An Explosive Conversationalist

I have recently discovered a love for facebook chatting with the Thais at night. I have stayed up all hours of the night being thoroughly entertained by their stimulating conversation. They definitely keep me on my toes. Rather than keep all of you in the dark about this, I thought that I would share some of my experiences. This particular conversation is with a young man named Bomb. Most of the time our communication makes no sense, so we usually just throw in random movie quotes and American cliches that we have taught him. This was right after we saw the movie Get Smart so you may recognize several of the quotes from that. I hope you are able to enjoy reading this conversation even half as much as I did experiencing it:

1:11amLeah
Hey Bomb!
What are you still doing up?
you should come to the ZONE since you are awake

1:11amBombay
talk to my leg
yesssss

no I kid. talk to my hand.

1:12amLeah
khaaaaa

1:13amBombay
KUPPPPP

1:13amLeah
that's not even a word!

1:15amBombay
555555555
ok see you too
i'm free time
for tomorrow
in the john
no not really
I kid you

1:20amLeah
okay . .. sounds good?

1:26amBombay
not have a class
bye
THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!
bye

1:35amLeah
I would like to request the cone of silence

1:36amBombay
5555555555555
stop !!!!!! leah
I not to member

1:37amLeah
why not?

1:37amBombay
because you make me laugh

1:37amLeah
5555 I don't think so

1:37amBombay
now I can't to stop to laug
stop!!!!!!
don't tell me!!!!!
555555555 :)

1:44amBombay
I want to take a shower.

1:45amLeah
jing low?

1:46amBombay
jing jing
tomorrow I have a class at 8.00 a.m.

1:46amLeah
tum mai?

1:52amBombay
tired
I want to sleep

1:53amLeah
okay okay
go to sleep

1:53amBombay
good night

1:53amLeah
fahn dii

1:54amBombay
THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE"
thank you
see you tomorrow

1:54amLeah
mai pen rai
okay
good night!

Back in the Saddle Again

Sleeping in a chair is always easy to do at first, but it is something that I end up regretting in the morning, and this morning was no different. My neck and back were pretty sore when I woke up, but I managed to walk off the pain. All of the girls got up a little before ten, and we ate breakfast together. They had made some kind of rice soup for breakfast, but I guess they realized that they were also entertaining Americans and made toast and fruit available to us. We very much appreciated that. Butter and Yam’s dad drove us home when we finished eating so that we could make it in time for our Thai class. I felt kind of bad for Janhom because we were all pretty exhausted from a weekend packed with festivities, so we were less than enthused to be there. Our lesson eventually ended though, and we came out to find P’Wut, P’O, and Eddie in the common area. We all made plans to go eat lunch and go grocery shopping at Carrefour. Once we got there, Eddie made us all eat in the Thai cafeteria instead of opting out and eating American food. I got some kind of chicken curry, which was pretty good. For some reason, our lunchtime conversation ended up being kind of awkward-the topic of attractiveness and size came up, which is almost never a good idea to talk about in mixed company who is still in the ‘getting-to-know-you’ phase. Everyone managed to make it out alive though. After lunch, we all went grocery shopping. I stocked up on my necessities-peanut butter and cereal.

Back at the zone, we all were trying to make plans about what to do for the rest of the afternoon. The idea of going bungee jumping again came up. P'Wut had never been before, so Melanie, Eddie, and I all decided to take him. I think he was regretting speaking up about it though because he looked pretty nervous on the drive over there. I had my fair share of butterflies too though. At the bungee jumping site, all of the workers remembered Melanie and me, which kind of surprised me. They got us all signed in and ready to go. First we had to sit through a small group of high school kids from the states jump first. They were here for some sports trip, and I could definitely tell they were in high school. They all proved to be quite entertaining though. This was their first time to go bungee jumping, and every one of them acted so macho on the ground, but when they got to the top they all took forever to jump off, and every one of them jumped off wrong. It was kind of humorous seeing their head whip around their feet so fast though. I decided to go first from our group to help show P'Wut how to jump off . . . correctly. I was successful, and even better news, so was P'Wut! He did such a great job! Melanie and Eddie went together, and they had a great time as well. I was so glad I got to hang out with P'Wut and Eddie. It was really great to get to know them both and spend more one-on-one time with them.

Back at the zone, Melanie and I met the rest of the girls along with Casey, and we all went out to dinner at a restaurant by Walking Street. It was really great to spend time with some American girls. I look forward to that time every week. I think Casey had a good time as well. After dinner we made a run by the coffee shop and ended up talking there for quite a while. When we realized the time, we all headed back to the zone to lock it up and go to bed.

With my plastic Jesus I'll go far

This week for church all the youth group kids were coming to Payap, so I got to stay for services here this week. I was really happy about that because I know the people here so much better. I woke up a little early so that I could get everything set up for church. During the month of July, all the ACU interns signed up to help set up and welcome everyone. We also signed up to get flowers for the Communion table, but not being able to drive kind of made that difficult. I found some random flowers that someone had put out downstairs, so I decided to just use those. I think they looked really nice up at the front.
During the service, I sat by Cyreal and Bom. It was quite an adventure. Bom, who is kind of like a Thai parrot, randomly spouts out quotes and other phrases he has heard Americans say. He recently learned that the bathroom is called a “john” in some places, so halfway through church he leaned over and told me that he had to go to the john and then proceeded to make constipated faces before making his exit. Cyreal, who is a little more mature than that, kept asking me if I had a boyfriend back in the states and if I was attracted to black men. I laughed off most of his questions, but they kind of freaked me out a little because a few days earlier, Whitney had told me that he was quizzing her on the stipulations of becoming a U.S. citizen through marriage. He seemed pretty harmless. P’Wut led singing, and he did a really great job. He has to be one of the nicest people that I have met here so far, and every time he went up to the front, he made me smile. Since Robert is gone, all the guys are taking turns preaching. This week was Marvin’s turn. Marvin is from Australia, and he moved here about two years ago after completing his internship at the zone. He seems to be a very accurate portrayal of what I had always imagined an Australian to be like. He spoke on James chapter one, and I think it was the first time I had ever heard a person dance around, talk about getting drunk, and use the word crap all in one sermon. After church, we all proceeded to our specified locations for class. The youth group meets on the second floor-I think they try and separate us as far as possible from the rest of the classes because we are so loud. Today we sang some songs, played charades, and watched a short Rob Bell video clip on the importance of being quiet with God. We kind of incorporated the spiritual discipline of meditation and solitude, and everyone seemed to be fairly interested in what Melanie and I had to say.
After class, we all grabbed some lunch around the zone and then met back up at about 1:30 for the all church service project. The project this time was to spend the afternoon at an orphanage. It kind of reminded me of my Cambodia days, which now seem like an eternity ago. The ACU interns were in charge of games, so after P’O finished leading some goofy kids’ songs, we were up. We played Catch Her Eye, which is always a big hit for some reason. I was kind of proud of myself because I was able to explain part of the directions in Thai. After games, we broke up into groups to read a book about Jesus and then draw a life-size picture of him. I was a little concerned in the early stages for our portrait because Jesus was turning out to look kind of like Hitler, but our group was pretty on top of it and quickly remedied the situation. After our illustration activity, we all played a few more games and then returned to our homes. On the way back, Butter asked if she could talk to me about a problem she was having with a friend. I was really glad she felt comfortable enough to talk to me about it even though I don’t feel super qualified to give guidance to teenage girls on their social problems. I did pray for her though, which she seemed to appreciate. Pretty soon after our talk, everyone headed out to Walking Street-our new Sunday hangout tradition. Melanie and I rode with P’O, Julie, and Eddie. Eddie is a student from Thailand who is studying at South Pacific Bible College, and he is on summer break for a while. Robert spoke very highly of him, and my first impression of him did not dispute that. We all grabbed a quick bite at Mike’s and then hit the streets. This week everything looked so cool, and I ended up buying several souvenirs.
Melanie, Terri, and I met Butter at Wawee and then followed her to her dad’s car. This week for our youth group activity, we all decided to have a sleep over at Butter and Yam’s house for Yam’s birthday. It was so much fun to hang out and be silly with all of them. Yam and I were the designated brownie makers. Her parents had never seen brownie mix like that before, so they all studied me intently as I mixed the ingredients. I felt like I was under a microscope with all of those eyes watching me. They turned out great though, and soon I was able to escape all of the strange looks and join the other girls who were watching the Lion King. We had the movie on sing-a-long version so that we could all fully participate in the magic of the Disney movie. After the first movie, we voted on the second movie. Our first choice was While You Were Sleeping, but for some reason that DVD didn’t work in the DVD player, so we ended up watching the Wedding Date. I fell asleep part-way through it though, so I didn’t get to see Debra Messing win the heart of the handsome escort again. I guess I will have to watch it again back in the states.

