Well, we are finished with our time in the village and are spending a few days in Chiang Mai before our group splits up for good.

Songkran weekend ended, and we made our way back to the village, thankful
 to escape the unbearable heat of Chiang Mai. It was nice to return to the
 village and a much slower pace of life. Our morning anthropology class was finished, so we
 started focusing on getting interviews and writing our papers. My partner and I wrote our term paper on the presence of Compassion International in the Musikhee village and their impact on the children. We became very passionate about our topic when we started finding out some very interesting facts about how money was being used and distributed. Compassion changed their policy a few years ago away from giving direct aid to the sponsored children to spending the money to “develop” the children using after school and weekend activities. While this may theoretically be better long-term, many of the poorest children are slipping through the cracks, not able to afford food or school and having to drop out or join Buddhist monasteries to continue their education. This is obviously not what overseas sponsors think their money is contributing to. This, along with a few other very disconcerting findings, convinced us that there needs to be a policy change. We plan on sending our paper to the corporate headquarters of Compassion International in Colorado Springs and presenting this information to them and, depending on their response, submitting a version of our paper to Sojourner’s or another such publication. If you would like to read more about this, I would be happy to send our paper to you.
But back to village life:
The random power outages, which 
strangely happen around the same time every day, made writing our 
papers a bit difficult for those of us using laptops. One could usually hear a
 shout of joy around the compound when the electricity 
finally came back on. 

A highlight of the third week was Sports day, an excuse for us to stop work on 
our papers and get out some energy. We had a men’s soccer and women’s
 volleyball team, and we played several Karen teams. Despite the immense 
skill (this is sarcasm) of our volleyball team, we didn’t manage to win a game. The boys
 had slightly more luck, winning one of their games. I think we all
 enjoyed taking the day off to play or cheer our friends on as they played.
 Another highlight of the week was going frogging, where we drove out to a
 rice field at night and caught tiny frogs, which we would eat the next 
day. Finding the frogs proved to be very difficult for some, but I think 
a few from our group may have found their life callings.
The last week in the village was filled with last-minute paper writing, making our final purchases from the Karen weaving store, and getting weaving lessons. In fact, I made my own bamboo rice sifter, which will possibly become a tea try in my apartment next year. The last day in the village we were thrown a goodbye party, complete with a roasted pig and sword dancing. It was very sad to say goodbye to the people we had come to love over the past month. The hospitality we were shown was incredible, and we will miss our Karen friends dearly.
We are now back in Chiang Mai spending our last few days with each other until we are parted indefinitely. Coming back to Chiang Mai really feels like coming home. It is strange to think that although I spent most of my life in Virginia, there is a random city in Southeast Asia that I know just as well as Warrenton. Most of our group will leave Saturday morning and begin their 24 hour trip back to America. I will not be on that flight, as I decided to stay an extra week. For the past couple of months I have been playing with the idea of going to Burma to teach English. I was pretty set on going until I really felt like God was calling me to examine my motives for going. After a lot of contemplation, I realized that I was mostly excited about the adventure of it, and that my motives were not entirely pure. So I gave it up to God and decided that I was going to go home. Well, about a week after I made that decision I overheard a conversation between my program director and another student about working in a refugee camp on the Thai/Burma border for a week after the program ended. After that, a series of very crazy events started happening, including one of my friends meeting a man on the side of the road who worked at this specific refugee camp and inviting us to come, my program director meeting and giving me the contact information of the director of a Bible school at that specific refugee camp, and one student and I being able to switch our plane tickets so that she could go home and I could stay longer. I have been reading in Isaiah about how God will do things and show His power so that His people know that He alone is God and is control. This idea has been so evident in the process of deciding to go to the refugee camp. Everything that I tried to work out fell through, and only when I gave up did God miraculously work them out. There are seven of us going, and we will be staying at a Bible School in Mae Sot (spelling?), which is a refugee camp on the Thai/Burma border that houses over 50,000 refugees. It is more like a permanent settlement than a refugee camp, and it sounds like we will be teaching English to the Karen refugees who are hoping to immigrate to America.
Please pray for us, that we would be kept safe and that we would find purpose there. God has made it so evident that this is in His will, and I am excited to be able to blog again about all the wonderful things that happen.

