Our life in Thailand is pretty wonderful. Not that it's been easy, but it's been really amazing to experience all we have and I feel super blessed to be here. Our new team, "Relentless Pursuit" has had the opportunity to live in the village of Mae Ai. It's sooo pretty here, and I want to give you a glimsp of what our life looks like!
Team "Relentless Pursuit": Mark, Ashley, Julie, Alys, me, Wes Riding an elephant w/ Emily!
When we first arrived in Thailand we were in the city of Chiang Mai for our month 8 Debrief. We had a Squad fun day where we got to ride elephants and go bamboo rafting! One day Hugh, Ashley and I decided to rent scooters, and we rode all over the city and had a ton of fun! Mark came with for part of the time, too, and then at night we got caught in the rain!
When we headed off to ministry in the village of Mae Ai, this was the scenery waiting for us…
Our first day working here we helped pick weeds out of the water between the path and the rice in the fields.
We also painted a villager's house, inside and out. His name is Gin. Here's a picture of my teammates, Julie and Ashley, painting the deck… and then the finished outside of the house!
Yesterday we cut garlic!
This is where I live with my team leader, Alys, and then our other 4 team members live in 2 different houses.
Our bathroom is outside, which is where the squatty potty is, and the bucket shower.
Our "house mom" is Mae Lee. She is wonderful and we have loved sharing this time here with her and her son, Bi. Even though they don't speak English, we have a lot of fun. Mae Lee cooks some wonderful and/or interesting foods for us. 🙂 In America we sometimes like to eat breakfast for dinner, but here they make dinner-type foods for breakfast! The fish head and chicken wings below are an example of what we had for breakfast last week, and then for lunch one day we had sticky rice, bamboo, and chicken. I loooove sticky rice, so Mae Lee started putting it out instead of regular rice. 🙂 We also had a surprise dish of fried snails… at least I'm pretty sure that's what those are.
Our schedule: Alys and I wake up every morning at 6 am to go for a run. Breakfast is around 7:30am. Then we do whatever type of work they have for us that day until about noon. Lunch time then free time until 4pm when we have team prayer. Then we play with the kids after they get out of school until dinner time. Team time/feedback after dinner, and then bed.
We came here to live life with the people of the village, and it's been a wonderful experience!
We leave for Cambodia in 3 days! Month 10 of 11 is almost here, which is so wild. I can't wait to be back at home with my friends and family, and yet I'm also enjoying every day that I'm here. We're having experiences of a lifetime, and we get to see how God works in our hearts and lives in some pretty amazing ways.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing my photo journal of Thailand!
Blessings,
Jo Linda