Go Tell It On The Mountain!

As much as I love all of our trips up into the mountains, there is always one downside to them: ROOSTERS. This morning, they didn't start painfully early, but what they lost in time they made up for in volume. They were so loud! This time they were actually about six feet away from me. I thought that I would take matters into my own hands, so I grabbed both of my tennis shoes and went chasing after them. They must have some kind of an agreement with the dogs there though because after a few feet of me chasing them, the dogs came running and barking after me. At that point, I gave in and decided to go for a run, seeing as I had my tennis shoes in hand. I didn't really think that through very well though because one whole half of my run was uphill. I managed to survive and make it back to our cabin though. When I came back, there were a few people that had given up trying to sleep through the crowing, so I talked with them for a while. A group of us decided to go and get a cup of fresh coffee next door. It was so good! I bet there aren't a lot of people that can say they have had a cup of coffee straight off of the plantation! I made it back to the cabin in time to help P'Wah and P'Pui prepare breakfast for everyone. We were only having toast and eggs, so it wasn't too difficult. I was in charge of boiling the water for coffee and cocoa. When it was ready, Rit came up to me, and I asked him if I could fix him a cup of coffee. He declined my offer and only took me up on the hot water. I must say, I have not met too many people that drink hot water straight like that. It was pretty entertaining though.

After breakfast, it was time for the games to begin! P'Wah and I were the ring leaders of all the festivities. The first game we had lined up was a relay that involved every one taking turns to brush their teeth. The object of the game was to see which team could use up the most toothpaste. My team, which had totally dominated in the game the night before, also easily beat out the opposing team in this game as well. I was so proud! I think that game got everyone into the competitive spirit, not to mention the added advantage of having a clean, fresh mouth.

Following the game, P'Yut led a short devo for everyone. I really like singing all of the Thai church songs. I may have to snatch a song book to take back with me to the states so that I don't forget them. After the devo, we played a game that was focused more on vocabulary and spelling, because after all, this is English camp. For this game, each team had to spell the given word correctly by running down and finding a single letter in the word and then bringing it back to their team. To slow things down a bit, we made them have to run back and forth with a book on their head. Sadly, the other team won this game, but we were not discouraged. After the games, we gave everyone a few hours to chill out and relax before lunch. I talked to P'Wah for a bit during the break. It is always good to talk to her, but she is so hard for me to figure out. She does manage to keep life interesting though.

At about noon, I helped P'Pui fix lunch. We had noodle soup with vegetables. My job was to cut up the vegetables, and my cooking inexperience was quite evident. It is kind of hard to mess that up though, so I guess that was a good job for me. Once everyone had had their fill, we made our way down to the basketball court to play the last few games. The first game consisted of a person from each team racing the length of the court in the specified manor, and the first person down would have to try and splash the other person with water. P'Pui didn't really want to get wet, so I gladly played in her spot. When my number was called, I did not manage to crab walk fast enough down to the end, and I ended up getting pretty wet. The next game that we played worked on spelling. The four farongs that were playing all stood at different spots in the court and tried to tag people as they ran back and forth with their cups trying to fill up their bucket of water. If a person was tagged, then the farongs would give them a word to spell. If the word was spelled correctly, then the Thai could splash the farong with water, but if the word was spelled incorrectly, then the farong could splash the Thai with water. Most of them spelled pretty well, but there were a few tricky words-kangaroo, Arkansas, hippopotamus.

I think overall, everyone enjoyed the games. One thing did puzzle me though. Halfway through the water games, it started to rain, and all the Thais, even though they were already wet, ran for cover. Apparently, some Thais are really superstitious about the rain and think that it will make them mai soo kha paab (unhealthy). It didn't make sense to me, but then again, I guess I do a lot of things that probably don't make sense to them either.

Once the games had concluded, everyone got changed and packed up to go home. I decided to stay and go back on the second truckload so that I could help clean everything up. All the other farongs ended up going in the first load back though, so I was there with all Thai speakers. After a while, I got kind of overwhelmed by trying to figure out what was going on. I guess Ball noticed my confusion, so he came over to talk to me for a while. We actually had a legitimate conversation that made me really excited. Ball has been hanging out at the zone for about two years now, and he hasn't every really showed a whole lot of interest in becoming a Christian. In fact, most of the time he won't come to activities that involve us praying or singing songs, but he has been coming to a lot more things now that do-which is kind of cool. He ended up asking me quite a few questions about my faith and various other religious and spiritual aspects of life. This was the first sign of interest that I had seen from him towards this sort of thing, and it was so encouraging.

P'Pui eventually made it, and we loaded up the rest of the supplies for the trek home. The way home was kind of treacherous-all of the freshman students at Chiang Mai University had walked up to Doi Suthep for a Buddhist worship activity, so they roads on the way down were packed with 6,000 CMU freshmen. I eventually made it back though, and by that time, I was tired and hungry and ready for bed.

the stars at night are big and bright

HAPPY JULY FOURTH! ! ! All the Farongs were decked out in the patriotic attire for equipping time this morning, which also happens to be the national colors of Thailand as well-that works out nicely!. After our John discussion, I decided to go running during the last half of my quiet time. I needed to finish up one of the Ray Vanderlaan sermons that I had started a few days before, but once I started running, I decided to take a break from my ipod and pray instead. Besides praying for survival on my runs, I had never really done that before and it actually ended up being kind of cool. I may have to do that again in the near future.

During equipping, Whitney talked about submission, which is kind of ironic because she is the most feminist one out of all of us as far as church matters are concerned. She did a really nice job though.

Lunch was on campus again today, and Whitney and I met up with Cyreal, a Payap student from Cameroon who had been to cell group a few times. He introduced us to his friend Marie from France. I think it is so cool that they both met each other here in Thailand, and yet they are able to speak to each other in French. They were both really fun to talk to. A lot of times I forget Cyreal isn't from America because he is black and speaks English so well, but I am quickly reminded of that after asking him very American questions and receiving very non-American answers. He is really smart though. He told me that he knows five languages! WOW!

When Marie and Cyreal went to class, I quickly headed back to the zone so that I could pack for English camp. The first trip out was going to leave at 3, so I had a little time to kill. I decided to play Thai Rummy with Chris and Ball for a while. Thai Rummy is pretty much like regular Rummy except with a few Thai twists. I wasn't too experienced with either versions, but I ended up being halfway decent. In fact, I even managed to win a round or two.

When it was time to leave for English Camp, I hopped in the truck with Asia, P'O, and Butter. On the trip up there, they taught me how to sing Blue Skies and Rainbows in Thai. I think they may have regretted their decision to do that though because learning things in Thai means that they have to sing it over and over again. They were all pretty good sports about it though, and I eventually got down the first verse and the chorus.

The cabin we stayed at was on a coffee bean plantation in the mountains, and it was beautiful! I was so glad we had come early so that I could have a chance to enjoy it before the rest of the group arrived and the festivities had to begin. We had a good three hours to kill before the second group arrived, so we all talked and hung out on the porch. It was fun to do that and not feel like there was anything else I had to do. The other group came in full force on schedule. There seemed to be so many of them! When they arrived we all had some free time to hang out and eat dinner before the devo started. At the devo, we sang my newly learned Thai version of Blue Skies and Rainbows. After the devo, we all played this game that I called "Gone With the Wind". It is a relay where each person has to blow a plastic cup along a string down to the end and back. Since P'Wah and I were in charge, we didn't play, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone. I think Melanie was the best-it took her forever to make it down to the end because she was laughing so hard. After the game, we all kind of hung out until it was time to go to bed. I think those are my favorite times. I love talking and laughing with all of the Thai people-they have such a strong sense of fellowship with each other. When I deemed myself useless for any further activities, I brushed my teeth and curled up in my sleeping bag.

