Once Upon A December

Imagine the following scene, ten years down the road... 




A little girl climbs on her mother's lap and asks for a story. "Tell me a Thailand story, Mommy!"
Her mother smiles. "What kind of story from Thailand, sweetheart?"
"Oh, a good one."
"Alright then. Once upon a December........"

Once upon a December, I was blessed. No, not once.

Nor even twice nor thrice.

How many times was I blessed?

Far more than I deserve. 

This is a small taste of that "once upon a December:" that story that, had God not been busily writing the story that is me, might not have been recorded, experienced or remembered.

Friday afternoon, after having sat in classes while my kids studied for final exams and asked me a million questions, a group of us loaded two trucks full of stuff: bags and mats and pots and pans and so much food that it almost filled an entire truck bed itself. 

All of the IMM students showed up--along with LeRoy, Travis, Meme and Hannah Sharon; the cook, Daygwemo; and Brenda, Sharon, and myself. After a prayer, our drivers, Breck Lang and Harvey, pulled out and headed down the road.

We ended up at the top of a ridge in the mountains. We pass by this place every time we go to branch Sabbath school on Sabbaths, but I hadn't yet been up to the actual viewpoint. This was our first choice for camping, and lucky for us, there was no one up at the highest point.

There were two bathrooms close by (devoid of toilet paper, however), but the water in the tanks was questionable. We brought three jug-fulls of water with us for drinking and cooking.

Yes, the food. We took alot of it. And really, I can honestly say I've never eaten so good on a camping trip before in my life. What you're seeing in the above picture is so much food that I think we didn't even finish it in one weekend--and that with close to twenty of us eating three times a day!

Then came the next phase: getting firewood. Which doesn't mean you go out and find a hug log and slice it up with a chainsaw. It means take the machetes and knives and go hack down some small dead trees and pick up sticks. 

So, they did. I was taking pictures of the process, feeling a little unsure about having come in the first place. This is Meme, one of the Sharon's adopted girls.

For probably close to twenty minutes students (and teachers) dug around in the brush at the top of the ridge, finding sticks and branches and any sort of wood substance that would burn, with the exception of the wooden benches already up there.

Even Hannah helped.

Then from out of the bushes came this character, marching along with a load of wood and a very large palm leaf, which he promptly covered his face with as if shielding himself from an onslaught of something--something like Brenda's camera.

Very funny, Saw Di Aye.

The view was incredible. It was late afternoon when we got up there and the mountains receding in the distance, the colors, the clouds, the blue sky--everything combined to present a view that I hadn't seen before, a view that was breathtaking. A lone tree was growing right in the center left of the whole view, and it served as a worthy photo subject in later hours.

Tharamoo Sharon, gathering wood, even though I heard mention of a headache, she ripped her sarong while helping, and she's getting over being sick. I'm telling you, these Steck girls astound me. Their husbands will be lucky men. *grin*

During the whole wood-getting process, Hannah walked by me a few times and deposited flowers in my hands, which got duly tucked behind a willing ear and then forgotten about. She was so excited about working: "Look Daddy, I'm helping!"

This is ZiMaOo. And yes, that's a tree. And yes, she's only carrying it with one hand. Karen people amaze me. I've seen them walking down the road with a tree on one shoulder that about twenty-twenty five feet long.And it's like carrying a toothpick to them. 

My fellow photographer, who I was sure would get more pictures than me, but didn't end up doing so. Having someone else taking pictures is very handy: not only does it give a different perspective, but it also doesn't make me feel so bad for opting out of grabbing some sticks myself so I can take pictures.

Some of the girls were already helping Daygwemo with supper, and the rest started chopping the wood into sizeable pieces. This job can be a little risky, seeing as how some of the machetes aren't exactly 100% glued together and they've been known to fly apart before. Thankfully, nothing of the sort occurred.

We got alot of wood. Three big piles of sticks and good-sized trees. I figured it would last all weekend, but as you will see, though it did, it was a "just barely" deal.

While getting wood, Sharon and some of the other girls came upon these tiny wild orchids growing on a tree. Before with left, I believe that Daygwemo and the girls pulled them off the tree so they could be planted here at the school. Orchids are not exactly rare around here, but growing in the wild, kids and adults will pick them and often can sell them for a pretty good price. 

The kitchen pursuits had my attention the whole time. Sure, there's nothing real exciting about chopping vegetables into buckets....

However, it does catch the eye when they're not using cutting boards of any sort. Aside from the gohlawa's around here, I think cutting boards are probably a foreign concept. They cut vegetables on the air, on the sides of the bucket...or on the concrete floor of the kitchen, depending on where they are. Yes, I know....

