Lahu Village

My next adventure began in the higher than you can imagine, mountains of northern Thailand. To my surprise, I learned that a good majority of kids from the different Thai Happy Homes often come from the hilltribes all over Thailand. Many of the tribes are notoriously stricken with disease and poverty, which explains the rescue story of a lot of these kids. This is just like the Thoeng Home that I was at previously; pretty much every single one of those kids came from the Hmong Tribe. There are so many different tribes that I haven’t been able to keep track of them all let alone get the names and pronunciation straight.

Welcome to the Lahu Village

One of the Happy Home graduates, Sadudee, from the Chiang Rai location is originally from the Lahu Tribe and was excited to show me her village and home. Two other “farangs,” (Foreigners/Westerners) as we’re called, would be meeting us in Chiang Rai and then we’d take off to begin our trek. I was so very hyped about this once in a lifetime chance to see rural Thailand and stay in an actual village! We took a 3-hour bus ride to the bottom of the mountain and then Sadudee’s brother met us at the bus station to take us the rest of the way up the mountain. The drive up the mountain took around two-hours and extremely bumpy would be an understatement. Now I wouldn’t say I have the strongest stomach when it comes to motion sickness, but now reminiscing I can laugh and equally compare the car ride up the mountain to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland gone very wrong. Boy oh boy this ride literally kept me on the edge of my seat! I have to say it might be an exaggeration to suggest that the hill was even a 25 percent grade. The rode was typically only wide enough for one car and you’re usually bumping right along close to the edge. During rainy season, it is impossible to drive up and down this mountain because either the car will become stuck or would slide right off the edge.

We finally made it to the top and all in one piece! The Lahu village was nestled so comfortably into the side of the mountain. The scene was almost dreamlike and felt as if I had just gone back in time. Everything about the location, sights, and smells was majestic; it felt as if we were standing above the rest of the world.  Life was undoubtedly primitive, but yet so beautifully simple. There were currently around 14 families that lived in this little village all sharing every aspect of their lives together. All families shared in the rice crop and worked to support one another, young taking care of the old and handicapped. We came to find out that Sadudee’s brother was essentially head of the little village and owned the only car, which everyone in the village shared. A truck is necessary to transport rice and other agricultural goods to be sold in the market at the bottom of the mountain.

Sadudee’s house was also one of the only two that was partly made of cement and not just the usual bamboo, wood, and straw materials. From this picture you can see that the bottom is made of cement and the second story is made out of wood. Much more “advanced” than I had originally expected!

This is the kitchen

All the homes separate the kitchen from sleeping area, so each family has built a separate “house” solely for storage, preparation, cooking, and eating. I was shocked to find that the family had two spickets with running water and utilized solar panels. The bathroom was a little outhouse kind of near the kitchen. I was excited that the bathroom was in an enclosed area and that they had a squatter toilet; it’s funny the little things I get very excited about and am extremely grateful for now. Although, that bathroom had some of the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life—big, thick, and juicy white/grayish spiders! The bathroom wasn’t exactly made for someone my size so I always had to duck. I came to realize that the ceiling is also where all the spiders liked to hang out so I was very happy that I started off ducking because I was too tall. The solar panels were used for a total of two lights, one light in the kitchen and one in the upstairs of the house. One thing that always catches me off guard here in Asia is that despite a family’s living condition, whether it’s a tribe living in the middle of nowhere or in the slums, there’s always a TV to be found! It still cracks me up how TV is such a necessity for people over here. So the solar power of course is also used to fuel up the TV at night. The government installed the solar panels about five years ago, so having any sort of lighting is a fairly recent development.

Cooking/watching Sadudee cook was one of the best experiences. It was like camping, but cooking gourmet style. Everything was cooked using only the little fire, but we had amazing Thai dishes that were all cooked from scratch. There was no refrigerator so it was extremely interesting to see how they just make do and work around needing to refrigerate items. The meat part seemed a little iffy to me, but no one got sick! My favorite meal was the one we prepared beforehand and took to go for our adventurous day out. We took everything in little baggies and hiked it down the mountain for the long day ahead of us. Later in the day we got to eat our little meal off of banana leaves that we picked off a tree—so fun!