From the Halls of Montezuma

It has been so hard for me to wake up lately, but I did mange to make it up this morning to run before equipping time. We were supposed to go to the woods today to practice solitude for Terri's lesson, but it was raining. So instead Terri gave here lesson at the zone, and we made a plan to postpone our outdoor excursion for a later date.

Lunch was on campus again, and I met this boy named Nan at the Canteen. He spoke very little English, so our conversation was quite limited. He was also kind of gross to watch eat because he would spit out food when he talked, but he was pretty entertaining. I invited him to cell group, and he actually seemed interested in coming. When I was finished eating, I met Melanie at the Payap coffee shop to hang out with her and talk for a while. We had both been considering deferring our enrollment in grad school and staying on as interns here for a full year, so we kind of wanted to talk about how we were feeling about that. Melanie has been so great to get to know this summer-I can't believe we didn't hang out more in Abilene!

At about 3:30, we all got ready to go to the American consulate with Chris and Casey for a July 4th celebration on July 3rd. I am not too sure why it was planned out like that, but I was excited nonetheless. July 4th is one of my favorite holidays-I love fireworks! ! ! At the consulate, it was so weird to see so many Americans in one place. I realized just how silly and loud we can all be when we get together. There was so much stuff to see and do there. I hit up the hot dog stand almost immediately, and shortly after that I signed up for a watermelon eating contest. After I signed up, I realized that I am not a huge watermelon fan, but I couldn't resist the thrill of competition. The contest was a lot of fun, even though I didn't make a very good showing. When my watermelon was semi-digested I made a visit to the ice cream stand before participating in the egg head contest with Whitney. This consisted of me cracking eggs over Whitney's head to see which ones were hard-boiled so that she could peel them. We made a pretty good team. We left pretty quick after that because Whitney was started to bake in the sun with all of her egg yoke on her. We made it back in time for all of us to change and make it down in time for cell group.

At cell group, we played Look Down, Look Up, and then P'Wut gave the lesson on diligence with your faith. I haven't ever really heard him talk about his faith before, so it was pretty cool to hear. Before Robert left, he had told us to pray for the zone to bring out new leaders in the church here, and I think P'Wut would definitely do a great job. He seems very mature and respected here, and I hope we can give him the encouragement he needs to be more confident in himself.

After cell group, Casey pulled all the interns aside and talked to us about some issues that had been on her mind. Casey has been so great to get to know. Even though her and Chris are so young, the way they live their lives is so mature and admirable. Maggie and Melanie are so lucky to have them as parents! When it was time for them to head home, I stayed downstairs and talked to P'Wut for a bit before I headed for bed as well.

now there's no secret to toasting perfection

This morning we had equipping time at Sean Todd's house, which is synonymous with FRENCH TOAST! ! ! YAY! I don't know what he does to make his French Toast taste so amazing, but it is aloi mak! ! ! I was excited to see the Cheung Doi interns were able to come as well. P'Gahn and P'O always make a party more fun. Once everyone had their fill of food, Sean Todd gave his lesson. He talked about Buddhism and some of the similarities and differences it has with Christianity. It was really interesting-since I have been here and been immersed in so much Buddhist culture, I have been wanted to learn more about their beliefs. The more I know about the Thai culture, the easier I think it is for me to relate to the people here.

Once equipping was over, some of the people left to go back to the zone, but Terri, Melanie, and I all stayed for a youth group activity. We had planned to all eat lunch together, so once Butter and Yam arrived we began our festivities. We all walked down the street and got some off-brand slurpies. I got a strawberry one, which you can never go wrong with. I did try Asia's chocolate one though, and that tasted pretty good as well. Back at the Todds' house, we all pitched in and to help make lunch. The menu consisted of grilled cheese, tomato soup, and Thai omelet. I was in charge of making the grilled cheese, and even though I was criticized on my methodology, I think the end result was acceptable. After lunch, we all hung out and talked for a while. One of the things that we did was to assign everyone a different Disney princess that fit their personality. I was given Cinderella, which I was pretty excited about.

P'O stopped by after a little while to pick us up and take us back to the church. I made it back just in time for my TWO English lessons that afternoon. They were both with really good English speakers, and I was kind of skeptical of how much I could really help them. My first session was with Ball, and he immediately pulled out his guitar amp manual to have me read and explain it to him. Seeing as how I am not too skilled in the band equipment department, that posed quite a challenge for me. We managed to understand the process of saving a tone to memory though, which I consider quite a success. In my lesson with Ohng, we went over his grammar homework. I hadn't studied grammar in about six years, so my sentence diagramming skills were a little rusty. I told him that in the future, we may have to bust out Skype and talk to my mom if his questions got any harder.

After class, I worked on plans for English camp with P'Wah. She had almost everything planned out though, and I felt bad that I wasn't more help to her. I did put my English speaking skills to good use by typing up the schedule. By the time we had finished getting everything mapped out, everyone had left to go see a movie, so I decided to go upstairs and go to bed early for a change.

One thing I found out today was that Bom, Thum, and Ohng started studying the Red Book with Chris. The Red Book is the into to Christianity book that they use here to study from when people are interested in becoming a Christian. That was definitely an encouragement, and I am so excited for them!

Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity

TODAY IS JULY FIRST! ! ! YAY!

I woke up just in time for equipping time . . . Melanie was leading it today. She talked about simplicity. That is definitely a topic that is pretty challenging to live out. I have come to realize more and more that my life is pretty cluttered with lots of unnecessary things. For our application, we kind of had a tough time choosing which one to do. We all agreed to apply simplicity in our own way for a week and then we would come back and discuss it after the week had concluded. My application was to live on 100 baht per day, which is about the equivalent to $3. It should definitely be a challenge.

After equipping, we all went up to campus for lunch to talk to the students and tell them about some of the activity going on at the zone for that week. Even though I knew nit noi Thai, I definitely feel like I have improved since I have been here. I ate lunch with this group of girls who were all communications majors though, so maybe they gave me a false sense of confidence because they were all so fun and easy to talk to. I have learned that Thai people have this unspoken trait about them called "grenjai". It is basically a term that expresses how overly polite Thai people are to other people, which isn't always a good thing. For example, if I asked to join a pick-up soccer game with a bunch of Thais. They would all go easy on me because they wouldn't want me to feel bad about my poor soccer skills. After learning this, I always question whether or not the people I talk to here are really enjoying my company or if they are practicing 'grenjai'.

Back at the zone, I had a few hours to chill out before my English lesson with Pluem, so I attempted to catch up on my journal. I wasn't too successful though. At 4:30, Pluem arrived and we started our lesson. It went really well! Pluem is such a smart girl! She makes teaching really easy for me, and even when she doesn't know the answer, she just smiles and laughs. We have a great time together!

After the lesson, P'Pui, P'Wut, Bom, Rit, Chris, Katie, Melanie, and I all ate at Hom's restaurant a few doors down from the zone. Hom is this teenage girl that helps her parents run a restaurant and a meat cart down the street. Every morning when I go out to run, I stop and talk to her. I attempt to incorporate my Thai, but my small vocabulary combined with my poor pronunciation does not make our conversation go too far. At her restaurant, I tried a new dish, which actually ended up being really good. New dishes can be dangerous sometimes. After dinner, we ran by the fruit stand-I can never get enough pineapple! I also tried some of Chris' dragon fruit. It was really good, so my next fruit stand visit, I may have to get some of my own.

Back at the zone, we all made our movie night preparations. Since there were no new movies out at Robinson, we decided to rent one and watch it at the zone. We rented Click! While Chris and P'Wut set up the projector, Melanie, P'Pui, and I all made brownies for everyone to snack on. The oven at the zone is kind of sketchy and unpredictable, so I wasn't too optimistic about the final result, but they ended up being a big hit! The whole pan was gone in a matter of minutes. I think everyone liked the movies as well, which is a huge improvement from the week before.

