So much travelling. I have always considered myself a pretty good traveller and patient with planes and such, but 32 hours later I was definitely ready to get off of the plane. We left the base at 3 am on the 22 I think and from Denver to Salt Lake to Seattle to Tokyo to Bangkok. We arrived the 23 and headed to the YWAM base at 3 am for a little bit of sleep. That day we had orientation and then onto a bus for 12 hours to get down to where we are now, called Phuket more specifically Patong, where we have been focussing our ministry time. The place we are staying is called SHE ministry and it is an amazing place that helps to train girls with skills allowing them to get out of the sex trade and work as waitresses, housekeepers and other common jobs here in Thailand. It also helps to teach the girls English, since much of the tourism here is from Americans and Europeans, and it is amazing ho many tourists are packed into a little, beautiful country. The building is modern and fairly clean and surrounded by trees, flowers and many other plants. Five of us were able to stay in the upstairs of the building and the boys are all on the second floor and the rest of the team of girls is in the basement. I am on the top floor :) The view out over the lake and into a forested area is one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen and the small town that we overlook has a beauty in its simplicity. People who are dressed in beautiful clothes and driving really nice cars live in tiny little houses, that have roofs that resemble huts. The streets are surrounded by tropical plants but next to this beautiful life, there is piles of trash. I love the crazy heat and humidity and the warm hospitality that is all over the place, but it is so confusing that all of this life can live next to dirty areas. There are animals that roam the street almost everywhere, the most common being chickens and dogs, and there is nothing that comes around to clean up after the waste. I think most every home that we have passed has at least one dog to either protect or invite. The area that we are staying in has a lot of really modern looking homes and apartment building type complexes that are developed and beautiful, but right next will be a more run down set of homes, so within the contrast it is amazing to discover the culture.
Food is amazing and extremely cheap. Money is called baht here and for each dollar we exchange around 30 baht. The average meal for our whole team is 1200 baht - converting to 40 dollars. This a whole team of 23 people, full meal and no one is skimping by being hungry. Fruit stands are in abundance and we are able to buy pineapple (cut into the coolest design) for 20 baht, a bunch of bananas that have not been covered in preservatives are 25 baht or so, depending on the weight, and it is so fresh! We have found how much faster fresh fruit goes bad, but how much more satisfying it is to the tongue. Authentic Thai, has a wide range of flavours, but we have found that locals love spice! They realize that we are foreign, or "forongs", so they take it easy on the fresh peppers and ground chili-powder. Our Mexican friend is about the only one who can take the heat with them here. I can not complain with the taste though, I am beginning to being adapted to the spice and the food that isn't, is sweet and easy on the tongue. Rice is in abundance for most ever meal and if not it's a rice noodle type thing that acts as a replacement. Rice is my favourite staple, so I have been extremely content. We were warned before coming that Diarrhea is not in short supply and each of us should expect to experience it for a least a little while, but hardly any of us have had it!! I have been blessed to not get sick from anything we eat and all water is bottled, it's been amazing!
The climate..... I am made to be here! It's probably 30 degrees average and it's incredibly humid. We can't put out clothes at night and expect them to dry, because everything that's not being scorched in the sun has a damp feel. This includes things like gum, chips and other snacks. Food, clothes, shoes, hair and skin. Everything is moist which I enjoy coming from using a chapstick a day in Denver. Lotion has not been a necessity and that is that same with lip chap. I love it here! We are beginning to become acclimated, but all of us pasty white girls are experiencing curly hair almost daily. We sweat quite often and a run in the morning is like a bath. We are blessed with being able to shower in real showers here, and wash clothes in an almost manual machine. The culture actually promotes cleanliness and showering more than once a day is common, so this is a little weird for me being the person that I am, but I have been enjoying showers a lot more than I ever have before.
Oddly enough, the nation carries an unpleasant odour almost everywhere you go. There are portions on the streets that smell amazing from food, some that don't see, to have a smell at all and then three steps later there will be the most putrid smell - I don't understand where it comes from, but I think a bit of the infrastructure could use some work.
The people. They are warm and welcoming for the most part. Walking around the little town we are in yields many invitations to sit and talk, share food or just play with children. There are street vendors all over as well and people who sell food and drinks from a bicycle, so it is easy to create community over these little things. Not many people have been able to travel and almost all are eager to learn English, so it's great to be able to talk to everyone and there is a mutual appreciation from the conversation. I love that hospitality is natural and not forced out of reading the Bible or feeling that it is the right thing. The majority of people here are Buddhist, around 95%, second Muslim and third Christianity at 0.7%! It's is incredibly small, and there is still such a warmth to the culture, Jesus is at work here even though statistics or technicality doesn't show it.
