One By One the Ants Are Stealing My Sanity

This week has been one of many, many, many run-ins with ants. I am sick of it, to be quite honest.

It all started on sunday night, after I returned from housesitting. I walk into the kitchen to find ants crawling all over the water filter. It was easy enough to clean them up so I tried not to freak out about the sudden appearance of ants in the kitchen.

Wednesday night I came back to my room, opened up my laptop and it was covered with ants. I had seen an ant or two on my computer before, but never this many. For some strange reason, unbeknown to me, ants like the heat. I doused my desk with ant killer, but I was really at a loss and had no idea how to get rid of the ones still on and in my laptop. After all, I can't just spray ant killer all over my computer. Finally, I settled for spraying the table with ant killer, wiping it up with a tissue and then wiping the tissue over my computer. That seemed to work, but after an hour the ants were back. So, I wiped it down again and stuck it in my laptop case, hoping that would prevent more ants from moving in. Thursday morning when I pulled my laptop out of its case I saw at least twenty to thirty dead ants inside the case. Since then I have been storing the laptop in its case when I am not using it and it seems to be working so far.

Kitchen, Round 2: I spent all of today (saturday) sitting in the office, in the air conditioning. I came back to the dorm at 6 and I walk into the kitchen and there is trash on the floor. Not just any trash either ---garbage. We're talking eggshells and some other sticky substance which I couldn't quite identify. The first thing that peeved me was that the other person who uses the kitchen had just walked out and left the mess on the floor, yet had the courtesy to tell me he thought the dogs had gotten inside and went through the garbage. I (not so) graciously swept up the eggshells and various other debris on the kitchen floor. It was then that I noticed thing number two that really set me off---stickiness on the floor. I found a rag and scrubbed it, thankful that the ants hadn't gotten there yet. When I looked at my hands I realized I was wrong because there were ants on them...some dead, some alive.

Kitchen, Round 3: This actually happened on friday night, but I didn't notice it til today. All day friday, I was helping homeschool a couple of the dorm kids and then I hung around and kept an eye on the dorm so that the dorm parents could have a day off. I come back to the kitchen friday night long enough to grab a bottle of water and notice that there is an empty ice cream carton on the counter. Apparently, that infamous other person who I happen to share the kitchen with had some friends over and they hadn't cleaned up. Ok, whatever. Tonight I was getting some water out of the hot water pot (I don't really know what else to call it because it isn't a kettle) and noticed there are ants all over the counter...in the exact spot where the empty ice cream carton was left. The carton had been rinsed out and washed, but evidently the counter had not. I got out the ant killer and killed the ants. Again.

One by one the ants are taking my sanity. And my goodwill towards the people I live with.

My sanity is also slipping away as the temperatures rise higher and higher. This morning it was 92° in my room. Outside it was only 78°. Lucky me. My room has windows facing all the wrong ways so it doesn't really cool down at night and since houses are built out of concrete here, they don't really breathe either; they just hold the heat in. I can't wait to return to cool IL.

The Last Leg

This morning I started to feel like I was on the downhill slide. I am wrapping up all the loose ends that I have here. Thursday and friday of this week and next I will be helping with homeschooling in the dorm. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was agreeing to help out with that while the regulars are on holiday, but really it was two and a half months ago.

This afternoon I also had a meeting with Daron, the short term trips coordinator -also known as the Serve Asia program. We discussed a couple of the books I read for my internship--Mountain Rain (a biography of J.O. Fraser) and Live Life on Purpose. Again, it seems like just yesterday I was sitting in his office for orientation and he was telling me we would discuss these books shortly before I left. We had a really good conversation (more about this later though...perhaps when I reflect on the internship as a whole).

Tomorrow I am leaving at 7 am to making my second and LAST trip to the Burmese border to renew my visa. I am not looking forward to spending upwards of nine or ten hours in a van, but at least it will be air conditioned. Speaking of air con, Chiang Mai reached its highest temp so far this past week. It was 91° inside (with shade and a fan) and well over 100° outside. These temperatures don't even take into account the heat index. I am surviving the heat though. I've been drinking water like it is my job, knowing from experience that dehydration is no walk in the park. Please pray that I'll remain healthy through the last two weeks that I am here.

This video is not related to anything else mentioned in this post, but it really captures the essence of Bibi, the dog that I sat for last week.

Plugging Away

I am happy to report that this week has been one of relaxation, fun, and sleeping in air con.

