A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

If thats the case i've already said to much, cause here comes some a lot of photos.

I got an email today and thought it summed up the trip pretty well. Here is a snip-it,

""The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those
who are crushed in spirit." I pray that God would be
close to you as your heart breaks for the people you are
serving and reaching. It's a good place to be. I also
pray for the broken people of Thailand."

Thanks Jamie!

This is a little late in getting posted but these are from our first sights of Thailand.
Here is a shrine in a little market from the city of Tak. We arrived at 6:15 am Tues morning after driving through the night from Bangkok.


Some wild dogs chillin, wait for the others to get out.


Mr. Bill checking out the area.


Some of the local beauty.


Some of the local not so beauty.

That right it's a toilet. At least it's not a hole in the ground. The "tub" of water to the left is flushing water. There is a little bucket in there that you fill up and pour over your "business" to flush it.


Ok here is some soup that was served at lunch on Tuesday after we got to Thailand. I, of course being the naive ginger that i am, thought the cute little innocent orange shape floating in the soup was a sweet carrot. After i started to chew my food up real good like Julie has tried to teach me i found out that it was in fact pepper...that contained HELL FIRE FROM THE DEVIL HIMSELF and yes everybody laughed at me as i tried to put out the fire in my mouth.



This was round 2. I won. Sweet and Sour Chicken.


A few shots of Mae Sot as we get closer to the banks of down town to do some money changing.



Here is what a power line looks like in down town Mae Sot .

One of the many village dogs. I am surprised at the number of dogs that are roaming around the city and villages.



Ice cream is a universal joy.



This bugger is our alarm clock. I'm still working on getting the snooze installed.

There are a few of these momma hens running with her chick around the campus.



OK now here are some shots of the house we're working on.



Dropping the septic tank down into the ground.


Bamboo instead of rebarb.


This is Ahphu, he's 19 and a good hard worker.


This is a Takraw serve. Basically its soccer and volleyball mashed together with a short net.


This is Ati and me. Believe it or not i had forgotten i had a beard until i saw this photo. I am still brushin my teeth and showering, just don't have mirrors where im doing that. He's been teachin me some Lisu (Lee Sue) Language.


Probably one of my favorite shots from the trip so far. Kids will be kids in any country and at any level of "cast system". Again, it makes you wonder how much better your life would be if we could "unplug" ourselves from the TV, computers, phones, facebooks and of course these horrible blogs. :) We would have time for more of the simple pleasures in life that will mean more to you than that hour spent/lost to technology.


Sorry that im playing catch up on the photos. I am taking a lot more that i thought i would be. The whole upload process is taking longer that i thought and don't want to start updates till the day ends out of fear of missing something with the villages. After all that is why i'm here.

Got some fun shots from today that i'll try and get up soon.

Till tomorrow
TTFN

Doc

Flexibility, Flexibility, Flexibility

To give you an idea about how out of it i was on that last post, i don't even remember writing the the caption comment about the pictures till i read it tonight. Right now it is 6:30 pm on Thursday night and we are heading off to chapel. We are surprising the kids and students tonight with Pizza and Coke tonight.

More to come later
Doc

FIGURED IT OUT BUT AM REALLY TIRED

I guess you could call me it on me being lazy but, im only gonna up load these photos from Sunday's adventure. I seriously am about to fall asleeps as i writ this.


Make you your own captions and well see about making some winners later.
Later
Doc

Finally Figured It Out

Keep Praying

Hey there everybody.

As i am writing this it is 8:40 pm here and the landing is still full of refugees from Burma waiting to be seen by the medical crew. They have been at it more most all of the morning and took a small break in the afternoon before they hit it again for this evening. I can hear the cries of the children as they are seen by Wynn, Jane, and Gail. There are dealing with everything from colds, coughs and runny noses to Malaria the like. They saw one man that probably wont make it through the next few days. He came in with what we believe to be a ruptured spleen. Chuck and Ezekiel went to the hospital with this man and his family to try and get him fixed up.

As i talk with most everybody here they seem to be very much afraid to the germs and water here. I am trying to be careful but i cant help but fell like i am turning my nose up at these people when i do. I know its for my safety and Julie if you read this i am trying my best to keep the cuts and scrapes tended to as best i can!

I know that your prayers are and will be needed for the families that came tonight with conditions larger than what we can address as well as Jane, Wynn and Gail as they i am sure are at he point of exhaustion tonight. I am sure that they will sleep well tonight. Wynn also took a spill last night and "cracked" his head good. Keep him in your prayers as he trys working and recuperating

On some lighter notes i have some thoughts from the day that i am pleased to share with you all, but do to the internet's speed here i am going to try and find another way to up load some pictures. I don't have a photo editing program loaded on the computer here. I was going to use Matt's but he is also having some issues with his power cord so i might only be able to get a few uploaded saved down to smaller sizes before his battery dies. I will see what i can do though.

