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| Since we arrived in the middle of monsoon season, we experienced frequent rain showers that lasted throughout the day. It was extremely difficult and dangerous for us to do any field work on rainy days, so we headed over to Baw Yuak school to teach English lessons to the kids. Most of these kids come from surrounding villages, some of who travel great distances and stay at the school during the week. The 'stories' of our parents' traveling through unpaved roads up and down mountains while carrying their books in rain and sleet weren't so far exaggerated after all!
Here are some of the younger kids lining up for us. They all have different uniforms to wear each day of the week.
The kids are taught to share meals together. They even meditate quietly after meals!
One of the difficulties we experienced teaching was coming up with lessons that we could explain to the kids. As much as we prepared- we brought homemade flash cards, construction paper, crayons, and games- we all relied on the help of each other and the teachers to create activities. Some of them were basic- drawing and folding paper into shapes, while other lessons included the use of flash cards and vocabulary to large group games. We started and ended each day by having the kids join us for songs.
The team performing 'Making Melodies':
Playing Heads up Seven Up:
On days we taught in both the mornings and afternoons, lunch was provided to us by the staff. They would prepare food in-house and we would enjoy lunch together, followed by some delicious fruits: (rambutan and logan)
Saying goodbye was hard! Here's a group picture on the last day of with the younger kids:
Without fail, the truck driver would show up with his covered or flat bed truck:
| | |
| Day 4 - ThailandDay 4 - visiting a Hmong Village
Wikipedia reference for Hmong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people
The Hmong people are a minority people group who have been persecuted
and driven off their land for much of history. They remind me of
the Nation of Israel (The Jews), but in the East Asian world.
They originally came from Southern China, but were persecuted &
genocided against for so long, that they turned into nomads who live in
remote mountainous villages across South East Asia.
We were given the privilege of working with some of the Hmong people in
a village called Bankop Bankop is in the district of Boklua,
near the subdistrict of Sa-wat. the SDRF missionary from America,
Gabe, lives in Sa-wat, which became our headquarters during the working
days. Gabe is an American-born Hmong brother, who grew up in
Milwaukee. He has the ability to speak English, Hmong, and Spanish
fluently. He is currently trying to pick up Thai, since he has to
survive out in Boklua with no English speakers! He is only 26 years
old but is wise beyond his age. God divinely called him to this region
of Thailand to work with the Hmong people back in college, so he's
followed in obedience, despite the financial hardship and lack of
homefront support. Our team was able to bond really well with Gabe - I
especially was inspired by his obedience, risk-taking nature, and
ultimate faith in God for provision. He is young, single, has no
English-speaking Christian support in Nan since nobody speaks English
that well (except for the resort owner Tuon), and has nothing to offer
except a servant's heart. He inspired me to obey God despite all the
obstacles and fears, that a long-term missionary faces. he often goes
on for weeks/months without having any deep conversations, since his
Thai is at the elementary level. One great thing God has blessed him
with is the ability to speak Hmong, so he is able to help lead the baby
Christians at the Bankop Village.
Gabe in front of his first house in Sa-wat Subdistrict. (doesn't Gabe look like a native Thai guy, rather than an American?) His
house is one of the NICEST houses in the district since it is made of
concrete and has a foundation. all the other houses are made on wooden
stilts with thatched roofs or wood roofs. To give you a sense of how
inexpensive it costs to live in Boklua, i'll put it into perspective
with this - Gabe only pays $30/month US rent for this huge 2 story
house. Most families live in smaller, dinkier houses with 5-7 people
residing in it. Not so nice compared to American standards, but really
nice compared to Boklua standards.
