Off Again

A lot has changed since my last post. They switched up our groups, for the millionth time, and sent us off to two different villages. Our group has spent the last week in a small village up in the mountains. On Sunday we were out walking around and an old lady pulled us into her hut and out of the blue started dressing me up in a native Hmong costume. After a while she had us all decked out in the colorful garb and we ended up going around the village inviting people to the meetings at the church. Each night a different member of our team spoke at the local Adventist church about the 8 laws of health. Tuesday night I spoke on proper rest. The next day we went out visiting sick people. Some reoccurring health problems seen in these parts are gout and high blood pressure. I ended up doing massage on a stroke victim who was paralyzed on her right side. I also gave her some exercises to do to help strengthen her limbs. Our leader keeps saying, "Oh! Emily can do massage and put together exercises for these people since she's a physical therapist." Uhh, not quite. I have to remind her that I'm not- kinda funny. Doing the exercises and massage is good experience though. One day we got a call from a frantic mother whose boy was very sick. It was a 15 year old kid that was having severe stomach pains. We started doing a bunch of natural remedies on him. The house was absolutely filthy. When I walked in I noticed these huge beetles hanging from the ceiling on some twigs (apparently they enjoy fighting beetles here in Thailand- kind of like cock fighting). I was instructed to give a onion rub to the boy, so I sat down and proceeded with the treatment. In a few minutes I felt a bunch of wet globs of an unknown substance falling on my head. First I thought it was a leaky roof, but Ricky started laughing really hard and then told me to look up. I was sitting right under the disgusting beetles and they were going to the bathroom on my head. So gross. It actually was pretty funny though-- I entertained the whole group that's for sure. Strange things like that have been happening to me. Like the other day a nasty dog left his mark all over my backpack. Good times, good times. On Wednesday our group hiked out to visit some church members at their job site. On the way one of the Thai girls in front of me screamed and jumped back-- it was a long, bright green poisonous snake. Close call. After visiting the church members we begged our driver to take us to the village where the other group was. Even though it had only been 4 days since we'd seen them there was a lot to catch up on. Friday was a blast because they got to come to our village for an American breakfast (cornflakes, soymilk, bread & fruit--sounds boring, but it was amazing because it didn't include rice), then in the afternoon they took us to town. That day they had announced that each group would be staying one more week in their respected villages. We never know what's going on until right before something happens. I'm still, at times, finding it difficult to adjust to the oh-so-laid-back mentality here. It's quite different than what I'm used to. I'm pretty laid back as well, but I generally like having a tentative schedule. Those of you who know me also know I appreciate organization. I guess it's been good for me though. So they'd announced we'd be staying another week in the village, but the next day they informed us we'd be heading for another place. So we had to pack up that night and take off. They said we'd be going to a very primitive village way up in the mountains-- one that got electricity just last year. I was pretty excited for something new, but, once again, they just changed our plans. The other group (Brian, Alison, Holly, Mem, Ying, Bee, & some other Thai girls) have been working in a village that's struggling with spiritualism and things of that nature. Apparently they encountered a demon possessed man as well as a Buddhist monk who was attempting to get the villagers to come to his meetings (instead of our group's meetings). So since they've been having challenges we've decided to join our groups and help them out for the next week, which I'm very excited about. It'll be interesting I'm sure. For now though, I'm just glad to have this short window of time to check my email before we go back out. I did buy a cell phone so I'm not exactly totally disconnected from the outside world when we're in the villages. In all I've been having a blast. Life is great! At times it hits me that I'm in Thailand. I know people who would probably never dream of doing things like this. I love it- might as well live life to it's fullest and experience as much as I can. Alright, this is getting too sentimental- better get going. Pray for us, especially while we're in this next village. Thanks a ton!