Well, phase one of the village experience is completed. I arrived back in Chiang Mai yesterday after a five hour windy truck ride that made me want to throw up. We also got doused with buckets of water 27 times on our way from the village to the city. This may seem like a strange occurrence to some, but it is completely normal for Thailand at this time of year. This weekend is the Songkran festival, which is a time to celebrate the rivers and bodies of water. Naturally, they celebrate the water by throwing it at people. I can honestly say that there is no American equivalent to this festival. I can’t think of any situation or holiday in America where it is acceptable to throw things at complete strangers, at least to this extent. Sure, the occasional confetti toss at New Years happens, but there are not hundreds of people standing on the sidewalks and roads with trash cans full of confetti ready to toss a bucket-full at the next passerby. Numerous precautionary measures have to be taken if one wishes to go outside, including putting all of your valuables in plastic bags, wearing running shoes, and carrying around a small water gun to retaliate. I can tell that this is going to be an exciting weekend…
Nevertheless, I want to update you on this past month’s happenings. We said goodbye to our host families and left Chiang Mai on March 13th to begin our weeklong tour of Thailand. We went to Sukothai, Ayudhaya, Lopburi, and some other places I can’t remember. We traveled by tour bus, which meant that we became those obnoxious tourists that everyone hates. You know what I’m talking about –those tourists on the large-windowed tour buses who seem to be under the impression that their bus is equipped with one-sided windows because they are unashamedly staring at the people outside. No one likes those people. But nevertheless, we became them. We visited many of the ancient empires of Thailand and saw some really old temples and stuff. Don’t get me wrong, it was cool, but the intense heat was sort of a downer. The highlight of most peoples’ day was when we got to jump in the pool at the next hotel. We did do some really neat things as a group: one day we got to rent bicycles and pedal around a park, during which I decided to go off-roading with two of the boys from the group. Unfortunately, our pink bicycles weren’t meant for off-roading terrain, and the day got even more interesting when we found ourselves on one side of an electric fence (electric, to our surprise). There were some other remarkable happenings during our travel week: one day in Lopburi we visited a temple area housing hundreds of temperamental monkeys. They looked cute at first, but they attacked at the first sign that you may possess food or anything shiny. Toward the end of the week we went on a dinner cruise on a boat possessing a karaoke machine, and much to the chagrin of anyone in earshot, we made good use of it. Our group really did have a great time together, and I think that the most memorable experiences were outside of the tourist sites. The boys in our group decided to have a beard-growing contest that lasted from February until mid-march. During our field trip they got to shave for the first time, but not until we (the girls) gave out the beard superlatives. Some of the most notable awards included “best multi-colored beard,” “best Russian crust-ache,” “best creeper beard,” and “please go shave NOW.” The boys subsequently decided to make the shaving process a bit more interesting by also shaving their heads in horrendous patterns and styles and giving the bag of shaved off hair to the girls as a present. The proof of all these incidents lay in my facebook pictures.
After spending a day in Bangkok and visiting the Royal Palace, we were free to go off on our spring breaks. My group took an overnight bus to the Krabi province in southern Thailand. We spent the first two nights on Hat Ton Sai beach. This beach was unlike any beach I had ever been to. Aside from the gorgeous scenery, jungles, and cliffs, the beach was entirely inhabited by hippies and others still mourning the death of Bob Marley. The first day we decided to rent kayaks and paddle out to the next beach, Railay. Within ten minutes of being on the other beach we saw nine other people from our program, and just as we were finished discussing how crazy it was that we all found eachother, our program directors pulled up to shore in a boat. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. That night, back on Hat Ton Sai, we had our own set of interesting happening. While three of us were in so much pain from our sunburns that we couldn’t sleep, two others were woken up in the middle of the night by a monkey in their bungalow. Aside from the intrusive monkeys, we really did enjoy that beach, but I decided to travel to the other side of the peninsula to meet up with another group of friends staying on Kho Phanghan. I traveled by myself for the day, which proved to be more exhausting than I thought. My first bus was delayed by three hours, and when we finally arrived at the dock, I found out that the boat was also three hours late. So I spent three hours at a very sketchy dock with lots of non-English speakers, counting the minutes until I saw people I knew. I finally arrived, around 10 pm, and could do nothing but hug my two friends who came to pick me up at the dock. We stayed at a really nice resort on the beach, loving every minute of the air conditioning and ocean view. We even made friends with two Thai women who work at a massage booth on the beach and took them out to dinner. Most of our time during spring break was spent taking in the everyday conveniences we knew we would soon be lacking, such as running water, air conditioning, beds, etc. When we finally got back to Chiang Mai after our 36 hour trip back, I barely had time to recover before we left for the village the next morning.
The five hour long ride to the village was nothing short of nauseating. And I wanted nothing else than to go to sleep when we finally arrived at the village, after I had thoughtlessly taken a few too many motion sickness pills. It wasn’t until the next morning that I was able to have any coherent first impressions of the village. We are living in a compound that usually houses students from surrounding villages who live there to go to school. They are on their summer break now, so we are living in their “dorms.” My house is a six person house, made out of wood and bamboo, and has a porch which is in constant use. We frequently comment on how we feel like old women, sitting on their porch and talking about the latest gossip. Another idea frequently thrown around is the possibility that we might be the victims of some candid camera “Survivor” show. We eat every single meal together, are all living within 50 yards of each other, go to the lake every other day to shower, and every Friday we vote off someone from the village. That last part was a joke, but the rest of it is pure reality. Certain phenomena occur when you live in such close proximity to the same people for an extended period of time, and one of them is speech imitation. All of us are starting to speak with the same tones and inflections, picking up quirks from certain people. I fear what will happen on May 3rd when we are indefinitely separated from each other: we may suffer short-term muteness or something equally awful.
Another very present reality that we have had to adjust to is the existence of strange animals and bugs. Frequently during class we are interrupted by the sound of water buffalo calls and cow bells. We do a “bug check” before entering the outhouse, and on really unfortunate days we are visited by a certain enormous moth (it is literally larger than my head) that maintains residence on the outhouse wall for at least 12 hours. The village is also full of dogs, and apparently a dog disease is going around because the dogs are dying at a frightening rate. Over ten dogs died within the first week that we were there, and six died in one day. One of the puppies got ran over by a kid on a bicycle, and I came to its rescue. I made a make-shift splint for its broken leg from bamboo and string, and within a few days he was fine! I named him Maverick…he’s resilient just like Tom Cruise in “Top Gun.” But despite the fact that Maverick remains alive, most of them aren’t anymore.