Back
to the Hmong village of Bankop...There are currently 13 families
living in this village, which is about 30 min-1 hr's hike up a steep
mountain slope from Sa-wat. The trail up to Bankop is unpaved, which
makes it muddy, slippery and hard to navigate when raining. On
this day, a Tuesday, it was raining non-stop like no other. we
were given the opportunity to get picked up in a pick-up truck (see
below) from the resort, drive for 30 min to Gabe's house in Sa-wat, and
then hike in the mud with our ponchos & rubber boots up to
this remote village. It normally takes a local person 30 min to walk a
1.5+ mile hike, in SANDALS! on that day, it took us about 50-60 min,
since we're slower than the locals and not as sure in our footing. the
elevation is quite steep, around 3000-5000 feet. the clouds hang low,
so we were able to take a 'WALK IN THE CLOUDS'!! ahah, just like keanu
reeves!
one of the pick-up trucks that drove us around during the 2 weeks...THE MIGHTY X!!
pic 1: Here is kru-chan and myself. Kru-chan is the local Thai Christian leader in this district, who is part of SDRF.
pic 2: Neighbor guy, Nic and Arnold in front of the MIGHTY X!
the view on the hike up!! notice how everything is soo green!!
the girls in our ponchos!
the boys in their ponchos!
Reaching
the Hmong Village! This is Sue's house. Sue was our translator, who
translated from Thai to Hmong. Then Gabe would translate from Hmong to
English and vice versa. ahah. it took awhile to get the translations
clear sometimes!! :)
other parts of the Hmong community
pic 1: other houses and the big field where chickens, dogs, oxen roamed
pic 2: the assembly hall in the middle of the village
 
playing with the boys!
me and A-fong
A-fong
is Sue's 5th child, his youngest. he is 4 years old and ran around
without any shoes on the entire time!! he's soo cute and huggable. he
is a big ham and likes the attention!! awww
we
gave out candy, then did some face-painted (but hand-painted or
arm-painted since the face is somewhat sacred in Thai culture), did
"Red light, Green Light", played "Duck, Duck, Goose" which got modified
in Hmong to "Duck, Duck, Chicken" since Duck = Goose in the Hmong
language, and played a Caterpillar type game which the kids taught us.
We then breaked for lunch with Sue and Kru-Chan, and had some
DEELICIOUS HMONG CUCUMBERS!! yummy!!
hand-painting the kids
look at all the kids crowded into one corner, b/c they are so shy and bashful!!
Teaching "Duck, Duck, Chicken"
playing the Caterpillar game
 
Lunchtime!
nobody uses a peeler around here!
Rice
is a precious commodity and dietary need in these parts. Threshing
rice is often cumbersome, tedious, and heavy. SDRF purchased a rice
thresher machine for Bankop Village, which recently broke, which makes
the lives of the people even harder since they have to use the old
skool thresher or carry the rice down into town to get threshed. The
cost of the repair is 10,000 Baht, equivalent to $294 US. The village
had raised approximately $206 US by the time we arrived, but still
needed around $90 US to fix the machine.
It was decided
between our team, Gabe the host, and Kru-Chan the pastor, that our
Thailand NOC team & budget would donate the deficit to SDRF
headquarters, earmarked for the rice thresher in the Hmong village in
an anonymous fashion. We did not explicitly tell the Hmong people or
village that our team donated that money, as the long-term connection
is SDRF. We don't want to perpetuate the idea that short term mission
teams = money only. Anyways, thank you supporters for your financial
support to us, as it was positive in 3 ways: (1) it allowed SDRF, the
long-term organization in Bankop, to grow stronger bonds with the
Hmong village, (2) it gives the Hmong people an easier access to
nutrition, and (3) it stops the idea that Americans are bank loaners or
givers. Yes, we do give to people in need, but our main purpose is to
no just give money alone. it is to provide SUSTAINABLE source of
income via building up of local resources such as rice farming, fish
farming, to provide jobs to people who need it!
anyways, i just said a lot here.
here is a pic of the rice thresher machine from SDRF that broke recently.
the old rice thresher, used back in the days!
