Loris’ Fourth Installment of Thailand Team Diary
Monday: The village is awake! It’s still dark outside but Pa Kluai (‘our village’) has the dancing today. Lahu from 13 villages will meet here. The church service has just finished (we don’t go to this) Kitichai comes home and shares the lesson with Shann. Pastor Frank sleeps late but has been up all night feeling sick to his stomach. I give him some Imodium and Shann prays for him. Kitichai & Lucy’s nephew wants them to come for breakfast. I insist with a lot of sign language that she should go—they finally do. They are wonderful hosts but we want to be easy guests! Frank says he’ll stay here. I’m praying he will feel better and change his mind. Terry comes to get us. The drumming is heating up! Kitichai & Lucy are dressed in beautiful Lahu outfits. We watch for a short time, Frank stays and Shann & I go with Terry to pick up Linda. She had intended to stay home but is easily persuaded to come along. I’m happy. We had planned to go to for a boat ride (a slow boat to China) and have my passport stamped in Burma but without Frank we have a change of plan. We drive to the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Burma and Laos are separated by the river. I took a picture at a buddist temple. How sad that so many souls are led astray by the untruths of this group. We’ve seen lots of monks in bright robes. Some smoking!? I plan to read about buddists when I get home. We drove past a place where chickens and pigs are raised above the water to ‘feed’ the fish. Terry teased me about buying fish at Costco. We stopped to watch huge cargo boats going to China. We ate at an Indian restaurant Terry likes in Mai Sai and did some shopping and picture taking. At the restaurant we ate roti a type of flat bread that Terry likes…..I know I keep recording what we eat….as I read what I’ve written it seems my time in Thailand has just been one meal running into the next. It seems that way in my memory too. We arrive back at Kitichai & Lucy’s as the dancing is over. We are greeted by Andrew, a student Shann knew from his trip three years ago and he gives Shann a big hug. We visited him at his home with Terry and Linda in the village where they are serving. We are happy to find Pastor Frank feeling better! This is good news because tonight we are eating at a buffet restaurant with some of the LTC Staff. We take the motorcycles about 13 kl. It’s a nice ride to and from. We cook what we have chosen from the buffet on mu-gatat. The tables had square holes in them with wire to hold a clay bucket full of hot coals. The ‘cooker’ sits on top and a piece of fat is added to the peak of a cone. Sort of like an upside down wok. Then hot water is added to the bottom where we cook vegetables. Meat is cooked on the steepest part. When the food is cooked it’s taken off with chop sticks and your choice of sauce is added to your bowl. It reminds me of fondue. Tomorrow I will speak to the female students. Lucy’s sister-in-law has come five hours by car with her husband and two young daughters to be my interpreter. We met at dinner. She is a delight! She is the only Christian in her family of 8 girls and 2 boys. Her parents are buddist and her father is not happy his youngest child is a Christian. She had Christian American woman as a teacher in high school. The woman, Sharon, lives in Denver, Co and they are still very close. She helped her learn English and get into Bible college where she met her husband. We never know how we can change the course of a life by witnessing to people we meet. She started her work tonight and I enjoyed ‘talking’ to some of the students I’ve only been able to exchange smiles with. I plan to get Sharon’s phone number and call her when we go to see Dylan & Jenna later this month. We came back and watched a video Terry made of building Kitichai & Lucy’s beautiful new home. Shann has been so curious because building practices are so different for this rainy climate. We visit, have coffee and are ready for bed. Another blessed day in Thailand.