A few of our group from CCN before our trip..

Missing:Lydia, Donna, Brenda, Jim, Kim, Sue, Patti, Lorraine and Keith

Leaving Chicago via Korean Air for Thailand

Our flight took about 20 hours or so with a layover in Korea.

The view from our hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second biggest city with about a million people in its metropolitan area.

More of the view in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is located in Northern Thailand , the largest city in Thailand is Bangkok in the south.

On our way to Mae Hong Son.. Those are bee hives in that tree!

Our bus ride between Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son took about 8 hours through Thailand’s famous winding roads… Dramamine was a necessity.

In Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Mae Hong Son is a city of about 7,000 people and is only about a half an hour from Nai Soi and 6 miles from Burma.

Still in Mae Hong Son trying to figure out OUR plans

Our initial plans were to build an orphanage at a camp further south.. When our plans were forced to change it took a while to figure out where we were going.. We ended up heading to Nai Soi.

Misty morning in Mae Hong Son

Buddhist monks are prevalent in Thailand (shown in this picture walking along the street), about 95% of Thais practice Buddhism.

Capturing a line of young monks on my camera

Another monk shot..

Helping with “Queen for the Day” event put on by KFA

Every year Kenosha Free Assembly in Wisconsin sends a group of ladies to Nai Soi where they visit with and minister to a small group of refugee widows. These women lost their husbands to the violence in Burma. They travel by foot through the jungle from the camp to Nai Soi. They then are treated like queens for a day where they are treated to a shampoo and head massage, manicure, and hair cut while their kids are entertained. Our medical clinic was also set up to help them.

Lydia & Brenda teaming together

Queens

I think I might have found a back up career plan

Or maybe I’ll take up face painting

But it takes a lot of concentration…

…for work that good!

Hannah’s good too..

The crowd was growing as word was spreading..

Christine Karrow brought her skills to serve

Christine is from Wisconsin and was with the team from KFA , she’s a hair stylist.

We went through a lot of soap and water in our salon

It really was hard work but more than worth it..

Life in a refugee camp is not glamorous. Many of the women we served that day don’t have the things that we would consider basic and necessary . Treating them to a shampoo and cut is small to us but was likely huge to them.

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.Matthew 25:40

Beautiful sunrise

The church at the Bible School

Brenda working in our clinic that we set up in Nai Soi

Brenda Harshman was amazing with her patients.. The language barrier was large and there are medical terms that we have that they don’t have words for, you can imagine how much harder it was for her to diagnose anything. I loved watching her work because she had to be creative and she did such an outstanding job serving the refugees. She has a huge heart for God and the refugees.

Lorraine & Chris also did a fantastic job at helping the refugees with their medical needs.

Lorraine & Chris working in the clinic

Meanwhile back at the salon, Lydia and Brenda were working hard at building towers of nail clippings! Even the boys started showing up for a clipping and shampoo.

The line for a hair wash was out the door!

… Okay, there are no doors, the line was really long!

Our Project

Finally our construction team got to work on our new project, building a kitchen for the students. This is a picture of the guys breaking ground.

Larry working hard with that pick axe in the hot Thai heat

After removing the old concrete from the site we began digging footings for the new building.

Brent loves having his picture taken.

woof

Fleas?

Mama

Ouch!

Another reason I don’t wear skirts… or shorts.

Coming and going to church

Shoes Off Please

Bamboo Pile

View of the church from our bunk in the boys’ dorm

Even though our plans in Nai Soi were last minute the students happily gave up their living quarters for the whole time we were there, we stayed in the boys dorm building. They were so happy to have us at their school and were always making sure we were comfortable.

View of the rice paddies towards Nai Soi

Lunch time outside of the clinic for Lydia & Dave

We usually ate rice with something added to it… broth or vegetables and sometimes meat. We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner but the students only eat twice a day.

Waiting to see the Doc..

This is outside of the clinic that we set up. Brenda, Lorraine, Donna, Sue, and Chris were helping the refugees with their medical needs and Pat, Patti, & Tamyra were helping with dental work.

Helping in the clinic until our construction job was assigned.

Taking a break from scrubbing hair, Lydia and I helped bag and label medications.

Refugee widows receiving their gifts that we brought for them which included clothes, toiletries and small toys for their children.

Larry really hit it off with the students, they referred to him as Crazy Larry (we might have given them that idea) and they just swarmed him whenever they could. He also found a feathered friend at the school.

Mr. Popular

Setting up a “shop” of donated goods for the refugees

Receding Hairlines

Prakob (our tourist policeman) and Kim comparing foreheads.

Long Neck

On our way to the long neck village. The Thai government allows the refugees in the long neck village to live outside of the camp as long as they continue their long neck tradition.

The women in this village add heavy metal bands to their necks each year.. The bands push down on the collar bone and make the neck appear longer…

I was told that traditionally it served to protect the women from tiger attacks (typically they go for the neck) and also allowed the men in the village to quickly identify their women if they were kidnapped by the enemy and needed to be rescued…Their women were the ones with the longer necks.

Now it is simply a tourist attraction that is profitable for the Thai government and allows this tribe to live in this village outside of Burma.

That bug is real…not sure if the gun is.