 
we
were also given the opportunity to pray for the 2 christian households
in Bankop - Sue's family and Jai. Sue's wife (Tsong) has been
suffering from severe headaches for awhile and needed some prayer. Jai
has a terrible stomach condition which hurts and hurts and wanted us to
pray over it. The Hmong people are typically Animists, which means
they sacrifice animals as an atonement for sins and illnesses. There
is usually a Sha-man who speaks to the evil spirits and guides the
people on what specifically to sacrifice. To be a christian in the
Hmong village is quite different than being Animistic, but it is
usually accepted by the community. Anyways, it was quite humbling to
pray for the two ladies, as we are simple Christians, who have no great
power in healing. We felt somewhat inadequate to pray for healing upon
them. All we had was faith that God's will be done in their lives,
regardless of the outcome.
afterwards, we just chilled with the Hmong kids in the village!
 
 
Sue's family of 7!
goodbye, Bankop!
Walking down the hill....
 
on the walk back, we came across the crab crossing the road! WHO'S GOT CRABS?? ahha
YEAH, WE MADE IT DOWN SAFELY!!
 | | |
| Day 3 in Thailand - the land of the leechesTHE LAND OF THE LEECHES
Day 3: Field work all day long in the muddy, slippery, land-leech filled mountain of Na-phu village
Our task and goal: To
work alongside the Thai locals to help build a fence around a 15 acre
plot of land, which will be the future building site of the Nan
Sustainable Development & Research Foundation's (SDRF) Leadership
Training Facility.
There
are a lot of cattle, chickens, water buffalo that roam free in these
villages, so building a fence is of utmost importance, since this will
protect the land from cattle grazing and water buffalo from stomping on
the grounds. A big source of income and nutrition for people in these
villages are dry & wet rice patties. Rice fields can only be
harvested 1x/year in november, but a sole cow can destroy an entire
field in 4 hours if the land is not protected. Currently, there is a
rice patty field on this land, so building the fence will help to
ensure that the cattle and water buffalo stay out of the rice fields.
water buffalo
heavy
60 lb concrete posts at the top of the mountain. this plot of land was
actually not all empty of trees and bush when we first started. when
we first got there, there were ladies from the community with huge
machetes trying to clear the field of brush and trees. the first day,
they cleared a lot of the brush and had some isolation fires to burn
the brush.
a
view from the top of the piece of land that SDRF purchased. this
picture is kind of deceiving, b/c the land that they bought is not all
flat. the 15 acres spans across slopes, cliffs, etc. this was just
our 'headquarters' for field work.
the
conditions were quite dangerous, as it rained off and on for multiple
days. the ground was quite slippery, with no known trail to follow.
as we worked, the local thai men would help dig makeshift stairs and
machete the trees/bush that we would encounter. THEIR MACHETES WERE
HUGE!!! the job of the girls on the first day was to help measure
every 300 mm with a measuring tape, then marking a spot in the ground
for a big hole to be dug for these concrete posts. the job of the guys
were to help dig the holes in the ground. We were doing a pretty good
job of it until we hit two snags: (1) land leeches, (2) a steep
downward cliff.
LAND LEECHES:
here is a picture of a local Thai laborer who got bitten buy multiple land leeches.
nic's land leech wound:
land
leeches have a sort of anti-coagulate venom, so it caused the wound to
bleed and bleed for awhile before the wound stopped bleeding. we never
knew land leeches existed until we got to this field, when they started
crawling all over us, over our rubber boots onto our legs. they are
black, FAST, slippery suckers that crawl like worms. too bad that we
never took a picture of the land leeches (sorry, exmike) b/c every time
we encountered one, we were too concerned with killing it, burning it
off, putting salt on it, or flicking it off.
i found this pic off the internet of what the land leeches in Nan, Thailand look like:
at first, i wasn't that scared of the leeches, until i saw that steve
had gotten bitten. his wound was huge and wouldn't stop bleeding for
awhile, which made the rest of us fearful. here is a pic of steve's
wound (bright red dot on the left) after it stopped bleeding. it
doesn't look that bad here, but trust me, there was a lot of blood
gushing out!
on
the field that day, there was even a FALSE ALARM where i thought a land
leech had crawled up my undies into my genateria, which made me scream
and cry until ruby threw a handful of salt down my pants. wahh!! salt
supposedly kills the leeches instantly, so i had to sit in salt-filled
underwear for the rest of the day!! it turns out that i had gotten
bitten by a FIRE ANT near my underwear line, which still hurt like
heck!! i hate fire ants!!! sorry, no pictures of this bite - trying to
keep this xanga rated G!
