Shan Village

You Make me Like Squash!

I cooked squash the first couple days I was in Pai. It was cheap and one of the few vegetables I recognized in the market. Pi Kaew must have told everyone that I LOVE squash because several have been dropped off over the past week. I've made several squash dishes out of what people bring and that only reinforces the belief that I must LOVE squash.

White Girls are Beautiful

That white is beautiful is ingrained in the minds of Thai people from a very early age. When I gave my students two minutes to write down everything they thought of when they thought of America, nearly every student wrote something about how American girls are white and beautiful. I wrote earlier about how it is nearly impossible to find skin care products without a whitening agent in Thailand. All commercials, billboards, and other advertisements for skin care emphasizes that it "brightens" and "whitens". Those who cannot afford skin lightening treatments purchase whitening products off the streets- which is described more in depth in the article posted below. I knew from my experience in Hong Kong that in most of Asia- as in other parts of the world- girls use whitening products to lighten their skin, but I guess I did not realize the extent to which Thais, and especially Thai women, will go to make their skin "brighter". I also did not realize how young children are when they begin this obsession with lightening their skin and how much time and money they spend in creams and treatments. When I explain to the girls that in America and Europe girls put oil on their skin and lay in the sun to get darker, they just laugh and don't seem to understand my point- that definitions of beauty are very much cultural specific and that they do not need to accept their culture's definition of beauty- that they are beautiful just the way they are.

Dangerous Beauty: Thailand's Women Want White Skin at any Price

Dangerous Beauty

What's with White?

I cannot seem to find any skin care products without whitening agents. I feel I am plenty white already, but it seems I have no choice. From sunscreen to lotion to facial scrub to deodorant, I cannot find a skin care product not labeled "whitening".

Thai Government Project School

Today was my first day teaching at the special government project school. The students are from Lisu, Hmong, Shan, Karen, and other hill tribes in the north. Some of them have physical or mental disabilities. Most are learning English as their third language. (Their first being the language of their hill tribe, and the second being Thai.) Since their families live in remote areas of northern Thailand and cannot transport them to and from school, the students, as well as teachers and administrators who tend to take on the role of caretakers, live at the school. Students wash their own clothes and dishes and are also responsible for cleaning the bathrooms and classrooms (which they may need some coaching in as the bathrooms were especially nasty today). Students are provided with three meals a day- generally white rice and a cooked vegetable.
This morning I taught three sections of English. Had I not asked their ages, I would have guessed them to be 14 or 15, but, as often happens in Asia, people tend to be older than Westerners think they are. My students were 17 and 18 and in their junior and senior years of high school. Some of them had been living at the school for 5 or 6 years and others had just come in the last few months. Students were well behaved, respectful, and of course, smiley. (Thailand is rightly referred to as the 'land of smiles'. The first two classes had about 20 students each, but the third class had only 8. When I asked why there were so few, their regular classroom teacher, Pi James, told me that sometimes "they just take off". Some of them never came back from visiting family over the weekend. Others "maybe are somewhere on campus". Pi James really didn't seem to know for certain. I would have liked to have been able to meet all of them on the first day, but it was actually nice to have the smaller group as I got to know them quite well in just an hour. We got rid of the desks and moved the chairs into a circle and I asked them simple questions about their families and where they were from. James told me they were the worst group in term of their English level, but they were my favorite group as they seemed especially eager to learn. Today I taught them future simple tense and they told me their plans for tomorrow using "I will _____" or "I am going to____". The boys really like to play a game that sounds very similar to soccer. Both girls and boys play volleyball. One of the girls likes to dance. They definitely have a sense of humor as when I asked what they were going to do tomorrow, one of the boys replied, "Tomorrow I am going to go to America!" I could tell that some of them were more advanced or simply trying hard to impress as they were using more advanced vocabulary and more complex structures than the rest of the class. One of the boys in the last group repeated everything I said. He was incredibly focused the entire time- watching everything I typed on the screen and listening to every word. When I see that kind of motivation in a student, it makes me want to give them the world. And with these kids especially, seeing what many of them have gone through in terms of growing up in poverty, not speaking the language of the country in which they live, (some of them) having been forced to leave their home country, facing discrimination as ethnic minorities, and not being familiar with the norms and customs of dominant Thai culture. Add to that the fact that some of them have physical and/ or mental disabilities and/or have been abused or abandoned by their families and it makes their discipline and motivation to learn even more amazing.

Path to Freedom

Path to Freedom

Shan Refugee Schools

Shan Refugee Schools

Shan Refugee Camp

I struggle to find words to express all that I saw and felt while walking through the Shan refugee camp this afternoon. An elderly couple hauled buckets of sand from the river and dumped it in a pile in the middle of the "road" running through the village. I was told that the Shan people can make up to 300 baht a day selling the sand for construction, which is twice what they make working construction. The people in this Shan village are refugees from Burma who are not able to return to their country and do not have papers to travel within or leave Thailand.

Monks Chanting in the Temple

It's 6a.m. Saturday- day of fasting and prayer- and I wake to the sound of monks chanting in the temple.

Secret Place

Whether it's moving to a new place, getting involved in a new ministry, starting new classes, or learning a new job, when I am tempted to allow the excitement of new activity distract from my first love, I search for a secret place as though my life depended on it. Jesus is my example of someone who, though on the move and surrounded by people, kept His time with the Father priority. He would cross to the other side of a lake, climb to the top of a mountain, do whatever it took to keep intimacy with His Father.
Here in Pai, my secret place is on the end of a dock about a 10 minute walk from Pi Kaew's house. When I sit overlooking the Pai River, my thoughts are on the Lord and His word to me- To me. His voice.

Longing for More

I have been SET FREE from the law of sin and death! I am no longer a slave to sin but a slave to RIGHTEOUSNESS!! Romans 4-8

Chicas

Patti

Blanca

Gomez

Caballos

Purasangre

Guadalajara

Guadalajara