I went to Myanmar (Burma)

I am sorry but this is a ridiculously long blog, but a lot has happened lately, so I hope that it is not too long for you to enjoy.

It has been one week since my last blog (well plus two days now that I had to take a break to finish it), and a little bit more than that since I started teaching at the KKBBSC (read the last blog to find out what that means) and I have still not taught at the camp office yet, although I have finally been able to speak with them. So I will be teaching at the office Monday-Thursday, at 6-8pm (3-5am on the same day in Vancouver), starting next week. Teaching at the KKBBSC hasn't been that bad so far, but considering English, especially grammar and all the other boring parts, was my least favourite subject in school, and that is exactly what I am teaching now, lets just say I grin and bear it. The students on the other hand, are much less reluctant to participate in the activities than students in Canada are, specifically when it comes to singing. The Karen love to sing, they sing all the time, even when I am teaching vocabulary, so I thought that I would teach them worship songs in English. It has gone quite well, considering the songs that I have taught them have become favourites in the school already. I taught them a couple songs that I had memorized, considering I don't have any of my music here, which were "I'm Trading my Sorrows" and "Days of Elijah". Lah Htee, had lent me a music book which has 20-30 songs in it with the chords, so I taught them another song out of that book, which was "How Great is Our God". I think that singing is their preferred way of learning English. Anyways... enough about school.

On Friday I left the camp, and went to Mae Sot (sometimes spelled Maesod if you are trying to Google it) to do my laundry, and to get some supplies. So Sean and I received a ride from Dr. Simon, to Sean's house (he rents from a mission organization in the USA), and that night we dropped our clothes off at the laundry mat, and then had some Western food (no rice) at Krua Canadian Steakhouse and Grill (its called something like that). After we picked up our laundry, we went back to his house and basically did nothing for the rest of the evening. Oh yeah, they think that dryers are a waste of money so you still have to hang dry everything. The next day we spent shopping, buying all of the supplies that we had come into town for, and caught the last line bus, or song tao in Thai, back to the camp at 4:30. We were supposed to be back earlier because on Sunday, the next day, we were going to a Christian thanksgiving/funeral ceremony in Burma (to honour the former general and leader of the Karen and to thank God for the previous year), and they might of been leaving on Saturday to go. When we were in Mae Sot, we had called back to the camp to make sure Lah Htee and the others hadn't left yet, and since Dr. Simon hadn't seen Lah Htee in a while he told us that they must of left already. When we got back to the camp with our laundry and newly bought belongings we were greeted by Lah Htee himself, which brought the confusion to and end.

On Sunday we got up at 6:30 am to wait until 9:00am for our ride to Burma. When it finally arrived, all 18 of us (making 19 with the driver) piled into a small pick-up and we headed north for about an hour to where the thanksgiving ceremony was being held. We had to park the truck and walk about a half a km to the Thai-Burmese border river, and then cross by boat into Burma. Once on the other side, we walked by a group of armed Karen soldiers and then we climbed up the dirt path, past another group of soldiers to an open field, that has a backdrop of jungle mountains. At the top, where the path comes out, if you turn to the right, that is where the late general lays, and to the left about 200 meters, is where the funeral service was being held. Straight ahead about 150 meters is a grouping of raised huts, where some of the villagers live, and where we ate lunch and supper. So we went to the service, which was in Karen, but almost the whole thing was translated into English as well. After we participated in the first part of the service (there was about 200-300 people there, mostly Karen but from all over the world as well), the thanksgiving part, we ducked out early to go and have lunch, well they continued with telling stories about the general in Karen only.

