Last Day of Connection with the World

So I've finally found out who I'll be spending the next month with: Rob, Alison, Mem (our translator) and I will be heading out to a village tomorrow to start the work we've been receiving training for. Our group of about 10 is being split into smaller groups, each with a media guy to film, and a translator, and being sent to villages all over. Thankfully our assigned village is only about 30 minutes away, so perhaps we'll be able to come back periodically to check our email (chances are slim though). During our stay we'll mainly be teaching the villagers about the 8 laws of health. I don't exactly know what else we'll be consuming our time with, but we'll see! The main goal is to just get in and start living like them- to become familiar with their customs, etc. An American couple (SMs from Walla Walla) invited us over to their place for supper and games tonight. American food! I guess it's kind of a farewell thing before we are subjected to the primitive villages. I'm excited to start the village work though. This is pretty short, but times up. Gotta get to class! Pray for us.

Heart of the Jungle

The past week has definitely been a time of adjustment! I am currently sitting in a Thai pastor's kitchen listening to a torrential rainfall, watching a lizard crawl up the wall opposite of me, and attempting to figure out where to begin. It's been quite a week. Last Sunday I embarked on (what I'm sure will be) quite the adventure. And so far it's proven to be just that! After a super late night of packing and frantically searching the house for my lost passport (which we found a few hours before leaving), I left the plains of Kansas for a slightly more exotic destination. I flew from KC to Chicago, and then endured a 13 hr. flight from Chicago to Tokyo stuck between one old guy to my right and 2 to my left who couldn't speak English. Just my luck. To condense things, we (Alison, Brian, & I) arrived safely in Chiang Mai on Tuesday afternoon. Upon arriving, they announced we'd be fasting for 3 days. This wasn't the most welcome news, especially after eating the less-than-exceptional airline food for 2 days. Since I'd never really fasted before, I wasn't exactly sure how it would go. It ended up not being as bad as I thought--although I did lose almost 10 lbs. which I thought was a little unhealthy to do in just a few days. When the fast ended we indulged in tons of exotic fruit-- rambutan, dragon fruit, passion fruit, pamelo, and some more familiar ones like bananas, pineapple and coconut. The animals here have been cause for more interesting experiences as well- the other night 3 guys in our group were walking back from the pastors house and they ran into a python that stretched clear across the road and was probably 8" in diameter. I thought they were exaggerating, but they had their video camera and caught it on film. Exciting times in Thailand that's for sure! There have been many other unwanted creatures found in our dorm room such as lizards (called a tuque which lives in a hole in our ceiling), tarantulas, squirrels (which my roommate Alison and I had a fun time chasing out!), and many other unidentifiable insects. Right now we're staying at the Chiang Mai Adventist Academy, which is about an hour north of Chiang Mai, right in the middle of the mountains. The view is beautiful. We are having health/Bible training for about 3 weeks and then we'll head out for the villages where we'll stay for 1-2 months at each place. I don't know all the details yet, but it should be fun/challenging. Taking baths in a river, washing clothes by hand, sleeping on mats, etc. I guess that's why I chose Thailand as opposed to Europe or a more westernized country- for the unusual experiences. Well, there's much more I could write, but I can't remember the half of it and you honestly don't have the time to read about it, so I guess that's all for now. I'll try to at least put a couple pictures up sometime...ha. Right. I know, I'm horrible about keeping this blog up. I'll try harder...but with being way out in the villages, etc. I'm not sure how soon that will be...we'll see. Bye for now!