Sunday, March 8th

We got up and had breakfast at Siami's, then headed to the Jamuleng Church. It is a Karen Church and was filled with beautiful people. They had a guest speaker, an American, who is apart of a ministry in Thailand. He spoke with what he said translated into both Thai and Karen. The terrible part was - he sucked and embarrassed me as an American. I am sure he is a great man, but not only was his message not applicable to the Karen people, he also broke every cultural rule in the book. This is something I could harp on for hours, but I will spare you, except just to say that sometimes a well intended heart can insult if not paired with understanding for your audience.

Afterwards we were invited to lunch at various huts. The rest of the group went with a former Musekee student and I went with Wantacom, who's daughter is sponsored by my sister, Alex. I gave her the picture I had in my Bible of Stephanie, Alex, and I from Thanksgiving and she clung to it. The Karen tradition is when a woman marries, she moves into the hut of her husband's family. So there were several of us crowded around the table that sat a few in off the ground. No one spoke English so I did my best to be kind without saying a word (well besides Deblut, which means about 10 different things in Karen). The food was brought out and my fear came true - there were foods on the table I knew if I ate I would throw up soon after. So I kindly took the veggies and fruit, and when they passed me the plate of fish heads I declined. I didn't want to be rude, but I knew the food wouldn't go to waste. It would have been nice to talk to them, but maybe I can prepare a few Karen phrases for my next visit.

As I left to join the others at the truck, I took the family's picture. It was cute to see the grandpa get all dressed up again like he had been for church. Everyone was waiting on him to take the picture. As I left I said, "Deblut," which in that instance meant "thank you" and "goodbye." I do have to chuckle about one thing. As poor as these people live , they almost all have some of the modern aspects of life like a cellphone or satallite mainly because these things are so cheap. It was humerous to see a cell phone on top of a bag of rice in the hut I had lunch in. It just felt so out of place in those surroundings.

That afternoon after returning to the center, I spent time with the kids helping them write letters to their sponsors. It was a lot of fun. I had a great time! I then got a shower (midday is the best time because othertimes its too cold to pour water on your body). I then went with Siami to have a womb massage (if you want to know more about this, just let me know). We then had dinner and again night worship with the kids (this is my favorite thing). I asked who remembered the "I like bananas..." song. A few hands went up and I saw Pitak in the back sheepishly putting up his hand. So I retaught that song and so enjoyed their faces during the song - they really get into that one. We sang a few other songs and then I taught them another game. I headed to my room above the medical clinic and before the kids went to bed I could hear them walking around saying, "I like bananas" or "Papayas." It just made me smile. I so love these kids...they have the greatest hearts.