Back in Mae La

Well after a week-end long break, I am back in Mae La Karen refugee camp doing the same thing I was before I left, teaching English. I was a nice break though, although probably not needed that much, it was good to see some familiar faces and talk to people that speak English as a first language. It isn't that the Karen can't speak it well enough, it is usually them not being able to understand me. Anyways... where did I leave off? Well I did have a good birthday party (on Saturday, Feb 3rd) at the House of Hope with Bonnie and Ray and all of the women that live there. Craig came and so did Avis and Roy, and we had some banana cake that Bonnie put together, and some ice cream on the side. We bought the banana cakes (banana bread in the shape of a cake) at a grocery store and then when we pulled them out of the box, they were much smaller than we had expected. So there were two cakes instead of the three we thought we would get out of the 6 banana cakes. On Saturday night (the same day as the party), we went into downtown Chiang Mai to go to a walking market, one that Ray and Bonnie had gone to the week earlier. The only flaw in our plan was the fact that they didn't have a walking market this week, because apparently the one they had week earlier was the last on for a while. So after our disappointment, we went to a nearby restaurant and had some dessert, and sat around and talked for at least one hour, which made it not so disappointing after all.

The next day (Sunday), we were going to go to the same church that Avis and Roy go to, but took to long getting ready, and we were going to be late, so we (or more accurately Ray) decided that we were just going to go to the Thai speaking church that the women from the House of Hope go to. When we got there the song service had already begun, and all of the tunes sounded very familiar, and that's because they were of course. They are all English worship songs translated into Thai, which is no problem once you remember what song it is. Besides the language barrier, the worship was really good, and more importantly, lead by God, considering you could feel His presence so strongly. Even in the sermon part of the service, I got something out of the Scriptures that the pastor used, and along with his vivid demonstrations, I understood the just of what he was preaching. Anyways... after that we went out for lunch, to celebrate another birthday, perhaps a little more significant than mine, Roy's 60th, on his actually birthday as opposed to mine being two days early. We had a good time at the restaurant with the Rideout (I hope that's spelled right) family and it was even quite anointed conversation, talking about being vessels of God's glory, and how He is always with us.

After lunch, I went with Craig, Ray and Bonnie over to a missionary family's house and we talked with the father and his mid-twenties aged son, who recently went to China on a missions trip for a bit before we headed out for are actual destination, which was another missionary family's house further out of town. They are a family of 9, with 3 daughters, 4 sons and of course the parents to make 9. They are a very friendly family, so friendly in fact that they almost overwhelm you (if they are reading this, I am just messing around). Well they might overwhelm a normal person, but not me of course (yeah I am so humble sometimes, its amazing; "I really take pride in that" (quote from Josh Clark joking around about the same thing)). Anyways... back to the story. So yeah the friendly family; while after question and answer period, the wanted to give me the 5 cent tour of their place, so I decided to indulge them (j/k). On the tour, I noticed with my very observant eyes, that they had alot of guitars lying around, and I mean alot for even a family of 9; too many for someone in the family not to like playing them. While of course my keen observation and initial assessment was indubitably correct, as the three oldest ones that were there (the oldest daughter, age 21, is in America doing stuff (yeah I forgot what exactly, but whatever)), all played guitar, and the second oldest daughter also writes songs, which were very nice, I enjoyed listening with my very good-at-listening little ears (pardon the silliness, but I think that I am into over tired). Well the main point about this story of the missionary family of 9, was that when we started getting into the guitar playing, we started getting into the worship, and when we started going there it made my whole trip to Chiang Mai more than worth it (visiting with Ray, Bonnie and Craig was good enough to justify the not really needed that much break). Man it was really good worship, and if you know me ("can I say something", the people at Global that know me, knows what that means), than this also lead to really good, or should I say anointed conversation and then more worship (and if you don't really know me than I am not trying to be arrogant or showy or am joking around). The finale was a spontaneous worship session, and I loved it, it was totally what I needed (OK maybe I did need the break); even the adults came and joined us for a bit. After the spontaneous worship bit, we went and joined everyone else in the dinning room area for a couple more songs, and some Thai checkers (your king basically can more anywhere and do anything). After we were sang off, we got back late and went to bed.

