Hello Everyone, I had some time and wanted to let everyone know how it is going here in Thailand. I think I have been having a little issue with jet lag that has been a little different for me as I am waking up pretty early and am exhausted by the time I get back to my hotel room and end up falling a sleep. For all that know me, you will know that this is not normal for me as I never go to bed early and I am definitely not an early riser, but that all changed when I got here... So, my plans of working with Partners at day and posting at night hasnt worked out too good, LOL! I started my journey on Saturday night and finally arrived here on Monday night, got settled in the hotel room and it was lights out once I checked in with the family. The phone I brought that works over the internet has worked out quite well for that. On Tuesday, I rested up from my travelling and checked out the area where I was staying. That night I wore myself out pretty good because I walked for several miles that I was not planning. You see, I was staying in the old city of Chiang Mai and the old wall and moat around the city are still there (pretty cool history actually). I knew that I could walk around and then when done, walk to the edge and follow the moat to my hotel as it was right on the edge. This plan worked beautifully until I picked a direction and started walking along the moat. I must have gotten turned around and walked the opposite way which meant that I had to walk almost all the way around the whole thing before I finally arrived at my hotel! LOL, boy I was sore, and found that my shoulder muscles are really out of shape because my small backpack felt like it weighted two tons by the time I got back! On Wednesday, I was picked up by one of the Partners staff, Khup, and taken to the Partners office. I spent the day there and met most of the staff, some where gone on ministry trips to Burma and other areas. I spent the morning with Hosanna, a lovely young lady from Alaska, going through orientation; filling out some forms, learning more about the different ministries and projects going on at Partners, etc. At lunch time, everyone goes to the lobby area and sits on the floor on a couple large bamboo mats and eats lunch together. They do this every day and its a great way to eat and fellowship with everyone. Fellowship and relationships are a big thing in the Thai culture. That afternoon, I meet with Brad, the director of Partners Thailand, where we talked more about the projects and how I could join the ministry. It was a great talk and it turned out that Brad and I had something in common, a history in aviation. Brad is a pilot and worked for Mission Aviation Fellowship before joining Partners. It was fascinating to talk with him about that as working for MAF had always been my childhood dream. On Thursday I had the opportunity to work at the farm and it was a so fascinating! Partners has a farm where they develop and teach the newest farming techniques to the Burmese people. It is totally self sustaining and I will post a bunch of pictures of it soon. They grow rice, herbs, and tons of fruit there. They also keep pigs, chickens, cows and fish. It was thrill to see all they do there. I will write more on this when I post my pictures. After a tour of the farm, we spent the morning making pig food! :) Then after a great lunch, we helped prepare the rice patties that will be planted on Tuesday (I will get to help with that then and learn how to grow rice.) I will share more about that next week. After I arrived back, I changed hotels to one that was closer to the office. Friday, I spent the day back at the office where I joined Doug in planning meetings for SEED. SEED is a education center here in Chiang Mai that minsters to the Shan Refugees that live here. They also work with the Shan community leaders that serve the people. The meeting was about preparing for a training they are going to hold to train some of the community works about 6 things children need to grow up healthy and happy. The afternoon was spent on planning a survey that was going to be done among the Shan workers to find out how the SEED program was working and how it could be improved to meet the communitys needs better. Saturday, I spent the morning changing rooms at the hotel, will only need to do this one more time and then I have that room for the rest of my trip, and getting to know the area around my new hotel. I found a supermarket that caters to ex-pats and had all the items from home so I grabbed a couple snacks for the room (Ex-pats is what foreigners who live here are called.) Then I spent a lovely afternoon with Doug and his wife, Claire, and their cute three year old daughter Olivia. We visited a Buddhist temple so that I could learn about that as it is very much a part of the Thai culture (If you are going to learn about the Thai culture then you have to learn about the Buddhist religion as the religion is very much a part of the culture.) Then we went to a Shopping Mall to check it out. Because of the heat, the shopping mall is a place people go to not only shop but they have lots of activities for children and the family to do. They even have an ice skating rink in there! LOL We had a nice dinner and then I went back to the hotel for the night. Today, I have spent the day at the hotel, changing rooms for the last time, catching up on the internet and then I will be joining Khup and going to church with him. It is about a 5 min. walk from my hotel and his service is held in the afternoon. I am looking forward to visiting his church and then have dinner with him afterwards. Well that is about it for this week. Sorry its so long a post! I will try to post more often next week since I will be adjusted more to the time. Cheers for now! Jeff
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 04:14:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015