nye.

New Year's Eve I had one of those brushes with the peace that surpasses all understanding and I knew there was no where else in the whole world that I would rather be that night.

We got home from the south on the 30th and then my friend Aimee came from Chiang Mai to visit/do a border run for her visa that night. Most of the next day was spent getting that done, but in the evening we went out to Baan Nam Jai - Home of the Open Heart. It's an orphanage mostly for children who are HIV+ it was so awesome to get to celebrate a new year with my friends and the kids out there. We had fireworks and they released the khom loys like we did for Loy Krathong. After the kids went in, we came back to our house and we had a party. That day, I (without thinking) asked Phet if normally in Thailand they have a party and watch the ball drop. Sure they do...at lunch time the next day...haha. So, I figured it really wouldn't be New Year's for me if we didn't have a ball drop, so I found the nearest soccer ball, stripped the lights off our tree and cleverly found a way to "drop" it from our curtain rod. Haha...it was a lot of fun and I was so thankful to be here. I hope your 2008 was as much fun and I have a feeling that 2008 is going to be the best year yet!!

"Sawat dee bee mai!" - Happy New Year!

krabi.

The last stop on our trip was a day in Krabi. (pronounced Kha-robbie - except you say it like it's only 1 syllable) It was about an hour and a half in a van from Khao Lak. In Krabi Town you had to take a longtail boat about 15 minutes to this island. Totally worth the $1.50 boat ride. This is where James Bond Island and Ko Phi Phi are...the beautiful limestone cliffs that are on all the travel brochures. This area isn't preserved like the Similans though and there were SOOOOO many tourists, but it really was a beautiful area. There was rock climbing everywhere because of the cliffs. From Krabi Town, we got back on a bus and spent the night travelling back to Bangkok.

This guy roasting/selling corn was seriously in demand.

similan.

My brother asked me if the beaches were like the post cards and I had to say yes after I saw the Similans. What a cool place to worship God on Christmas! We got on a speed boat with about 20 other people and drove for an hour and a half and got dumped off here! We spent 3 nights in this tent on the similan islands, an archipelago of 9 islands. We stayed on island 4, but we went snorkling on 3 of the other islands. You could walk from one side of the island to the other in about 5 minutes, so you could see the sunrise on one side of the island and walk to the other side in the evening for the sunset! This is where we spent Christmas...it was neat, Damaris and I sang Christmas Hymns by ourselves on the beach and we were joined by our tour guide (who isn't a Christian) and we read the Christmas story in Luke. It was pretty special and I really enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle and commercialism that seems to have become Christmas in America. The idea of the purity and joy of celebrating Christmas on the beach I'll never forget. I love the way that they have preserved the island, there are only about 30 tents and a few bungalows.

The last day, a current brought in trash and it was so gross and sad. Plastic bags, food wrappers, just gross household waste was in the water and washed upon the shore.

tsunami.

I didn't tell my parents b/c I knew they would worry, but the place that we went, Khao Lak was one of the places hardest hit by the tsunami. Even 3 years later, the impact of that day is still a reality in the lives of those who experienced it.

This is a boat that was escorting a Thai Prince. The wave took his life and washed this police boat over 2 kilometers inland.

This is a sign on the Similan Island we stayed on.

Our snorkling instructor showed us a video that his brother made of Khao Lak when the tsunami hit. You may know that the water went out...but I was very surprised that it was for 20 minutes. You could hear the people yelling for the people on the beach to run, but there were a lot of people (mostly foreigners) that were walking on the beach and looking at all that was normally covered by water...fish, shells, you can imagine. One image that I'll never forget was that of a young child looking at shells and unsuspectingly being engulfed by this wave.

It's very interesting to me the way that the Thais have embraced what happened. They sell DVDs and are eager to share what happened, I believe they just want people to be aware and to remember their loss.

the beach.

For Christmas break, Damaris and I went down south for the beach. We left on the 20th and came home on the 30th, but the trip really started a few days prior to the actual departure. Damaris and I knew that our bus left @ 7 for Bangkok, and were discussing when we would be able to get to the bus station (b/c we had to take public transportation). Well, I KNEW for sure that the buses to go downtown ran later than 5:30 ish, so I insisted that we leave 5:45 at the earliest. Around 6:15 when no buses had come, Damaris was about to get mad at me...and a mini-car pulls over and drops a lady off. Another woman from the car approaches us and tells us that they're teachers and asks us where we're going. We said the bus station, and she said she'd be happy to give us a ride. So Damaris, I and our huge backpacks smush in the backseat for our ride downtown. HUGE blessing!

It's an over-night bus, so we left at 7 pm and arrived in BKK around 6 am. Not a bad way to travel really. The seats are pretty big and recline way back. I always have trouble reclining though, there's just something about taking someone's personal space that I struggle with... Around 1 am I was glancing out my window and for about a 1/2 mile this truck had accidently been dropping boxes and the contents were all over the road. What were the contents? Straws. White straws all over the road...hahaha

We arrive in BKK and ride the city bus from the north bus terminal to the south...an hour and a half. Not bad for 18 baht. So we eventually make it to the south bus station, and decide that rather than stay the day in BKK, we'll go to Hua Hin - a beach about 3 hours away and spend the day there and then take an overnight bus down to our destination - Khao Lak. Hua Hin was a nice place, but very touristy.

We took an overnight bus from Hua Hin to Khao Lak - this is the beach.

arrive around 6 AM in Khao Lak walked around for a while, try to communicate where we want to go, get sent to the wrong place, walk a couple km back to where we started and then call Bens, an amazing Thai girl that works at the YWAM base. So, we get settled in our guest room that's right next to the base there that ministers to tsunami survivors. We spent a couple days there in Khao Lak...to be continued...these are beautiful designs made by crabs.

Christmas break.

We're officially on Christmas break until January 7. Today was the school Christmas party. It started after lunch and lasted until school let out at 3:30. They did fun Christmas songs - I got to sing a carol in Thai with 2 other adult Thai students! :) Then the students made ornaments/did activities while the adults did our gift exchange and then they played musical chairs and did a balloon pop game (where you put a balloon on your ankle and have to stomp on other people's balloons while trying to keep yours safe!) and then the kids all had a gift exchange. What a special place this school is...

My roommate Damaris and I are leaving tomorrow night at 7pm to get on an overnight bus to Bangkok. We'll arrive there at 5 am and look into purchasing another ticket down to Khao Lak. It will be about 13 hours from Bangkok. We'll be staying at a YWAM base in Khao Lak (where the red dot is on the map) and then camping for 3 nights on Ko Similan...then we're not sure..we might stay longer. It's nice to be free like that...did you know Thailand means "free" land. I love that. They really do have an awesome King here. He really lives to serve these people and make the country better.
This is where I was last Christmas Eve! It's amazing to think about what and where God has brought us in a year. I encourage you to think about that, I'll do it too on this trip. We can do it together :) So, where have you been in 2007? What have you learned? My friend pointed out that your "gut response" is really usually the most truthful.

HUGE prayer request is safety traveling and spending time at the beach and meeting people God puts in our path.

reaching out.

We loaded up the entire school in trucks and went on an outreach Monday. We went to Sansuk School near Chang San. (i think) Sansuk means fun, by the way...it's also the name brand of sandals in the states :)

We pulled in around 10 AM to around 500 students waiting for us. We were welcomed with 2 beautiful Akha dances in their traditional clothing, followed by our kids doing the "funky chicken" haha. We played a couple games like the balloon stomp and gave them school a TV, DVD player and 90 kilos of oranges! haha.

Thai phrase of the day: Dichan rak khun kha. - I love you.