this and that

After lunch, PiDuang, (Pi is a respectful prefix for someone older) the kids and I all piled onto the motercycle and headed to ISUZU to pick up the truck. Yeah, we fit all 4 of us on that little bitty motercycle. It was a trick, but hey, with a little more squishing, we probably could have fit another little person on there. After all, I had a whole 5 inches of the seat!!

Got to the fix-it shop just as the attendant brought our truck to a screeching halt. They always "test the breaks" that way before they give your vehicle back to you. Honestly, I think they just try to see how fast they can wear them out so you have to pay more to get them repaced. Still, It sounds like a fun job! Test driving! yeah!!

PiDuang and Benya sat up front and Eliyah rode in the back of the truck while I followed on the motercycle. Yes, clear the streets! Sha is driving the motercycle. hey, at least I usually wear a helmet! So I followed the truck to the AFM Asia office where we picked up Mr. Wilson and left the motercycle for Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Mitchell. (Other AFM missionaries who are helping out with translation... I think.. I do have to say though, that the more AFM missionaries I meet, the more I've got to say that they are a pretty nice bunch of people!)

Headed back to the house, and got back at about 2 pm. I packed and showered and was ready to go in half an hour. I'm not sure what we did for the other 1 and a half hours. We were supposed to leave at 2:30, but I have learned to add on a minimum of half hour for departure time when traveling with the wilsons. In this case it was just a little more.

At 4pm we finally took off. The back of the truck was piled high with bedding, backpacks, food, water, (had to bring all our water for the weekend) and kid's toys. The kids and I shared the bench seat behind the main seats in the cab. Let me tell you, it's a good think I'm skinny, or it would have been impossible! They had so many toys up there that it equaled another kid in size. So I snuggled up to the lil' bitty window, propped my knees on the back of the seat in front of me, and tried to decide how long I'd make it in that position.

A couple hours down the road we stopped for food and gas before Sabbath. It was wonderful to stretch and stand up. Normally I don't mind being 5'8" tall, but when riding in the back seat of that truck for any length of time, I wish I was shorter! Finnished eating and piled back in. To make a long, cramped, and at times crabby ride shorter for you, I'll just say that at 9:30 we arrived at the little dirt road leading into villege #1.

Now in order for you to appreciate this road fully, you have to picture an extremely narrow dirt/mud road, filled with potholes that look like they might swallow the truck at any time. Very steep hills and creeks filled with sharp rocks that would love to injure the bottom of the truck. So we cautiously proceded down the road. Thankfully the road was fairly dry and we only fishtailed in a couple muddy places. Even with it being dry, we still had to use the 4-wheel drive in a couple places, however, it was making a horrible sound, so were afraid to use it to much! I bounced around on that back seat like a rock in a tin can. Even with my knees bracing me and hanging onto anything I could, I still mannaged to conk my head against the window and Benya's head several time. Still, this road was nothing compared to the road leading to Bong kong, where we went several weeks ago. (It might be Bon Kon... I don't know how to say much less spell it!) Multiply this road by 3 or so and you'd get the Bong Kong road!

After a long half hour or so we arrived, utterly exausted and not in the best of moods, at the villege. It was quite primitive. The floors were all dirt, the walls were out of boards, and Benya and my bed was a piece of plywood. So I threw down my pillow and a blanket for a little padding, and another one to cover up with. Snuggled down on my nice comfy piece of plywood and slept with the sound of rats squeeking, pigs grunting, and someone snoring. I woke up a couple times find Benya's arms or legs spralled out on me, so I'd push her back over to her side and go back to sleep. Ya know, plywood is really comfortable! - if you're really tired, or used to rock hard thai mattresses anyway!
Next morning I woke up at the late hour of 6:15am. Wow! got to sleep in! After laying on my plywood staring at the cobwebs in the rafters I finally got up. Had breakfast on noodles, rice and green beans. Then we had "church" which consisted of the three adventist families sitting on the mat on the floor in the house. It was all in Mein so even if I knew thai it wouldn't have helped so needless to say, I didn't get much out of it. After church we had lunch of noodles, rice and green beans. I won't even tell you what was on the menu for supper. I'm sure you can guess!

After lunch though, I found out that PiDuang, the kids, me, PiNasan, and PiSongchoi (the pastor and his wife) we all going to the the pastor's house for that night. So we loaded up the truck and bumped down the road. thankfully some people road in the back so it wasn't as crouded.

On the way we stopped at a Yellow Leaf tribe villege. The Yellow Leaf are the most primitive tibal group in thailand. they were hunter/gatheres till the thai government made them stay put. The men only wear loin cloths and the women only a little more. Most of the children had one article of clothing - either pants or a shirt, rarely both. I felt like I'd stepped into the pages of national geographic! It was a neet experince.

After another hour of bone - jarring bumps, we arrived at the pastor's house. (This e-mail is getting REALLY long, so I'll cut the rest short) About the only interesting things that happened was I got to watch a big herd of cows and another of goats go by on the road. My bed that night was a spring mattress! such luxury. All I had to do was twist and turn to find a place where the springs weren't poking holes in me! After tucking my mosquito net in securely, I went to sleep. I had considered not useing the mosquito net, since there were several big holes in it and I had my doubts as to it's usefullness, but when I woke up at 3am to see a HUGE spider on the net, I was glad I had used it! After making sure it was on the outside, I left it to crawl around. As long as they're not in my bed, I don't mind spiders.

The next day we hit the road again and headed to a third villege - to the place where the wilsons used to live before they moved to Chiang Mai. While PiDuang was visiting with some former neighbors, I spotted a papaya tree, and decided I wanted some of those papayas. I talked Benya into letting me push her up the tree, but when she was standing on my sholders, she still couldn't reach. I tried to get her to step into my hands raised above my head, but she was afraid. so I finally nocked papayas down with a stick. They got a little bruised but wern't to bad.

After a couple more stops, we headed the remaining 4 hours home. I wasn't about to ride in the cramped cab again, so made myself a comfy spot to sit in the back of the truck - leaning against a bag of bedding with my feet propped up on a backpack, listening to my ipod. With the wind from driving it was great! I enjoyed the scenery, but the thing that was the best was watching passing cars and motercycles do a double take at the foreigner in the back of the truck! I got lots of waves, honks, and lights flashed at me. There was one truck of guys that followed us for almost two hours!

So what's up with that??? In the US no one gives ya a second look, but you go to a different country and got people hitting on you left and right! Ladies, if you ever want some attention, go to a different country!! (not a good motive though!) You'll be a novelty and someone's passport to America, so you'll be in high demand!

Got back to Chiang Mai in one piece. It was a great trip and I really enjoyed it. So now it's back to teaching school. Please pray for me and the Wilsons as we work here to bring Jesus to the Thai people. Please also remember all the other AFM missionaries and Student Missionaries in your prayers as well. Keep in mind, Jesus is coming soon!! Are you doing your part? God bless ~ Mishala