Just Keep Swimming

Unlike my life in the states, Mondays are always a welcomed day because they are our day off, so I, attempting to sleep in, awoke earlier than I had wanted to the sound on construction on the building next door. Even though they were logically at least twenty feet away, it sounded like they had taken a jackhammer to my windowpane. I decided to give up trying to sleep any longer and practice some of my Thai before our lesson later that morning. My brain was still kind of in a fog, which only added to my frustrations. I guess I must have snapped out of it by the time it was Thai talking time though because I had a lot of fun! We learned about school supplies and colors. I think Janhom thinks we are all bababobo (crazy) though. When the five of us are all together, we definitely exemplify the typical American girl behavior with all of our giggling and goofiness.

After Thai lessons, P'O took us all to Carrefour for lunch and grocery shopping. I got to stock up on all of the necessary essentials, mainly peanut butter. P'Wut had come with us too, which made me really happy. He had been gone for about a week for a business trip to Bangkok, and we were all glad he was back. He and P'O keep us all well-entertained. On the way back from Carrefour, P'O offered to take whoever wanted to go to Grace International School to swim and work out. Melanie and I both accepted his offer and went upstairs to make a quick clothes change. I am so glad P'O is here. He has been so great about helping us get to where we need to go, and he has been such a wonderful encouragement. He always seems to have this great connection from a person he met once or somewhere that he used to live. His networking system is quite impressive. I have really enjoyed hearing all of his stories. At Grace, I ran on the treadmill for a while and listened to another Ray Vanderlaan sermon. P'Sean was there working out as well, and I got to talk to him and get everything set for another French Toast equipping time on Wednesday-very exciting! After my run, I met Asia down by the pool. She was swimming laps with her friend Marie. They invited me to do some laps with them, and I accepted, but I was a little out of my league with them because they were both record holding swimmers at their school. I was kind of relieved when they decided to take a break and lay out for a while. It is kind of funny to see what the missionary kids pick up from America and what Thai customs they take one. Most Thais don't really like to lay out because it makes their skin darker, which is quite the opposite in the states. I don't have any qualms about it though, so I joined Melanie in one of the lounge chairs. I guess I was a bit more tired than I thought because I ended up falling asleep and waking myself up from my snoring. No one around me seemed to notice too much though. When P'O had finished his workout routine, he took us back to the zone. The five ACU interns decided to go out to eat dinner all together and have some team bonding time because it had been a while since we had done that. We all took a taxi to the Night Bazaar to eat and walk around. We all split up to purchase our respective dinner choices. I got Subway-my favorite. After dinner, we went to Starbucks for a while to talk some more and grab some dessert. It was really good to spend time with everyone without a whole lot of distractions. After about an hour, it started to rain, so we thought we had better grab a taxi while we could. We managed to make it back to the zone safe and sound with just enough time to close everything up at 11.

Fiestas and Siestas

Today was a new Sunday adventure! Melanie and I got to go to church at Cheung Doi! P'Gahn picked Melanie and I up to drive us across town for services. It has been quite an experience getting accustomed to Thai time. I have come to the realization that I just need to block off a one hour block of time for the start of an event in my day because there is never really a consistency. Being on time has either made me thirty minutes early or thirty minutes late for activities, and there is no way to decipher which one it will be. Today when I was on time, I was thirty minutes early. I wasn't too worried though because church services here have a running trend for starting about that late, so it worked out perfectly. On the way to the church, we picked up one of the members and her daughter, Jade. She was adorable! Her mom is Thai, but her dad is British, so she had this cute little British accent when she spoke in English. It amazes me how kids just pick up two different languages here as they are learning to talk. It is so hard for my brain to comprehend how they can decipher the difference.

I really enjoyed seeing all the members at the Cheung Doi church. I don't get to see them very often, so it is fun to catch up with all of them. In the churches here, it is really cool because they don't have just one person who is responsible for preaching every Sunday. They have a sort of rotation for all of the responsibilities associated with the service. It seems like kind of a cool way to do things, and it gives everyone a chance to learn and appreciate each responsibility. Sean Todd was preaching this Sunday, so David Allen sat in the back with all of the English speakers to translate. After the sermon, everyone split up to go to their respective classes. Melanie and I were leading our first joint class, so we walked with Asia and Ben to grab a slurpie and then have class at their house. Butter and Yam were mysteriously absent, so our class seemed un-ordinarily bare today. At the Todds' house, we set up the computer and watched a Bruce Almighty clip on prayer, and then we had a short discussion on it. Asia and Ben seem so mature for their age. Sometimes I forget that I am hanging out with high school and middle school kids. They seemed to really enjoy our discussion, which was encouraging. We also decided to meet on Wednesday for a youth group lunch.

For our lunch, most of the Cheung Doi members met at Miguel's to celebrate David's birthday. I was definitely all for that, so Melanie and I decided to join them. I almost felt bad for eating there without the other girls, but my guilt soon subsided when my food came. Back at the zone, I decided to take a nap, but I ended up sleeping a lot longer than I had wanted to. Everyone woke me up in time to leave with the for a fun-filled night at Walking Street to eat dinner and hang out. The five of us decided to hit up Mike's hamburgers again, but I was still full from my Mexican food lunch, so I disappointingly did not order anything. After we ate, we explored Walking Street for a bit before meeting up with everyone at Wawee. Ball and Bom were there when I arrived, so I hung out with them for a while. They make me laugh so much! Their attempt to teach us Thai words always proves to be pretty entertaining. It drew some attention from Tommy, one of the American visitors at Cheung Doi. He is from California, and he is here for the summer to visit his Thai girlfriend. He met her here last year, and he has been here about a month, so his Thai is pretty comparable to our level. It is definitely nice to have someone to relate to like that.

One of my more exciting experiences of the night was my first Thai pay-to-pee bathroom adventure. I still am not sure if that was worth five baht, but I guess if you are desperate enough, any amount sounds like a deal. At about ten, we all loaded up our vehicles and headed back to the zone. I used the rest of the night to catch up on emails a bit before going to bed.

B-E-A-utiful

I woke up today kind of late, but I decided to go ahead and go running. It was so hot! I really need to start getting up earlier to run. When I started out on campus, it was quite entertaining to see all the freshmen out in their goofy garb for their new student activities. When I got back, I ate a quick breakfast and then went to my Thai lesson. I really feel like those help a lot with my Thai vocab and grammar. Janhom is so patient with us-I know five American girls must be overwhelming. After the lesson, a group of us all went out to eat lunch before our fast started. I got Kao Soi again, except this time I got it with pork which made it even better than the first time I got it. On the way back to the zone, P'Pui dropped us off at Relaxland, and Jordan, Emily, Melanie, and I all got Thai massages. Mine was a much better experience than my first Thai massage, which I was extremely pleased about. After our massage, we caught a Tuk Tuk home. Back at the zone, some people had started painting the section of the zone that was being renovated. I helped out with that for a few hours, but my painting skills are not quite up to par-my bedroom gives proof of that. After my painting adventures, I came back and started getting ready for the devo. P'Wah was the main person who organized it, and everything turned out really well. We spent about two hours in popcorn-style prayer, singing, and scripture reading. After the devo, Melanie and I worked on our lesson for class on Sunday. We decided to talk about prayer and show a clip from Bruce Almighty. Since I had never seen it, we went to rent it and watch it for the rest of the night. It was actually better than I thought it would be. After the movie, I talked with some of the girls for a while before going to bed.

