Sawatdee Kha!

I’m back from my MOB trip! Time passed so fast even though we thought 12 days will be a while. Here’s a recount on what we did there:

Day 1
Woke up early to go to the airport for our flight. Glory stayed over the night before (: met yf people at the airport and prayed before we left. The transit between our SIN  BKK flight and BKK  CHIANGRAI flight was like 4 hours! And we didn’t know what to do. So we ended up at the transit cafeteria and ate and slacked there.

Pii Jed and Pii Nellie picked us up from the airport in the truck full of veggies for the hostel. By the time we reached the MOC (ie the hostel) it was already 4. We had a short introduction to the hostel parents and then the kids started streaming in back from school (: I was glad to see some of the kids again but I think initially they couldn’t really recognize me till I introduced myself again and asked if they remembered me from my previous trip. Haha. We had dinner (OH THE YUMMY ROASTED CHICKEN FROM MAECHAN IS A MUST TRY!) before a short introduction with the kids and a game of wacko to get to know each other’s names better. We did our puppet show and a short devotion too (The Good Samaritan)

Since it was a Friday night, the kids got to watch a movie. So we watched this Korean film called “Grandma and Me”. Most of us were quite tired out from the travelling that halfway thru the movie we had to force ourselves to stay awake, especially since the movie was dubbed in Thai and there were no subtitles so we couldn’t understand the dialogues -.-

Bedtime was good (:

Day 2
After breakfast, the kids had to do chores so naturally, we had to join them. We cleaned up the windows and swept off a lot of bugs. Lunched, and the kids had study time. Here’s where the guys packed up and headed off to Palay to join Pii Gao Tim for the weekend. The girls stayed back at the MOC to have the weekend with the kids. Played volleyball with them in the evening. It’s quite nice now that the hostel is at the MOC cos they have plenty of land around it. So there’s like a makeshift volleyball court and a soccer field. And there’s still a lot of empty space around. Haha. Post dinner we had time with the kids for the evening. Then a more in depth introduction of ourselves. The older kids were quite concerned about study related stuff cos they kept asking us questions about whether it’s stressful, difficult, etc…


Day 3
Church was cool. The hostel works like a house church, so they have Sunday school in the morning, followed by a service, led by the older girls/hostel parents and someone would preach a message. This week, Pii Jed preached a message about Daniel. But it was in mien and the 5 of us were like quite distracted cos we couldn’t understand much. Hahah. We came to learn of the sponsorship program ARPC has come up with to support the kids in the hostel. So we helped to translate the kids’ letters to their sponsors from thai to English with the help of the older hostel girls. Through that we got to know more about the kids by reading what they wrote in their letters. We also went for a walk around the area the hostel is in. Quite a farm based area with paddy fields and corn fields.

Day 4
Start of the week. The kids woke up at 5.30 (!). After sending them off to school, we cleaned the toilets that we used and packed our stuff to go up to Palay to join the guys. Also got the chance to talk to Lorraine and Baoyi (APRC people we met at MOC) while waiting for Tzewen (ARPC) to return from the market with Pii Jed.

Up at Palay (Pii Jed brought us up), we met the guys and Pii Tim. He shared his testimony about how he came to know Christ and his struggles with drug addiction. Lunch was at a little noodle shop up the slope. We had cubes of pig’s blood in our noodles. The thought of eating pig’s blood is quite gross. It’s quite tasteless and putting small pieces in your mouth is fine. But larger pieces are a bit psychological… hahah.

We cleaned the walls of the church and washed the floor after lunch. It took us the whole afternoon. The amount of rocks, dirt and dust was appalling… it’s sad that the people there don’t really bother to keep it clean cos to them it’s already cleaner than their own house. At night, we had a romantic session in the dark with Auntie Nellie as she shared about her testimony and her ministry amongst the Mien. It was a real eye-opener for me cos in my previous trip we didn’t have such opportunities to hear more about the ministry of these missionaries so I was really in awe of the way God is working there.

We also had these little snacks… they look like muruku but are not. And they are rather addictive… like opium. Haha. You’ll just keep eating and eating. Auntie Nellie said they were really unhealthy though, cos they are fried in palm oil. And if you put it to the flame, it’ll keep burning like a matchstick cos of the amount of oil in it. She showed us. It was quite fun watching it burn. Despite that, we continued to comsume this unhealthy snack while the older people (ARPC folks + Pii Nellie) had their sunflower seed fellowship (coined term… hahah)

Day 5
Major working day. Me and Vanessa cleaned up the ramp while the others started painting the church. Lorraine and Baoyi helped to clean the house. Mel and Van scrubbed the steps that led down to the church too. Painting the church was quite fun though kinda tiring. Auntie Nellie cooked a nice dinner for us (as always (: ) a fast passing day.

