (Colin had the ute in Kanchanarburi taking another lady to hospital) was put her on the back of a motorbike. Dong (one of the student leaders) rode the lady to the hospital and I rode the other bike with one of the other volunteers from Australia (visiting for a while) and the lady’s one year old baby between us. I am still getting used to riding a bike in Thailand – so to have three of us on the bike (one being a tiny child) was daunting! All was well and the hospital in Sai Yok refered her to Kanchanarburi – so we brought her back to the school and she slept in our hut for the night….vomiting for some of the night….but there was no cleaning up to do as she simply made a split in the bamboo floor and vomited through it!

Another special night this week was New Years Eve…when the Baptist church invited the whole school to dinner and to participate in their concert in a nearby village. We took two loads of children over to the party (many were away visiting their own villages for New Year but one load totaled 27 in the ute!) and enjoyed meat!....very, very spicy meat…..oh yeah, there were repercussions the following day from that meal! About 300 villagers came to the concert, the shed was full and the ground…threw up dust all night long. There was a stage with curtains and two guys pulled them shut and opened them again before and after each act. Our family had been asked to sing a song…with me on the guitar. We agreed and had chosen and practiced a song. My family will laugh but we chose the song the five Walker children sang at Col and my wedding! I was already a little giggly thinking of my sisters and brother and how we would often laugh when singing as children. Our family was called to get ready to go on stage and the children from Bamboo School, in order to allow us involvement in their culture coated our faces with baby powder! They do this to make themselves look whiter and protect themselves from the sun. When we stepped onto the stage we positioned our family and nodded to the two young men waiting to pull open the curtain….they were taking their job very seriously! After confirming and reconfirming that we were ready….they pulled open the curtains to a somewhat shocked crowd of Karen villagers. The Bamboo School children were so proud of us and were delighting in us being one of them…they simultaneously broke out in a load cheer. As they began so did the other 300 people. All of this before we had sung a single word. This was enough to get me laughing….I knew Colin standing behind me was ready to crack also…but we held it together….the children better than me and got through the song….we finished and again the cheering started. It was so very cool to join…to really join the villagers. It was honoring to them…but such an honor to us to have been cheered.

I have many more stories…but will leave it here.

Oh , by the way….we received the chicken promised to our family as a result of me helping with the Bessa Blocks! One of the cooking staff..who lives at the school….was thrilled and promptly took it off me acting out (she knows very little English) the slitting of the chickens throat and excitedly announcing the name of some dish she would make with it. The chicken was plucked and then cooked…..the whole chicken….and I was brought a special sample in a spoon to try before everyone else…..mmm.

We had to get the ute fixed the other day....the gear box was having big troubles.....it cost $10AUD. That same day we paid for a friends motorbike to be fixed....that cost $12AUD. Then we got a haircut for Zach and that cost $1AUD. We then paid for a student to have her hair cut into a style she was dreaming about....she is 17 yrs old...and we paid a whopping $2 for the style cut. Hmmm I think we will find it hard to pay Aussie prices for a style cut when we get home.

This has been a crazy week. The children are not really getting much of their schooling done. About 3 hours for the whole week...they are not complaining...but we are going to have to address this situation...!

I have been reminded of how Jesus laid down his life for us. I am reminded also of our instruction to be like Jesus. The example of laying down our lives for each other is hard but very much at the core of Christianity I believe. I am understanding more that it makes very little difference where you are in the world…each of us are asked to lay down our lives for each other and in doing so we lay down our lives for our Maker. Can I challenge you this week to think of those you interact with and ask you to follow in the steps of Jesus and lay down your life for them? This is hard…as it means putting aside your own plans and agenda, putting aside your own interests and seeking to put someone else before yourself. Simple lesson…but so hard to carry out consistently!

Love to you all.

Thanks!

No doubt you have heard about the bombs in Bangkok....you probably know more than we do! We hear very little out in the jungle....nice and a little wierd also. We are safe though and hoping things have settled some by Thursday...as we take people to the airport in Bangkok on Thursday!

Thank you for your prayers for Zach's skin.......God is taking very good care of him. His skin has cleared and we are staying on top of his ecshma (however you spell that!). He is enjoying life a little more!

More blog to come tomorrow!

Thank you so much for all your comments....I don't generally have time to reply but know that I am thankful.