STEEP DOWNWARD CLIFF:
on the first
afternoon, as the girls were measuring every 300 mm for the fence, we
encountered a really steep downward cliff. kru-chan (our leader and
pastor of the community) okay'ed to us in sign language that it was
okay to go down, but we girls got fearful. those thai men can sure
climb like no other!! they shimmied down that cliff like no other.
kru-chan even made a makeshift stairwell from the mud for us to
follow. however, it was still quite slippery so the guys told us to
stay behind while they went down. it was soo dangerous that arnold
fell multiple times and almost fell into the riverbank! ben actually
fell 10-15 feet down a slope which scared the thai local so much, he
yelped out of surprise and fear. fortunately, the thai guy was able to
climb down to help ben crawl back up!!!
Thanks to all our
supporters for your prayers regarding our safety, b/c we all arrived
safely home, despite conditions such as these!! after the first day,
our team tried to be as careful and safe as possible, not taking for
granted our safety. the thai leader & host, kru-chan realized that
the conditions were quite dangerous for even their local men that he
was kind enough to let us girls stay behind to teach on days they
worked in the field, and gave our guys some breaks on the really really
rainy days. whew!
here is a picture of arnold's hands after the
first day of labor. he bandaged up all his open blisters and wounds,
but you can see his callouses.
| | |
| DAY 1 Adventures:
From Xanga link: http://www.xanga.com/sarahderd/609870923/item.html
WE'RE HOME!!! AIEEEE!!!
i missed everybody, but i had a great
time too!! this was a true missions experience with people getting
sick, riding in the back of a pick-up truck, going to a rural village
that looked like circa 1900s, getting bitten by land leeches, working
in the mountainous fields which ben and arnold almost fell off!!!
wowee, what a trip!!!
can't wait to show you guys my pics and tell you my stories, after i've had some time to debrief!!
PICTURES FROM DAY 1
our send off
our team at LAX with jeannie and mark
with my glow girls
me and my family
with my girls
bangkok - we arrived after a grueling 16.5 hour flight
bangkok BTS (skytrain)
bangkok with carol and tuan!! OLD SKOOL TGAP REUNITED!
at Tuan & carol's bling pad in Bangkok, off On-Nut station
MORE TO COME...
for more pictures, go to my flickr account set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahderd/sets/72157600441548386/
===============================================================================================
DAY 2 Adventures:
http://www.xanga.com/sarahderd/610158621/day-2-thailand.html
Day 2 in Thailand
(Bangkok to Nan)
Where we stayed on Saturday night - Bangkok Christian Guesthouse in Silom, off the Saladeang stop
We
seriously had the BEST NIGHTS OF SLEEP EVER here on sat night, because
we were so jet-lagged and had been awake for so long. Our flight on
Thursday night (pacific standard time) had departed around 11 pm to
arrive in Bangkok on Saturday morning @ 6 am (thailand time). We had
gotten in to Bangkok and trooped through the entire day, going from the
airport to the Christian Guesthouse to Queen's Park to Elena's
Apartment to Tuan/Carol's apartment for a BBQ to Newsong Bangkok and
back to Christian Guesthouse. WE WERE DEAD TIRED!
the next
morning, the Christian Guesthouse served free breakfast, which was
SOOOOOOO DEERICIOUS! we had some deericious boiled rice and ramatans
and dragon fruit at this place! we ate like we had never eaten before!
ahha. I have to post up pictures later of this rice!!!
after
breakfast, we got some taxis that would take us to the Suvarnabhumi
Airport in Bangkok, so we could catch our flight up to Nan!
the taxi i was in was PINK! i loooove pink!
skies were cloudy in bangkok that day
we had time to kill at the airport, so we did some jumping pictures of course!