After lunch someone came and told us that our river back into Burma and visit with some of the villagers, and couple of students went with them, where as I decided to to take a nap in the hut. driver had already left and had taken other people back to the camp, but that he would be back. This gave us the opportunity to take some pictures of the village, some soldiers and the burial hut of the former general (he is buried above ground and his casket is surround in cement). After the photo op, we crossed back over the river to find out that we missed our ride already, but that he would return for us, which meant another two hours of waiting. It wasn't that bad because some nearby Thai farmers let us sit in their hut while we waited. Most of the students decided to stay by the road, while a handful of others accepted the decision. Sean and Lah Htee choose to cross the After a 30-40 min power nap, I got up and crossed back over the river to see what Sean and Lah Htee were up to. This is where we had supper, and I couldn't have been over there for more than 20 min when we decided to go back to Thailand to wait for our ride to come (so a total of 30 min, with walking and crossing the river both ways). When we got back, the students told us that we had already missed our ride, and that he wasn't coming back this time, so we where going to have to get a ride with someone else. So in a hour and ten minutes at most, our driver had gone to Mae La, come back to the border crossing, and left again. So what did we do? You guessed it, we waited some more. Finally an empty truck came that was going the right way, after 5 hours of waiting. The funny thing was, that the driver didn't really know how to drive too well beyond steering, and he wasn't that good at it either. For example, he would be changing into 5th gear at about 45km/h, and he wasn't to sure how to get it into 4x4 wheel drive either. Needless to say it made for a long trip, considering we topped out at 70km/h, it doubled the length of time to get back, not including stops, of which we made two. The first stop was to get some gas, but the driver happened to know some of the guys that worked there and sat around talking for a couple of minutes, which was fine except for the fact that we had just waited 5 hrs for this ride and he was driving slow. So yeah I was getting a little impatient.

Well this is where everything got a little more exciting than I had bargained for. After about a half an hour back on the road, we got stopped at a Thai military check point, and the Thai's told him to pull ahead and park the truck. The driver got out and I couldn't really see much of what happened, as we sat and waited for another 40 min, a little more patient, and a little more tense this time. Lah Thee sat beside me in the front seat, and had his head leaning out the driver side window to hear what they were saying. He can understand Thai, and every once and a while he would tell me things, but wouldn't acknowledge my questions, like "he has inconsistent answers", "they tied him up", "they beat him", and finally "they are going to kill him by slitting his throat". So meanwhile, I am thinking that Lah Htee is talking about our driver, but he is talking about another man that the Thai's arrested before we got there. The other man, had been giving inconsistent answers to the Thai's, but I don't know how much they really knew, because the reason that our truck got pulled over was because the Thai's knew our driver and wanted him to translate Thai to Karen, so they could question the man. This makes me wonder if the young man even knew what they were saying, and how exactly they determined he was giving inconsistent answers ("Where are you from?", he replies,"Banana." Again they ask, "Where are you from?", with a reply of, "Purple". So then the Thai's think he is grabbed the large sword that happened to be sitting beside giving inconsistent answers, because that makes sense). Anyways, because he had giving inconsistent answers, they had bound him, then beat him, and they were about to kill him when we pulled up. The funny thing was, that about 5 min or so before we had been pulled over, I had this vision (or just I imagined it and it was coincidence that it was related to what happened, if you don't believe in them), that I was driving in the jungle at night by myself, and was going down hill, when at the bottom of the hill, I saw 4-5 fully armored demons (I know it was pretty messed) standing across the road. At about 15-20 meters away, I parked my truck, and got out. By the time I closed the door of the truck I was already fully armored, and then I charged the group of demons. After fighting with them for a couple of minutes, and when I had clearly defeated them, they just disappeared. Then I got back in the truck and keep on driving. As I was pondering this seemingly strange vision, that I thought that I had made up from scratch, we then got pulled over. So the vision, combined with me thinking that our driver was the one being bound and beaten, I was praying pretty hard at this point, and not being able to see what was going on didn't help much. Anyways... after our driver had translated for 40 minutes or so, the Thai's loaded their prisoner into the back of our pick-up and sent us on our way. A couple of km down the road, we pulled over to undo the man's bindings, and when we got to camp, we handed him over to the Karen authorities, so that they could find a place for him in Mae La. So even when you have to wait 5 hours for a ride, don't get so grumpy and impatient that you don't allow God to use you. I mean if we had come earlier, when we were suppose to, then our driver probably wouldn't have been at the check point when he had (he actually lives north of the border crossing and he kindly drove us south when he was almost home), and the load of praying Christians wouldn't have been in his truck, and that young man would probably be dead. Well after 5 hours of waiting and almost 3 hours on the road, we finally made it back to the camp after a very eventful day. Of course the fun couldn't end there, as I was up all night with gastro-intestinal problems, with the occasional trip to the toilet, which I am sure you all wanted to hear about. I think it must have been some of the food that we had in Burma. When Sean came to wake me up on Monday morning, I told him my little sob story about being sick and not getting any sleep. So I skipped breakfast and intended on sleeping for the rest of the day, but then God told me to get out of bed and that I was tougher than how I was acting (basically He told me to stop being such a pansy, but in a much nicer way than that). Of course He was right and I lost the argument (man arguing with your Maker never works out in your favour), so I go up and prepared for my class, and I taught it and none of my students knew any different. Well by this point God had healed my indigestion, but I was still quite tired, so I had a nap after my class. Oh yeah, I taught the class the song "How Great is Our God", by Chris Tomlin (or at least I think it is him).

