Pictures

Here are our pictures so far in our trip.


http://picasaweb.google.com/deborah.madill/Thailand2008DDM?authkey=g1Wh1ZhiRAY#

Baby...

Well, now that the news is out to the families I'm free to spill the beans on my blog. I'm having a baby! May 17, or whenever he/she decides to show up. Hopefully not early, as we'll be in VA early in May for my sister Leah's graduation. Giving birth alongside interstate 81? Not cool.
Everyone is asking if we want a boy or a girl. Well, we just want a healthy baby with red hair. Not too much to ask for...
I have been a little sick, but no puking yet. I go to the bathroom ALL the time, at least twice at night. I sleep a lot, and want pickles really bad. Why don't these Thai people eat pickles? I don't care if they're dill or sweet. A pickle is a pickle right now! And I eat half of a meal and get totally grossed out by whatever I'm eating. As in I start gagging. But I found a way to prevent that. Last night at supper I just inhaled my food. Afterwards it didn't feel quite ingenious, but it was nice to eat a full meal. I was still hungry at bedtime though. I'm hungry all the time too.
Here is what our little sticky bean is up to this week:
http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-6-weeks_1095.bc
How cool is this!?!

Unrelated bits and pieces

When it rains, it kind of vaporizes the sewer water so that you cannot escape from the smell. Since it rains everyday, we smell poop all the time. Makes mealtime more enjoyable.
I actually have my own washing machine here. As soon as I turn it on it plays Here Comes the Bride all the way through, and again at the end of the cycle. The only thing I can say about that is that it wastes time, but makes me start laughing every time I do laundry!
We eat at a little restaurant just down the street from us quite a bit. It's super cheap and the fried rice is amazing. They try to get us to eat new things, and tonight the girl walked by me and shoved a plate of some little steaming fishes under my nose. RIGHT under my nose. I turned away and had to work really hard not to throw up. I'm still trying to forget the smell.
Our mattress is harder than hard, but I can't even stay awake to read at night. Soon as I pull the sheets up I'm out for the night:)
Someone is cooking next door right now and it's way worse than the sewer vapor.
The potato chip flavors here are interesting. Sushi, fresh seafood, stuff like that. And there's a little Dunkin' Donuts shop in the Tesco (where we get groceries) and they have green tea donuts. Why would you even do that to a helpless donut? And then eat it while drinking instant coffee?
These are just a few of the interesting things I've noticed here in Mae Sot.

Americans!

Today we went to Gospel Baptist Church here in Mae Sot. They have an English service at 9:00am. When we got there, several white faces greeted us. And not just any white faces...American white faces!
We've been meeting and talking with various people here in Mae Sot to find out what is already being done for the Burmese people. We are trying to find out what needs (as far as humanitarian stuff) are not being met so a ministry can be built around meeting such need(s). Then that ministry can be used as a reason for being here and reaching the Burmese people with the gospel.
Anyway, we talk to a lot of Europeans. They're pretty friendly, but there's just no connection like talking to a fellow American. So these folks we met this morning are Matt and Liz and their two girls. They are from Fairbanks, Alaska, and they like guns and chainsaws! Needless to say, we spent two hours talking over lunch. They have been here for about three years, so they know tons of people and are a very valuable resource for information on the different relief organizations working in this area. And it was awesome to talk to Americans:)

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:)

On the road again...

Well, this morning we are leaving for Mae Sot. So far we've just been recovering from jet lag and getting things together for the house up there. Today we'll make the drive up there and begin setting up the house to live in. There's no AC yet, so guess what the first thing we'll do is?!? Fans and AC, then beds and stove and refrigerator and washing machine and everything else. We're very excited to finally get up to Mae Sot and get to work! It's about a 6 hour drive, so pray for safety and some safe food when we get there. I had something yesterday that I'm still recovering from. I guess I'll just stick to fried rice for a while:)

Thailand!

Well, 36 hours later we are finally in Bangkok. All three flights were smooth and uneventful, although I don't remember crossing the Pacific taking quite so long:) But Bro. Tom didn't have any problems meeting us at the airport as the protests and such were in a different part of town. As we come out of the airport my first thought was, "Wow, it's not that hot!" And then I remembered it was 12:30 am.
We are staying across the street and a few doors down from the Gaudet's house in a building they use mostly for storage. Our room is three stories up- yes, we hauled all our junk up three flights of stairs. I'm questioning the wisdom of 8 skirts, among other things I felt were so important while I was packing in my air-conditioned house. But our actual room has AC and we slept fairly well for a few hours last night.
This morning we had breakfast at the Gaudet's house- bacon and eggs, P.B. toast and fruit, juice and coffee- We both really enjoyed it after eating airplane food and drinking green tea for two days! After the meal David and Bro. Tom went down to the office and we ladies stayed at the house to pray and then clean up from breakfast. Then David and I went back to our room and repacked into just two bags (as opposed to four). Now we're down at the office getting ready to go to Future Park to get some shampoo and other things. Jet lag isn't bad yet, and hopefully won't be:) I'll write more as soon as we do something else. There's not much to write about travelling:) Oh, I had my first experience with a squat toilet. That's all I'm going to say about that for now!