April 13-15 is Songkran (Thai New Year) and it is essentially three days of water throwing...fun fun! I was able to participate and threw my fair share of water at cars and trucks as they drove by. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me seeing as it isn't waterproof and all. Just as a matter of speculation, I have to say that it is a very modest event. By modest I mean there isn't a lot of skin showing. The water throwing is anything but modest in Chiang Mai --in fact, some say that Chiang Mai is the site for the largest Songkran celebrations. In the States it is easy to imagine such an event being turned into 'girls gone wild' or something of that nature. However, in Thailand, most everybody is wearing an oversized t-shirt. It is completely modest and just an all around good time--until you get nailed with ice water. Yes, ice water. Trucks will drive around selling large blocks of ice for people to place in barrels of water. Even in almost 100° weather cold water is still a shock.

This week I am house/dog sitting for my mentor and her husband. I am thoroughly enjoying air con (I only turn it on while I sleep) and will be sad when sunday rolls around and I am relegated back to the un-air conditioned dorm. But on the bright side I will only have two weeks left by then!

The end of my internship means that deadlines and due dates are approaching. I am thrilled to be done with the four assigned books and the reflection papers that went along with them. Additionally, I have four papers to write as overall reflections on my internship experience. A lot of the content for these papers can actually be found right here on my blog, I just edit and organize my thoughts in a more coherent way. As of today I have two done and two to go. I am hopeful that I will finish those tomorrow. I cannot express how freeing it is to think that I just have two papers left in my college career!

Does Your Friend Know How to Speak English?

After we got back into Omkoi from our drive down the mountain, we stopped to eat lunch. While we there an older man, perhaps American, but I couldn't be sure was talking to Hans and Beatrice. I said hi to him when he first walked up, but then resumed eating my meal in silence. As I listened I found out his name was Peter and he was apparently in Omkoi with some type of a team that was rennovating a church in Omkoi. The reason that I could not be sure he was American was that his english seemed really awkward--he spoke really slowly and did not seem sure of himself at all. After dicussing all of the buiding that had progressed while we were out of town, Peter said to Hans, "Does your friend know how to speak english?" It was all I could do not to laugh, especially considering that I had been the only native english speaker the whole time we were in the village. Hans winked at me and said, "Yes, she knows a little." Then Peter looked at me, I suppose expecting me to answer the question, so I answered, "A little bit." I said it crystal clear and without any accent at all, but Peter bought it. 

Then I told him I was American.

Visa Run, Or How I Visited 3 Countries In 1 Day

My visa actually expired on the 4th, but since I was out in the mountains I couldn't get to the border too easily. That being said, I had to go to the border as soon as I returned from the village. No rest for the weary. Normally there are vans that go to the border every day just for tourists who want to extend their visas. However, the visa extensions lately have been for 15 days instead of 30 as it was before. With the shorter visas there have been a lot less tourists and less vans going to the border for that sole purpose. So, I ended up going on a tour of North Thailand just so I could get my visa extended. At first I was annoyed, but looking back I am really glad that I was able to do the tour.

Here are some of the highlights:

The White Temple --- typically Buddhist temples are gold, so this one is quite a rarity.

 This was taken from a boat in the Mekong River as we journeyed to Laos. This is the Thailand side and as you can see Buddha's boat has been run aground. Once the rainy season begins, it will appear as though the boat is floating on the water.

Animal whiskey is apparently popular in Laos (?). I'm not completely sure of that though. Anyway, it was one of the popular items for sale on the Golden Triangle (the place where Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet).

I think this is self-explanatory.

The only picture I took in Myanmar. I was there for a grand total of 20 minutes--just long enough to get fined! (for my visa being expired)

Life In A Karen Village, Or How I Lost 10 Pounds In 5 Days

The 5 days that I spent in the Karen village were definitely the most demanding of my entire internship. For me, the primary purpose of the trip was to see the ministry that happens in a village context, so mostly observation. Also, I knew that I would be helping paint in a newly constructed church. The Swiss missionaries, Hans and Beatrice, have a relationship with this church and they were going to do some teaching also.