Some odd cultural things to me are that the bottom of the feet are extremely offensive and pointing your foot at a person is comparable to flipping the bird. Seeing the bottom of someones foot is a no no in general, so sitting is a little different. In contrast, the head is seen as almost holy, so people do not touch another persons head without getting permission as a spiritual protection. Along with this, there are many monks in Bangkok all dressed in orange robes. A women is not allowed to touch them in any way and if buying something where a women is the sales person, she has to hand the item to a man and then to the monk. If a women accidentally grazes them at the bus station or deliberately touches them, they then have to take 20 days to become clean again. I haven't yet ran into a monk on close terms, but it is apparently pretty important that I keep my distance.
With Buddhism being so prominent here, there are things called spirit houses all over the place. They are little and very well decorated and intricately carved. Here is where they house the different spirits of the world and I'm not too sure what else they are used for, but they are in abundance. Idols, decorated trees and walls built to honour the Buddhist belief are all over, and they carry an extremely heavy spiritual feeling with them wherever you see them.
The King is LOVED by the people here, and when asked ANYTHING about him, the only appropriate response is, "He is a great king." Also there are pictures of him and his wife all over and whenever people drive by they honk at the picture. His song will be played out in public areas and all commotion stops and people look at the flag until the song is done. They mean business when it comes to the king. The dedication here to so many things astounds me and I wish that I could take even a portion of their discipline in meditation and apply it to my walk with the Lord! They are amazing pre-Christians I tell ya.
So for my time here. It has been spiritually heavy already with being in a new place and not being in the comfort and constant direction that I am used to. Being away for Christmas was a little odd, but it honestly didn't feel like it was Christmas so I was able to avoid the homesickness that I hear others have to live in that day. The time difference is ten hours from the Denver or Lethbridge time zone, so I have not yet been able to call home. I spent a few days wishing that I could see everyone at home again and that I could wake up in my own house and surprisingly, I really wanted my car, but for the most part I have been able to just enjoy what we are doing her and the country because I know that I won't be coming back in this context again. We spent most of Christmas Eve in orientation or on a bus and woke up Christmas morning on the bus again. The country, though small, is extremely long, so bus rides are a bit of an extended period. We spent the rest of our Christmas getting a little settled in and heading down to a damn area for a BBQ. There were many people there and there were a few more teams staying at this ministry which was really nice to hang be around on the holidays. Being able to speak English with no issue is a huge blessing since many people can speak some, but not fluent. We spent time in worship and reflecting on the huge sacrifice it was for God to give himself to us in flesh and though we celebrate His life and birth, but that He came to die. I never thought so heavy about this and that Easter is truly something that needs to be more heavily emphasized in my life. I spent some time reading through each gospels different perception on the birth of Jesus and reminding myself of Jesus' love. We also ate at this lovely local place called the blue hut, which has amazing food and is extremely welcoming to us all of the time. On the 26th we ate there for both of the meals that weren't provided to us here at SHE. Every morning we eat cornflakes, and I love it! I feel blessed to enjoy the food here because I know that other outreaches have not had the same thing. There aren't really churches for us to attend, so on Sunday we had our own church service as a team and spent time in worship and personal time with God. We had not yet done any ministry, so everyone was getting antsy and our attitudes were getting not so awesome, so it was a day for us to re group and build the unity we were lacking from before. Once we started ministry, this hasn't been much of an issue at all. Each day carries its own spiritual heaviness for each person, but it has been great since as a team we are realizing that we need to speak out our struggles and cover each other in prayer and support. It's hard to be vulnerable sometimes with our weaknesses, I have recently found, but I think most people have let others know of some sort of struggle in their life and each time it brings a new unity to the team. Also we spend time in worship every morning and every night before we head out for ministry. We also have time each morning we also have quiet time, so God has been so alive to me personally and really been present in my prayer walks and daily rituals. I am nervous about what life's going to look like without the structure of "quiet time" and corporate worship, but I think God has been growing me already in so many ways, and I see that I have so many weaknesses that have never been evident to me before. Honestly, every day I see how much I need to grow and it's so hard to live in, but I love that God is there with me and growing in me. I love that I have to be dependant on God here and how alone, I honestly would burn out in one night, conflict or early morning, but God is with us!
Week two's blog will talk a lot more about the ministry we are working with and the amazing ways that God is working in it!
I truly am learning what it means to just love, so I love you the best that I can! and I hope each day that capacity increases.
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