rice riot.

Yesterday, Monday, May 26 one of my students didn't come to school because the road was shut down due to rice riots. On our way to Mai Suay (about an hour south) this Sunday, there was a road that was blocked by police due to the riots. Also, one of my friends was taking a bus here and was re-routed due to the problem as well. I searched for it on the news, and there's nothing on it really, but it's real. I can't find information on it, but I'm sure it's not violent or dangerous. One news article said that people are guarding their fields at night with guns. The protests are due to the fact that the sellers are doubling the prices, while the farmers arent seeing a dime of the profit. You really have no idea how hard they work to plant, maintain and harvest the rice, for sooooo little pay. Oh, and they do it all by hand. Yeah, these huge rice fields... It's an injustice.Imagine making less than $6 a day and the inexpensive staple to your diet almost doubles in price. What do you do?

here's a little article http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0327/p01s02-woap.html

Please pray for this situation to be resolved and all stomachs to have enough...and for God to be revealed as the one who will satisfy a deeper hunger...for free.

jai.

Last Friday we were having a party for the June/July birthdays and everyone with a birthday is supposed to bring 15 treats to share with the school...and of course I forget mine. So I get flustered, and I go into the little snack shop at school and frantically buy 15 ice creams. As I was rushing about, grabbing the ice cream and pulling out my money and being all panicky, the sweet girl that works there looks at me and says, "jai yen". She was completely right. It means "cool your heart". wow, what what a pefect phrase.

This sparked a discussion with my friend Kyndra, who works at a Children's Home for kids who either have AIDS or have been orphaned due to the disease. The name of the home is "Baan Naam Jai" - literally translated, means - Home of the Water Heart. Water heart, how awesome...think about it - a heart that has this life-giving water just pouring from it - what a beautiful idea.

Anyway, so there are a bunch of these "jai - heart" phrases that I want to share...

1. jai rawn - heart hot - as a personality trait - quick to get angry, impatient

2. rawn jai - hot heart - upset (temporary)

3. nak jai - heavy heart - worried

4. taam jai - do heart - to follow the wishes of someone

5. phaw jai - enough heart - to be satisfied, content

6. jai dii - heart good - good-natured, kind hearted

7. jai yen -heart cool - cool, calm, imperturable

8. jai kwaang - heart give - generous, big hearted

9. man jai - to be confident

10. loong jai - to feel relieved, at ease

11. thuuk jai - every heart - to be to one's liking, pleasing

12. sonjai - to be interested in

13. greng jai - scared heart - to be afraid of imposing

14. naam jai - water heart - see above :)

My housemate -Phet, she is very jai yen and jai dii. Isn't she beautiful? I love her.

transportation.

This is how we get around...I took all of these while I was waiting 15 minutes for my bus. Not an awesome picture, but it's the guy pedaling a bike and has that seat attached. The only time I've seen these in action is when they're pedaling around little old Thai ladies or a long trains of tourists. This is a tuk-tuk - my thai book defines it as a motorized tricycle. These guys are good for getting around the city in a hurry (they drive cRaZy) but get pretty expensive if you go more than a couple km.

This little blue guy is a baby song tau - this is my thai dream car - is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen? This is a normal song tau - these run from about 6 AM to 4 PM along the super-highway and you just flag them down and hop in the back - they tell you how much you pay when you get off. The other day I was taking one of these home from school and it was very full. There was an older man on it and he made a boy about 17 years old get up and give me his seat - he had to hang off the back. Well, that spot wasn't large enough for my rear end - so he made another boy around age 14 get up and sit in his friend's lap. Soooo sweet.

The bus system here really is unbelievable. So incredible. I wish we had public transportation like this in the US. The silver and green bus on the right is a "fan bus" and those travel from city to city and stop anytime someone flags them down. The seats are made for petite thai people, though. 5 seats across - not super comfortable...but for a $2 bus ride that takes you to all the way to Chiang Mai, you don't complain. The other bus - the yellow and green one there beside it is an "air con bus" and those have 4 seats across. There's also a VIP bus - which runs about $8 US to Chiang Mai. Those have 3 seats across and while the fan bus can take up to 4 hours, the VIP does the same trip in about 2.5.

This is my friend Kyndra on her rad fino. Motorbikes are pretty much the transportation of choice around here. I have to say after driving one for a month or so, I understand why. The gas is so cheap - like $3 a week. They wouldnt really fly in America though, b/c our cities and towns are so spread out...oh, that...and we're too performance driven to spend the extra time that it would take on the motorbike on the road. However, you will notice how everything just pretty much stops when it starts raining...

Thai Phrase of the Day: Khit waa khun khung aap naam prowaa mii men kha. I think you should shower b/c you stink.

*concidence? you decide. The Thai word for "a stinky smelly" is men. (hmm)

culture

So, some life below the surface...lately I've really been reflecting on culture...specifically the one I'm living in. It would be good for someone to know where I'm coming from...

1. It is NOT rude to ask someone how much they paid for something, tea, peanut butter, a car...whatever. In fact, it shows that you're interested and appreciate the object.

