We left our home in Myanmar at 2 a.m. today, and are en route to our home in Thailand. It’s a goodbye that’s really rough for me. Myanmar has been my favorite country so far, mainly because of the people, and it sucks to leave. But Jesus has been crazy faithful this month, and I know this is hard because this month was so good! Going into the month, I asked God to make Myanmar a month that was etched into my heart. He delivered. He told me that this would be a month of boldness, of deep joy, of discipline and rhythms, of deep, unbounded freedom, a month of fruit- where we need to be open minded, a month of eternal perspective, and a month of childlike joy. He delivered with that too. From day one, stories and people began to stitch their way into me. Here are just some of the random, sweet, everyday stories and moments that are stitched into my heart and hold together my days in Myanmar (if you’re still wondering, no, I didn’t get literal stitches. But this is worth reading).
One morning I couldn’t sleep, so I went outside around 6. My friend Sarah (she’s twelve) saw me immediately as I went outside, yelled my name, and ran to give me a hug. That day we were going to Yangon together, since she’d never been. She decided to get me ready for the city, so she painted my nails sparkly pink, braided my hair with flowers, and put thanakha on my face. Then, as the sun was coming up, we went to the store to get coffee. Coming back, she had me pedal the bike down the gravel road with her sitting side saddle on the back. We didn’t tip over once.
A few mornings ago, I heard dogs barking and kids screaming in my dream. Suddenly I heard my friend Alexus say, “What the heck is going on out there?” A bunch a people busted up laughing, and I sat up realizing I hadn’t been dreaming. I looked out our window, and saw one of the goofy ten year old boys shrieking like a siren. All five of the big dogs on the property were barking, when I saw my friend and a strange man walking towards our house. They stopped next to the little boy, he stopped shrieking, and the noise quieted down. Another man met them outside, and walked away with the stranger. I then went outside to ask my friend if everything was okay. The sun was just rising, and lots of people were standing in the other house windows watching. He said everything was fine. So, I asked what the noise was about. He replied, “Oh, the man is going to buy a pig. Good morning to you”.
Week one, Rachel and I were walking down the village road coming home one afternoon, when a man walked up to us, handed us his tiny infant, and motioned for a picture. No one had a camera, so he just stood there and grinned as we held the baby.
One night I sat in the hammocks swinging with some of my friends, and a few girls came up to us with food in a bowl. It looked like some sort of lime soup- tea maybe. So, we picked up a lime and put it in our mouth It was then we discovered the lime was covered in jalapeño seeds, and this is what kids like for their snack.
Yesterday morning I looked into the kitchen to see our pregnant dog, Little Mama, standing on our kitchen table, as the other dog ran and jumped into the pan on our stove to eat the eggs.
Our final night in Myanmar, our hosts invited us to dinner at their house. We were sitting there eating our first meal that wasn’t fried eggs, ramen, or fried rice in a month, eating silently because it was so good. Our host, a Burmese dad, pastor, and headmaster, looked at us silently chewing, and said, “Tonight, you dance for us.” Hoping he was kidding, I said, “Tonight, you dance for us.” He said, “Okay. I will disco dance for you.” He did.
That same night, all of our students and kids threw us a huge farewell party. They did traditional cultural dances, sang songs, had us do on-demand cha cha slide dances, rehearsed dances, recited bible verses we taught them, and gave us a farewell speech apologizing for all the times they didn’t listen in class. All of our students were our age. It was sweetness.
These are a handful of bottle up moments and stories that have made up my life for the past month. I wanted to share, because it’s these moments that brought about so much laughter and deep founded joy in Abba’s presence and community. It’s my friend translating Burmese memes to me, and hanging out with friends in hammocks talking about our dreams and what the Lord says about us. It’s smelling fish sludge at the markets and chasing cockroaches out of our toilets and being asked grammar questions we can’t answer. It’s eating 10 million packets of chocolate wafers because they cost 13 cents a pack and rapping Justin Bieber and playing hide n seek and chinlone. It’s dance parties with our students, volleyball games, playing in the sand, and students filling our water jugs. It’s the everyday friendship that has filled me up so much, and I hope you get just a little taste of the sweet laughter we felt here. God is so, so faithful!!
Love,
Cait