In the last two days I haven't done anything special, except teach my students a couple of songs ("Here I am to Worship", and "Shout to the North"), so I think I will just finish by adding some pics. Oh and if you wouldn't mind praying for me while I am here, that would be great. I have been having a tough time hearing and seeing God here, even though He has been here before I got here and He is still here now. It feels like I am totally alone in the midst of all these people, and that there are too many distractions to get focused again. I know it is just silly, but back in Abbotsford it was alot easier to be on fire for God, especially when everyone else wanted to be to, and they were seeking Him out all (well at least the majority) of the time. Here everybody are Baptist (which I do not have a problem with at all, just trouble relating to my Karen bros and sisters), and then there is the whole language thing (even with those who can speak English pretty fluently, must be the Canadian accent), and of course there is the completely different culture of the Karen. Well to say it in short, I feel out of place, and disconnected from God and the church even though they both surround me. It's like I am reaching out and grapping thin air when what I was reaching for is just inches away from tips of my fingers.

Pics (Top to Bottom): a Burmese mountain, Thai sand, and an international border river; a group of Karen rebel soldiers at the bottom of the hill on the Burmese side of the river; a Karen soldier outpost at the top of the hill, and yeah that guy has an RPG on his back; a Karen soldier, guarding the burial site of the late general; two Karen soldiers, one with a machine gun, and another with a RPG, I got my picture taken with him, but on another camera; Lae Htee holding a Karen National Union flag out (they don't actually have their own country yet); various decorations and whatever else you call them above the burial site of the late general, with a pic of Him in the center; the stage on which the ceremony was held; the cemented-in casket of the late Snr. Gen. Saw Bo Mya; close-up of the pic of the general; the bright sun over the jungle; the approach to the generals burial grounds; looking at Thailand from across the river; looking at Burma from the other side.

Teaching English

Well so far, I have taught two classes to the Kathoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College (KKBBSC (yeah this will be the only time that I actually type that out)) students, and I have not been in contact with the leaders of the Karen since I got dropped off here last Thursday. They never told me what part of the English language I would be teaching the students, such as grammar, vocabulary, written English, etcetera, until about 5 minutes before my class. This left me rather unprepared for my first class, so I thought that I would go over some vocabulary, because I also didn't know how much English they have already learned. After starting with 'dog' and 'cat', we worked our with just about all of my students is grammar and enunciation/pronunciation when they speak, which they are very reluctant to do in English, for fea way up to 'telecommunication' and 'acronym' as I discovered that the number of words in their vocabulary wasn't the problem. The main issuer of being wrong or something like that. Anyways... after going over grammar with all 55 of my students (oh yeah I forgot to mention that I have 55 students, or is it 56, I'm not sure), I got this brilliant idea to get them to write a small essay about themselves, like how long they have been in the camp, their families, favourite foods, ect. Well this was sort of a bad idea for two reasons, one being that I would have to mark the essays after they were done writing them, which isn't really that bad once I decided to stop being so lazy. The main reason that I think it might be a bad idea, but still a good one at the same time, was that once I started marking and deciphered what they had written, it was what was written on the pages that made the notion regrettable. There are so many stories about their families that talk about the loss of siblings (one person lost 6 siblings at the hand of the army), parents, or spouses (one lady lost her husband six months after she had given birth to their second son), either from disease, famine or the Burmese army. There are also stories about family members being dismembered, or tortured. Well all that I can really say that it makes for a hard read (I have only finished marking 30), and that is where I am divided on the idea of the essay. On the one hand I get to know the students better, and on the other, they get to bring up the bitter past. Oh well, it is too late now, so I will just try to use this experience for good, or something like that.