2. Just today my friend and I were talking to a Christian Thai lady about her daughter who is 15. My friend said the daughter is "suay" which means beautiful. The mother immediately replied "no, may suay" - no, she's not beautiful. The woman said that she tells her that she's not, but the daughter thinks she is. I have NO idea how a mother can say her daughter is not beautiful to anyone, especially people she's known for less than an hour, but that's culture.

3. The only people that really touch in public are those of the same sex. Perfectly heterosexual girls hold hands, men don't hold hands, but it's normal to see a man grab another man's knee or shoulder, but it's VERY rare to see couples being affectionate in public. I have older thai women come up and rub my stomach as they're talking to me, it's different, but sweet.

4. Quiet, subtle and displaying as little emotion as possible are the character traits that are most highly valued. The trait that is heavily frowned upon is having a "hot heart" which means you are quick to show that you are upset.

5. I haven't been able to read 95% of what I see in public. I am learning Thai phonetics, which basically means that I'm "functionally illiterate"...and I'm driving...haha.

6. It is rude to wear your shoes inside. This picture is of our worship time, and all the teachers' and kids' shoes outside the meeting room.

7. There is a strong value for the elder. The other day I saw a young man driving his grandmother and then making sure she got on the bus safe. It was sweet. The roots of this are in Buddhism, but I like it.

8. To be polite, when you're walking by someone, you lower your head. Not all the time though, but for example, if I'm walking down a narrow stall in a market and I kind of have to slip by someone, I would duck down a little bit to show kindness. There's a specific word for being considerate - Gren Jai - and that basically means that you bend backward to be hospitable, polite, kind and generous to people. Sounds like what community should be like, eh?

He restores.

Like I said in my blog a couple days ago...at first glance Cambodia may seem like a dirty and poor nation with stunted development, but if you look close, you can see glimpses of God trying to redeem this thirsty nation.

Let me tell you the story of the past few decades in Cambodia - in case you missed it (as I had).

In the early 70's Cambodia was doing alright for itself in the ways of the world, life was pretty peaceful and good for most folks. Then, this guy named Pol Pot came along with his Khmer Rouge, a militaristic, Communist regime. He defeated the American's weak attempt at democracy and converted the peaceful nation into one that would turn neighbors and families against themselves.

When Pol Pot took over, he forced all of the people out of the major cities, and into the countryside. The people who lived in the cities (called "new people" by farmers) were the majority of the well-educated and the people who lived in the country were mostly farmers (referred to as "old people"). You did hard farming labor and were fed 2 bowls of rice soup a day. If you didn't die of starvation, but showed any kind of infidelity to the Khmer Rouge, you were killed. The estimate is about 2 million people died during the 4 years. For a population of 7.5 million, that number is critical, especially when it was mostly those with higher education who were killed. There was scarcely a family untouched.

The brutality is staggering. The Khmer Rouge would use hoes and picks to kill people, so they wouldnt waste bullets, and they told the "New Members" (those forced from the cities) that "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss."

While in Cambodia, we were able to visit a Genocide Museum, outside Phnom Penh, and they had dug up skulls and clothes from the mass graves. I saw a similiar mentality as the Thais about the tsunami, when visiting the south. The Cambodian people want people to remember what happened regardless of how horrific it was. Standing in that same place 30 years ago, I know the scene was much different, I imagine grassless, dusty ground, stench and a dark spirit surrounding the place. Today, walking around and seeing a place where over a thousand lives were lost, you couldn't help but notice the green grass growing, the birds singing, flowers blooming and beautiful sunshine.

The only hope is that life overcomes death. Flowers bloom where many lives ended, God overcomes man's death and destruction and redeems the land with beauty. and bigger, Jesus overcame death on a cross and redeemed you.

huaro = laugh.

These pictures made me laugh. I hope they put a little smile on your face too. :)

English is a difficult language to learn and blunders like this are commonplace, but this one was pretty cute. Please, don't call if you're boring!

I really liked this sign. It was in the bathroom at Angkor Wat. I could imagine a poor old Cambodian woman, looking at the western toliet trying to figure out how she could stand up there. "This ain't no squatty potty, grandma!"
This picture is of me crunching down on a fried grasshopper. I feel like that's a pretty appropriate face, but it's still classic.

kampucha 1.

Kampucha is thai for "Cambodia".There are 7 people in this short-term missions program I'm in. Aimee is one of them, and is currently working in Chiang Mai, about 100 KM from here. She and I were fortunate to be able to travel last week to visit 2 other girls, Morgan and Katie (also involved in the program) who are working in Cambodia. They work in Phnom Penh at an organization called Hagar International with women and children who have been involved in human trafficking. Morgan works doing prision research, looking for ministry opportunities, and Katie is doing great work in the office. They blessed us with the opportunity to go to a birthday party (complete with icing to face smearing), a prayer meeting and a Khmer New Year party at the shelter. The women were so welcoming, and we had a great time. I'm probably being overly sensitive, but I wish I could post all the pictures of these beautiful women and children, but I dont think it's appropriate.


The traffic was the most chaotic thing I've ever seen.


These vans were everywhere, packed with people and possessions. This one only had 1 guy on top, I saw one van with 6 or 7 people sitting on top.


The theme I saw repeated throughout the trip was just how much destruction, poverty and corruption there is, but how beautiful God is and how He alone can redeem it.