And on that note, I will end this disgracefully long blog and leave you sitting on the edge of your seat, I’m sure, for my return and my subsequent blog post concerning the rest of the dogs and more village gossip.
Until then, Sawatdiikha!

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. And unfortunately a lot will have happened by the next time I’m able to blog again, since I probably won’t have access to the internet again until mid-April. Tomorrow we leave our host familes and begin our week-long field trip to historical sites around Thailand. After our field trip we will be “released” to go on spring break, an adventure I am really looking forward to. I, along with four friends, will take a bus from Bangkok to an island, and….that’s as much as we know. Our plan is to not have a plan. I’m sure there will be interesting stories from that week, perhaps getting ourselves stranded on a deserted island or being chased up a mountain by the local tribal peoples. Who knows. After spring break we will come back to Chiang Mai for one day and then leave for the “muu-baan Karien,” or the Karen village. We will spend the first two weeks there going to classes to prepare for our research project, then we will come back to Chiang Mai for two days for the Songkhran festival, and will then return to the village and conduct our ethnographic research projects.
Although I would like to maintain my image for all of you as a strong, independent adventurer, I have to admit that I miss my parents. Luckily they miss me too, and actually decided to come out and visit, along with Mrs. Shomo, a family friend! It was very strange having my two worlds meet each other. The first day my mom and Mrs. Shomo did the “touristy” thing and rode elephants and such. Dad, on the other hand, who obviously loves me more than my mother, came to class with me and skipped the elephant ride. (Just kidding mom!) In the afternoon we met up and rode out to a wood-carving village (aka: tourist trap) to see/buy these beautiful handmade (false) items. (clarification: beautiful – true. Handmade – probably false). On Saturday I took my parents up to Doi Suthep to see the temple that overlooks Chiang Mai. I tried to repeat to them everything I had been told on my tour there, but most of it has escaped me, so they got the abbreviated version. Saturday in the afternoon they came to Agape, where my internship is. Mom had brought toothbrushes for all of the kids and would teach a class on how to brush your teeth properly. I assumed that we would have someone there who could translate for my mom, but apparently that person was me. I tried the best that I could with my limited vocabulary (there wasn’t really a “dentistry” section of my Thai language book), and I hope they got the gist of it. I’m sure the kids thought it was hilarious since I was saying nonsensical things that literally translated to: “you like food? You no brush teeth, you no have teeth. You no have teeth, you no eat food. No good.” Oh well, at least they were amused. The rest of the afternoon was full of similarly hilarious sights, like Dad trying to ride a kids bicycle with a little girl on the back, Mrs. Shomo getting her hair braided and put into pigtails, and all the kids dancing for Dad’s video camera. I’m so glad that they got to come and see what has been a huge and life-changing part of my time here in Thailand.
The following week at school I had a 15-page ethnographic term paper due, so there isn’t much to report on social activities. Similarly, my Thai culture final exam was last Tuesday, so studying pretty much consumed my last weekend here in Chiang Mai.
Sunday night was our final banquet, a time to formally say goodbye to our Thai teachers and our host families. It was a HUGE event complete with buffet dinner, student entertainment (more to come on that subject), and a laser/water/light show over the water, similar but not quite equal to the “Fantasmic” show at Disneyworld. There were four student entertainment groups, and unfortunately three of them contained me. My skit group got to (I say “got to” very facetiously) perform our skit again that we had already performed as part of our Thai language final exam. I also was involved in a musical number featuring the very sappy and overused song “Graduation,” by Vitamin C. I think it was understood that it was done in a joking manner, especially since at the end of the song we tagged the chorus a cappella and added some dramatic swaying and clapping. Although the night was a bit stressful for me, it was really fun, and I really enjoyed having that time with my family.
Thee past few days I have been trying to spend a lot of time at home since I will be leaving my family very soon. I did, however, make some time to go to a local waterfall (where a very strange Thai boy of about 8 years old followed us and tried to grab us from underneath the water. It was really creepy) and play some ultimate Frisbee.
Saying goodbye has and will continue to prove very difficult. I had to say goodbye at Agape on Thursday. It’s not so bad because I know that I will be back in April and I will get to see them all again, but who knows if the little ones will even remember me anymore? When I got there on Thursday, the little girl that I always go to see was not there and had gone to the hospital. She has been reacting badly to the ARV (anti retro viral) and they think she may be allergic to it. I was so upset because I wouldn’t be able to say bye to her, but when I walked back by the nursery later that day she was in there! Apparently she had gotten back from the hospital earlier than expected, and it was such a gift from God! That little bit of time that I got to spend with her was so special to me, especially since I didn’t think that I was going to get it.
