Week Three

I can’t believe we’re at the end of week three already! This week’s topic was relationships. So far, this is my favourite topic we’ve covered (even though it’s only the second one haha). Our speaker was really honest and talked about things that some people don’t always cover, I wish that she could have stayed and talked for another week. She also talked a lot about family and how important family is, and how much it affects who a person becomes. One of the things that she said that I found really interesting is that by four years old, 80% of a child’s worldview has already been formed.  I found myself incredibly thankful for the family that I have. Sometimes I take that for granted, but to any family reading this right now, thank you for being amazing. J 
                On a more serious note, one of my roommates whose name is Mai (pronounced “my”), just found out some bad news. I’m sorry if any of this makes you uncomfortable but I need you guys to pray for her. She’s in her late thirties, and has a husband and three kids. Lately she has been bleeding really bad, so she thought, “I don’t have any pain, so I won’t go to the doctor.” But she prayed and asked God to get someone to tell her to go to the hospital if that was what she was supposed to do.  Shortly after that, she had another lady from the base tell her she should go to the hospital to get everything checked out.

                She came back with X-rays and a note from the doctor showing that she had a cyst on her left ovary that was 4cmx4.5cmx6cm. The doctor compared it to the size of a potato. Although she speaks English really well, she can’t read it. So when she called her husband, who is British, she asked me to read the doctor’s note to him. So I had to explain to him what the options were if it was cancer, and what the options were if it wasn’t. It was not nice to have to tell him about it all.

                This weekend she goes back to the hospital to get more tests and find out whether or not it is cancer. She told me it was okay to tell you guys about this because she wants all the prayer she can get. So if you could pray that it’s not cancer, or better yet that God takes the tumor away completely, that would be wonderful. Oh and she also told me to make sure I told you she is really beautiful. (She’s quite spunky haha)

                Well that’s pretty much it for this week. Everything is still going well, I’m learning a lot, including that I LOVE papaya! Who would of thought? It always reminds me of that Sunday school song, “I like bananas, I know that mangos are sweet, I love papaya, papaya?” It’s probably on my top five favourite fruits list now.

Today’s Fun Fact:

 The Thai word for grandpa is “Pu” which is pronounced “poo.”

To all of you who still have the heart of a six year old, I hope you enjoyed that.

Week 2

Well its officially been two weeks since i left home, and everything is still going really good. I've made friends here and everything and the weather is really nice.
This past week, we had a speaker teaching on prayer, fasting and hearing the voice of God. It was really interesting. This weeks speaker is going to be talking about relationships.
I'm gonna go ahead and say that the highlight of this week was definitely riding elephants! Life long dream fulfilled. haha We went to the elephant camp where we watched a show where the elephants painted pictures (the pictures were actually impressive, I'll put some pictures on facebook later, i haven't been able to upload them on the blog for some reason) they also kicked soccer balls, played harmonicas and did other tricks, it was so fun. I had an elephant put a hat on my head and then take it off again, and i also had an elephant kiss me.... weirdest feeling ever!
Later we actually rode the elephants and i got to sit on the elephants neck for part of it, instead of just in the seat on its back. SO FUN!
there were little baby elephants too!
We also got to go zip lining across a river that day.
One of the people from the base knows the manager at the elephant camp, so the whole day, including snacks, riding the elephant, going to the elephant show, zip lining, and renting a taxi for the day cost under $10. It was amazing.

Today's Fun Fact:

The man who owns the cafe that I'm in right now, has a son who's about 12... he likes to sing... really loud. i wish you guys could hear this.

Mailing address

Youth With A Mission Chiang Mai
P.O. Box 290 CMU Post Office
Chiang Mai 50202 Thailand

I'm Here!!!

                Well hello everybody! Usually I’ll only be giving updates on the weekends because that’s when we can come to the café that has Wi-Fi, just so you know. I hope that this doesn’t end up being too long, if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, I take no offence. =P

                On the way to Thailand, everything went well. Both of my flights were good and they were pretty much on time. It was about 12:30am when we got to the base, and it turned out to be a bit of an adventure. The girls that picked me up went to show me where my room was, but the girls that were sleeping inside had locked the door for the night. One of the staff told me that she had bunk beds so I could sleep in her room with her. So I carry all my stuff to her room, open the door, turn on the light and lo and behold a bunk bed…. With no mattresses. Long story short, her and I slept on the tile floor together. It made for and interesting night. haha

                The base is nice and everything is really green. Here I was thinking, “Oh if I leave Abbotsford and go to Thailand, I can get away from all the rain and mosquitoes.”…. WRONG! It’s been rainy, rainy, rainy, and although the mosquitoes are smaller, they make you itch just as bad, let me tell you!

                Like most first weeks of school, it’s been pretty low key. We have mostly been talking about culture differences, and rules of the base and rules for living together. We’ve had lots of time to just hang out and get to know each other too. There are a few Americans here, a lady from Chile, a guy from the Ukraine and one other Canadian. The rest of the people here are Thai, but most of them speak pretty good English. There’s a married Thai couple here who have to kids, and oh my goodness are those kids ever cute. One of the kids is Caleb’s age, and the other one is Lily’s age (for those of you who don’t know, those are my sister’s kids) but I love playing with them.

                I haven’t really been homesick at all. I guess sometimes certain things will remind me of certain people and then I’ll kind of miss them, but other than that I’ve pretty much been fine. I will be completely honest though and say that I’m feeling a little bit farm deprived. There is a pig here (her name is Tinkerbelle although she’s a heck of a lot bigger than any fairy I’ve ever seen) and there’s a few chickens running around. Oh and there are some dogs, but they’re always in their cages, except for a little one that’s kind of ugly, so those don’t even count.

                All in all, everything is good, I’m good, the team’s good, the food’s good (most of the time) and everything is going well.

                Talk to ya next time!

Today’s Fun Fact:

We only have one flush toilet, the rest of them you have to dump buckets of water into, and we’re not allowed putting toilet paper in any of them. So all of you with flushing toilets out there, think of me the next time you flush… or don’t, because that’s a little awkward. =P