Only Ice Cream, Never Sundaes

I slept in today to the latest possible time before equipping. Jordan was leading it on the spiritual discipline of study. Being the only guy in our group, he definitely offers a refreshing and different point of view. After equipping time, we all loaded up in the Jao Ford to meet at Yam and Butter’s house for lunch. Their family had invited all the interns over for Jordan to fix us lunch. He made orange chicken with rice and had ice cream with praline sauce for dessert. It was so good! I really had fun with Butter and Yam, and their house was so beautiful! It looks like something out of a magazine. It was also really fun to talk to everyone. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the families here. It is really rare to come across an entirely Christian family-most of the time it is just a single person who has converted to Christianity in a family. After lunch, we all headed back to the zone. I had asked P’Pui to hang out, so that I could spend some time with her. She is pretty much the glue that holds everything together, and the longer I am here, the more I appreciate her and everything she does. We ended up going to Swenson’s and getting more ice cream. I guess we kind of lost track of time because we had to rush back to the zone for my English lesson with Pluem. We learned about games and played Uno to work on vocabulary. I think she enjoyed it quite a bit. After her lesson, we were all sitting around trying to decide what to do for dinner and the rest of the evening. Marvin came in and suggested going to see a movie at Robinson’s. Marvin’s truck couldn’t hold very many people inside, so most of us rode in his bed, which was quiet an adventure. I wasn’t very hungry for dinner, so I went and got coffee with P’O instead. He is really great! He is so good about asking how things are going with me and the internship here. He seems to genuinely care about me and the other interns. While we were drinking our coffee, he helped me out with some of my Thai, which was really great. At about 8:20, we left to go see the movie. We ended up seeing Wanted, which was good but intense. After the movie, we all came back here and hung out for a while before we went to bed.

Home Cookin'

This morning I felt pretty lackluster, but I decided to go for a quick jog before equipping. We were all going to eat breakfast at Bake ‘n Bite for our morning lesson. I don’t think the shop owners knew what to do with us when we all walked in. We all had a good time fellowshipping with one another. We ended up having to cut things short though because Casey’s car broke down, and Chris needed to go pick her up. We ended up finishing our equipping time at the zone-Emily gave the lesson on fasting. I hadn’t had much experience with it, so it was a pretty intriguing lesson. We all decided to do a 24-hour fast on Saturday for the application part to the lesson. After equipping, we all went out and had lunch on campus. I ate with some students I had met the week before, and it was really good to be around some familiar faces. After lunch, we all had a meeting with P’Pui concerning the English camp the following week. I volunteered to be in charge of planning it with P’Wah. After our meeting several of us went to Carrefour to buy groceries for dinner-it was the interns turn to cook for cell group. I was glad Jordan with all of his culinary skills was there to take charge of everything. It could have been a disaster had we been left up to our own devices. We spent the rest of the afternoon preparing our feast of barbequed chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, and watermelon. It looked so good, and I was really disappointed when I had to depart before dinner for my English lesson. My students ended up coming late and just eating with us which was a pleasant surprise. After dinner, I helped clean up, and then Bom led cell group. He did a really great job! I am so glad he stepped up and helped out! After cell group, I stayed downstairs to talk to Ball for a while. He told me some about his family, which ended up being kind of depressing. He seems to be struggling with a lot, and I really hope he will start recognizing how supportive the people at this church can be. Talking with him ended up being kind of draining, so when he left, I went upstairs to head for bed.

Say a Little Prayer for You

This morning I couldn’t go running because I had to prepare for my lesson. Since Robert left, we all decided to trade off leading equipping time, and I was the first person to go. My chapter was over prayer, which I really enjoyed. The discussion time went really well, and everyone seemed to be into it. For each discipline, we all try to have an application part to the lesson. For our application, we each signed up for a different thirty minute block of time to pray for the ministry at the zone and the Payap students. After equipping time, I went up to campus to eat lunch with the students, but I had forgotten that it was Wednesday, which is a day off for all of the university students. I grabbed a q2uick bite to eat, and then P’Wah and I went to get a drink from Wawee. P’Wah is the only Thai intern with the five of us, and I had asked to spend some one-on-one time with her so that I could get to know her a little bit better. She has had such an interesting life, and I really admire her self-confidence and independence. After coffee, I went back to the zone for my English lessons. I was supposed to have two today-one was with Ball and one was with Ohng. They were both at the zone, and they both decided to cancel on me. They wanted to go to the airport to see John and Julie off. Since they were both going, I decided to go too. At the airport, I saw a group of girls dressed in school uniforms, and I went up to talk to them because I thought they were Payap students. They were actually from Chiang Mai University, and when they realized my blunder, we all had a good laugh about it. It was kind of sad to see John and Julie go. I know a lot of people here will miss them. I just hope I can do as good a job as they have done. After we returned from the airport, Chris picked us all up to have dinner with their family. They are both so nice, and I am really glad I got a chance to talk to them. After dinner, we all were pretty worn out, so Chris took us home and we wound things down for the night.

Get(ting) Smart(er)

It was so hard for me to wake up this morning, but I managed to make it out of bed in time for our morning John lesson. This was Robert's last meeting with us before he left for the states for the rest of the summer. We were all really sad to see him go. During my quiet time, I decided to go on a run and listen to a sermon by Ray Vanderlaan. He talked about the influence of the Jewish faith on Jesus and his teachings. I thought it was really interesting how the most respected Rabbis did not study in a temple all day but spent their time living out the teachings. For equipping time, Lee talked on using your gifts to glorify God. He has had a really cool life, and I really enjoyed listening to his stories. After equipping time, we all changed and got ready to go on campus for lunch. I met two groups of girls who seemed really nice despite our awkward conversations. One group asked me, "Khun chop poochai Thai mai?", which translates to, "Do you like Thai boys?" We all laughed pretty hard about that, and that seemed to kind of ease the awkwardness. After lunch, I grabbed some coffee at the university coffee shop with Jordan and Emily. We met a guy there who is from South Africa. He quizzed us on US politics, which I did not feel too confident in my ability to discuss. When I got back, I had some down time before Pluem came for my first English lesson. It amazes me how much English the people here know. She did really great! After her English lesson, Melanie and I grabbed some dinner at the carts around the zone before we started preparations for movie night. Movie night ended being a complete disaster. Half the people left to go see Get Smart, and when we tried to watch our movie upstairs, the sound was all messed up so we couldn't hear it. We ended up cutting the movie short, and everyone went there separate ways. Hopefully we got all the kinks worked out though, so that next week will go a bit more smoothly.

CANNONBALL! ! !

Today was our first day off in two weeks, and we all really needed a break. I slept in some and woke up at about 8 o'clock to go running. It was pretty warm by then, but I am still glad I got to go. When I got back, I spent a good part of the morning catching up on my journal and emails. It is so easy to get behind with all of that and also so easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. At about 9:30, I decided to take a break and go grab some breakfast at the cafe next door. On my way out, I ran into Chris, Casey, Maggie, and Melanie. They are a young missionary couple with two kids who moved here about six months ago. They are the nicest people! It is crazy because they are less than two years older than me, but they seem to much more mature then I am. They are both so patient with their kids and the people around them. I admire them both a great deal. Their family was using the day off to go to the pool, which I am sure they all enjoyed. After they left, I ran and grabbed some fruit and tea. When I got back, it was about time for our first Thai lesson with Janhom. Everyone decided to attend the first one, which was kind of cool. I am really glad I get to learn more Thai, but it can be kind of overwhelming at times. Hopefully I can get it down though. I really feel like the more of an effort that I make to learn Thai, the easier it is for me to relate to the people here. After class, Robert picked us all up and we went out for Mexican food at Miguel's. It, again, was delicious! I got cheese enchiladas this time, you can never go wrong with those. After lunch, all the Aggies met us back at the zone to pick up their bags before heading to the train station. It was good to see them all one last time before they left for good. After their departure, P'O took Butter, Yam, Whitney, Melanie, and me to Grace International School to go swimming for the afternoon for our first "youth group" activity. All the kids showed up, which was a good sign, but they all kind of did their own thing. I had a jumping contest with Butter, Yam, and Melanie, and after that we kind of just hung out and talked. At about 7, P'O suggested we go grab some dinner at a nearby Italian food restaurant called Mr. Chan's. My expectations were low, but the food turned out to be pretty good. After dinner, P'O took us home, and I hung out downstairs with the people at the zone for a few hours before going to bed.

