This week I felt like Jane from Tarzan!

Hello Everyone! We left Mae Sot on Sunday and now we are in Chiang Mai.  Last night was our first night here and I had a little bit of culture shock.  First off, for those of you that don't know, Chiang Mai is a tourist and university town.  We will be teaching English, working in the red light district, and other possible ministries.  This week, because the university is closed, we are doing work projects around the English center. I am the leader of the garden/landscape team! I am so excited to design and buy plants for a small area at the university. We are currently staying in a guest house which is sort of like a hotel. It was strange having the toilet, shower and sink all in the same room...and a HOT shower!  I forgot how much I appreciate them especially all together in one room.  We went to the food market for supper.  The streets close down, and then there are basically lots of venders and food stands. It was so weird seeing other white people! Thailand's water festival starts on Wednesday and it could last for about a week. During this time everyone in the country throws water and baby powder on everyone, and everywhere! Everyone is buying squirt guns and many stores and the university shut down for the festival. As "white tourist" we are targeted the most! (I'm sure in the next blog post we will tell you how this went)

Last week was amazing. God is so good! I learned with different experiences that if we are faithful, he will bless us. On Monday we headed to a Burmese village but the guards didn't let us in that day, so instead we ended up heading to a village and then going to a cave in the jungle! It was beautiful, and I felt like Jane off of Tarzan! I even tried swinging from a vine. Well okay, it was only a few feet off the ground but still. :) On Tuesday we went to the local jail and sang songs, spoke, and even taught them how to line dance. We also went to a clinic that night and prayed for people.  On Wednesday we headed to a village up in the mountains, probably my favorite thing we have done so far. It took about 7 hours or so to travel up to the village. It was literally in the jungle up in the mountains! Now I really felt like a jungle girl! I could go on forever about this trip! To make it easy I will list a few things and then you can ask us to fill it in when we come back.
1. 2 off road pickup trucks that had 20 or so people and their luggage. Josh and I ended up in the back of the pickup...let’s just say we learned how to ride like the Thai people.
2. No showers = showering in the river
3. Houses were wood, bathrooms outside, no sinks
4. The animals were treated like people in the town, chickens, pigs, cows would walk everywhere! The lived under the houses and outside my window was the home of a huge pig!
5. Food = rice, and...some other stuff
6. I fell in love with the people, and they are amazing! Rarely anyone goes up there because it is so far away. We blessed them and they blessed us!

We had a wonderful time with Pastor Michael over the past two weeks, and I was sad to leave after just starting to create a better relationship with him and other people in the town.  I am excited for Chiang Mai though.  We will be here for a month and be able to have more time to create good relationships with the students at the university.

I want to thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to hear and know that people are thinking about us, and it helps us to stay strong and continue on.  Below are some prayer requests.


1.Safety during the water festival. Our leaders told us today that they heard there are more deaths this week in Thailand than there are in 1 year in Australia. This is because of water splashing on cars, drunks in the streets...etc.
2.Staying healthy. I got sick one day (because I ate something I was not suppose to…oops, that’s what happens when I become adventurous) and Josh has been having stomach problems. Nothing major, but still prayers are helpful.
3. That we dig into building relationships with the students that we will be teaching.

Thanks everyone, miss you all. We are starting to miss American food! So as you eat dinner tonight, be glad for the food you are eating...hopefully it's not rice :)

-Danielle