The Canadian girls and I got to thresh rice with Sadudee’s family and pick tea tree leaves. It’s that time for harvesting rice everywhere in Thailand and the rice that we got to help thresh is a vital part of the village’s livelihood. The rice they get from the harvest helps not only to feed the village for a year, but the extra is sold at the market. The family was out there from sunrise to sunset and let me emphasize that rice threshing is not easy work. It was truly incredible to see the old working right alongside the young performing this backbreaking work. They had already cut and gathered the rice so now all that was left was to thresh the rice to obtain the individual kernels. This means taking a handful of the rice grain and beating it against a wooden board until all the little kernels have fallen off. These people worked so incredibly hard and it was eye opening to realize that it’s all in an effort to have enough to eat for the year. Experiencing their work ethic firsthand for such an essential need, like food, really struck me with a newfound appreciation for always having plenty to eat and never being worried about going hungry. The rice crop is completely dependent on the weather pattern and if it provides too much rain or too little will dictate how much they have to eat for that year. It really is crazy as I stop and pause to think about living like that; your life source is conditional and you never know what each year will be like. Picking tea tree leaves was a process as well because you only wanted to pick the very bright green leaves. Of course the bright green leaves were often times only at the very top of the tree. I have no idea how the family ever managed to reach them, since I myself found it a challenge to reach for those leaves.

Picking tea tree leaves

Eating our delicious lunch off banana leaves

So proud of the tea tree leaves we collected!

Threshing rice- just another day on the job

My time up in the mountains at the Lahu village was absolutely incredible! I had so much fun and will probably never get a chance to do anything like that ever again. So sorry I haven’t been able to update the blog more often, but time has been short and not usually able to make it into an internet café. I can’t wait to write more and tell you all about my experience in Poipet. It’s Christmas Eve day here and I’m thinking about you all and missing home. Merry Christmas love you all!

Chiang Rai

I successfully flew by myself and managed to avoid a repeat of my flight this past summer ; ) Now I'm safe and sound in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Chiang Rai is absolutely beautiful and feels like Kauai. It's refreshing to see mountains again and land that is just thriving. Everything is bright green and tropical--got to appreciate all this rain for something! The Chiang Rai Home is the largest of all the properties and I believe houses the most kids. There are kids of all ages, ranging from 5-19 years old. Of course, I instantly fell in love with the five-year-old, Gracie. She has the sweetest personality and just can't stop smiling. I've come to realize I have the biggest heart for the little ones. I light up around these little people and they just make my day every time. I've also made a few friends with the older girls. It's a tad more difficult to connect with these girls because they're embarrassed to speak English. Once you crack 'em though, there's no going back and they're just excited to have an American friend.

Another day spent in Chiang Rai brought about the excursion of a lifetime. I got to ride an elephant!! A few of us traveled to the Elephant Farm and got to ride elephants around Thailand. A little scary at first; up top you're moving side to side with the elephant's stride and it feels like you're going to slide right off with every new stride. It was unreal to watch our tour guide make himself comfortable on top of the elephant's head....no big deal! 

so fun!

On our way home the group stopped to find the "big snake." Turns out the "big snake" had been stolen so we had to make do with the smaller snake. Yep, believe it or not, this is the smaller snake!

I did not want to be apart of this picture, but somehow I got sucked into helping them all hold that thing up. That thing was HEAVY! Don't let my smile deceive you. I am glad that they made me do it. Once again, this was a chance of a lifetime here in the Land of Smiles.

My last weekend in Chiang Rai was quite eventful. We held an all day event for the teenagers. Teens came from Chiang Saen and Thoeng homes to join up with the Chiang Rai kids. There was a bible study in the morning and we got to answer a lot of hearty questions about temptation. It was great to see the kid's questions and how they were trying to work through them. After lunch, we paused for a comical break to play all sorts of "Minute To Win It" games. I had never heard of this show before, but know that if I was home right now I'd be watching it all the time! It was awesome to be apart of this event and get a feel for how MMF loves on these kids in order to teach them life's lessons.

Shortly, I will be headed to the northern area of Thailand: Thoeng. The Thoeng home is said to be very rural (couldn't find it on Google Weather) and struggling with some nutrition problems. The new plan is for me to compile a nutrition evaluation and stay there for the next two weeks. I'm excited for this new adventure and to see more of Thailand. This will be a first for actually using what I've learned and putting it into practice. I'm so thankful for this opportunity and hope that I can be effective in my observations and input! 

Mission's Team

Ha this is just a random picture I found off the net

I spent my first week in Bangkok getting acquainted with the Mercy Ministries Foundation (MMF) staff members. The North Coast Mission's Team and I got to teach the staff the art therapy lessons, For The Children, hence where I got the inspiration for the title of this blog. Bangkok was quite a show! I have never seen traffic like this before. There are unbelievable amounts of motorcycles/mopeds and tuk-tuks weaving in and out of traffic. A tuk-tuk is a three wheeled vehicle and you rarely want to get in one because once you do they usually take you for quite a long detour and then try to charge you for a ton at the end.