After yesterday and writing about the not so pleasant past, I gave them a spelling quiz from the words we reviewed yesterday (yeah! more marking). After that it was all talk, all day. I started off with a basic greeting converstion, in groups of two (a script for person 1 and 2, and then they switch), and went on to a telephone converstion with the same format. I marked simply on participation, if you tried to speak English you got a 10/10. After these two small speaking exercises, it was on to making a script for a skit, practising the skit and then performing it in front of the class, which ended up taking the rest of the time of the class (a good way to chew time). The basic intructions were that they had to make the skit in some relation to a restuarant and each person in the group had to say at least 3 lines. It was very entertaining to watch all of the groups perform, from the shy and quiet woman's group, to the rowdy men's group, who were funny and entertaining but didn't follow any of the two instructions. Well all in all, it definitely beat having to mark more papers, and was alot more fun to watch. The one thing that I haven't got down yet (yeah I know there is probably more than one), is how to keep track of attendance, and the marks at the same time, so I decided that I can't really, so I am going to split them up, which seems to make more sense to me anyways.

Well since I don't know what else to ramble on about, I think I will call it quits for now. Oh yeah, on Friday classes were canceled because only a third or half the students showed up. On Saturday I went to Mae Sot (the nearest Thai town) and bought a guitar and lost my guide, who got back to the camp about 5 minute before me (it was fun day). Sunday I went to the local Karen Baptist church (they have all kinds of churches in Mae La (the camp)), and listen to a service in Karen, and sang (well not really) Karen-translated hymns. Oh, one last thing, on Monday after class, I went to the market to buy myself some rotti (an East Indian desert thingy (yeah I said thingy and I am an English teacher (and yeah I am using triple brackets, because it's my blog and I can if I want to))), and that was all fine, except when I was coming back and I came to 7 way intersection, where most of the paths looked the same. I am sure you can guess what happened next. While I joyfully ate my rotti, and smiled at everyone in sight, I confidently went down the completely wrong path and got completely lost. I almost got even further lost on the way back, when I mistakenly retraced my steps down another path, but knew I had made a wrong turn when I got to a UN office (the office sticks out more than the huts do). Finally I made it back to the 7 way intersection a choose a path that was more right, but not completely, and made the decision to ask for help from people who are fluent in Karen and not a whole lot else. I ended up being guided out by a 12 yr old girl, and her little brother (I think he was her brother), after I explained that I wanted to cross the bridge to Zone C by using a nearby little open sewage stream (it smelled g-r-eat!!); and that is the story of how I got lost (and found) in the largest refugee camp in Thailand. While that's all for now and all that, so God bless you all (I know I say that every time, but I do mean it sincerely).

Pics (top to bottom as usual): The blackboard that I write on at the front of my open walled classroom; a third of the stairs that lead to my classroom; another pic of the mountain backdrop just for fun; a toilet in the ground, how we have to go to the bathroom/restroom/washroom (take your pick), so I am sure you can guess what you have to do when you have to go; my new bed in my new bedroom (it consists of three comforters as a mattress, and one more as a blanket, with overstuffed pillows that slide out from your head, and is even equipped with a mosquito net); the front of the church that I attended on Sunday, with the Baptist pastor preaching in Karen (it sounded like like a good sermon, but I am not really sure); my office (or more just a pile of chairs with my the students papers on them and a dictionary from the library for an even writing surface, all shoved in the corner of my new bedroom (the reason I like my new bedroom is that I actually have some privacy to do things like, I don't know, change)); a Karen Baptist hymnal (if you click on the pic, it should enlarge and you might be able to see that it is on pg 299-300); a water-over flow channel in Mae Sot, where I am right now well I upload these pics (at 10:25 pm, Friday, Jan. 19, 2007, Thailand time or 7:26 am Vancouver time, the same day (so good morning to you)); Sean Okelley, an engineer from north of Sacramento, California, who also stays in KKBBSC, Mae La (he works for Border Green Energy Team, and basically teaches students of a college in the camp how to set up solar power systems).

