the last solid rock

friday - we prepared for having a huge "solid rock party" for all of the kids who live in the villages nearby. these are the kids, elementary school through high school, who come every friday night to learn stories from the bible, to play games, to eat dinner, and to learn english. we hold solid rock in the clinic. since this was the grand finale, we said it was going to only be a night of fun! so, i had the chance to be domestic during the day and i loved it. i helped make homemade pizza from scratch! julie took a picture b/c she said this was a monumental moment in history. we made the dough and helped roll it out. well, you know how the rest goes. the end result was we had six huge pizzas with different toppings. during the day while julie was taking a nap, mindy and amy came over and asked me if i wanted to go with them into town to get ice cream for the kids. bruce said it was a fun experience. i don't even know if i should call chiang klan a town, but it has a main street with vendors on it. i thought it would be fun to leave and go explore with them this ice cream store. we bought a huge box of coconut ice cream that we were going to let the kids eat with chocolate syrup. when i got back, mary and dr. tom said that if i hadn't already been to chiang mai or bangkok, i would think that going to the ice cream store was a really "cool" thing to do. :) we joked that for this rural area, it is a big deal to "go into town." i said we should have dressed up for the occasion. after all, we were going to be seen in the town, right? just kidding. after all of the preparations for making pizzas and crafts, someone went and picked up all of the kids from their villages and brought them to the clinic. we played some games that help them with their english. one was an animal game. we all sit in a huge circle and each person is named for an animal. i was "turtle." so a person stands in the middle and starts off the game by calling out a name of someone in the group or their animal name. for example, someone says, "turtle." then i have to say my name plus someone else's name before someone in the middle can run to me and tag me. so i had to think fast and say something like, "turtle... dragonfly." then the person who was dragonfly had to say someone else's animal name. that way the kids can practice english words.

the second game was a hoot. it involved all of the farangs and thai staff acting out charades. the kids had to yell out what we were acting out in english, so they could practice their vocab. the thai staff saw a different side of julie and me. afterwards, mary said she had no idea we had it in us to act. i told her, i had actually taken acting lessons when i was little and was definitely a drama queen, but was just supressing that while i was here (for their sake). my words to act out were pretty easy- banana, sing, and run. for some reason, they died laughing in hysterics when i did "sing." i asked mindy if i could use my voice, and she said, no, so i quickly replanned my strategy and on the count of three they let me loose to use my imaginary microphone and go to town with serious singing with the head shaking and all. i never heard the end of that one from the thai nurses! they kept wanting me to do it again. no. julie was worse. she had "chicken" so she didn't do the simple thing by just flapping your arms like a chicken. oh no, she had to squat down on the ground and proceed to walk while squatting and move her head back and forth front to back like birds do. i was on the floor laughing so hard. i was like, "she is not doing that!" the kids loved it and were able to guess! afterwards, we settled down while listening to noi share her testimony. it was in thai, but i knew what she was saying, since i heard her share it with me one day in clinic. i gave her a big hug at the end and was so happy she could be used. i think it's really important that they see a thai person's life changed by Christ.

afterwards, we were all hanging out and somehow things started to evolve into julie and me sharing american cultural things with the thai nurses. they asked questions, and we would explain with words or actions. we explained what a 70's person would have been dressed like and how they would have acted. that involved doing some 70's saturday night fever motions. let's just say that produced an immense amount of laughter to them. we then imitated an 80's person stereotype with the pony tail on the side. at one point i said the word "water fountain," and noi didn't know that word. so i got up and imitated drinking from a water fountain with swallowing and all included in the act. things we take for granted. i'm still laughing as i write this. noi and i have this thing with caterpillars. we basically die laughing anytime the word is said. it all started a week ago or so in clinic b/c i told her i was itching a lot here b/c of allergies or something. practically every patient comes in with itching and i'm always like join the club. i haven't had a rash or anything, it's just that i can itch. it's gotten better with my anti-histamines. but noi had a theory that it was some type of "worm" she said that i must have been rubbing up against. i had to clarify she didn't think i had worms. we laughed in clinic that day and she said, "no, it's if you touch your skin anywhere on your body next to one, you will start itching." i was like, "no, i don't think it works that way medically." i finally figured out she meant "caterpillar" not worm. would you believe, one day i opened up the dermatology book we have here and it opened right to "caterpillar dermatitis"! for real, there is something if you rub against one and they sting you, you then proceed to itch like crazy and get a rash.

so last night at solid rock, she pointed down to my leg and says, "zsila caterpillar" i looked down at my leg and there was a dark spot in the shape of a caterpillar! we freaked out until i realized it was actually a scab that came off. sorry, for the details, but it wasn't a caterpillar. i will never look at a caterpillar the same again. by the way, they are everywhere here.