tsunami and mountain village:

we ate lunch with jerry who spoke to us about her trip down to phuket and the tsunami disaster. she said they were doing mobile medical clinics there to help out. she said she has truly never seen devastation like that before ever. wow. can you imagine? she said flip flips of children were stuck in the sand and you can imagine how horrific it was for that child being in that tidal wave or what happened to them. well, i'll stop with the details b/c they are too hard to take in. just know it was bad.
i found out something really interesting about indonesia. there is a city there that was hit the hardest of all cities with the tsunami. just before the tsunami came, the Christians in that city were trying to get the government to do something for the people or something, instead the government is mainly muslim and they were very upset with the christians so they forced them out of the city up into the mountains. so the christians were not there during the tsunami, they were up in the mountains b/c the government had forced them away. can you believe God's saving hand on them? He is sovereign. something to think about for sure. in fact, the city is the first islamic city with the movement in indonesia that was hit the hardest.

well, after our interesting lunch conversations, julie and i got a quick break before meeting up with the group to go up into a mountainous village today. i took dramamine one hour before, so i could brace for the trip. we went up into a mountain side village and saw breathtaking scenery of green mountains, green pasture farm plots of land, and lovely switch back roads. the village was seen as a whole bunch of colorful rooftops on the mountainside, like blues and whites. it was neat. we went to a government building in the village and that is where our group goes weekly to do vacation Bible school and english lessons for the kids of the village. they were taught a thai Bible story about moses and then sang songs. julie and i got up to teach the english. i tought them the alphabet and she taught them the colors in english. then we played "telephone" the game with colors. would you believe the hardest color for them to remember was "purple." i'll never forget, it was so interesting. red, white, grey and black are also really hard colors for them to remember. well, pink was, too. anyway, if they got answers right to the quiz, they each got bananas. what a great prize! seriously, it is just so real here. i love it. these kids were so well-mannered. they behaved in the most polite way. each of them did a curtsy and bow when they got the banana as a prize. when we asked them to get into lines, not only did they do it in like two seconds, but they arranged themselves in order of descending height all by themselves. we didn't ask them to do that! can you believe it. Mary told us it is b/c the teachers are very hard on them in school and they get publicly embarrassed if they do anything wrong in school.

the ride home was even more breathtaking. now it was with the sun setting in the sky behind green fields of corn and rice and green mountains. the sky was layered in pastel colors like a rainbow. of course, my camera battery died, but i think we'll be going back before the month is over.

tonight's meal was extra spicy, but so delicious. it was curry chicken with red hot peppers. so, the way we make it less spicy is by adding sugar to the food. it's real common to put sugar on all of your meals. very different!

luke took me to the clinic tonight to see a dukay. it is a huge lizard that looks like an iguana, however, it's not a friendly one. apparently, if they bite you they won't let go. lovely! they chirp and sound almost like a cross between a bird/ parrot and a dog. they are loud. now that i know what that sound is, i'm not so sure i like it. oh, in the middle of the afternoons there is this sound that rings so loud like a machine or something... i found out that was bugs!!!!!!! i cannot believe bugs can be that loud, i mean so loud you can't hear what people are saying. nature is truly unbelievable.

i'm excited for friday. we have another great day of clinic and then we are going to take children to the market in the village for dinner. i think it should be fantastic. i'll let you know how it goes.