The children's laughter here is quite honestly the purest sound i have heard in quite some time. I dont know what makes the difference. I wish i could pin point it but it escapes me now. Everyone seems so happy here. I wonder if i had as little as these people if i would be as happy. Or are the simple pleasures in life wasted on me. I pray that they are not! I am sure to treasure them even more once i return.

Today i thought about our dental health as i looked around and saw black smiles and splitting teeth. I thought about our cement mixers as i mixed sand and rock and concrete together with Ahphu. I have never worked with tools made of bamboo either. Thought about our clean water as every time i talked with someone from the States they reminded me to not brush my teeth with their water.

My day was made as i was working along side Ahphu mixing concrete. We were making the back porch and inside bathroom floor. Ahphu looked at me, patted his chest and said "i am glad you here"with a grin from ear to ear. It's really affecting me more now as i reflect on it. It was the most genuine look i think i have ever seen on the face of another human.

Most of the day we spent asking each other questions like how do you say sun, butterfly, fire or smoke in the others language. I must say that i got to thinkin about language and how wonderful it is that sounds can mean absolutely nothing or they can stir the inmost part of your heart. They are just sounds strung together, if you have the key to the puzzle they are magical.

Today was a good full day here in Mae Sot. We were up and running this morning at 7:30. I'm
gonna call it a night for this post and try and let the upload run of some pictures over night see if that makes a difference.

Thanks again for the comments i will share them with the others.

See you all sooner than i realize.

Doc

Plane ole Adventure

Right now as i write this to you i believe it is 8:30 am your time, and 8:30 pm here in Thailand Nov 3rd. I think everybody is ready to finally lay down horizontally and sleep. most of us caught a few hours of sleep on the drive from Bangkok to Mae Sot this morning.

I did manage to get a blister and have it break on the bottom of my foot today. Which, of course, means that i am the first one to officially get hurt from the group. Wanted to tell you since most of you probably had bets going anyway. You may now collect.

The weather here is much nicer that i thought it was going to be after hearing the highs in the 80's there is a wonderful breeze that keeps things cool. The students were actually asking if i was cold tonight in my shorts and tshirt. I was very comfortable and they were cold.

As far as our flight goes it was pretty cool. Nome Alaska was really something. To look out over the landscape and see it covered in snow and the mountain peaks jutting up from the clouds. Breath taking. I have a feeling these photos won't do it justice but i am posting them any way.
If they let me post these large files. If not they come a little later.

There was a bit of a delay, 1 and a half , from Atlanta due to bags being weighed and all. Then we lost our spot over Russia, dont really know how but that's what the Capt'n said. Over all a smooth flight. No rough turbulence from during the 14 hour flight from Atlanta to Tokyo. At least right up until the the last descent on Tokyo. Boy what a doosie. I am not sure what made them think it was a good idea to feed everybody 45 minutes before we start a decent on a city that is having some rough skies. needless to say the Egg and Cheese omelet i had really didnt get to do my body all that much good.

The delay pushed us really tight on getting trough the check point in Tokyo's airport. We barley made it to the gate before they gave our seats away to Stand by folks. Tokyo to Bangkok was fine. Flew right on out no turbulence i believe that was at 5 or 6 pm Tokyo time which i think is 2/3 am for NC.
We landed and made it through customs and were on the road by 1 am Bangkok time and arrived in Tak this morning at 6:45 or so. Which is really good time for those who like to know. i believe our average speed was 120kph. you know its fast when your sleeping and you feel like your going to fast in your dreams.

Lots more to share but im having trouble keeping the eye lids open.
We jump into the house tomorrow morning at 8:00. Breakfast is at 7:00. I am looking forward to the boiled rice! We are spoiled rotten, remember that when you are going through your day.

Ok i really am going now there are geckos on the screens eating moths and bugs. IT IS AWESOME!


TTFN
Doc

P.S.
i think that everyone thinks my name is Duck . . . and i'm ok with that.

Safe and Sound

Well we finally arrived here at the College about 8:45 am November 3rd. That is more traveling in one sitting than i have ever done before. Nov 1st 7 am- Nov 3rd 8:45am.

I am gonna have a hard time keeping the time straight. The time changes and international date changes are still being sorted in my head. I'll keep thinking its Monday for a while. But im sure that it will kick in soon that its Tuesday. Im gonna try and go back and up date the adventure from Start to Finish Nov 1-Nov 3 after i get cleaned up and settled in here. Until then, thanks for the prayers and keep em coming.

Its beautiful here! There is a wonderful breeze that is refreshing and the birds singing are inspirational. Already i have seen things to make me feel ashamed with how good we have it in the States.

Love you all

Doc