Just Short of a Full Deck

I woke up this morning and got ready for church. All the ACU interns met before church for a few minutes to go over John 1:1-18 because we were reading it in front of everyone today. Church was really good. Jordan preached, and he did a really nice job with the lesson. When it came time for all of us to go to the front and recite it, I was surprised at how smoothly it went. I was also really impressed with P'Wah. She said it all by herself with a really difficult Thai translation. That kind of seems to be how she does things though-she kind of marches to the beat of her own drum. After church, everyone was supposed to go downstairs for a meeting, but this was the first Sunday for me to teach the youth group kids, so I stayed upstairs with all of the kids for our class. Considering I have absolutely no youth group or teaching experience whatsoever, I think it went pretty well. After class, we all went out to lunch. We went to a noodles place not far from the zone. I had Lad Na, and it was great! After lunch, I hung out at the zone for a few hours and played cards with some of the people there. I still have yet to win a Nerts game. At about 2:30, Melanie and I went swimming with P'Wah, P'Pui, P'Gift, Jenny, and Ohng. It was so much fun, and the water felt wonderful! When it was time for dinner, P'Wah took us back to the zone to make a quick clothes change before we left for P'Robert's house for dinner. Jordan was fixing pasta, and I had been looking forward to it the whole day. He had gone to culinary school, so this Italian food was restaurant style caliber. It was really nice being able to spend some time with Robert's family for a while before they left on furlough. After dinner, we all went to Walking Street. I got some shoes for $3-what a bargain! My mom would be proud. After Walking Street, we all went back to the zone because it was getting late. I came in and went straight to bed at a fairly decent hour, which was nice for a change.

An Elephant Never Forgets

The roosters in this hill tribe village were not quite as vocal as my previous overnight village experience, and I was very thankful for that! We all had to get up pretty early though to make our raft's 7am departure. Breakfast was waiting for us when we boarded. Maybe raft food is like camping food-even though it may be simple, it always tastes so good. After breakfast, I journalled for a bit, and then I decided to take another dip in the Kok. It was so much fun! I think I spent half of our trip that morning in the water. The rest of it, I spent drying in the sun. I probably should have been a little smarter and worn sunscreen though because my legs were a little crisp by the end of the trip. We made it to our destination at about noon: the elephant sanctuary! I was so excited to see all the elephants playing in the river when we came around the bend! Once we docked, we took a quick look at the snake farm. The five of the ACU interns decided to take a picture with a giant boa constrictor. I got the head, which kind of freaked me out because he kept turning around and hissing in my face.

After the snake excitement subsided, we grabbed a quick lunch before boarding our elephants. I rode on one with Melanie, and I couldn't really understand our guide because either he was named Tye or the elephant was. I found out that whenever an elephant is born, they recruit teenage boys to train them so they kind of both grow up together. Our ride was quite an adventure! It was so much fun though! Our elephant was quite the trail blazer and passed the other elephants like they were standing still! We rode for a little over an hour and then hopped off to catch a taxi to the waterfall. This waterfall was amazing! It was such a cool place for all of us to hang out at. I tried swimming through the waterfall to chill out behind it but that task proved more difficult than I had anticipated. I sure was glad when Kelly grabbed me and pulled me out of the pounding water. It was fun to sit behind the waterfall for a while. Even though there were thirty other people swimming ten feet in front of me, I felt so secluded from the world. When I came out, I saw John jump off this rock about 20 feet up, so I thought I would give it a go as well. It definitely was higher than I had estimated, but I managed to survive. We had to leave pretty quick after that because the Aggies had to get to their next village. We were to go our separate ways here. Before we left though, we sang "The Lord Bless You and Keep You"-the typical ACU goodbye song. I was really sad to see them go, but we should see them again one last time before they head back to the states. After the Aggies left, the Payap crowd jumped on our own taxi and headed for the bus station. We bought our bus tickets back to Chiang Mai and then grabbed some dinner from the Pizza Company. The bus ride was so nice! It was great to have a chance to relax for a while. I felt like I had been going nonstop for the past week. When we got in, we said a quick hi to everyone at the zone and then went straight to bed.

The Royal Nonesuch

We had an early start this morning. I got up to pack a small day pack before we loaded up the bus for a 7:30am departure. We had a three hour bus ride to the Kok River. I have really loved bus rides this summer. It provides such a great opportunity for fellowshipping with one another. Kelly came back to sit with us for part of the ride and tell stories. He is one of the best storytellers I've met, and he has led a life that is sanuk mak (very fun) so he has a lot of stories! When we made it to the river, I was so excited to see our rafts waiting for us. There were six bamboo rafts waiting to take the 36 of us six hours down river to the Honey Tree hill tribe village. I rode in a raft with Terri and the "Four Big Pizzas" (Austin, Shawn, Michael, and Trent-the four biggest guys on the trip). Lunch was waiting for us when we boarded our raft, and it was quite a spread! We had spring rolls, chicken, bamboo soup, bananas, and oranges. My favorite was the cucumbers though. They were amazing in the sweet and sour sauce! After lunch, we all played a game of Uno. I laughed so hard the entire time! My raft may not have had the most stimulating conversation or been the most relaxing, but I can say without a doubt that it was the most fun and entertaining. After Uno, we all enjoyed a nice afternoon nap on the bamboo raft. I slept pretty hard too-I woke myself up snoring a few times. When I woke up for good, I decided to go swimming in the river alongside our raft with Shawn, Michael, and Austin. Changing in the "bathroom" on the boat was like being born again. It consisted of a small rectangular-prism sticking off the side of the boat with two bamboo planks for you to stand on. The woven walls were pretty sketch. I wouldn't doubt that I gave the other boats a show through the gaps in the weave. Going in was a pretty big risk too because if the other people on the raft decided to shift the weight towards the bathroom while you were in it, you could find yourself shin deep in the Kok River. I managed to make it out in one piece though, and I was in the water in no time! It was so much fun! Just looking around at everything made me so thankful to be where I was with the people I was with. When we finished swimming, we all hung out for the rest of our raft time. Upon arrival at the Honey Tree Village, we all unloaded and reported to our assigned houses. It amazes me how the people in these villages are so welcoming-opening their home to a bunch of strange Farongs. Even though they have so little, they freely give us so much. It kind of reminds me of how life in the early church might have been. We all met for dinner that the entire village had prepared for us. It was delicious-cashew chicken and Thai omelets. At dinner, I got to talk to Sarah (Kelly's wife) for a bit. I wish I could spend more time with her because she, like Kelly, seems like a wonderful Christian example. After dinner, we all circled up for a devo, and I guess we drew a crowd because a lot of the villagers came out to meet us. since this was a hill tribe village, none of them spoke Thai but instead spoke another dialect, so Kelly had to speak in Thai for us to a Thai translator who then spoke to the villagers-it was quite a communication ordeal. It is cool to see some things overcome and transcend barriers like that though. We asked if we could sing a few church songs for them, and then they reciprocated with some of their church songs. This is one of the few Christian villages in Thailand, and after they sang some traditional church songs, they sang some songs they had written. It is so cool to see people express their faith in their own, uniquely individual ways. They also performed some of their cultural dances, and I discovered that my lack of rhythm and dancing ability is also something that transcends cultural barriers. When all of the night's activities were over, we all sang "Amazing Grace" in our respective languages. It was a perfect way to end such a wonderful day!