I will say goodbye to my family tomorrow morning, and I am really not looking forward to that. Don’t get me wrong, I am super excited to travel and live in the tribal village, but I really do enjoy spending time with them. In fact, as we speak my brother Tung is trying to get me to play the Thai version of Monopoly with him while I am writing this. Every three seconds he yells “Rachel, turn you!!” They have really become a second family to me and are so generous. Last night we went to my host grandmother’s house. She had cooked us a huge dinner of “kuay tiaw,” fruit, and pad thai. I have only seen her a total of 4 times since coming here, but last night she told me that she loved me and to come back to Thailand. It meant so much to me, and I know that tomorrow morning will be more of that except multiplied by a million...yeah

Sorry to those of you who’ve been asking for an update (i.e,. my dear cousin). We had our Thai Language final today, so now that that is over, I can hopefully devote more time to this, although I doubt things will slow down much. For our final, we had to give a five minute oral presentation (in Thai) in front of three Thai teachers, AND perform a 15 minute skit with a group (also all in Thai). Surprisingly, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but we did spend a lot of time studying and practicing. I’m really surprised at how much Thai I do understand – much more than I thought I would know after only 7 weeks. My conversations, though, are limited when talking outside the realm of the weather, ordering food, fruits, and numbers. After coming home from school, I usually feel pretty good about myself and my ability to communicate, that is, until I sit down to watch the nightly Thai soap opera at 9:00 pm with my Thai mom. For that hour I am completely entranced, trying to catch just one word that will clue me in on what is going on. I laugh or gasp occasionally so that my Thai mom will think I know what’s going on. Sometimes, though, I “strategically” laugh at an actual shocking part, and my cover is blown. Shockingly, my ability to gauge the mood of the Thai soap opera has not improved much over the past 7 weeks, so I’m still pretty sure she knows I’m a fake.
Speaking of my Thai family, I constantly am telling my friends at school funny stories about them, mostly about my younger brothers. My littlest brother’s favorite English word is “super,” and tries to use it in every sentence. This is a typical conversation we have in the car:
Me: “Tung, how was school today?”
Tung: “Super okay.”
Me: (laughing)
Only last night we had another memorable exchange. We have a small electronic keyboard in the house, and it has some demo songs on it that it plays and the keys light up so that you can press them and “learn the song.” Well, last night Tung was trying to learn one of the demo songs, which was Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca. ‘How convenient!’ I thought to myself, since I learned that song years ago. Schemingly, I asked Tung if I could try. I sat down and played perfectly along with the demo, adding in the left hand part, which surprised him even more since those notes didn’t light up on the piano. Unfortunately, I didn’t think out my scheme well enough because he left very confused and thinking I had some magical powers since I couldn’t explain to him in Thai that I already knew the song and was playing a joke on him. I’m just hoping that tonight he doesn’t ask me to do the same thing, except with a different demo song that I don’t know. Then he, along with my Thai mom, will know that I’m a fake.
I think that in each blog entry I’ll start adding in a segment called “Only In Thailand.” It seems like I have numerous small and quotable cultural experiences but can’t find a place for them within the blog. So, I’m just going to start throwing them in. So…today’s “ONLY IN THAILAND” piece:
Last weekend 5 of my American friends and I went to a video rental shop to see if we could rent a movie to watch at someone’s house. Apparently, at Thai video rental shops you can rent not only movies, but also entire living rooms to watch them in. Upon learning this, we, of course, rented “Blood Diamond” along with the living room. It was literally a room upstairs, where I’m pretty sure the family that owns the video store uses. It was actually really nice – a flat screen TV and a nice couch. We basically rented America for two hours. Quite possibly one of the weirdest experiences ever was walking back downstairs after watching the movie. I felt like I was at home, and then walked downstairs only to find myself in a large room with about 10 Thai people staring at the 6 “farang”(foreigners) walking out from a hidden door at the back of the store. Actually…It may have been weirder for the other people in the store: Can you imagine being in Blockbuster’s, walking around trying to pick out a movie, and seeing six non-English speaking Asians emerge from a hidden door behind the “New Releases” section? I imagine I would be rather freaked out, and would probably never return to that Blockbuster’s again for fear that I was supporting some sketchy underground “Anime” film smuggling business. Maybe most video rental stores have already thought this unfortunate chain of events out, and that’s why they don’t rent out living rooms.

So in case you didn’t get the pun, “wat” is the Thai word for temple. Oh, I’m so punny!
This past weekend our group stayed at a Wat near Chiang Rai to learn how to meditate from the monks. Fortunately, we did more than meditate during our time. It felt more like a youth retreat than a meditation weekend – we had group meals, played silly games and pulled pranks on each other. We also went spelunking through a bat cave and collected alms with the monks…that’s the part that was unlike any youth group trip I’ve been on.
We left Chiang Mai on Saturday morning and visited about 28 wats before we arrived at the one we would be staying at for the weekend. Okay, so it wasn’t 28, but it was so many that I really don’t remember how many. Before we arrived at the wat we drove to the opening of a cave, climbed a small mountain to get to the actual opening, and spent an hour or two wandering around. It was rather peculiar, actually. We weren’t given instructions or a time to be back, so it was sort of every man for himself. Within 100 feet of being inside the cave it was pitch black, and the tiny candles we were given didn’t help much. But thanks to my MacGuyver-esque skills, I converted my iPod into a makeshift flashlight. Some of us decided that it would be fun to all climb in a small crevice and find out where it led. Apparently it finally led into a tiny room with limited oxygen, but I never made it there because the line leaders started to not be able to breath, freaked out, and told us to get out as fast as we could. So selfish! But don’t worry: we were all fine. And I’m sure that if I had needed to, I would have been able to craft a rudimentary oxygen tank out of my water bottle and survive. That was also in a MacGuyver episode.
