Loris’ Second installment of First Impressions

Friday We ate a wonderful breakfast with Kitchai & Lucy. Lucy gave me a cooking lesson (fried rice). She wants to learn to bake cakes. I told her I’d be happy to give her a lesson in baking! Shann, Pastor Frank & I rode motorcycles over to the village where LTC is and where Terry & Linda live to get ready to go to the village where we’ll spend the night. The New Year’s dancing celebration moved to their village so we watched for awhile. There is a large Baptist Church there and we met several American women from Washington DC staying with the pastor and his family. We packed up and we’re off!

We made several stops. We went to a large market in the city to buy a flashlight. We’ll need one in the villages. I left my hat from yesterday at ‘home’ so I buy another shade type hat too. We bought bottled water and ate lunch in an open restaurant. Terry ordered for us. I had delicious ox tail soup but didn’t eat the chunks of fat in it. I wonder what the waitress thought. We also had a variety of curry and rice dishes. Frank ate chicken and rice. I love these spices so much I’m sorry he can’t enjoy them.

We stopped again (Terry is fun to travel with because he stops along the way!) to ride an elephant. Linda has wanted us to do this and Shann and I (especially me!) has said…’no thanks’ but here we are at the place and away we go!

Pastor Frank and Linda get on one elephant and Shann and I get on another. Terry has negotiated the price and I have no idea how long this will last or where we’re going. He will wait for us and study his sermon. We get on our elephants and right away we head out of town away from the river that runs through it and toward the hills. Elephants are slow and not very smooth! We sat in a ‘saddle for two’ I prayed it stayed on and the elephant didn’t roll over in the dust. The ‘driver’ sat on the neck of the elephant. I took my hand off my new hat to take a picture and my hat flew off! The man ‘driving’ jumped down to get it and motioned to Shann to drive!! My prayer life became even more earnest as I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be riding an elephant my husband is driving! With this new man in charge our elephant felt free to snack along the way on the bamboo hanging over the trail! The real driver yelled something I couldn’t understand as he walked along in front of us. I laughed until I couldn’t see! Pastor Frank took a bunch of probably shaky pictures. Shaky because elephants aren’t smooth riding and because he and Linda were laughing as hard as I was! Shann didn’t laugh a lot but did manage to stay on which was no small task. We rode through some beautiful country with rice fields with water buffalo, small homes with wash hanging under them…normal life in Thailand observed from the back of an elephant. This is truly something I could not have imagined. We pass a man walking talking on a cell phone. A tourist opportunity at a point along the way…buy a bag of corn to feed your ride! Shann paid a few bot because we knew our elephant was hungry. The elephant knew the game and her trunk flew up to get the corn cobs. He didn’t share with me because he was in such a hurry to get ride of the corn so he didn’t have that trunk coming at him! We came down from the hill and toward the river. Our elephant really wanted some corn stalks she had to walk through…this made us both nervous! Our walking driver pulled a stalk and threw it in the river! We were going in!!! This is no small river! What! The man jumped on the bank and quickly was beside me in the saddle. Shann was hoping he’d ‘drive’ again. But no! With a big smile he slapped my leg and said in broken English, ‘where ya from?’ We rode back to the beginning point with the man beside me trying to have a conversation. My face hurt from smiling. Shann gave him a tip. We dismounted our elephant and our driver was finished with work for the day. We saw him riding the elephant home later as we had a snack of sweet sticky rice in a piece of bamboo, ice cream and diet coke. Now we’re off to the village. I have been stretched. J

The road to the village is dirt and dusty but not rutted to bad. Shann and I sit in the back of Terry & Linda’s pickup with our bags. They view is unbelievable. It reminds me of the National Geographic’s I looked over at my grandparent’s house when I was a kid but I can touch it and smell it today. What a blessing!

We arrive in the village. It is on a steep hill (of course). We visit in a home built on stilts as they all are but with wood floors not the bamboo we saw yesterday. Pastor Frank, Terry & Linda take our hosts up on their offer to sleep but there is too much for me to see to sleep. We are brought hot water in a glass (it has to be boiled) and then what I think is a cold potato to slice. I later learn it is a taro root…our tapioca is made from them. Shann takes a tour of the village with one of the students (Samuel) he met last time he was here. His English has improved so much Shann is really happy to get to talk to him one on one. We meet his wife, Rachel and son Paulo. Later as Kitchi, Lucy & Caleb arrive we go to another place to eat (again!) a meal of rice, fried pork fat, pumpkin and chicken in a broth. I’ve said it several times…I am amazed at the skinny dogs in the villages who wait for scraps or scavenge but don’t hurt the chickens or ducks that are underfoot. It makes sense they can’t be aggressive but it still surprises me to see.

Finally it’s time for church. It is at the top of the hill. The hill is steeper than we climb for the sunrise service. The church is full. Lots of little ones play with each other and laugh as the congregation sings. Terry preaches with Kitchi interpreting. Frank gives a short testimony and then Pastor Frank, Shann and I sing ‘How Great is Thy Faithfulness’ The congregation sings ‘As the Deer Panteth For the Water’ I wonder if the author had any idea this song would make it to a remote Lahu village.

The service is over and we go back to the home where we’ll sleep. We’ve brought blow up air mattresses like you’d use in a pool. They offer a little relief from the hardwood planks. I drift off as our hosts watch a soap opera type television show. There are satellite dishes in the village!

 

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