Saw Di Aye's shield from earlier found a new purpose--that of a mat to sit on while cutting vegetables.

I was getting pretty hungry about this time, and oh! those green onions and rice noodles were looking really good. The plan was to make pad thai for all of us, and I was ready for it long before it was ready for me.

Rice noodles.

Sharon and Naw Da Blet.

And this is how they cook. Get three big rocks in a triangle form, build a fire in the middle, and stick your pot on the top. It's fascinating how efficient it is. I'm thinking about adopting some of these practice for future camping trips in the States.

Sharon and Mu Naw Naw. I'm still getting the hang of kids names around here, and there's a potential for things to get confusing when you have Mu Naw Naw, Mu Nu Nu, and two Mu Wa Wa's running around the school. This camping trip helped me get the IMM students names down pat, though.

Let the noodles soak in hot water for a little while, then some at a time, throw it in the wok with some oil and stir it all up til it's cooked. Add onions, cilantro, mushroom powder, and various oils and sauces, and keep on stirring.

Oh, and let's not forget the eggs.

ZiMaOo, Brenda, and out wonderful cook, Daygwemo.

We made so much pad thai that even though there were nearly twenty of us eating, and even though most of us had at least three helping, we only ate half of it. The rest we ate cold for breakfast, with another type of "curry." Wow.

Ready and waiting.I was hungry, alright, but wasn't aware that on camping trips like this, you bring your own bowl and spoon. I hadn't thought of it, at any rate. So I got to use a random dish from the cooking stuff, and then created some chopsticks out of an available stick, much to the students amusement. Those chopsticks worked better than real ones; and I'll freely admit that I brought them home with me and I plan on using them again.

Two of the boys. The one in the purpleish sweatshirt is B'NeeToo: he's the oldest student at our school, 23 or maybe 24, I think. We weren't sure if he was coming with us, seeing as how he's been having bad back trouble lately. But he came along--apparently he wasn't about to be left out. The one on the right is NiKiToo (incorrect spelling, correct pronunciation).

About now the sun was going down and it was getting chilly. This was a rather new experience for me. I came to Thailand with the misconception that it's never cold, and really, it's the tropics! It's not supposed to be cold! I was proven most definitely wrong. 50 degrees will feel like 32 around here.

And I'm not kidding, either.

The sunset that night was glorious. Being situated on a ridge, we could easily see the sunset on one side, and the sunrise on another. I could not imagine a better place to camp... Well, okay, not true. But this was amazing.

However, once the sun starts to go down in all it's colorful splendor, it gets colder. And colder. And colder. I began to be thankful I'd actually dug my too-short, very thin fleecy coat out of the bottom of my bin at home. And I began to wonder if two blankets would keep me warm all night. 

Enough said. He was huge, and I was glad he stayed where he was.

Deeper shades of sunset blood. And deeper, more penetrating cold.

We spread out our mats on the ground, and a few students tied their hammocks into some trees. After our worship for the evening, we bundled all up and wrapped up in blankets and laid down to go to sleep. Tents? What do you mean tents? These kids had never even seen one of those before. And I'm not kidding.

I stretched out under my blankets, on my mat, and just stared. The vast starry heavens spread out like a canvass for me to consider, and I just reveled in the beauty for awhile before falling asleep. 

However, I didn't stay asleep for long. It got colder and colder, and I tossed and turned, sleeping a little here and there, trying to stay warm. Two layers of socks on my feet, two blankets on top of me, a coat on and a long sleeve shirt tied on over my head didn't keep the cold out, and at about 3 am I finally joined a small group around the fire, consisting of Sharon, LeRoy and Hannah, Paw Too Paw, and the sleeping forms of Naw Da Blet and Saw Die Aye. We sat there for the rest of the night.

At around 5-something, Sharon, Leroy, Hannah and I were the only ones left up, and we laid down around the fire on the ground and fell back asleep for an hour or so. That was one of the strangest nights I've had in Thailand. The strangest was a few weeks ago...but that's another story.

On the flip side of things, being up all night and into the early morning means seeing the sunrise from it's very birth to it's blossoming. Stars were still out above and the moon still glowed brightly, when I took this long-exposure picture, huddled in a blanket by the fire.

The morning got brighter, more promising of the warmth of the sun to free us from the icy clutches of the night. Again, like I had been with the starry sky hours before, I was enthralled. Captivated. God's artistry never ceases to amaze me, but experiencing it like this is another thing entirely.

