A quick update

Hey everyone! I wanted to give a quick update about our weekend in Chiang Rai before the busy-ness of the week overcame me and there was just not enough time. Friday morning the ACU interns, Robert, and the Aggies left at 7:30 to take a 4 hour bus ride to Chiang Rai. Once there, we took a 6 hour journey down the river on bamboo rafts. We were six to a raft, and we were split up so that we could be with a group of Aggies. Getting to know the people on my raft was fun, I didn't really know any of them before. They had a lunch already cooked on the raft- spring rolls, rice, and chicken so as soon as we got on we got to eat. Six hours is a really long time to float along with people you don't really know, but it was a good experience anyway to help me get a bit out of my comfort zone. We stopped for the night in a hill tribe village- I think the name had something to do with milk and honey. They were third generation Christians so after dinner we gathered around a solar light to share with them in music and their traditional cultural dances. They were not Thai, Robert told us they were a country-less people, probably most from Korea or Taiwanese. The village was pretty similar to many of the hill tribe villages we could see along the river. The houses were made of what looked like bamboo and straw and their were cows everywhere. What was funny to our group was that we stayed in a house over the barn and the room was almost empty except for a fairly nice looking TV set. This kind of puzzled us all, it just didn't seem to fit into the context of village life.
My favorite part of the evening was joining with some of the women in their cultural dance. There is a picture in the blog below of the women in their village colors, gathered around for dancing and singing. We all watched for a while, and then somehow a bunch of us ended up joining in. The steps and hand movements looked easier, but they were really hard! After dancing, they sang some worship songs. Some were original to the village, however they did sing "Amazing Grace" in their own tongue. It was really cool to hear a song we've grown up with being sung by women in a mountain hill tribe village so far away from home. I just thought- and I am still thinking- that it is so amazing that the one thing we had in common with each other was a faith in God and how that had just crossed all the lines of language, culture, and economic status. That evening we slept over a barn on the wooden floors. Comfortable? Not so much. But we were grateful to be away from the mosquitoes and able to sleep a little while. The roosters woke us up before light and not long after that a woman came in with a basket of purses and other woven things...and a price sheet. It was actually a really good business move on her part- get them before they leave the house and buy from someone else! I bought a few things, and then was stopped in the village on the way out and coerced into buying more. It was a small amount of money, and I felt indebted since they had let us sleep in their houses and use their bathroom, so I went ahead and bought somethings. I think the women could tell I didn't want so much, but I only had a 100 Baht (about 3 dollars) and she didn't have change so I made my purchases even. Before I left she tied a woven bracelet around my wrist. It was really sweet and I'm glad I went ahead and bought something I didn't need if it helped her out (which we are confident it did).
After another 3 hours on the raft we arrived at the Elephant camp were some of my team mates were set on getting a picture with a python. I REALLY REALLY shook my head adamantly against it, but as you can see by the picture below I succumbed, and held a really really big snake. Ew.
After lunch (and hand sanitizer haha) we hopped on some elephants for a two hour ride through the jungle. Elephant riding is not as easy and smooth as Mogly makes it out to be in the Jungle Book. I lost both my shoes on the journey- I was hanging on too tightly to stop them from slipping off. Some wonderful people behind us picked them up so I didn't have to go shoeless for the rest of the trip :) I liked the ride, especially the fact that I get to say I rode an elephant from now on through the jungle. I am not sure it was an experience I am in a hurry to repeat though.
That was pretty much our weekend up to Saturday afternoon, when the bulk of excitement happened. I would continue on through Sunday, but since I have an English lesson with Hom in about half an hour that is a story for another blog post. Sawatdeeka!