I am in the Mae La Karen Refugee camp

Well praise God I have finally made to the camp, named Mae La (pop. 50,172, it is the largest camp (total pop. of refugees in all the camps is 130,786)), only 10 days after I set out on my journey on New Years Day. I got here yesterday afternoon (Jan 11) at about 1:15 pm, and they were already in the middle of a meeting, so they made me go all the way up to the front of +200 people to sit on the stage with the other people who help out at the school. The name of the school is Kawloothei Karen Baptist Bible School and College (KKBBSC). Of course the fun didn't end there, because about a half an hour later, while I am still on the stage, a few of the students brought up Karen tribal shirts and wanted to honour their guest with these shirts so they made me put it on and wear it front of everyone. Oh and by the way, the day before a pastor of the Karen, pastor Robert, asked me, and I said yes, if I wanted to be an English teacher, to the Karen directors in the evening, and at the Bible school, during the day. Yes I said ENGLISH and TEACHER together. Oh and they wanted my curriculum the next day, when I haven't even seen my students yet or know how much English they know already; so all I have to say is thank you God (II Cor 12:9).

Well it is my second day in the camp (Jan 12), and I slept over last night. The nice thing is, the school, which is sponsor by the worldwide Baptist church, has an 'understanding' with the local Thai authority, and the Thai's kinda turn a blind eye to what goes on here. So that means that foriegn people are allowed to stay at the school indefinitely (even over night), as long as they have valid visas; but for the other foreigners, they have to leave by 3:00pm, and can't come back until 8:00am the next day. So no doctors without borders and other NGO's (non-government organizations) after 3:00. Not even the UN is allowed after 3:00 unless they are Thai. So yeah I think that it would be God that has blessed this place with such a privilege, so praise His holy name, for His generosity and His provision.

Today, my second day here, the classes were suppose to start, and I was suppose to start teaching too; except only half the students showed up so they postponed it till Monday. I still don't know whether or not I will be teacher the leaders of the camp tonight, and I have to be there in an hour an half of me writing this, so we will see. Well, after they had a half an hour service, which included a mini-teaching, worship and prayer, I went with another teacher from the school, Lae Htee (pronounced law-tee) into the camp to get some supplies for my class. Afterwards, we went to his house for lunch, and then when we were walking back to the school, I was telling him how I wanted to help out people if I could. So he suggested that we and see some people that he knew really needed help. The first place that we went to was the home of one of the camps 242 sercurity guards (they are Karen, and act like a police force) for the whole 50,172 people. He has a wife and 5 kids and another on the way. We wanted to see if they needed help with school cost (school is free, but then there is the fees and also extra money for special days, or pinics), with their kids. They said that their oldest son was 15, but he was handicapped, and needed help walking, but that the parents couldn't get him to school everyday, so he couldn't go. The next son was 10, but he really didn't like school, so they didn't want to pay for the school for him. The next son was 6, but he had lung problems, so they didn't want to send him to school, because he apparently has increased problems, when he sits for long periods of time (something about getting to cold). The next in line is a 4 yr old daughter, and they said that she could go to school, so I told them that I would help out with her. Lae Htee said that it cost about 1500 baht to send one of them to school for one year, which is between $45-50 CAN. For a whole year! I make about 3x that in one day; man are we blessed in North America or what! Praise God for that! The next place that we went was the home of a 16 or 17 year old girl, who wanted to further her studies, but her parents weren't going to be able to afford her going to school for longer. Here the grades are called standards and there are only 10 standards till graduation, then it is post secondary. Well this girl is in standard 10, and will graduate in March, so she will finish high school. The only thing is, that she wants to get her teaching certificate, so that she can actually make some money from her education (Yeah I know that I can't remember any of their names, I would like to see you do better). It also is only about 1500 baht for the extras, so only another $50 CAN. So after this I decided to pray and ask God what He wants me to do with my money, and I will wait and see what happens. Also they both don't need the money until about mid to late April, so that is why I didn't just give them the money. There is a problem with this whole plan though, as Lae Htee informed me, and that is that you can't just give the money to the people, and especially not just yet, because most people are really bad at managing their money. So lets say I gave it to the security guard and his wife, they would probaly blow the 1500 baht in about a week, maybe two. And in the other family it would probably last till the end of March, but still not be used for any schooling. So as a result of this, we needed to find some one who would trustworthy enough not to spend the money but also willing to manage it, and Lae Htee knew just the person, the 4 yr old girl's teacher. We went and talked to her and she said that she would be willing to not only manage the money, but also take the girl to the market to buy things for school. After that we came back to the school, and here I am writing the blog. Well that's all for now, I hope I didn't write your ear off, and may the Lord our God bless you all abundantly, as you continue to serve Him (and even if you don't).