Lucky 13

I woke up and went downstairs to meet the new AFC running crowd, but no one ended up coming down to meet me. I decided to take the morning off and get a cup of coffee at the Payap Coffee Shop. I made it back to the zone by 9, and we had a mini devo before our quiet time. Robert was talking about emotional dependency again, and we were supposed to read the packet about it during our quiet time. Since I had read it the week before, I decided to opt out of rereading it. I listened to a Rob Bell sermon podcast instead. During equipping time, Robert went over the packet and then explained the afternoon's activities on campus. When he finished we all broke into our teams and went to the campus to have lunch with the students. We were supposed to hand out cookies and filters to get the word out about the activities available at the zone. I had a great time talking, or at least attempting to talk to all the students there. I bought some lunch-mango and sticky rice-and mingled. I was really excited about this one student named Sing who was from China. I didn't realize how much the Thai students wanted to learn English. Offering English lessons is a really great way to encourage students to come to the zone. After lunch, we all headed back home. I ran into P'Wah on my way in, and she said she was going to the market to get food for cell group that night. I decided to go with her and help. The market was so cool! They had tons of fruit, vegetables, and meat laid out. While Jordan, Ohng, and P'Poi got the fruit and vegetables, P'Way and I got the meat and spices. The meat area was so cool! They had these huge baskets full of different kinds of live fish, and they even had one full bucket of live frogs. They definitely can guarantee freshness at this market. When we finished getting our supplies, we went back to the zone. I decided to go for an afternoon run. I discovered a loop about three miles long, which I was really excited about. After my run, I ran down the street to get a drink and hit up the ATM. When I got back, some students we had met at lunch were there. I got a chance to talk to them and sign them up for some English lessons. At about 6, it was time for cell group to start so I walked down to 7-11 to see if any other students we had met were there. I walked around with Melanie for about 15 minutes and then went back to the zone to eat. We had green curry chicken, and it was wonderful! P'Wah is a really great cook! When Robert had sent us out that day, he had said he would love it if we could have ten new people at cell group, and we actually had thirteen, which was awesome! After dinner we played games and had a devo. I was sitting by Casey though, and she had Melanie, her new baby, which was definitely a welcomed distraction. After cell group, I went to the soccer field for a quick game. We has a big crowd out tonight-at least thirteen people. It was a little too crowded for me on our little field. We all headed back at about 11 because the zone was closing. I stayed up for a little bit talking to some of the Aggies before going to bed.

Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!

I woke up today to go running, and this morning there was a crowd waiting to go with me: Drew, Austin, Shawn, and Anna. It felt like a regular cross country practice. We all managed to survive though, and when we got back, I did a quick change of clothes so we could go out to breakfast with Robert to meet a guy from his supporting congregation. We went to a place called Bake and Bite, and it was so good. We got sent to the middle table because they already had a kids' table and an adult table. John and Julie had driven us there, so we all took this opportunity to pick their brain . . . again. I am sure between our questions and the AFCer's questions, they are about to go out of their mind. They seemed to handle it pretty well though. After breakfast, we went back to the zone for a morning devo. After the devo, we got released for an hour of quiet time before lunch. I wasn't very hungry, so I decided to chill out at the zone and catch up on journaling. I had fallen pretty behind since AFC was here. When everyone got back from lunch, we all let for our afternoon activity: the Umbrella Factory. I decided to go with the group to Kingdom Books first though, and I got a Thai-English Bible to be painted. After everyone had made their purchases, we went to the Umbrella Factory. It was so cool to see all the different artists painting bags, umbrellas, books, etc. You could tell we were a Christian group because we all had our Bibles with us to be painted. I got a landscape scene with Proverbs 3:5-6. I was pretty excited about it, but on the way home I accidentally left it on the dashboard of our taxi. Don't worry yet though, measures are being taken to attempt to retrieve it. The rest of the afternoon was spent practicing our Sing Song act for the talent show. With the choreography, it definitely was a showstopper. At about 6, we broke for dinner and showers, and then all met up again for the talent show at 7. Before the show started, we played telephone charades. When it was my turn to guess the movies, my team played a trick on me and changed the movie that was supposed to be acted out. However, their acting skills must be pretty bad because they acted out Superstar, but I guessed E.T., which by some Godly intercessions was the correct answer. The Aggies' acts were all really funny, and I enjoyed them all thoroughly. I think out act was received pretty well too. They all seemed to very much appreciate it when we broke into the Aggie War Hymn. After the talent show, they had movie night. They showed a Thai movie: The Protector. It was about a young man who goes on a killing rampage after some poachers kill his pet elephant-definitely a classic if I have ever seen one. After the movie, I attempted to catch up on some more journaling before retiring.

(Try this link to check out our sing song act: http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=54603197&share_id=17134133874&comments#s17134133874)

SKEDUSH !

I woke up today and went running with Austin around Payap. It had been a while since I had run with someone else, but we seemed to keep a pretty good pace. After our run, I showered and got ready for the day. We all went over to Sean Todd's house for breakfast and equipping time. He made his delicious french toast again, and it was just as good the second time as it was the first. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it too! They would stand by the kitchen and wait for new plates to come out. After breakfast, Sean talked about the different aspects of mission work. Robert and Kelly also added their input when needed. Kelly told the story of how his family moved to Thailand all because his momo made a cherry pie one Sunday morning. He encouraged us all to really listen to the spirit whenever we get these little nudges. Robert told us to consider others and how we can serve God before we think about ourselves. It was so inspiring, it gave me goosebumps! Melanie and I decided to cut our quiet time short so that we could talk to Robert about a few things. We were both interested in spending a longer amount of time here with their mission work, and we wanted to get his thoughts and advice on it. He seemed pretty positive about everything which was quite an encouragement. After our talk, we all went to lunch at Kao Soi. I got Kao Pad Gai, which is always a classic. After lunch, we piled in the trucks and drove half an hour into the mountains to go to Doi Suthep. I rode in the back of Robert's truck with P'O and mastered the menacing "Na Chen Jai" song. I was pretty pleased with myself at our arrival and sang it to anyone who stood still long enough to listen to me. I didn't really consider the level of possible inappropriateness of singing a goofy Christian song in a Buddhist temple. However, no one seemed to be too put off by me. You had to climb pretty high to reach the actual temple-306 steps (I counted). Walking around was pretty cool at the top. The view was great! When it was time to go back, I rode in the back of the truck again with P'O. THis time he taught me this famous song on a Thai commercial: Do do do do ter tum . . . tum mai tung tum gap chun dai. I feel pretty cool now being able to sing it. We drove back to Chundoi, which is another one of the churches Robert's mission ream started. We were supposed to help out with English class there, but they only needed about four people to help, so they sent the rest of us to go get ice cream. I got Nutella ice cream. The rest of the afternoon Melanie and I started making our act for the talent show the next night. All the ACU girls decided to showcase ACU's talent: Sing Song. Melanie and I volunteered to write the lyrics. They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. At about six o'clock, I group of us walked to the mall for some dinner. I ate at Pizza Hut with a few other girls. A little before seven o'clock walked back to Chundoi for cell group. They sang "Na Chen Jai", and I got to put my newly memorized song lyrics to the test. P'O Gave the lesson on Phillipians, and he did a great job! He is really funny because he tells all his stories with such emotion. The other two interns gave the mutual edification and vision thoughts for the night. Then at about nine o'clock, we all drove to the mall to see Kung Fu Panda. I was completely exhuasted though and ended up falling asleep during the movie. This should not discourage you from seeing it though because it is really quite entertaining-at least the part I saw was. This was my first Thai movie, which means it was the first time for me to get to stand and hear the King Song before it started. I really enjoyed it. After the movie, we all went home to go to bed.

Another Kind of Naaman

I was so exhausted this morning. I decided to sleep to the very latest possible time. We all met up at about 9am and headed for McKean. McKean is a leprosy village on an island in a river in Chiang Mai. Legend has it that the crowned prince had a white elephant who went crazy, so they exiled him to that island where he roamed around killing anyone that ventured to it. All that remains now are the spirits of the elephant's victims. When McKean asked if he could have the land for his leprosy colony, they practically paid him to take it. When we got there, it seemed pretty safe to me. We got a brief history of the village there, and then the Aggies put on their singing routine. Afterwards, we all sung some more worship songs in Thai. I have now pretty much mastered the singing in Thai phonetically, now I just need to figure out how to read the real stuff. We got thirty minutes of free fellowship time with the Thai leprosy residents. I hung out with a man named John. In my limited Thai vocabulary, I found out he was an 80-year-old man that liked to play longball. I also learned "ati-taan", which is Thai for "pray", so we also got to exchange prayers for one another. Even though I couldn't understand him, it was a really cool experience. After our fellowshipping, we visited the store where they all sold handicrafts. We were all encouraged to buy stuff here to support their village. I definitley was okay with that though. I never want to miss out on some good souvenir shopping. After that, we had lunch at Khao Soi. We tried some kind of crunchy curry noodles with pork, and they were delicious! After lunch, we were supposed to hang out with our game day groups from Saturday and do an afternoon activity, but we all kind of scattered in all directions. I went back to the zone to rest, relax, and run. When everyone got back from their afternoon activies, we all drove to MooGaTa for dinner, which was kind of a cook-it-yourself meat buffet. I was a pretty good MooGaTa cook if I do say so myself. After dinner, we went back to the zone for a devo. John spoke about his Chiang Mai internship. It seems like he has gotten so much out of his time here, which makes me really excited! He is so eloquent and mature in his words. I am so amazed how he has allowed God to work and transform his spirit. It is cool how you can not only help the people here, but that they are also so instrumental in transforming your life as well. After the devo, I played soccer with some of the guys at the zone for a while. My team won . . . again, but we also had an extra person . . . again. When I made it back to the zone, I locked up, but on my way to bed I ran into John. I got a chance to talk to him for a while about his internship experiences. I really like hearing all of his stories from the past six months. After that, I went to bed pretty quick-ready for another day of fun with AFCO!