People got up, and preparations for breakfast were made amid the rising sun and chilly temperatures. What you're seeing in that black tub are a whole bunch of cut potatoes and some boiled eggs, which Daygwemo and the students used in our breakfast curry.

One of the sleeping places for the previous night. There were probably 7 of us girls/ladies sleeping here. The light blue backpack on the red mat and the pile of blankets and water-bottle right next to it are mine. I slept there--or laid there, anyway--til I could no longer.

Then, at last, the sun. It peeked over the distant horizon and flooded the land with light and started to banish the chill from the air. 

Still peeling boiled eggs for breakfast.

No words are needed. Only a camera cannot fully describe beauty. The only way to know it to experience it.

I felt like I'd never seen a sunrise before until this one. Every time it's new. It's never the same. Always beautiful, though.

After breakfast (during which the makeshift chopsticks came in handy again), everyone got to getting ready for church and Sabbath school. Michael and Inge Ross, with little KooKooPaw, would be joining us for the day: Inge was going to preach for us. Before fixing my own hair, I snapped this picture of DawKooSay fixing Hannah's hair.

Then we started to gather around on the side of the hill, where the shade was fast gathering. Warmth now permeated everything, and it was starting to get hot. Fancy that idea... Almost all of the students brought hammocks, and they got all set up right next to each other so we could have church and Sabbath school.

By mid-morning, this is what had replaced the cold of the night, and instead of huddling around the fire, wer were trying to find shade to escape the oppressive heat.Only in Thailand...

Distant blue mountains.

Waiting for Michael and Inge to show up, a few of us went for a walk: Brenda, Sharon, myself, Naw Da Blet, and Daw Koo Say. It was all downhill one way, and all uphill the other; but it felt good to stretch.

Dew. It appears from nowhere in the night and saturates everything. My top blanket, my mat, my backpack, the grass, benches, and everything else practically dripped in the morning. But by noon, you couldn't even tell there had been any dew at all.

Water drop.

Michael and Inge arrived, commenting cheerfully that they were sure we had frozen the night before, and we had church and Sabbath school. Travis and Sharon did two different special musics, Inge preached, LeRoy had Sabbath school, and we sang a bunch of songs. All in all, it was a blessed time: a different, but no less worshipful, way to spend the Sabbath hours.

Michael, Inge, and KooKooPaw, while waiting for lunch.

Inge and KooKooPaw.

Such the little personality...

Lunch was awhile in the making, but we were able to stand the wait. Stiffness and tight muscles gave me a headache about this time, and I took a nap for an hour or so. That red box is full of dragon fruits. to the left you can see a huge bag of cucumbers, and some more cilantro, and tomatoes. There's onions sitting on top the box, and they were in the process of cutting a multitude of carrots up in the right hand upper corner.

Food prep gets down by everyone and anyone. However, it does get limited to how many knives there are--and we only had three.

Mu Naw Naw.

Brenda trying to understand what Naw Da Blet just said to her.

The students, while having a not-too-bad grasp on English, still say things funny sometimes. Right here they were laughing about Saw Di Aye (with the carrot) having called Brenda Harvey's mother as opposed to his wife.

Meanwhile, from behind me, B'NeeToo fiddled with the guitar and relaxed in his hammock.

Naw Da Blet and her carrot. It amuses me that the kids here (and the adults!) eat while cooking. But then, how often do we do the same thing in America? Just another similarity, I suppose.

This was interesting. Cutting corn up, and that's how they cut it. Slice it right off, and it ends up looking just like the corn you could get in a can or frozen from Fred Meyer. 

Lunch passed, and then it happened. People. Started. Showing. Up. They just appeared, and they filled up the other half of our solitude. Too many people, and especially too many people that I don't know, are about the only thing that makes me claustrophobic, and none of the rest of our group liked it too well. There was talk of relocating, but we finally decided to wait til the morning and have Harvey take us to a waterfall as soon as he could so we could escape the crowds. In the meantime, a bunch of us lazed around in hammocks.

Koo Koo Paw and Inge.

I tried getting some sleep, but it really didn't happen this time. Too much noise, too many distractions. And that was terribly true when NiKiToo created this "instrument" out of a bamboo stick and a leaf that sounded for all the world like a very sick cow.

Meme.

While some of us were trying to nap, more kitchen preparations were occurring. This time it was sticky rice, cooked in bamboo over the fire. Here Naw Da Blet is pouring sugar and coconut milk sauce into the bamboo on top of the rice, I'm assuming. Sharon took the next few pictures.

