10 day trip

About two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to go on a ten day trip to the village of hoi fai in the province of Nan in north eastern thailand.  My first reaction was to pass.  I didn't want to get behind in school, plus, how could I talk to anyone?  I was sure it would be a bit boring.  But since I had just finnished complaining about having nothing to do in the afternoons, I was kinda wedged into a corner, but hey, after all, it's the things you don't do that you'll regret later right?  So I agreed to go.  
The project was to remodle a house the wilsons had bought.  Mr. Wilson, Amnart, me, and 9 mein students from the adventist academy were all planning on going.  Jhun and Goldie, the Filipino guys working in another village near Chiang rai would ride over on their motercycle and meet us there.  
Friday morning dawned cool, but the sun held a promise of fierce heat for later on, this being the hot/dry season.  The 4 mein guys loaded up the carrier on the top of the truck, and stuffed the inside with bags and boxes of fresh veggies, oil, soy sauce, and noodles.  Then the 5 mein girls and I climbed in the back and arranged ourselves among the baggage.  The 6 gentlemen packed into the cab of the truck, and we were off.
The first few hours of the trip were great fun.  I tried to learn all the girls names, but my foreign brain had a hard time remembering them.  I was only able to remember two - May, and Beem, easily.  They easily mastered my name, calling me Chay, since  "Shay" in not really possible to say in thai, since the language doesn't have a "sh" sound.  We sang songs in thai... or rather they sang and I stumbled over the words, much to their ammusement, and I taught them a couple english songs.  
After hour number three, the girls all fell asleep, so I dug out my trusty book, Ben-Hur, and engrosed myself in it's pages.  Unfortunatly it was a very old copy, and as I turned each page, it subsuquently fell out.  It was challenging to keep them from blowing out of the truck.  
After another couple hours,  my stomach was becoming very friendly with my backbone, but thankfully we stopped at two of the girl's house for lunch and refreshingly cold soft drinks.  Ahhhhh...  The rice and veggies were really good, as is pretty much all thai food, though fish staring at me from their plate, and the people contentedly crunching on their heads is something I don't think I'll ever get quite used to.  
After lunch, we were on the road again for the last stretch of the journey... well, the last four hours.  By this time the sun was unmercifully hot and little drops of sweat chased eachother down my backbone, neck, and face.  In the heat, even Ben-hur had lost it's appeal.  I contented myself with trying to find a spot that wasn't sore to sit on, and pushing a bag of lettuce off my neck every couple minutes.  
We finally reached the mountain just before the village, and then it was a riot keeping food from falling on us, and us all over eachother!  Before long, the mountain turned into a dirt road, compleat with a 4 inch layer of dust in some places.  You know that road's gonna be fun when the rainy season hits...  The dirt road didn't have the curves of the mountain road, but it was straight up and down, and very rough in some places.  The girls all squeeled as clouds of dust engulfed us and we all hurridly put pieces of toilet paper over our mouths and noses to keep from choking.  
We arrived at Hoi Fai at dusk - a beautiful village in a valley surrounded by cultivated hills.  We girls climbed out and brushed the dust from our clothes and hair, and laughed at each other's dust streaked faces.  I felt like the asian version of a snowman - a dustman.  The guys breezed out of the truck cab where they had been enjoying the AC, and Jhun and Goldie appeared from somewhere, and we all pitched in to unload before dark.  
Before long, we girls were settled in a neighboring house on the comfy wooden floor, the guys were settled, and supper was ready.  For a day of doing nothing, we were all very hungry and tired.  After supper, many of the church members in the village gather for worship.  We sang songs and Mr. Wilson read and explained a few Bible verses.  Then it was off to our house for an ice cold bucket shower, which felt absolutly wonderful, and sleep.
The week soon settled into a rutine.  The girls would get up somewhere between 6-7, and I'd get up about 30 mins after them, since I could be ready in 5 minutes and it took them 30 minutes to get ready.  Then it was breakfast and worship, and then the guys headed off to the building site.  We girls kept occupied with dished and laundry in the creek, meals, and boiling drinking water.  Around 12 was lunch, and a break till 2 to avoid the really hot part of the day.  Then more of the same in the afternoon.  The guys would quit work about an hour before dark and play football (soccer) with the village guys.  It was really rough, but there was a lot of talent, and it was fun to watch.  Then it'd be supper time, worship, and some social time before heading off to bed.    
To the mein, we westerners are strange people.  The girls couldn't understand why I insisted on boiling the drinking water for at least 10 mins.  Wasn't just bringing it to a boil enough?  And after all, they could drink straight out of the creek, so why couldn't the foreigners?  I prefered not to think about what could be in the water with all the pig pens sitting over, or just beside it.  
As the week progressed, I picked up a bit more thai, and learned a few thai songs.  Jhun would write the songs out for me in both thai and english, and I could have words to follow during worship.  It worked out well, and I really enjoyed learning more.  None of the students spoke more than a few words in english, but usually we could communicate with signs and our limited vocabulary.   One night though, signs wern't quite enough.
We had just gone to bed, when I began to hear male voices outside the window.  The girls peaked out but I could tell they didn't want to be seen.  When I got up to look, they hurridly pulled me back down.  they were whispering worridly and trying to tell me what was going on.  I was lost.  they all said "pray! pray!" so we knelt down and I prayed for whatever was going on.  they kept listening to the guys outside who by this time were yelling in english as well as thai.  then quickly they all grabbed their bedding, motioned for me to grab mine, and we all hustled into an ajoining room, where they quickly shut and locked the door.  we ended up spending the night in there.  All I had been able to glean was that the guys outside were drunk, and the girls were scared.  But the house was locked, so I couldn't figure out what the problem was.  The next morning, Mr. Wilson translated, and I learned the whole story.  The drunk guys outside had wanted someone to come down and unlock the door for them, and if we didn't, they said they were going to come in through the windows!  I am so thankful for angels and God's protection!  
Mein house are built with a dirt floor, and wooden walls made of vertical planks nailed side by side, and a tin or thatch roof.  The bathrooms are usually outside, and made of bamboo that has been pounded into flat strips.  However, the house being worked on turned into a bigger project than initially anticipated.  It was soon discovered that much of the wooden walls were rotten, and wood is expensive, so it was uncertain for a while if we'd be able to finnish the house.  But God provided and it went up quickly thanks to Jhun and Goldie's suppervision and expertise.  By the end of the week, the house had been taken apart and put back together.  It had a new tin roof, new "septic tank" (a deep, covered hole) and new split bamboo bathroom complete with squat pot.  All the brush and weeds had been burned off, and it really looked good from what had been started with.  The only thing it lacked was holes in the wall to serve as windows, but hey, they can go in later, (right Jhun?? )  Though any US building inspector would have laughed, it looked good for a mein house.  
Sunday morning, 10 days after our arrival, we loaded up all our stuff again, minus the bags of food, and headed back to Chaing Mai, dropping students at their homes along the way.  
I thought about the last 10 days as we drove the many miles home.  I had had a blast!  I had connected with the locals in a way I hadn't up to this point.  I felt more comfortable around them, and more atune with their world view and way of thinking.  I had been able to learn a little more thai, and because of making friends, I actually had a motivation to learn even more thai.  Yeah, I was glad I'd gone to Hoi Fai.  God's still got a lot to teach me, so I'll take the heat and the dirt along with the friends and the fun.
Keep me in your prayers, and pray that'll I'll still be able to make a difference here in the last two months of my SM experience.  God bless - Sha