(me, me+arndogg)
(ruby+steve, nic+arndogg)
(ben+arndogg, ben+susan)
see you later, bangkok! see you in 2 weeks!
hello nan! the nan airport is tiny! only one plane is on the tarmack at a time. this was it! ahha
thank you, PBAir!! :)
 
baggage
claim was interesting....a pick-up picks up the bags, and then backs it
up to a window, which they open to unload the bags. if i didn't see it
for myself, i would've never believed it!
the
town of Boa, on the way to Boklua District in the mountains! This town
is 1 hour away from Nan, and 1 hour away from Boklua, where we stayed.
Hello
Boklua View, our home for the next 12 nights!! what a beautiful resort
we got to stay at! we were truly spoiled and blessed with this place!!!
my and susan's room
i
journaled a lot at the thai serenity pool in the mornings and evenings,
because it was soo peaceful and it was located right outside the room i
shared with susan!
4 bungalows - the middle two were inhabited by ben+arndogg+nic, ruby+steve
team pic at one of our nightly debrief meetings. our team always met in our room!
--
Sarah
"FUN IN DA SUN IN DA SUMMATIME" | | |
| Hi everybody,
You are on this distribution because you are a
prayer and/or financial supporter for the Newsong North OC Thailand
2007 team, consisting of Arnold Koh, Ben Lee, Nic Williams, Ruby &
Steve Lin, Sarah Lai, and Susan Yamaki. As our team is getting ready to
depart for Thailand, we wanted to give you a 'shout out' of thanks and
praise for partnering with us in this journey! Without your support,
we wouldn't be able to even go!! So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
For those that haven't received it yet, attached are some of
our prayer cards for you to intercede on our behalves while we're on
the field from July 26th - August 12th. Some of you may already have
received them, so disregard this duplicate message. For those that
haven't, these prayer cards are 6 specific prayers that we would like
for you to stick on your bathroom mirror, so you can intercede on our
behalf 2x/day while you're brushing your teeth! Do you mind printing
the prayer card out, cutting the 6
prayers apart, and sticking any 1 (you choose which 1 you want to
specifically pray over) of the prayer cards to your bathroom
mirror? Our hope is that our supporters will each pray for 1
specific prayer, 2x/day while brushing their teeth, so that each prayer
request is interceded over 2x/day while we're on the field!!
THANKS!
Please pray for safe passage tomorrow night, tying up
loose ends @ work/school, making last minute preparations for our trip,
and not losing focus of why we're going. Pray that we'll have MARY'S
HEARTS rather than Martha's hands. Pray that God would help us to be
PEOPLE-ORIENTED, rather than task-oriented. If you would also like to
pray for us specifically during our 17 day stay in Thailand, here is a
glimpse of what our schedule MIGHT look like...(flexibility,
flexibility, flexibility is the key!)
Our current schedule in Thailand might be:
- Fly out of LAX on Thursday, july 26th around midnight
- Arrive in Bangkok on Saturday morning, July 28th
- Attend Newsong Bangkok on Saturday night
- Fly out to Nan Province on Sunday, July 29th
- Work on building a fence for a training and development center in the mountains of Nan for 2 weeks (mornings only)
- Teaching English lessons, crafts, Bible stories for 2 weeks in Nan (afternoons)
- Possibly going to a rural village
- Returning to Bangkok on Friday, August 10th
-
Possibly taking a prayer walk around the Red Light District in Bangkok,
and maybe some of the girls on the team will do a visitation with the
ladies who work in those bars
- Attend Newsong Bangkok on Saturday, August 11th
- Fly out on Sunday, August 12th
- Return home to LAX on Sunday, August 12th around 10pm
Again,
thank you for partnering with us and being such great family/friends to
us all!! We LOVE YOU SOO MUCH!! May our stories, testimonies,
pictures, and experiences in Thailand bring all Glory to God and bring
blessing to you!
We'll leave you with the last picture of our team from last
Saturday, when we did an activity to wash each other's feet. This is a
picture of us after we all had CLEAN feet, which is why we're all
smiling!! :)
Reference : John 13
12When he had finished
washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
"Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.
14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Blessings and Love,
--
NEWSONG North Orange County
Thailand Short Term Mission Team 2007
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