3-2-1-BUNGEE!

I was supposed to meet some AFCers this morning for a run, but they all must have been kind of tired from the day before because no one ended up coming down. I decided to go out by myself instead-always a good way to start off the week. When I got back, I went though the normal Sunday routine of getting ready for church. We all loaded up in the taxies and trucks at about 9am to get to Sansai for a five church fellowship service. Since the Aggies are here, we definitely draw some attention with our four trucks filled with Farongs (a.k.a. white people). Going to Sansai was really cool because we all got to witness church unity and fellowship in action. It is really cool how involved and close knit the churches are here. They make Sundays a day full of fellowshipping with each other instead of logging in their two hours and then retiring for a nap or football game like we do in the U.S. Kelly preached in Thai, and he did a wonderful job! I was sitting by a teenage girl named Butter from Payap, and she translated the sermon for me. He talked about Peter and John comparing themselves to each other and being distracted from the bigger picture. After church, the Aggies performed their song routine. One of the songs they sing is the King Song . . . Chaio! We ate lunch at the church, and I got a chance to meet some of the members from the other churches. One of the people I met was Janholm-a lady who teaches Thai to a lot of the interns here. I got her phone number, and hopefully I can take some lessons from her this summer. After lunch, we all headed back to the zone. I love car rides here because you get to play games and sing songs and just have lots of fun getting to know each other better. At the zone, we split up into two groups: the bungee jumping group and the non-bungee jumping group. I was in the bungee jumping group! YAY! As we drove closer to the site, I got more and more nervous. Once we got there, we all filled out the necessary paperwork to jump. When they asked for volunteers to go first, I was the first one to raise my hand, and they sent me over to get all strapped up. There were actually surprisingly few straps required for jumping off of a 150 foot platform. They seemed to have it all under control though-granted I could not understand a word they were saying the entire time I was getting hooked up. When I was ready, I hopped on the elevator cart, and they took me up. I couldn’t really understand they guy telling me what to do, which didn’t really help my nerves at all. We were at the top in no time, and I stepped up to the edge. I definitely should not have looked down. However, when he said 3-2-1-bungee!, I took a lead of faith and jumped off. That was definitely one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had! The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the remainder of our group take their turn at bungee jumping. One of the AFC Bangkok girls wanted to go at the end, but she was kind of scared, so I volunteered to go with her again. The second time was definitely a lot easier. Once everyone had gone, we all loaded up and drove to Walking Street, which is kind of like the Night Bazaar on steroids. It has what seems like miles of stalls with all kinds of food and souvenirs. Before we started our shopping extravaganza, we refueled at Mike’s-a hamburger restaurant. That was one of the best burgers I have had in a while. After scouring the shops, we all met up at Starbucks to show off our loot before heading back to the zone. Melanie, Katie, and I all decided to watch a movie that we had bought at Walking Street the night before. It was kind of nice to chill out for a while with them; the Aggies run a pretty tight schedule. I eventually made it to bed-much later than I thought, resulting in another night of too little sleep.

Let the Games Begin!

Today we had game day at the waterfall. We left at about 9am to drive over there. Once we got there, John and Julie assigned everyone into six teams. I was on Team 2. We were supposed to come up with a team name, and ours was super creative-it was ‘Team 2’ in Thai (gloom song). Our first event was water balloon volleyball. We started our game day with an impressive 7 to 3 loss. We managed to improve for our next event though-Ultimate Frisbee. Our short game was near untouchable. However, for kickball, we lost, yet again, with a 9 to 1 run score. The second round we made a much better showing, winning kickball (with the help of my grand slam) and water balloon volleyball, and only losing in overtime for ultimate Frisbee. After the games had concluded, we all grabbed some lunch real quick and headed down to the waterfall. It was so beautiful! We spent the next three hours or so climbing and playing on it. At about three o’clock, we all met up again for a quick devo before heading back to the zone. At the zone, we had a few hours to relax and change before dinner. I was exhausted and definitely ready to eat by the time we left. For dinner, we all met at Walking Street so we could have some free time afterwards to shop. I ate at Subway again with some of the Aggies, and then I walked around some with Melanie. We got tired pretty quick though and decided to get some coffee and hang out at Starbucks until it was time to go. Once everyone met back up, we headed home. I was pretty tired, but I decided to join a late night soccer game with some of the guys. I felt a little out of my league with them, but they were all really nice and let me play. Afterwards, I was kind of wired, so I stayed up and talked with Melanie for a while. I am really glad I’ve gotten a chance to know all the girls here! They are all so wonderful!

It's Greek To Me

Today I woke up and decided to go running again off campus. I didn't run by anything too exciting except for a rotee stand. However, they were closed, so I guess it wasn't all that exciting after all. When I got back, I got ready for our equipping time. Today was mystery equipping, which is where Robert picks us up and takes us to a surprise location. He took us to a rock climbing area in the mountains. We didn't have any ropes, so we weren't able to do any climbs. The scenery was beautiful though! We had our quiet time when we got there, and I climbed up in a mini cave called "The Furnace". During part of our quiet time, we read a handout on emotional dependency, which we discussed during our equipping time. I feel like that was something really good for all of us to hear. After equipping time, Robert took us into all these cool caves. It was really neat because in every cave, we sang a different song. Hearing all the different acoustics was an awesome experience! In the last cave we went to, we all spread out around the perimeter of it and did a chain prayer. When we were done praying, Chris asked if we could all sing "I Want to See You." After the song, there was this silence that just emanated throughout the cave. All nine of us all stood there and absorbed the moment. It was so cool, especially because the day before we had talked about meditation and quieting ourselves. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. After our spiritual silence subsided, we all went back to Chiang Mai to grab some lunch. The agreed upon restaurant was Subway, which I was ecstatic about. My turkey on wheat was delectable! Back at the zone, none of us had any classes scheduled, so we all cleaned up and got ready for our F4 party at Robert's house. All the churches the missionary team here has started get together once a month to eat and hang out. We went over early to help P'Jan out with the cooking, but she seemed to have it pretty under control. After everyone had arrived, we all had dinner and then had a short devo. We also played a game where you had to guess the word that was written on your back. Mine was "Alien from Abilene". The person acting it out for me told me that the town on my back was in West Texas, which completely threw me off. Having family in the real west Texas, I took the liberty of informing him of his slight geographical error. I also got a chance to hang out with some of the teens from the different churches. Robert had asked me to be a sort of youth group leader for them during the summer, and I am so excited about it! I also got to talk to Sandy Trotter-a visiting member from the Todds' supporting congregation. Talking to her was such an encouragement. I am really glad I got a chance to do so. We left pretty quick after that to get back to the zone because the Aggies had arrived! YAY! It was so good to see all of them! We got to catch up some before they went to bed, which was wonderful! I stayed up a bit to help Mace fill up water balloons for the next day's activities. It was so good to talk to him! He has this peaceful and soothing demeanor that just puts you at ease. We finished pretty late, so after that I went straight to bed.