thailand blog

Never coming home JK. I'll be home in a couple weeks. Still trying to figure out who's helping who here? #helpintl

This morning we worked on the playground at the Lahu village. We're so close to being finished! We fixed some of the tire placements & then cleaned them so they are ready to be painted. Of course we had plenty of help from the lil minions, which was nice. They take such good care of us, seriously. After we finished cleaning they would say, "sit down, sit down" so they can wash our hands with water. They always want to hold our bags when we're walking so we don't have to work anymore. I feel bad, but they WANT to do it. It's their way of saying thank you! So you just let them. We got some cement & two men in the village started placing it to hold the tires in place. It's kinda a slow process & easier if we just let them do it. So we took the kids on a little walk to keep them away. Maa (the village leaders wife) made us some papaya salad for lunch. I LOVE PAPAYA SALAD, so I was really excited for this meal. We all were, cause we were starving. We sat down & she brought it over & we started eating out of the bowls. You guys, it was NOT GOOD. Some of the volunteers had one bite & were done. They just couldn't do it. It was so spicy & SO FISHY. It wasn't even the spice that got me as much as it was the fishiness. There were tiny little crab legs in it & the smell was so potent. We didn't know what to do. There were only like 5 of us that we're actually eating it. Just cause we had to. The only way we could get through it was if you had a tomato & peanut in every bite. Seriously. That was the only way. We asked for more peanuts & just piled them on. After each bite we would suck on the fruits the little kids gave us. We probably had like 30 fruits & they were all gone by the end of the meal. You don't really get that much fruit out of each one so all together it really wasn't that much but still. We tried to eat as much as we could. It really had potential to be a yummy meal, & she's fed us very yummy things before, this in particular was just not the best. It tasted like she poured a gallon of fish sauce on it. I was still very thankful for it though. Very very thankful. David thanked her for the meal after & told her we didn't finish & to let the kids eat the rest. I stayed for a sec & watched them eat. Seriously the biggest bites, not even phased by the fishy taste. It's amazing really. I think it's totally okay to be weirded out by things here, just as they would be if they came to America. Our cultures are just so different & I love it. Afterwards we got ice cream bars at 7-11 & it never tasted so good!! Okay sorry enough about the food. I'm done. Today was a good day. We leave to Chiang RAI tomorrow. A different place than Chiang MAI. Can't wait!

Placing cement.

This is Liz, they went all out with the flowers today.

Come on guys, eat up!

Hope you guys enjoy the papaya salad...

Long day.

David, Liz, Jana, & I had quite the adventure. We went to the Daraang village to teach first aid. It's a little bit further & we didn't know exactly how to get there so we had to keep asking people on the road. Finally we made it & we were able to teach our class. They were really engaged & participative. They showed us some sores on a couple of the kids & they were wondering what it was. We weren't sure, we took pictures & told them we would research about it & get back to them next time we come. But pretty soon they were showing us more & more things on people's bodies & EVERYONE had these nasty sores on their bodies. I don't know if they were all the same thing but something is definitely contagious & going around their village. One lady said her husband had it first & then she got it on her stomach. Hers was about golf ball size or bigger. They told us that they itched & hurt. By this point I was ready to leave. I did not want to be there anymore. It was starting to make me sick & all I could think about was how I did not want it. We let them continue practicing cleaning & bandaging wounds & then made our way out! We all immediately put hand sanitizer on & hit the road. They are going back on Friday to teach dental but I won't be here cause I'll be in the south. I'm secretly happy. They definitely have a need there though & I think that would be a good place for HELP to really focus on next summer. We got a little lost on our way back home & played church music to calm our souls. Haha it was an interesting night.