You might gather from the start of a new paragraph that all of the cave adventure stories are over, but you would be wrong. It’s just that this next experience deserves a paragraph all to itself. After we made it out of the oxygen-less part of the cave, we decided to enter into the portion of the cave inhabited by bats and see how far in we could get. Again: not the best idea ever. It was the single most disgusting experience of my life. As soon as we rounded the corner we literally hit a brick wall of humidity caused by the vast amount of bat poop. We progressed for a few more minutes and would stop every so often to listen to the hundreds of bats flying around us. (p.s. that is not an exaggeration). I took a few pictures in which I pointed the camera up and took a picture with the flash so we could see how many bats there were. There was one very mysterious image which I believe was a bat that flew right in front of the camera as I took the pictures. It’s rather frightening. Despite the thrill we got from getting pooped on by hundreds of bats, we turned back when bats started flying in front of our faces.
Well, we finally arrive at the wat portion of the weekend. The festivities of the night included our first meditation session. We all gathered in a large room and sat on the floor on mats in lotus position (well, some of us sat in lotus position. Others of us slightly less flexible deferred to “Indian style.” The monks led us in about an hour of standing, walking, and sitting meditation. You are supposed to wipe your mind of everything and only concentrate on what is going on then: your breathing and your steps if you are doing walking meditation. I have admiration for people who can meditate for hours, because I could only last a few minutes before my mind was fully engrossed in the fact that my foot was asleep and coming up with a way to remedy the situation without anyone noticing how completely “un-enlightened” I was. Fortunately, everyone else in the group was suffering the same plague of ADD. So meditation was a bust, but the next day was full of excitement, from 5 am on.
That’s right – I said 5:00 am. That’s what time we got up in order to go with the monks down to the village to collect alms. Since monks don’t cook in the temples, every morning they go out into the streets with bowls over their shoulders and people are waiting there to give them food. This happens EVERY morning. And people are inclined to get up this early because it is a way to make merit, a very important Buddhist concept related to racking up good karma that will hopefully bring you a better life when you are reborn.
After that we went back up to the temple grounds and the monks invited us into their “dedication ceremony” where they dedicate the food to Buddha and then eat it. I never thought that the verse in 1 Corinthians 10 about eating food sacrificed to idols would ever be literally applicable to my life, but it is. I can eat the food with a clean conscience because I’ve given thanks to God for it, acknowledging Him as the true provider, not a statue. It’s been really hard trying to discern the line between being respectful of the people here and disrespecting my God. Yes I am an observer, a sociologist, and I am grateful for the Thai people inviting me into their culture, but I am first and foremost a Christian, and that dictates things that I will and will not participate in. There are going to be many more instances and situations like this one, so please pray that God would make it clear to me the right thing to do and how to do it with respect.
Well, the rest of the day was much less mentally trying. It involved another short meditation session (equally as entertaining), and a trip to the sauna. Apparently temples in Thailand come fully equip with sauna rooms. It wasn’t exactly what I pictured a sauna being like: it was literally an outhouse with an herbal fire. The group that went in after us was all boys, so we of course took advantage of the situation and stole their clothes after they went in. Ahh, just like the old days of youth group pranks. Apparently it’s outrageously disrespectful to roam Buddhist temple grounds without clothes (who knew!?) so we had to give them back. Nevertheless, it was a great weekend full of excellent learning experiences, some more serious than others. Again, please pray that all of us would be able to discern the right thing to do in situations when our convictions are put to the test. Thanks!

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being "care full," you find yourselves cared for." (MSG) Matthew 5: 3,4,7

This has been my first week of interning at Agape, an orphanage for kids with HIV/AIDS. I taught English classes on Thursday, and taught some music classes today. (More about that later.) This orphanage was started not too long ago by an Australian woman who was working in the government orphanages in Thailand. She saw one little girl who wasn't being cared for and when she asked the orphanage workers why, she was told that the little girl had AIDS and was going to die, so there was no point in investing in her and using their resources to help her. After a long process, she adopted the little girl, Nikki, and founded a home for orphans with AIDS in Northern Thailand. The facilites are amazing - trampolines, dormitories, toys, and a staff of nannies (most of whom also have AIDS). It really is a place of hope - it's not a depressing hospital where the kids are just waiting to die. Avis (the founder) has really created a place where kids are shown how to live with the disease, not die from it.

So on Saturdays all of the interns are given the opportunity to teach a "class" for the kids - mostly an opportunity for the kids to have something to do. Today we had some cooking classes, a computer class, an art class, and my music class. I had no idea what to expect and what I would really do. I ended up having about 3 or 4 kids in each class, and they ranged from age 7 to 16. I planned on teaching them Solfeg (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do) but really thought it was going to be a bust. To my surprise, one of the girls in my first group had seen "The Sound of Music" and proceeded to sing me the entire " Do a deer" song. It was great! There was another girl in my first class, a girl about 15 years old, who I was told could play guitar. I tried for the first 15 minutes to speak to her in Thai (very poorly) when one of the workers came up to me and told me that the girl was fluent in English and her name was Nikki (a.k.a. the girl that is the reason why Agape exists today). Wow - I felt like an idiot.