In addition, there were two other Serve Asia workers who came along: one from Switzerland (Fabio) and one from Austria (Martin). Translation: I was the only non-German speaking person in the group. Despite them all knowing English, they spoke German most of the trip. Often I was the only person in the room who didn't know what was going on. Hans and Beatrice were using German and Karen for the most part and I don't know either one of those languages. At first I didn't mind, but as the trip went on the more I felt like language was being used to exclude me. I can't say that was their intent, but that is how I felt most of the time. Even though I was in a room full of people I felt alone. At one point, the Karen people asked us to sing a song for them. We did, and while we were still standing up in front of everyone, Fabio and Martin started speaking in German and Hans was translating into Karen. For a good five minutes I had no idea what was going on. It was all I could do to hold tears back. I went to bed early that night and as I lay there crying I could hear Fabio downstairs talking to a Karen guy. He had asked Fabio somehow (he spoke very little English) if I was alright or something to that effect. Fabio's answer was, "Well, she doesn't understand Karen and she doesn't understand German so she doesn't have any idea what is happening." Exactly.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea about this trip though--other parts of it were enjoyable.

The Karen people were amazing and I did have a chance to use my Thai though since some of the young people can speak Thai in addition to Karen. There was a Karen evangelist, Sam (top right picture) there also and he knew Karen, Thai, and some English. When we were speaking together in English he kept apologizing because his English was not very good, but I had to keep encouraging him to talk to me. I was desperate to speak to anyone who knew any English, no matter how little!

The mother of the family we stayed with was also amazing. She didn't know a lick of English but it was evident that she was glad I was there. Almost every time she saw me she would come and give me a hug and speak a lot of Karen. I think part of the time she was saying God bless you and part of the time asking me to come and help her take care of her grandchildren. One time I was lying down and she came over and we basically cuddled together while she said who knows what in Karen. She is the lady standing next to me in the bottom left picture.

Beatrice visited several homes in the village to pray with people and I would tag along with her--that is what many of the other pictures are from. In nearly every home someone would say something about the traditional Karen skirt looking nice on me and then telling me that I should marry a Karen man. They also wanted me to marry a Karen man because I am so quiet and reserved. I think I am going to have to disappoint them, though. ;)

Village life certainly did not disappoint my expectations of it being less than, shall we say, comfortable? I suppose I should clarify that there are varying degrees of village life. There are several villages that have power and many other modern conveniences that we are used to in the west. However, a village that takes four hours to drive to, all on unpaved roads, straight up a mountain, is a whole other ball game.

Every meal was cooked over a fire and every meal included rice. The dishes served with the rice are hard to describe, but they all had about the same texture--mushy. Some had potatoes and some had noodles, all had vegetables and all had the Karen ingredient of choice: pepper. Every dish was spicy, even at breakfast. To be polite I would take a little of the dish and eat it. Apparently, the house mother noticed that I was growing a bit thin because at one meal as she was dishing out her portion she looked at me and my plate and slopped some more of an identifiable green mushy substance onto my plate. One of the interesting things I ate was cinnamon, straight from the tree. That was just a snack though, not part of a meal.

The house we stayed in was literally battery powered. The lights at night were hooked up to a car battery and that is how we had light to learn by at the evening meetings. Showers were, well, non-existent unless a bucket shower counts. Sleeping was on the floor and I think it goes without saying that there were no fans.

The second night we were there we hiked to a neighboring village. For two hours or so. It was intense to say the least and not really what I thought I was getting myself into when I said I wanted to see what life was like in the village. But, I suppose that is what life is like in the village; the average person doesn't have the luxury of a car and few have motorbikes. We crossed over a river several times (really more like a creek though), walked through pastures and I saw cows for the first time since leaving good ole Greenville, and hiked on paths literally on the side of a mountain. Did I mention I was wearing flip flops?

I'll end with these pictures from a fire we saw on our trip up the mountain.

Mae Hong Son

My trip to Mae Hong Son was a breath of fresh air. Beth (in the top right picture) and I spent every afternoon at a local coffee shop working in the air con since her house in the village doesn't have any and the afternoons are unbearably hot here during this time of year. I hadn't brought anything with me to work on, so Beth loaned me some books and I ended up reading five books while I was there --one a day. One morning we went to visit a neighboring village and saw some girls from the youth group (bottom left picture) and spoke to a Shan evangelist (top right picture). On sunday morning I had the opportunity to share my testimony with some Shan believers. One challenge to sharing my testimony was making it easily translatable for Beth and easy to understand for the believers. It was rewarding for me to think about how I came to faith without all of the typical words that Christians throw around.

The top left picture is a guest house that I stayed in a couple nights while I was there; the bottom right is a picture overlooking the city of Mae Hong Son--too bad it wasn't clearer.

**Sorry for the small photos. Try clicking on the picture and you should be able to see a larger one**