Stuff the end with bamboo leaves, and you're good to go! They burn, but by that time, the rice is all solid and you don't have to worry about it pouring out. Then you just peel the bamboo back like a banana peel and dig out your sticky rice log.

Ready for the fire.

Another student, Saw Pwe.

 

B'NeeToo and Daygwemo.

Around this time, the group that had gone up to branch Sabbath school showed up to say hello. Students came up the hill, along with Harvey and the Meyer family minus Denise (who recently arrived here at Sunshine Orchards and are currently up in the mountains with Gayle for a little while). Harvey said he'd bring us some more water in the morning, and arrive early enough to take us to a waterfall where we could eat lunch.

After our visitors left, the bamboo went into the fire. It was an interesting process to watch. Apparently Sharon thought so too.

Naw Da Blet and the bamboo filled with rice and sugar and coconut milk.

It took forever to cook. It was dark before we were able to eat supper, so I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, but I assure you, it was super good. A little different, but then, different can be good. And this different was very good.

Then, for some unexplained reason, the girls all started wanting pictures taken of them. "Teacher, I want picture." 

Mu Naw Naw. Alot of these pictures they want their own copies of, so we stick them on a thumb drive and take them into Mae Salit, where a print shop prints them for 5 baht per picture. The students pay for them.

ZiMaOo.

And they don't just want pictures by themselves. They want to get picture with people. "Teacher Brenda, I want picture with you." 

Mu Naw Naw, Hannah, and I. Hannah has the brush because she was in the process of "fixing" my hair, which kept getting interrupted by girls wanting me to take pictures or me to be in pictures.

Meme, Hannah, me, and Naw Da Blet. She made the comment, "Oh, Teacher, you very tall;" so I bent down to make her taller than me. She laughed.

Then it was, "Just two, Teacher." So we did "just two."

Hannah tried to be in all the pictures, but couldn't be in some, so the girls got pictures with her as well. Again, she's still got my brush.

Saw Pwe and Hannah, brush in hand. That little smile is infectious.

This was funny. NiKiToo was changing his shirt I think, and did something like this to make Michael laugh. However, Michael laughed and then said, "Oh, wait, wait! Do it again!" and got a picture. These boys...

Sharon and Mu Naw Naw.

Both my camera and Brenda's were kept busy for awhile. It was starting to get colder again, as the sun was going back down.

Hannah became my little shadow eventually. If she wasn't with her daddy, or running around, she was usually near me. She got into alot of pictures. 

Hannah and I.

We'd just gotten another picture taken and Sharon and I were standing there and she looked at me and said, "You know, we need a picture of us." I agreed. "Yes, before we do the rice field shoot." She looked at me in confusion, and then laughed.

What do you mean, you want an explanation? That'll be another blog post. 

Lapsing into Asianisms. The peace sign is a very Asian thing, and the kids do it all the time, and I noticed the same sort of thing in the Philippines with kids and adults alike. Might as well join the crowd.

Inge and KooKooPaw had departed with the branch Sabbath school group so they wouldn't have to ride back down on the motor bike, but Michael hung around til the rice was done, and then took some home to Inge. He also left me his new tripod so I could take pictures of the stars easily. Oh, how thrilled I was! I need to find me one of those someday...soon.

It got dark, we finished supper (consisting of sticky rice, mangosteins, little oranges and dragon fruits and banana chips), and I took a few pictures with the tripod before worship. However, I couldn't figure out how to get pictures of the stars. It honestly was driving me crazy... And then, like a light bulb in a black cavern--ding!--I remembered. It wasn't the most professional way to do it, but it worked.

I love taking long exposure shots. And taking long exposures of fire reminds me of Faith Camp last June or whenever it was. Oh the memories a simple campfire and a tripod can bring back...

Brenda read us some stories of providential deliverance from a book, and Travis translated while we all huddled around the fire. After singing songs and having prayer, some of the students were ready for bed... But bed was not destined to be for awhile yet.

We played a game using the fire area. One person stayed in the ring of benches and covered their eyes and counted to 50. Everyone else ran out in front and hid in the shadows. Once 50 was up, the hidden ones needed to try to make it to the ring of benches without the person in the middle naming them.

We played a few rounds of that, during which I managed to fall over the edge of the hill and make Leroy laugh from his hiding place. I've got a huge bruise on my upper thigh now, but it was compounded by a collision the next day. More on that later.

The stars. This was the best shot I got. The brightest dot in the center is either Venus or Jupiter, I don't know which. Just above the planet and a little to the left, you can see the little dipper, and in the bottom right-hand corner, you can see Orion. It's upside down and backwards from what people see in Washington where I'm from, but it's still the same, familiar Orion.