In my second class I decided to teach them some songs full of eternal significance such as "The Hippo Song" and "The Beaver Song." They loved those for sure, but after that we got the guitar out and started playing songs that we knew. One of the girls in my class is a 15 year old and plays the guitar really well! I asked her what her favorite song was, and she opened up her notebook and pointed to a page with the lyrics and chords to "Here I Am To Worship" scribbled down. It was at that moment when I almost cried - that song was written by Tim Hughes, who was the worship leader at my church in London and who I have been keeping updated about my internship. Her face lit up when I told her that I knew the man who wrote it and that I would tell him that it was her favorite song.
That happened today and I haven't been able to think about anything else since then. I think it was such a big deal to me because it gave me hope: Since being at Agape I've realized that I will never be able to fully understand these kids' lives or relate to them. But we worship the same God, and our love and worship of this God supersedes all barriers that we might have between us.
I've found it to be true time and time again that when you go out to help someone, you end up feeling like you've been blessed by the person you were trying to bless. I love the way The Message puts it: "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being "care full," you find yourselves cared for."

http://www.nikkisplace.org/about.htm

I got back last night from my four day stay in a Lahu village in Northern Thailand. I was really excited to get away from the schoolwork, but I had no idea what I was about to encounter. First off, we arrived and immediately got placed in homestay families. We were in groups of two, so it really wasn't very intimidating, although we couldn't communicate at all with our family because they speak Lahu, not Thai. Our house was very humble but our host family gave us everything we needed and more, constantly watching for opportunities to give to us. The bathroom situation was...very different. There were squatty potties...but wait, it gets better: the "shower" consisted of a bucket of cold water that you poured over your head while squatting down to make sure that no one from outside could see you through the 4 inch crack inbetween the ceiling and the wall (Thai people are much shorter). To make it even better: all of this was done by light of a candle. Needless to say, I only took one shower while I was there.
The first full day that we were there, Friday, was spent planting banana trees at the top of a mountain near their water system. Apparently banana trees produce water, so by planting them at the top of the mountain, it will ensure that the village never runs out of water. While we were hiking through the jungle on our way to plant said banana trees we decided to also try out some grub. So yes - I have eaten live maggots. Two maggots, actually. They're rather tasty, although a little more tasty when they're fried. (side note: so far I've eaten live maggots, fried maggots, fried crickets, and fried worms.)
After our hike we went back to our homes, ate dinner that they prepared for us, and began the nightly festivities: playing with/fending off the hoards of village children. We learned that tickling breaks all language barriers and creates instant connections. Friday night was especially horrifying for some of us: I'm pretty sure the kids got together beforehand and came up with this plan, because it was brilliant. They would ALL (and by "all" i mean at least 20) swarm one person, climb on them, tackle them to the ground, tickle them incessantly, until someone took pity on them and tried to rescue them. Then all the children would immediately leave their victim and turn on the bleeding heart and carry on the same punishment out on them. This pattern ensued for some time. I'm not sure when it ended because I was hiding in the outhouse. No, just kidding...
On Saturday we spent the day at the orphanage farther up the mountain. There are about 50 kids at the orphanage, some of whose parents are still living but cannot afford to keep them. We all split up and did different things: some painted nails, others played ball, and still others painted faces (me). This is the place where we handed out the toys/toothbrushes/coloring books/gloves, etc that we brought for them. Thank you to everyone who donated gloves for me to bring - believe me, they're going to good use. It is absolutely freezing up there at night! After we played for a while we all went inside and had a "song exchange." The kids sat on one side of the room and we sat on the other, and we performed songs for eachother. They had intricate songs and dances planned for us, and we sang songs like "Father Abraham," which they actually loved and made us do a second time. Ajaan Mike also presented the orphanage with a sizable sum of money that will provide lunch for evey child for the next year. In past years they have not had the funds to feed the children 3 meals every day so they only have breakfast and dinner, but now they will have lunch as well!
Saturday night was the highlight of the weekend. Ajaan Ann's birthday is coming up so they had a huge surprise birthday celebration for her. They had us all sit in a circle around a huge bonfire while the men and women of the village came out in a line dressed in their traditional Lahu outfits, playing weird instruments and doing their tribal dances. They even presented Ajaan Ann with what we think was a rice cake (more to come on that subject). They presented each of us with a handmade Lahu bag, which is sooo neat! And they made us get up and they taught us some of their dances. This was the point at which I realized that my pictures that I took that night belonged on the front page of National Geographic magazine.
Oh, and the rice cakes: The Lahus have a saying that if you can make pretty rice cakes, you will also make pretty children. So we decided to have some fun with that. The women of the village helped us make the rice cake dough (as in: they made it and we pretended to help but really got in the way) and we had a contest to see who could make the perfect rice cake. They end up looking like pinkish brown hamburger patties so none of them looked especially beautiful, but they were delicious!
Sunday was a very interesting day - we were asked to pray over a girl from the village who was very sick. She's 18 years old and was training as a nurse when she was diagnosed with a blood disease. The doctors said that she couldn't be cured, so they sent her back to the village to die. We met her and prayed over her, and the whole situation hit me really hard. I think it's because if she were in America, she would be given every available treatment to help her, but here that's not even an option. There is no hope for a cure through medicine - only through God. If you've taken the time to read this, I also ask you to please pray for her and her mother. As I hear more about her condition I will put it on the blog.
