Greetings from Thailand. I would like to take a second to tell everyone how I got here. We started off the coast of Nicaragua at 4 in the morning on January 3rd. We loaded our bags onto a horse drawn buggy and while we hiked a mile to where a boat was to pick us up. We then took a 10 minute boat ride to main land, where we caught a supped up school bus and rode it for 3 hours to Managua, Nicaragua. After waiting to board the plan for a couple hours we finally were able to board, when we found out there was a mechanical issue that had to be fixed before we would be cleared for take off. After 4 hours we were cleared for takeoff and were on a 3 1/2 hour flight to Atlanta. We arrived in Atlanta around 11:30PM. After going through customs it was around 12:30AM. Day one.
We then were blessed with a place to stay for the "night" so we took a shuttle to the Country Inn where Chickfila donated us all dinner! We also had Christmas presents that had been shipped there by our families and we opened them as teams. I then retired to my room where I decided to sleep. It felt like I had just laid my head down on my pillow when it was time to wake up again, I guess 4AM comes early when you go to sleep at 1:45AM. Back at the airport we got checked in for our flight to LA. On our way to LA we had a tailwind so we made it in 4 1/2 hours! We had a 12 hour layover in LA so we rented a car and went shopping and ate lunch and dinner. We got back with time to Check in 2 hours before our flight to Seoul, Korea. Our 13 hour flight left at 10PM. during this flight I was informed that we had crossed this little thing called the international date line, where i lost an entire day of my life! Day 2.
Once in Korea, we had ample time to explore one of the nicest airports in the world with our 3rd 12 hour layover. We dressed up in traditional Korean clothing, ate at Burger King, took a free shower, and napped. Our next flight was around 7PM. It was a 6 hour flight from Seoul to Bangkok. At the airport we were met by our contact and we loaded into the back of pick up trucks for the 1 hour ride to the YWAM base on the outskirts of Bangkok. Day 3.
That morning I woke up and went to get breakfast. I had fried rice with eggs and chicken with a orange soda to drink all for under a dollar. As a team we then took a bus ride to the skytrain and then took the skytrain into downtown Bangkok. We ate lunch and walked Round for a couple hours and then went back to the YWAM base. At 5 PM we needed to be packed again and ready for our hour truck ride to the bus station for a 12 hour bus ride to northern Thailand. Day 4.
It is now 5:23AM and we are about an hour from our stop. We will have a day to rest before we catch another bus into the closed country of laos. It has been a crazy couple days with semi conscience conversations, where 2 hours sleep feels like a great nights sleep and neither English or Spanish are understood.
Tomorrow we are heading to Laos where we will be hiking through the jungle to a small village on top of a mountain to distribute clothes for a hundred families. Then we will be visiting around 7 villages a day doing prayer walks and organizing underground churches. This is for sure going to be an adventure. I can't wait to keep y'all up to date with what's going on. Feel free to ask me questions, and I'll do my best to get a blog up soon. And I'm on a new team, team "Somewhere Beautiful" I can't wait. To tell y'all about them. Until next time…