Sharon and I slept by the fire that night, and fared much better. We still woke up alot and built the fire back up, but it was vastly better than the preceding night. No one joined us til around 4:30 or so, when I woke up to Travis making the fire back up.

Again, the sunrise, bright and beautiful on Sunday morning. The large group (which had sent off several flying lanterns the night before and had been very quiet--much to our relief) awoke now and were taking pictures of the sunrise. Someone commented that they acted like they'd never seen a sunrise before, and Travis countered that they likely hadn't, seeing as how they were from Bangkok and they probably didn't live on the 80th floor of a high rise, which is about the only point from which you could see a sunrise in that city.

Breakfast. And boy, was it good. The scrambled eggs got added to noodles, and mmm, mm. You should've been there.

Saw Di Aye.

Hannah.

Waiting for worship to begin. We played a guessing game that morning, using people from the Bible. Like 20 questions, only you could ask as many as you wanted. "Did he live before the flood or after?" "Both." 

We finished worship and then started playing some games, waiting for Harvey to arrive in the truck. The large group vanished before worship was over, and we had a whole playing field to ourselves. We taught the kids how to play freeze tag and chain tag and capture the flag. They had so much fun--even Daygwemo loved it! The only down-side was a collision with Travis while trying to catch the ever-elusive Mr. Sharon. Travis did run into me, but then, I jumped right in front of him not realizing he was there til I'd sprawled on the ground. The joys of trying to catch someone who's that fast...

 Harvey showed up during a game of capture the flag and helped us finish before we piled into the truck and headed back down the mountain to the waterfall. The waterfall was a hike into one, so we stopped by the creek and they made lunch there.

ZiMaOo cleaning the wok.

Paw Too Paw, who is very hard to get pictures of. She hides from the camera unless she doesn't know it's pointed at her.

Saw Di Aye washing his socks in the creek.

Hannah had lots of fun in the water. And such an imagination she has! She reminds me of...well, me.

 

Where Sharon and I took up residence while waiting for lunch.

Saw Pwe cleaning corn so it could be sliced and cooked.

NiKiToo. I believe he was washing his face.

Lunch was awhile in coming, and we were pretty hungry by the time it was finished. But it tasted so good.

Sharon and I had some fun while waiting. She would throw a rock, and I'd take a billion pictures right in a row to get the right shot.

After lunch, most of us wanted to hike up to the waterfall. After the running around from that morning, and how warm it had gotten, I was ready to immerse myself in the water. So a group of us headed up.

We got to the waterfall and everyone just sat there. It was a beautiful spot, but you know me by now.........

This one was taller than the other two I've visited thus far, but that's no problem at all. I gave my camera to Meme, and she sat on a rock and took some pictures with it.

Daygwemo and I were the first two to venture into the water. With the wind and spray from the waterfall it was kinda coolish, but it felt so good. And there's something about getting that close to a big waterfall that give you an adrenaline rush.

Then Saw Di Aye came in. Right at the base of the waterfall it got very deep, and I asked Saw Die Aye how deep it was. He stepped in and it only came to his chest in the deepest parts. 

Daygwemo deserted for the time being, and B'NeeToo came in. I'm trying to hold myself up on the waterfall with little success in this picture. It was steep rock and the water was falling pretty hard.

Oh, they thought I was crazy. "Teacher!" But I think they kinda liked it. 

NiKiToo and Harvey watching our craziness in the falls. From the look on NiKiToo's face, I honestly have to wonder if he's jealous, amused, or thinking that Saw Die Aye, B'NeeToo, and I are just plain nuts.

The two shivering boys got out, but I was comfortable. I convinced Daygwemo to come in, and she did so.

And then here came Brenda, not one to be left out, and Daygwemo clung to her in terror and delight. It was highly amusing.

The boys thought so too.

Everyone left before we did, and Harvey carried my camera back down for me, seeing as how I was thoroughly soaked and in no condition to be toting an expensive piece of equipment. I was sorry to leave, honestly. But hiking while wet around here feels SO good you can't imagine.

We made it back down to the truck and waited for Daygwemo to finish her bath and then headed home, stopping by a shop so some vegetables could be ordered before making it all the way home. We unloaded and walked into the house, collapsing. But it was worth it.

Before Daygwemo headed down to the kitchen to make supper for the school, she loudly pronounced, "Teacher, thank you! I very happy, we play game today."

Yes, indeed. Very happy.

So am I, Daygwemo. So am I.