Also on Sunday morning we ate our rice cakes with breakfast, and had a processing group where we talked through some of the things that happened that weekend. The major thing that struck everyone was the idea of hospitality. The villagers said over and over to us that they had nothing to thank us with for coming and helping them with their water project. But they did so much for us: opened their homes, cooked for us, made us individual handmade bags, and let us in on some of their awesome traditions. And let's be serious: they could have planted those banana trees in half the time that it took us silly Americans. They were so grateful to us and looked for any opportunity to serve us, when in reality we didn't do anything to deserve it. My friend Tiffany described the weekend as a good slap in the face from God - showing us what we ought be like.

Not only the title of an incredible episode of LOST, "lost in translation" has been the overriding theme of my life for the past 36 hours. I moved in with my host family yesterday morning, and i have never been so intimidated in my life. The only comparable experience was when my parents sent me to summer camp in 4th grade with kids I didn't know. These experiences will go down in the books as the two most traumatic of my life, I'm sure. (I'm being melodramatic, I know). But more of that later...
Saturday morning we woke up at 6 am to embark on our trek up a mountain to get to a wat (temple) at the top called Do Suithep. The hike started off pretty mild, but halfway up the mountain we came to a road and were offered rides to the top, being told that the second half was a killer. Not wanting to lose face, I chose to suck it up and hike the rest of it. Soon after this point, two of our students nearly fell down the mountain when a rope we were using to help us climb up came loose and sent them tumbling. After that we found ourselves climbing up rocky slopes steeper than you would think possible until we finally reached a road and saw the wat up ahead of us. For the entire 3 hours of the hike I was reminiscing about the senior trek and how glad I was that I would only be hiking 3 hours...and not five days. (just kidding, jon!) After our time at the temple we were treated to 2 hour Thai massages which was equally as awkward as the hike was strenuous. There were "girl rooms" and "guy rooms," but there weren't enough mats in the "guy room," so one poor male soul was unwillingly transfered to our room, which allowed enough comic relief for us to overcome the awkwardness. Later that night we all enjoyed our last night together since we would be parting ways the next day.
On Sunday morning we went to the school to meet our Thai families. We waited at tables with our names on them as our families came out one by one to find us. Awkward? I think so. My family is a mom, dad, and two boys, ages 8 and 12. They live a little bit out of town and the mom and dad run a school next to their house for computer students. The dad is a physics teacher and the mom runs the office. Teng (the 8 year old) likes playing basketball and Tay (the 12 year old) plays the tuba. (Keep in mind that all this information could very well be false since I really have no idea what they're saying.) Yesterday was spent entirely with my family, and it was so intimidating/frustrating/exhausting/awkward. I became really overwhelmed with the language barrier and the fact that I was alone in a house with strangers. We went out to dinner that night with the family and about 20 of their students from the computer school. Talk about intimidating! When we got home I immediately locked myself in my room, called my parents crying, and tried to go to bed. The best part about it was that we left the house at 6 AM the next morning to go get breakfast...my class isn't until 8.
Today when we arrived back at school we all had stories to tell. The details of everyone's experiences were different, but we all had the same feelings: intimidating, loneliness, etc. Some people are living in mansions while other are in very modest houses. My friend Tim is living in a mansion with fountains and streams running through the house, while my other friend Desiree has to take bucket baths. Some are sleeping in beds big enough for 5 people, while others are sleeping on the floor. We laughed so hard this morning exchanging stories, it made all of it worthwhile. The best one of the day was from my friend Chris: his host father was trying to explain to him in broken English that he was Muslim and chose to say it this way: "you know Bin laden? ... Me....bin Laden." I can't imagine being on the receiving end of that statement. Anyway, we laughed a lot and empathized with eachother. It makes it better knowing that everyone else is feeling the same way.
Today was the first day of my internship at RICD, a center for children with disabilities, and it was different than I expected. For some reason they weren't expecting us so we didn't have much to do. There were only 3 of us, so we walked around a little and studied some Thai and generally were bored. Finally we found someone who needed our help: a Belgian man is here working on putting together a wheelchair distribution. He is actually the man who started the non-profit called "Wheels of Hope." In February they will be going around the country giving out wheelchairs to disabled people, most of which have never had the luxury of owning one. I was looking at the applications and pictures of people they will be giving them to, and it broke my heart. There was a picture of a 20 year old boy who looked like he was 10 or 11 at the most. Helping him coordinate wheelchairs with people's applications really made me feel like I was doing something. I came there to do music therapy but ended up doing something completely different, and that's okay. Mai pen rai (it's okay).

Sawadikah! Dichann pen naksiksa thii whithayalay chiangmai. Dichann choop khaw-phat gai le naam saparot pan maa. Dichann say suia le ghankhen.
I promise that I know more Thai than that after taking a week of intensive Thai class, but that's enough for now.
Translation: "Hello! I am a student at Chiang Mai University. I like fried rice with chicken and pineapple shakes. I am wearing a shirt and pants."