On Monday (the next day) I went back to Mae Sot, but I got back too late to catch the line bus out to Mae La, so I slept over at Sean’s house and took the line bus back early Tuesday morning. When I arrived, I found that my class was already occupied by an Australian and his team, and all their power tools, who were building musical instruments from industrial materials (like car rim bells). This meant my class got cancelled for Tuesday, but the only thing was, they were going to be there for a couple of weeks, so we couldn’t just cancel classes for the whole time. After I moved the class upstairs from the other classes, teaching English resumed as normal. Click on the pic to the right to read an extra story.

The rest of the week was pretty basic, except for Friday, when I went to Mae Sot to get my box that Bonnie and Ray had sent a couple of weeks earlier. The only result of this trip, after an hour of trying to explain my question was the location of my bag. Of course the office that it was in was closed until Monday or later that night. The only problem with waiting until it opened at 5:00pm was that the last line bus to Mae La leaves at 4:00pm, and I would have to stay in Mae Sot, and since I didn’t know if Sean was in town or not, I came back empty handed.

On Saturday I went with the Australian, his Korean companion, and three men from the camp, to follow the nearby stream to the mountain, and then go into the caves where the stream goes under the entire mountain. Well we went to the source, and went in some caves, but we didn’t go in the stream all the way under mountain because everyone besides me and the Australian didn’t want to and didn’t think it was a good idea. So after an hour of cave exploration in an extremely hot cave we decided to climb the mountain instead. It took and hour or so to get to the top (only a smaller side peak) and we had a picnic on the top. It was a really cool mountain, or I guess it is a volcano, because the entire top half (well probably the whole thing, just more protruding near the top) was made out of jagged, solid, volcanic rock, and made the rock climbing part pretty easy (except it cut my hands up pretty good, well only skin deep). It was an awesome view from the top. We could see all of Mae La camp on one side and all the way into Burma on the other. The only problem was that since we were originally going into water-filled caves under the mountain, the only person that brought a camera was the Korean because it wasn’t his. Yeah and he forgot to charge it so we didn’t get very many pictures. Oh well, next time we will just plan for climbing the mountain instead, and I will bring my camera. When we had our little picnic, and drum session with bamboo cups, we hiked back down. Well it was easier going up then climbing back down, because by this point my legs were kinda jellyish, and we ran out of water, so we were all a little dehydrated, but it was cool anyway. Yeah and now its Sunday and I'm making this much overdue blog which makes it incredibly longer than nessecary. I think incredibly long blogs have become habit. Oh well, at least you will all be well informed, and then not need to ask a whole bunch of questions when I get back (as if that is going to happen, it will probably generate more questions).

Pics (top to bottom again): Happy Birthday to Me (left to right: the legs of Nuu, two woman from the House of Hope, Tee, a couple more women from the house that I can't remember the names for, Avis, Bonnie, and me laughing at something Craig or Ray said); The Men from Canada (sitting in front of the restaurant that we ate at on Friday, Feb 2, left to right, Craig Black, myself, and Ray Emery (Bonnie almost got hit by a car as she kept backing up into the street to take the photo)); The Party of the Century (sitting around the table talking and eating Bonnie's delicious cake, left to right, Craig, Ray, me getting bored of my picture being taken, and Roy); A Rotti Stand (with good ole fashioned East Indian rotti (my new favourite dessert) being made); The New Ladies (the three new ladies to the House of Hope); A Secluded Corner (Ray and Bonita's outdoor coffee corner); Translating in My Head (trying to remember the words of the song, left to right, myself, our translator, Bonnie, Tee, and the rest of the congregation); Blowing Out 60 Years Worth of Candles (left to right, Avis and Roy); Worship in Thai (the worship leaders at the church that we attended on the 4th); Playing With the Fish (the daughters of some people visiting Ray and Bonnie, left to right, I can't remember right now); My Extra Little Story (click on the picture to read it); I love bad English (where this picture was taken, was where the walking night market was suppose to start); The Not as New Women from the House of Hope (left to right, the manager of the house, the three ladies from the house and Bonnie); My Banana Cakes (freshly made and ready to eat, left to right, I call that one Vanilla Coated and the other Chocolate Outside); View From the Top (the pic isn't here yet, but hopefully it will be soon).

Note: There are more pics coming (like from on top of the mountain), I am just experiencing technical difficulties.