Pages

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

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.
Posted by Picasa

4 comments:

  1. The thought of you crying yourself to sleep that night makes me sad. Still, I know you are strong and that you are continually being blessed and growing. Blessings and prayers to you for your last month!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Talk about needing to take the good with the bad. You are amazing girl! What a story you get to tell.

    ReplyDelete
  3. But still no dog, eh? Drat! I wish we could have shared the bond of both eating dog. But, I suppose just being roommate will have to suffice. I can't wait til you get back, this apartment is lonely without you (or anyone for that matter!).

    ReplyDelete
  4. My verification word was "litter". Just thought I'd let you know...

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...