Pretty elementary, i know. Intensive Thai language class has basically consumed my life for the past 5 days. Class starts at 8 am and goes until 2:30 with an hour break for lunch. If that isn't intense, I don't know what is. The great thing about the Thai language is that there are no verb tenses, so those awful conjugation charts that you remember from Spanish class don't exist for me anymore. The downside is that there is an entirely different alphabet complete with sounds which are not possible for the white man to reproduce. As much as I appreciate spending 5 hours a day learning how to master the art of ordering chicken at the cafeteria, I will be happy to start up a regular class schedule on Monday.
Monday also marks the first day of my internship at RICD, a development center for disabled children. I met with the staff at the hospital this week, assuming that my collegiate music experience would not be of help to them, but to my surprise they suggested that I help in their music therapy program. I'm excited to be there, but I feel unqualified to help in that way, since I have no idea what music therapy really is. I was trying to decide whether to take this internship or one at an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS, but I really felt that God placed this opportunity specifically in my lap. I know that this semester is going to be a testament to God working through me, since I am definitely not qualified for this position.
Well, tomorrow we wake up at 6 am to begin our hike up a mountain. There is a temple at the top of the mountain that overlooks Chiang Mai, so it should be pretty cool! If my internet situation is any better at my host family's house than it is here at the dorm, maybe I will be able to upload some pictures. Until then, Sawadikah!!!

"Sawadi" is how you say "hello" in Thai, and it is the only Thai word that I know so far. But you don't just verbally say hello, you also do something calling "wai"-ing (pronounced why-ing). The "wai" is the typical Asian hand bow that those karate kids do before they fight their opponent. Saying hello is quite a process, and becomes even more complicated when you "wai" to someone who is "above" you. Respect is huge, so when you say hello to an elder or someone in a superior position you are to "wai" lower. We've had our hands full simply trying to figure out how to do this simple task, so maybe by next month we'll know how to order pad thai.
So, I say "sawadi" to you and hope that you enjoy reading about my time in Thailand, and apologise (notice the British influence now emanating from my grammar) in advance because I will probably leave you hanging in the middle of my trip, just like last semester. But I promise I'll try to be better.
I arrived at the LAX airport on Tuesday night and arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Thursday afternoon, and a lot happened in that 24 hour period (yeah, try to work that math out). The handle on my rolling suitcase broke at the check-in counter and I realized that I had severely overpacked, so it didn't exactly start out fantastic. The flight itself wasn't bad, although the food was strange. The other half of our group coming from JFK airport was delayed so they missed their connection in Bangkok by 30 minutes and didn't arrive until Thursday night, along with all of our luggage which mysteriously missed our flight and arrived 8 hours later. The first day was full of introductions because most of us don't know each other since there are five universities represented in our group. It's amazing to think that 48 hours ago I didn't know these people, because I've already experienced so much with them.
Yesterday 7 of us went walking around town to explore. We did a LOT of walking and saw a lot of images of the king (which are everywhere!) and smelled lots of amazing food (it is said that there are more restaurants than people in Thailand). We went to a Buddhist temple although most of us could not go inside because our ankles were exposed. When monks are walking down the street you are to walk on the opposite side of the street and females are not allowed to touch the monk. We went to a convenience store on our walk and bought the most outrageous things we could find. I bought seaweed crackers, which I vow never to buy again. We all sampled eachother's purchases, most of which were greeted with sour faces after tasting. I guess Thai snacks are something I will have to get used to. We decided that we wanted to eat dinner at an authentic hole-in-the-wall, white-people-free restaurant, so we ate at this outdoor market and it was delicious! The fruit in Thailand is absolutely unparalleled! There was actually a lady making crepes in the market, and of course we got some. They were good, but definitely lacking compared to the delicious crepes at the Kensington Creperie. We headed back and went to bed early since we had to be up at 5:30 the next morning for our next adventure.
[Preface: The reading experience of this next section will be greatly enhanced if read while listening to the Indiana Jones theme song. ]
Today was so exciting, and I can't imagine what else the semester has in store if this is only the second day! Today's agenda included riding elephants, rafting on bamboo, and visiting the Queen's botanical gardens. We left the hostel at 6:30 am to drive up to a rural village where the Chiang Mai Elephant Training Center is. We meandered through the jungle atop elephants, which was surprisingly frightening. At one point my elephant decided that he didn't want to wait in line and tried to go around the other elephants on the ridge as the ground was crumbling beneath us. I thought for sure that we were going to slide right into the water, and I think that my screams may have alerted him of the imminent peril since he quickly gave up his quest to be line-leader and got back on the trail. Next we took an hour long trip down the river on bamboo rafts, and our raft got stuck on the rocks 4 or 5 times. At one point when we were stuck, some elephants were coming into the water so we had 3 elephants splashing around in the water a few feet away from our raft. That was also terrifying since elephants apparently have bad eyesight and weigh around 10,000 pounds. [NOTE: The Indiana Jones theme song can be turned off now. ] The rest of the day was not so terrifying since it was spent at the botanical gardens, although we did see some terrifying venus fly traps. Tonight we are having a bible study, going to dinner, and then I'm going to try to get some sleep before church tomorow morning, which I have a feeling will also be a terrifying experience. If I knew how to say "goodbye" in Thai I would do so now, but maybe next week.