Rice Grains

Last weekend I paid my friend Trish a visit up in Det Udon, an 11-12 hour train ride away. I took the overnight train, and though I had hoped to get a sleeper train, there were no sleepers left; so I ended up in the reclining seat section, non-airconditioned. I had no idea how COLD that trip would be! I absolutely FROZE! In fact, I am still fighting a bit of a cold. I wrapped a T-shirt around my shoulders and curled up in the seat, strategically placing my bags around me to help hold in the heat. It worked only marginally. I don't know when I have had such a long miserably cold ride. Multiply that by two--I had to repeat the adventure Sunday night on the return trip.

The time in between, however, was a really nice time. It was good to see where Trish has been living these past 4 months and to experience a bit of life in a more rural area. Below are a few pictures of my time there.

Trish with her host parents

Saturday we had lunch at the home of Skip and Carol, EMM workers in that area. Carol is my mentor.

After lunch, Skip and Carol's daughters went swimming in this river behind their house. When they were finished, they were covered with yellow dirt!

When the girls jumped into the river, they dived in sync off the side, from where the Thai boys are standing. And they did "only" 8 laps! Oh to be able to swim like that!

Saturday evening, Trish and I happened upon these water buffalo returning to town after a day out (I guess!:).

Sunday morning we boarded a songtaew to head for a big church meeting a couple hours away. About an hour into the journey, the vehicle broke down, so we waited by the side of the road while the men tried to fix the problem. By that time it was 11:00 and too late to go to the meeting. So we ended up driving to the home of one of the women, and we held church there.

This is the home of the woman, and when we drove in, I wondered where in this little house we would have church for 30 people! However, a new house was being built, so we spread out mats on the concrete floor of the new building to hold church there.

I experienced my first Communion in which Fanta and sticky rice were used as the elements. Sorry for the blurriness of the one picture. The little blurry basket is the standard container for sticky rice.

After the service, we had a fellowship meal together. This is a standard custom every Sunday for churches in Thailand. The lady sitting next to me insisted on giving me many different herbs to try, telling me they are good for medicinal purposes. But WHY did they all have to be extremely BITTER?? In fact, the ladies across from me started laughing because they know "farang" don't like bitter tasting things.:)

That's it for the pictures. We got home from church about 3:30 PM, so I had about an hour before needing to leave for my 2nd cold train ride home!