Life in A Bamboo Hut - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Wrapping up month three, what a time to be alive.

This month we lived in the most amazing village in Mae Hong Son. The part of the village we spent all of our time in included seven bamboo homes and a school. It was tucked away in the Thai jungle, a thirty minute walk away from a paved road.

I am going to explain each part of the village to you, I loved it so much. Also, I will attach pictures and a video tour of the whole village to add visuals! Woo!

Okay. So, the school was at the base of village. It had a teachers lounge and five classrooms.

Moving up past the school was a large home. We were not well acquainted with the people that lived there. They were gone a lot, but we heard their music blasting every once and a while as we were praying on our porch—good times.

The next home up from the school housed a couple with an infant son named David. David was loved by everyone in the village. He would join our third grade classes sometimes and get passed around from student to student throughout the day.

The girls on our team got the privilege of living in our own bamboo guest house alongside this amazing community. It was the most beautiful house I have ever lived in (I mean that sincerely). Even though the roof leaked, mildew grew everywhere and we busted through the bamboo floor a couple of times, it was the best. We fell asleep to the rain almost every night. A couple drops of water on your back is surprisingly a sweet refreshment from the Thailand humidity in the middle of the night—true story. We had the best porch where we held all of our team times. We laughed, prayed, cried, slept, danced and fought off roosters on that porch. Beware of chicken poop.

Luke and Kyle slept in a small room of a home across the way from us. The room was just big enough for themselves, their backpacks and a gecko the size of Luke’s forearm. Four other men lived in that home as well. Sairee was our translator, Laikee and Paul taught at the school and the fourth man was a mystery. He came around every once and a while. He would crush it in a game of volleyball, catch and skin a chicken, sweep the outside of the house, and then be gone again.

Elizabeth was our Thai host. She lived in a small home just up from the men’s home. She has two children, Michael and Eve, who are probably top 10 cutest kids I have ever met. Michael was obsessed with mermaids (we were just as confused as you are right now, but we loved him for it) and Eve was obsessed with smiling. Elizabeth cooked all of our meals for us and let us eat on the floor of her home. She also had a TV where we would lay down and watch cartoons with the kids at night until the power went out. Her home was a haven.

Across from her home was Grace House. Grace House is a big open room decorated with verses, guitar chords and pictures. Grace House is where we held community gatherings every evening. It is also connected to the rooms where the girl refugees slept. Grace House was started by a women named Tif who had a passion for bringing Christ to people in Thailand and Burma (the neighboring country of Thailand). Grace House provides, food, shelter, education and community to children who have fled from Burma to find safety from the civil war. The children are a mix of all ages ranging from 7 to 16. Across from Grace House was the home where all the boy refugees slept.

All the children would wake up at 5:30am to worship with Paul and read their Bibles inside of Grace House. After worship they do chores, eat breakfast and leave for school. After school they return to their chores, shower and play games until dinner. After dinner they all meet once again in Grace House for about an hour of community time.

The evening time included dancing, singing, bible studies, scripture memorization and games. Let me tell you, the evenings in Grace House were a party. When these people worship, they get into it. We are talking elaborate hand gestures, huge smiles and joyful spirits. Grace House was my favorite part of the day. The first time I saw these children worship, my jaw dropped. I have never been at a worship service that was so full of love, joy and reverence for God. Eve would raise her hands and close her eyes. Julia (an eight year old refugee) would close her eyes, lean forward and BELT out the words of the songs in whatever key felt the most worshipful that night. Sometimes her and Samson (another eight year old refugee) would battle for the loudest cry to the Lord. Guys, it was so much fun. By the end of our time there, our team learned the dances to the Burmese worships songs and would sing along as best as possible. We hard core praised the Lord in that house. We taught them two English songs and they loved it.

After the evening community time, the students that had homework would do their homework while the other children watched cartoons until the power went out. There was only three hours of electricity everyday in the village. It would come on at about 6:30pm and shut off at 9:30pm.

Life in the village is amazing. I am trying to find the best words to convey how generous and humble these people are. They were excited to meet together twice a day and worship the Lord. Every morning I would wake up to the sound of guitar and Burmese children singing praises. You could feel a sense of family all around you. Even though these kids has been separated from their parents and are not related by blood, they were all family. I love the feeling of contentment in the village.

Paul, the worship leader, was a shepherd to these kids. On numerous occasions I saw him playing guitar with the younger ones. He taught the students Thai (most of them spoke Burmese) in the school. Laikee sat in on our third grade classes and you could see how much he loved those students. He wanted them to learn and do well. All of the children did chores that helped the entire village. We saw them scrubbing the squatty potties, sweeping the street and cooking meals for each other. Every Saturday they all venture up into the jungle to get firewood and food for the whole village. Everything in the village is completely hand-made. The bamboo homes were incredible. The village was such a family. All of them poured into each other in different ways, it was so awesome. It is what I have always imagined the body of christ to look like.

Life in the village is simple, humble and full. It is so amazing to me that we can travel into the depths of the jungle and find a small community singing praises to Jesus. I think that is so beautiful.

This type of lifestyle really resonated with my heart. I felt at peace beneath that leaky bamboo roof. I love living simply and love being in a loving community centered around worshipping Jesus. Such a good month. I miss it already.

We saw God move in cool ways this month. We got the privilege of encouraging the teachers and members of the village. We prayed for the believers living in Long Neck Village, that their loved ones would all come to know the Lord. We got to pray for people in neighboring homes and visit a Buddisht temple. We got to cross the border into Burma, visit a woman in her home and pray for her. We formed relationships with the refugees, tutored them, hugged them, laughed with them, shared bible stories and studied Scripture with them. We furthered the efforts of the school through helping the teachers understand and teach the English textbooks. We taught Geography, Math, Science and English to the students. We joined in worship with them and sang praises to our God for he is worthy of it!