Catching Up.

I guess I should back up and fill you guys in on some stuff I have missed so far. I'll start with people so you know who I'm talking about.
Bro. Tom and Krinny Gaudet- the missionaries we are working with here.
Ann-A young lady from PA who is here for a year working in the Gaudet's office
Pookie- Another young lady working in the office, only she is Thai. And a lot like my sister Abbie.
Jeff and Theresa (and John and Gracie)- Another missionary family working with the Hmong people primarily.
Nakhon- Also works in the office doing translation work. Is Thai, and also speaks English and Spanish.
Steve- From North Dakota, and he loves the heat.
Paster Joseph- the pastor of one of the churches here in Mae Sot. We are working with him a lot.
Bro. Shemish- missionary from Australia.

Sunday- In the morning we went to one of the Thai churches in Bangkok. Nakhon sat behind us and translated, which was really nice. Afterwards we went out to eat with Jeff and Therea at Foodland- this is nothing new, they eat here all the time and then do their grocery shopping. I ordered something that sounded pretty normal, but before I even saw the plate I could smell the food. Noodles and shrimp and mushrooms and rancid bamboo strips. Yeah, It was gross, but I gagged most of it down. Two hours later I was really wishing I hadn't. Three days later, I'm still wishing I hadn't. Anyway, that afternoon we started packing and getting things together to leave for Mae Sot. That night we went back to the Thai church where they had an English service. Bro. Shemish preached on the chain of authority and receiving rebuke. It was really good, and it was really nice to be singing in English:)
Monday- We were planning to leave at 8:00, but then Nakhon noticed that the registration and insurance on TJ's truck were expired. So Nakhon and David and Bro. Tom all went running around getting the truck squared away. We left at 12:30:) Jeff was driving up with us, since that's Bro. Tom's ride back to Bangkok. After about an hour Nakhon called and we realized we had his glasses with us. Thankfully he's not as blind as me and can survive without them for a few days. It rained off and on for the first four hours, but thankfully stopped before we got to the mountains. David drove for a few hours and didn't hit any cows or anything:) Bro. Tom drove the last two hours through the mountains. I really wish it were short enough to walk- I alternated between looking through the windshield and freaking out about the cars coming at us head-on, and then looking out the side window and getting sick. I think my meal on Sunday added to the problem:) But we finally made it over the mountains and to our new house in Mae Sot. It's very nice, being brand new and fairly clean. It's very...blue. 100% blue. Dark blue tile on the floor, two different blues on the walls, and a light blue on the ceiling. It's like a pool! But there aren't too many bugs, and plenty of lizards to eat the few that are here. We spent the night in a hotel since there was only one bedroom with AC that night. We ate supper at a Canadian restaurant. The food is really good there, and I don't think I'm going to loose a bit of weight while I'm here. He sells bread and cheese in a little deli case. There are more things here in the boonies of Thailand than there are in Lobelville! But a great supper, and a few hours of sleep on the rock-mattress at the hotel.
Tuesday- We went back to the Canadian restaurant for breakfast:) Then we some over to the house and got to work. The guys started getting beds and furniture set up and finding an electrician to hook up the other AC unit and some fans and stuff. I headed straight to the kitchen and started cleaning. The whole place was plenty clean enough for a man, but not for a woman, and especially one who hates spiders. Everything was covered in dust and lizard poop, so it took a while to heat enough water to wash everything (there's no hot water here, so I use an electric kettle to boil water for stuff). But we finally got the place set up and relatively clean.
Just to give you an idea of what Mae Sot is like, the majority of people here are Burmese, or half Burmese. There are check-points going out of the city to make sure they stay in Mae Sot. The Thai government is fine with them being here, but doesn't want them mixing with the Thai people. There is a fairly large group of Burmese-Muslims here. The mosque is just a little ways down the street from our house, and while eating supper the other night we were watching the news on the TV- Al Jazeera TV. It's pretty strange, but they don't cause any trouble here because if they do they get sent right back to Burma. So they mind their own P's and Q's. It's very different here than in Bangkok. The spirit of the people is much more serious and heavy. Oppressed is pretty close to the feeling here.
Today we went to the Friendship Bridge- the bridge linking Thailand and Myanmar. As we watched, several innertubes with people hanging on crossed over into Thailand- while several soldiers sat a watched. The laws aren't too strictly enforced here because they want the cheap labor. I'll get some pictures up soon, but there's really no way to describe the area. It's sad, but at the same time a bit funny to see these people tube across the river, then hop up on the bank and trot off into town while the soldiers sit with their guns and watch (while smoking cigarettes they bought from the Burmese yesterday). There's an island underneath the bridge that flooded several weeks ago. 300 people had to find a place to live until the water went down, as this was their primary home. Tents and some sheds are what they live in, surrounded by the filthy river water.
Since the Thai government doesn't want the Burmese mixing with the Thai, Burmese children are not allowed to go to school. So Pastor Joseph started one. There are currently 168 children attending, and the teachers are Pastor Joseph's older children and two young ladies from Arlington VA. Pastor Joseph also cares for 17 Burmese orphans. He built a house right out in his own front yard to house them.
So many of the Burmese people are here illegally and at any moment can be loaded onto a truck and shipped back to Burma. They are so desperate to make a living and/or escape the military oppression that they just don't care. If they do get sent back, they usually return to Thailand by noon the next day. Pastor Joseph was telling us earlier that the best way to work with the illegals is to keep it small and quiet. That's what he's been doing for 20+ years:)
Well, Jeff and Bro. Tom are leaving for Bangkok tomorrow, so we'll be on our own. Pray for safety and wisdom and no trouble with the officials:)