The next week we traveled to Poipet, Cambodia, which is just right at the border of Thailand and Cambodia. Pretty much anything goes in Cambodia! Even from the looks of it it's a pretty torn up country. I heard someone compare Poipet to TJ, but amplified. I had never learned or heard about the Khmer Rouge, but understanding the history has provided insight into the country's lack of stability. The Khmer Rouge, which took place during the 70s killed about 21% of the Cambodian population. The Cambodian population still appears to be recovering from this horrific time in history. At the time our group was visiting Poipet the city was experiencing major flooding. They called it "The Hundred Year Flood" and just in time for the mission's team to see the hardship made even harder for the Khmer people. We traveled to the slums of Poipet to check out the preschool that MMF has started. A few of the MMF staff waded up to their waist in water, but could not get into the entrance of the preschool without going any deeper into the water.

Poipet is where I will be calling "home" for the next few months and it will be interesting to see how the city recovers and deals with the aftermath of the flooding. It was astounding to watch families washing clothes, swimming, and fishing in the water. I cannot even begin to describe the stench and I don't think you would want me to either. You might look in one direction and see kids playing in the water and turn your head around to see someone taking care of their business in the very SAME water! I couldn't comprehend how these people wouldn't understand the implications of this, but it is simply a lack of education and awareness about how diseases are caused and/or spread. It is predicted that there will be an outbreak of disease among the slums due to these incidences. This is where I have been assigned to work! I will be going into the preschool, once you don't have to swim to get there, and being the eyes and ears of MMF at the school. Rose who is the founder of MMF wants me to make sure everything is running smoothly and especially keeping an eye on the the children after this catastrophe. I have a feeling things will not be pretty...but I'm really looking forward to working with these kids. Working with the mission's team in Poipet, I absolutely fell in love with the kids at this home. They're beyond precious and have some of the most difficult backgrounds and stories, yet they have so much joy. I will admit that I was definitely a little uneasy about the thought of living in Poipet, but God has really been showing  me that this is where He wants me to be. I can hardly wait until I get to see these beautiful faces again!

We also worked with another organization led by a man named Chomno. He's from Cambodia and is doing so many wonderful things for the people! He has headed up many different programs that are, for example, helping to employ people and provide for their basic needs. Our group presented the art therapy material to his leaders as well, however I was sent out to one of his programs called, Safe Haven. This is a school he founded for children in the surrounding rural communities so that they could receive education and food. This is where two MMF girls and myself entertained 250+ kids for a couple hours. You might not be able to tell from the pictures, but I got to dance and teach the kids "The Hoky Poky." We taught them "Jesus Loves Me," played a few other games, and of course had to teach them some stretches before we did "The Hoky Poky." Wouldn't want any pulled muscles ; )

After saying goodbye to the majority of the team, Melanie, Barbara, Pamela and I stayed behind for some tourist attractions in Siem Reap. We visited the notorious Angkor Wat and saw for ourselves what all the hype was about. The numerous temples are stunning and unlike anything I have ever seen before. It was like a fairytale and I truly felt as if I was in a movie. I will say that the day we took our all-day tour of Angkor Wat and the floating village could not have been any hotter! A nice introduction to the harsher conditions of Cambodia in comparison to Thailand.

Looking beyond the tourist attraction, Siem Reap was quite heart-wrenching. Siem Reap has streets lined with maimed individuals that lost limb after limb from the Khmer Rouge. You cannot walk anywhere without being bombarded by kids, moms and cripples selling ANYTHING for that matter. Because so many of these individuals are missing both arms or both legs it makes it impossible for them to work. Therefore, these individuals stick to selling books, which seems to be a very reasonable trade for them. Needless to say I've been traveling around with a mini library in my backpack. It was very encouraging to see that despite their circumstances these people are still trying to work and provide for their families. I found it extremely difficult to stay in this town due to the mass amounts of needy people. You can't walk anywhere without seeing the most desperate case and just hurting for them. Siem Reap is obviously a tourist attraction and that's why so many flock there, but I still found it super difficult to casually walk down the street.  I was ready to leave Siem Reap and don't think I could have stayed any longer... I noticed a couple non-profit organizations with a goal to increase employment, but what that city really needs is employment opportunities for the disabled. This idea would be extremely beneficial and would help out numerous individuals; it is something that I'd be interested to look into further.

I'm headed off to home base, Chiang Rai, to meet up with Rose and talk with her about future plans in Thailand/Cambodia. I'm thrilled to see another MMF home and a different part of Thailand. I've heard Chiang Rai is beautiful and I'm so excited to get out of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and into the more rural regions of Thailand.