Pictures (top to bottom): A sign out side the school; the Karen Refugee Committee office in Mae Sot (the nearest decent sized town); an artsy fartsy pic of Pastor Robert (stupid camera phone); my living quarters (it consists of a blanket on the ground, a blanket and for me to use and a mosquito net); the camp backdrop (sorry about the bad pic, I still hadn't figured out the camera yet, or more just that I forgot that it had differnt settings); people at a local store (Lae Htee is standing at the left); people in the stream that divides Zone B and Zone C of the camp (there are only 3 zones and Zone A would be the other one, and I am staying Zone C); the bridge the crosses the stream (I got nothin'); Lae Htee in the second person that we went to help's house); the 16 or 17 yr old girl that we are going to help (yeah I for got to get her name).

Hanging out in Chiang Mai

Well I made it to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand last Thursday, my final destination; and Bonnie and Ray came up on Sunday, but I haven't seen them yet because I have been hanging out with Josh and his friends (well I guess they are my friends now too). It all started on Sunday. In the morning we went to church, and it was a really good service, and afterwards we went out with the pastor's family to a Mexican place for lunch. Yeah I know, I didn't think that I would come all the way over to Asia to eat Mexican food, and good Mexican food at that. Anyways... after that we meet up with Josh's friends, Mike, Puu, and Maritn and went up a mountain to a waterfall and climbed down it to eat some more. We sat around there and took some pics, and watched the locals climb a tree so the could jump into a tiny shallow hole of water (not even I am that gutsy). After that we went to a Buddist temple and climbed all the way up to the top of the temple and even went into the upper prayer area. It was kinda cool, because I was worshipping my God quietly, while they worshipped their's loudly. It was an interesting experience for sure. After that we listened to another one of our friends, Anita, on the radio on the way down from the temple as a dj for the first time, as it was her first day on the job. When we came down from the mountain, we meet up with two more friends, Anita, the dj, and Kara. And we end up staying out late doing nothing (like just sitting around eating or going to 7-11 or things like that) so, because we where so tired Josh and I spent the night. Oh and yeah they have like 300 7-11's just in Chiang Mai; seriously, they are on like every street corner.

The next day we got up and went out to another river, a better river. This one was better because you could actually jump off the cliffs with playing Russian roulete at the same time. So after we hicked to the cliff I jumped off of the highest spot out of everyone, but it still wasn't as high as I have jumped in the past. The only problem with this cliff is that you have to swim upstream to climb back up the cliff to jump again, so I only ended up jumping twice, but it was really entertaining to see Kara and Martin try and make it upstream to jump again, so it was worth it. After that we swam down stream to where we had out stuff and we went back into town so we could change and stuff. We ended up watching movies before we went out on the town till 3:00 in the morning. We went from restaurant to store to pub style club and then a couple other places too. Nothing speacial really, and then ended up sleeping over at Mike's house again. And that about leaves it to now, oh and I got a cell phone over here now, so if you want my number e-mail me and I will e-mail it to you. So that's about all that I can think of to write for now.

Pictures (top to bottom): Eating at the waterfall on Sunday (top clockwise: Puu (said "bow"), Josh, Mike (Puu's boyfriend), Martin, and David Schile); after we climbed the waterfall (Josh, Me, and Mike (Martin was just out of the shot and Puu was taking it); the golden thingy at the top of the temple; me at the temple; at the second river, where we went cliff jumping (left to right: Mike, Puu, Josh, Anita, Me, and Kara (Martin took the pic)); dude, they have a slide inside the hotel, how sweet is that (left to right: me, Martin, Mike, Kara, and beneath us is Josh and Anita (Puu took the pic).

