Day 5

After group devotion and breakfast, we had a short time of sharing. Samakee's wife, her sister and brother-in-law were with us as Acaan Jaey encouraged Samakkee's wife to press on in the Lord. It was then that I realised that we had been staying at the house of Samakkee's sister and brother-in-law. No wonder one of the villagers I talked to the night before gave me a quizzical look when I said we were staying at Samakkee's house. You see, Samakkee's house is still being built just across the road from where we stayed.

After sharing and prayer, we looked to take a group photograph before loading our things onto the coach. I went outside to find a good spot for the photograph. Taking the direction of the sun into account, my attention was drawn to a corn field which is adjacent to a house. The ground on which the corn field sits is lower than the ground where the house we stayed in is situated. In fact, from the house to the field, the ground gently slopes away. That meant that we could stand in the foreground and still catch the corn field in the background. More importantly, I saw an opportunity to take a real "harvest field" shot. So it was, that we stood before the golden field, in our orange shirts, the bright sun enhancing all the colours.

Once the coach was loaded, we went to another school just outside Samakkee's village. Once again we taught 3 classes. After class, Robert passed two of the soccer balls we had bought to the senior teacher present. Almost immediately, she handed one of the balls to some of the male students who instantly began playing with it.

Soon, we were back on the road. This was to be the longest journey we would make during the entire trip. By the time we stopped for dinner, it was around 6:30pm and we had been travelling just over 3 hours. When I asked Acaan Jaey where we were, she said "Nakhon Sawan". My eyes nearly popped out when I heard that and I asked how much longer the journey would take. Jaey said we'd probably reach our destination in Khorat around midnight.

Anyway, dinner was at a restaurant (like a zhi-cha stall by itself) where we ordered pork fried rice and phad ka phaw muu and a seaweed soup. As we waited for the food to be cooked, me and Joan had a Nokia moment (more accurately, a Creative moment, but called a Nokia moment from the ad which says "when the music starts, the connection begins"). She had been listening to music on Bryan's mp3 player when a Celine Dion song starts playing. She is surprised that Bryan is listening to Celine Dion and asks him about it. I overhear her question and ask her what song it is. Well, it was "Because You Loved Me" from way back in 1996. I absolutely love that song so she passed me one side of the earphones so I could listen to it. Cue Nokia moment, two people sharing music on a sidewalk. Ha.

Anyway, dinner was good. This was the first time we could make a special provision for Karen Lim, another first timer on the trip. We had to order a plate of phad ka phaw beef for her as it had come to light that she doesn't eat pork. She hadn't informed me about this beforehand and it had become apparent to mission trippers who saw her taking pork out of dishes served at previous meals that she doesn't eat pork. Anyway this time we could get a non-pork dish for her. This trip was quite difficult for Karen Lim as she found the living to be too rough for her. She also had to cope with homesickness. Nevertheless, by the end of the trip she would be more positive about the entire experience.

Back on the coach, we continued our journey to Khorat. Along the way, I talked with a few of the trippers then thought I would snatch one or two hours of sleep. But before I could do that, I happened to notice something Stacey had written in her journal. Now, I knew already that she keeps a journal from my first talk with her. She had told me that she writes down random thoughts that come to her mind. Anyway, she had written something in big letters. I thought I'd ask her about it. When I did, she turned her journal to another page for the continuation of the message from the first page. I thought I'd talk to her about her thoughts, which were basically about the state of the earth and what it will take to change it. In the course of the conversation, I was asking her about her family and she told me that her dad passed away when she was 7. To this point, I had had no idea that she had no dad. This was because in our prior conversations she had always talked about her parents in the collective sense. Anyway, since my own dad passed away not too long ago, I thought I would ask her if she remembered anything about her dad. As it was a long time ago, she said she couldn't remember much apart from his last days when he was dying from cancer. I thought of my own experience with my dad of course I could emphathise with her.

Suddenly, the coach's aircon began to make some strange noises and we became aware that we were travelling on a bumpy road. As it was only 11:00pm we wondered why we were taking this road if we hoped to reach our destination by midnight. After about 15 minutes, we came to a house. By the side of the house, some people were standing by a fire. Someone said "barbeque!" prompting sniggers. I could see a tall tower of speakers by the fire and thought that we must be in a busy part of town. However, Acaan Jaey told me that we had reached our destination. which was Gif's village in Khorat. Getting down from the bus, we were struck by how cold it was. It's been a while since I've experienced cold like this in December in Thailand.

Gif is a man who met Taeho and Sunhwa when he was working in Korea. Through them, he came to know Christ and it was Taeho's suggestion that we visit Gif at his village. Gif is the brother of Naam who had been with us during the trip. Together, they welcomed us to their home. After a meal of rice porridge and Coke, we drew up the sleeping arrangements. There were two houses that we could use, and we put the guys in one and the girls in the other. The girl's house had the attached toilet, whereas the guys' house had an outhouse.

Upstairs in the guys' house, the guys got ready for bed. We were surprised to see a row of mattresses and we soon marked out where we would be sleeping. After washing up, we settled down to sleep through the cold night.

End of Part Five