Thai ducks

Weaving

Jim, Keith, & Larry leaving the long neck village

At the entrance to the long neck village

Kim, Lydia, Me, Brent, & Dave

EEEEEEEKK!

This guy was really high up… wonder how big he looks close up

Walking through the rice paddies

We took a break and walked into Nai Soi from the school.

View of the girls dorm on the left with the boys dorm in the background

You can guess what that’s for

It’s called a squatty, because that’s how you use it, you squat. After you’re done you take a dish and dip water out of the tub next to the squatty and dump it down the drain to “flush” it.

In the meantime our construction was making progress but only as fast as our pick axes would allow.

Stand strong. Don’t let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord; your work is never wasted. 1 Corinthians 15:58

Wire Benders

We bent lengths of wire into supports for the building’s footings.

Brent and our construction boss

More metal bending

Quikrete?

After the metal supports were in place, we began mixing the concrete…

We hauled buckets of sand, rocks, and water and mixed them together with shovels and hoes to create our Thai quikrete…

Our Holes

The students joined our human bucket-passing chain

Is that bucket #32 or 33?

I guess if you rub dust all over your pants it makes it look like you worked hard.

Keep it coming

Teamwork

Taking a ride into Mae Hong Son to drop someone off at the hospital

The market in Mae Hong Son

More departments than Meijer

Flower shop

Gas station between Nai Soi and Mae Hong Son

Conference

Our friend, Prakob

Taking a break

Putting on a concert for the students…

Our digs

About to play volleyball with the students…

Bamboo wall under construction

God’s House

I was showing the girls pictures from home.. Of Clara & Spike (my pup and cat) and one of Blake (my newphew). They got a kick out of me telling them that Clara is my baby, dogs are treated differently in our culture than theirs. I also gave them my Bible in hopes that they could try to teach themselves English with it by comparing it to their Karenni Bible. I’ve decided it would be better if I went back and helped them with that instead.

This is Klu, a beautiful girl from the inside out

I really bonded with Klu, she is so sweet and I can’t imagine what she’s been through in her short life so far. She is an inspiration to me because of her bright outlook despite her circumstances, if only we all could be so wise.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?Romans 8:31

Dinner… featuring rice!

Music Man

Brent sharing his testimony…

Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him singing with joy.Psalm 100:2

Larry & Prakob

Our construction boss

Just thought it was funny that he was wearing pink and purple… probably not something you would see on a construction boss in America.

Making progress on the kitchen, can’t you tell?

It was fun… at first.

Prakob’s job was to protect us and our belongings but I didn’t feel like we needed him in Nai Soi.. However, I was glad he was there, he ended up becoming a great friend to most of us and we loved being around him.

Who can resist wet concrete?

Taking a break to fetch some bamboo from the jungle

Pictures can’t do justice to the size of those trees.

Mae Hong Son province in Thailand is made up of complex mountain ranges and thick dense jungle forests which long isolated it from the rest of the world.

Follow the leader…

Gross and beautiful at the same time.

Lydia climbing for some bigger bamboo…

I stayed back to catch her if she needed me too.. Or at least take her picture to document her fall.

Posing in the jungle

I wanted bamboo so the students could show us how to make cups or bowls with it… they did, I ended up bringing a lot of cups home with me that were made by the students and a few that I made myself.

Brent may have over done it…

But he was still ready to party!

Nice duds

The night before we had to leave the students put on a bon fire and entertained us late into the night with plays and singing…

Over the bonfire they made sticky rice, a real treat that was rice cooked in the bamboo sticks that are leaning over the fire…

When the rice was done, we peeled back the bamboo and enjoyed it with Thai tea… delicious! I don’t know what was in the tea or how they made it but it was exceptional.

They are so talented!

Friends

Brent and Stella

Stella is a missionary from India, she has an amazing heart and is doing great work in Thailand with Dave. She has worked in the refugee camps as a teacher and traveled into Burma to help the people that are still there.

Lookin Good!

Like it was made for me..

The students sew their traditional Karenni dresses and sell them to help support the school. They also make jewelry and Karenni flags to sell, both of which I also own now.

Love that girl…

And those girls!

Ladies Man

Showing off our new duds.. Traditional Karenni garb

An uninvited guest at the party.. At least he wasn’t the poisonous kind

The students had us sit up front where they presented us with a gift…

Purses…. Or Man Bags!

Even our police officers got one! Prakob looks pretty in pink.

… so we tried to entertain them in return

Yeah, we line danced. I’m sure it was entertaining.. Probably not impressive though.

The students taught us how to squat…

… it’s harder than it looks!

One of Andrew’s pics, but I had to include it because it’s just so cute.

My Thailand Family

More of my Thailand family.. It’s a big family

On our way home

Yes, please!

Mmmmmmmmmm!

I don’t eat a lot of burgers in the states and I don’t drink pop but I could not wait to eat this one and enjoy that coke after a few weeks of mainly rice.

Saying goodbye

I miss him.

You don’t say!

The kitchen today!

The kitchen has had a lot of progress made on it since January with our provided funds. It is almost in working order… I’ll let you know for myself in September.

Thanks for clicking through my shots!

I can’t take credit for this one.. Another great picture taken by Andrew.