Buddist Temple

I will try to keep this one short but that usually never works out. The second day that I was in Bangkok, Bonnie and Ray wanted to go to this Buddist temple that took care of AIDS patients. So off we went in a taxi to try an find the, the only thing is the driver didn't understand our Thai, so when we said the temple at Lop Buri he heard Lam Buri, and took us an hour in the wrong direction, which when we got there we had to turn around and come an hour back. In order to drive out two more hours to Lop Buri making it an all day affair. It was definitely arranged by God, because I could feel His presence there the whole time, admist all the rejection that these people have gone through (most Thai's will avoid poeple with AIDS and even their own family member's will excommunicate them) and pain that they are going through, although the staff and volunteers make their stay there as comfortable as possible. There are 120 beds at this facility and a couple hunderd at another one that they have. There is a Catholic priest that has worked there for the last 4 years. His name is Micheal and he gave us a tour of the whole facility, which most people don't get to do and we got to pray with people (which isn't really allowed because it is a Buddist temple). Micheal told us that there is 5 different ways that the virus (which is effective because of the AIDS) attacks people. I am not sure if I can remember them but I am pretty sure that those 5 different ways are the skin, the digestive system, the eyes, the brain, and I think the last is the cardio-vascular system (lungs, and heart). The tour of the facility ended with a stack of ashes in front of a Buddha shrine, which where the ashes of 7000 people who died of AIDS since 1992 at this one facitlity, and no one came to get their remains; and 7000 is number of the ones that no one came to get, because quite a few remains did get picked up. Well since not alot is know about AIDS among the Thai commoners, other than it can kill you, people think that they can get AIDS from the remains and because of that fear no one comes and picks them up, not that they hate their own family members or anything. Oh and on the way out their were these statues made from the bone resin of AIDS patients that had died (no comment). Visiting the facility was quite overwhelming; well I don't know what else to say other than that, except God bless you and please pray for Micheal and the people that work there.

Pictures from top to bottom: Me with one of the AIDS patients (he really wanted a pic with me, and was really happy that we were there); An AIDS patient, a Thai helper, and I (I am holding a grapefruit that they insisted on giving, and it was actually really good); A Japanese volunteer, an AIDS patient, and Micheal, the Catholic priest who gave us the tour; the stack of ashes in front of the shrine (in behind there are shelves with more ashes); the bone resin statues.

I Made It to Thailand.

Hello everyone. I made it to Thailand without any incidents, so thank God for that. When I left Sea-Tac, I still hadn't made contact with Bonnie and Ray so I didn't know how I was going to meet up with them when I got to the airport in Thailand. So then I had to trust God that it was all going to work out. I thought that I was going to meet up with them at Taiwan, because we had a lay over at the same time but they were on the other side of the airport, but anyways. The airport wasn't the most organized one, they kept changing the terminal that are plane was leaving from, so everyone in my terminal got up and switched(all 200 of us) , then stood in the hallway to try and figure out what was going on, and then switched back. Once the plane actually took off from the right terminal, I met some Christian missionaries on the plane and started talking to them. I told them how I had no way of getting a hold of Bonnie and Ray, but didn't think any thing of it. So when we landed I cleared customs and got my luggage with the two missionaries, who were concerned about how I was going to meet up with Bonnie and Ray. Then when we were walking out of the airport I turned to corner and there was Bonnie and Ray standing there. So yet again God worked everything out and I said thanks to the missionaries who tried to help me out and went with Bonnie and Ray into Bangkok. I didn't even have a hotel booked, so I tried to get into the hotel that they were staying at but it was going to be about twice as much as they had paid, because they got a special deal online. So since I didn't really want to pay out $70 a night, we had to find something else. Of course God lead us to a different hotel, and it was only 2 blocks away. It only cost about $35 a night and was almost as nice as Bonnie and Ray's hotel. So I ended up staying in Bangkok for two nights, and going to bed at about 7:30 because of jet lag. Thanks for reading, God bless you all.

Pictures: Three skytrains tracks together in Bangkok; building-size picture of the King of Thailand; Ray Emery; fancy Buddist-decorated walk over pass; and last but not least, Bonnie Emery.