Day 6
Packed up for our return to Maechan and took a walk around Palay while waiting for the Soong teow to come pick us up. Lunch was at a noodle shop down at Maechan after we put our stuff at Auntie Nellie’s house. We went to visit this missionary pastor, Wen Kun, and heard his testimony about his ministry amongst the Mien in Vietnam, Laos and China. It was really inspiring! (:

Went sightseeing at the golden triangle also. Dinner at a steamboat place in Maechan. It was good team time. Quite fun (: haha.

Day 7
We went up to the King’s Mother’s Villa for sightseeing. It’s like this huge flower place. 10 times better than the botanical gardens. Hahah. The flowers were really pretty and well maintained. Pii Jed and Pii Meiching and Gao Cheng came along too. It was photos and more photos all the way. Haha. And they have these pots of water along the routes for consumption where you use a scoop and take the water to drink. Cool stuff. Then we went to Mae Sai near the Burmese border for lunch and shopping (supposedly) but didn’t buy much anw. We had ROAST CHICKEN for dinner again! :D whee! Then team time on the parallel between painting and service.

Day 8
We packed up again today to move back to the MOC. Bummed around while the adults went to the market to buy food for the BBQ. Someone cooked pad thai for lunch, dunno if it was Auntie Nellie or Pii Meiching. We talked to the hostel parents after lunch and prayed for them too. And then we practiced our dance. Helped to prepare for the BBQ and pulled out weeds to plant kangkong near the well. The kids enjoyed picking out worms and showing it to us. Haha. It was quite gross but you get used to it. It was outside the building, with 2 pits and mats around it. Interesting, nice and simple (: Pii Tim also joined us for that one. We watched national treasure 2 after that too. Most of the kids went off to bed halfway cos they couldn’t understand English that well (dunno why there was no thai audio or subtitles). It was a nice movie but we were all quite zonked by the time it ended. Some of us fell asleep halfway. Hahah.

Day 9
Similar schedule to the previous Saturday. But we also helped to clear the cut grass around the MOC. There were many frogs in the field and the kids were so brave, especially the younger ones like malee and chanchai. They would pick up the little things and show it to you in your face. And the ones malee caught were always so big. It was quite disgusting. Haha. They would offer it to you to hold in your hand like some new found pet.

Volleyball was a bit different. We had s’pore vs Thailand. Haha. And j low was the only guy amongst all the girls. And we didn’t tell him about the things they do for forfeit should a team lose the game. Hahah it was highly amusing. We also played this game called contagious disease. It was so embarrassing I tell you.. haha. Details shall not be revealed here for the confidentiality of the team. Haha

Day 10
Jon did a sharing for worship service. And a similar schedule to the previous Sunday too. Haha. Yup. Clement got a fever and his left foot started swelling a bit… didn’t do our dance as planned. The guys started hallucinating about meat products… like ramlee burgers and BK, lagsane, etc.. it was hilarious hearing them spout nonsense over dinner while trying to finish the food on their plate. One must understand that the kids eat a lot of veg cos it’s cheaper than meat. So every meal is rice with one dish veg… although the cooking is really nice, you kinda start missing the taste of meat thus the weird hallucinations. hahah

Day 11

Another new week. We helped to hang out the kids bedsheets in the morning and went to tesco (supermarket) after that to buy stuff. Lunch was the yummy chicken again. There’s just something special about the taste of the chicken. It’s really delicious. Arooy mak mak! We met a mien pastor whom Bartley supported thru bible school. Lunch was picnic style with banana leaves again. Took a walk out to meet the kids after school and walk back with them. Dinner was early today. Our last night with the kids: thank God we managed to do the dance despite clement’s increasing foot size. Rachel and myself shared out testimonies and then we had phototaking.

Day 12
mel’s foot started becoming like clements :S we gave out the cards to the kids before they left for school and took more photos with them. Area cleaning for our sleeping areas before we had team reflection and then off to chiangrai for a bit of walking around. And then airport check in and home sweet home!

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It was a good experience and many new things learnt compared to my previous trip there. It was nice getting to meet up with Auntie Nellie and the kids and see familiar faces again. New faces were also good to know and the kids just make you smile. I really wanted to be able to speak their language and communicate with them. I miss snow (the dog) and gao cheng as well. Gao cheng is 1.5 years old and he’s very intelligent. He’s super cute, especially after dinner when he’s had his bath and got powder on his face. He’ll strut out of the hostel parents’ room with neatly combed hair and he’ll put his hands behind his back and ang2 shou3 ting3 xiong1 and walk to the centre of the circle when we have our program with the kids (: haha. Will post photos soon. Oh and there’s this kid whom I’ve met the previous trip but I didn’t realize how much she looks like Christina teo! An uncanny resemblance in their looks man.

I got to know more about the ministry amongst the Mien and how things work up there. It could just be the recent-ness of the experience that is making think about missions and whether that’s what God wants for my life. That’s why I shall stick to what shaun ong said during one of his sermons at tm: prepare to be a missionary until God tells you “no”. the whole trip and what we learnt cannot be put into words but I’m so thankful to God for every inch of the trip :D I really enjoyed it, despite the days getting more and more tired.