check this out

I spent last weekend in Mae Sot, a town near the Burmese border and near the largest Burmese refugee camp in Thailand. We were supposed to go into the camp, attend church there and spend time with the refugees, but there was a shooting in the camp and they closed it down. So we ended up spending Sunday with the director of the Partners office in Mae Sot. Partners is this INCREDIBLE relief organization in Thailand...please check it out, Here's their website. My heart was stolen while I was there......

Grace and Peace.

Ups and Downs

Long tail boats. the taxis on Phi Phi Island

sunrise view.

Off of Phi Phi Ley, the smaller of the two Phi Phi Islands. This is where the movie The Beach was filmed.

sexy. dead sexy.

fire dancers!!!

mmm.....so it's been a couple weeks since I wrote last, and I must confess that I am both worn out and revived at this point.

Shortly after I made my last post, the brokenness of lives here and the scars that these womens' lives leave on their souls was made intimately clear to me. The details of the situation aren't entirely appropriate for me to share with the entire internet, but here is the official summary of what happened that went out to the prayer partners of The Garden:

"A troubled and unstable young woman who has benefited from the love and care of our team is willfully disrupting the lives and ministry of our team members."

My life was not nearly as 'disrupted' as other members of the team, but I was used as a conduit to bring forth really disturbing information...information that I didn't think I should believe, but that scared me nonetheless. I was sent into a bit of a tailspin, not knowing who to believe, what the truth was, and feeling disturbed and wanting to go home. But, God has been faithful, through the counsel of my parents and dear friends, who have pointed me in wise directions, and helped me to trust that God is big enough for the whole situation. It's been an interesting lesson, to be deceived by someone who you want to trust and help....and I still am not sure how I feel about a lot of it. For the first time in my life, I felt like I wanted to comfort and counsel the very same person that I also wanted to flee from.

It puts an entirely new perspective on the process of combatting human trafficking and the human costs of trading girls as commodities. I sit here, thinking of a girl who doesn't know how not to destroy her own life, because she doesn't understand love, loyalty and truthfulness. But I know that God loves her endlessly, and has brought her a long way out of her troubles. So, I continue to pray for a miracle...of restoration and healing, and ask God to grant her the peace of mind and wisdom to accept the help of good people rather than turn back to a soul-killing life of selling her body.

....................so.......in the midst of all this, Jay, Lisbee, Hanna and myself decided to ask Mark, our boss, if an intern vacation was a possibility. My original plan was to travel for a week and a half at the end of the summer, but I realized that I would be the only intern left then. Hanna was heading back to Denmark at the end of this week, so with Mark's approval, we booked a six day vacation to Phuket and Phi Phi Island.

It was, in one word....INCREDIBLE. White sand, huge limestone cliffs, people from all over the world, the clearest water I'd ever seen. I had never been on an island vacation before, so I enjoyed it, through and through. It was a week full of relaxation, sunburns and swimming. I rolled around on the beach, went snorkeling, and just sat in awe. I think the experience is best summed up by pics, so I'll leave it to those to describe the experience.

One exception - Phi Phi Island was devastated by the Tsunami, so it was sort of eerie sometimes to stand in the place where a wave killed 2,000 people. I think Phi Phi has the most people killed per capita - though I'm not entirely sure that's accurate. Anyway, with the exception of seeing signs that showed where Tsunami evacuation routes were located, you really couldn't tell that the island had been completely destroyed three years ago. The rebuilding has been truly remarkable.

The last exciting...and by exciting, I mean terrifying, bit of news comes from my plane ride home. Our plane partially skidded off the runway in Bangkok, after we landed in next to no visiblity. I was sitting above the wing, and felt the plane jerk like it wanted to swing left. I looked out of my window and there was a wave of mud and grass spewing onto the wing of this monster of a plane, which was going like 400 mph. So no one ever really told us what exactly happen, but I was talking with a Swedish pilot that was on our plane after the flight and he seemed to be unable to understand how our wheel didn't break. As he put it..."Those wheels are not engineered for farming" i.e. our wheel was acting more like a plow than a wheel for a bit. He seemed to think we were saved by a miracle.... :) So, I guess I'll never really know how dangerous it was...though the airport closed down that runway between that flight and my connecting flight. yikes!


Till next time...

10 days!?!?!?

A couple thousand tourists gathering for the weekly market - selling silks, food, jewelry, clothing, instruments....the list goes on

A couple of incredible shots of the Sunday Walking Market in Chiang Mai. Courtesy of Jay Milbrandt. :)

Instructions on the bathroom stall door at our church. Maybe the awesomest thing I've ever seen. Many Thai buildings have squatty potties, so I guess some people need a toilet lesson.

Me, my fluffy hair, and Hanna at Doi Suthep - the Buddist Temple - for a second visit. I've given up on trying to control the hairs. You win, humidity.

A picture of The Garden of Hope....not bad, eh?

Well, a man (whose opinion I value like my own life) told me, via an international phone call today, that he wants more pictures and less words. So, I added some more pics...but, I'm sure they'll be followed by way too many words... :) what can I say...incessant blabbing carries over to incessant blogging.

so I actually REFUSE to believe that 10 days have gone by since my last post. I was walking today, thinking, "hmmmm, it's probably been like 4 or 5 days since I posted last, I should post again." I look at my blog and realize it was 10 days ago and I literally question whether that's correct...where did 10 days go?

what's new...??? I'm discovering that I need to start keeping notes every couple of days about the goings on in Chiang Mai, because the days slip through my fingers and I can't seem to remember all the details that I want to.... :(

My life since this weekend has been full of adventures with a couple lovely ladies from Burma. 'NB' and 'YM' have been in Chiang Mai for the last week, YM is hopefully staying in Chiang Mai for the foreseeable future to begin learning to read and write, and hopefully start attending school. NB is a part of the Burmese Garden Team, and had been having some health difficulties, so Mark got her a medical pass to come to Chiang Mai for check-ups. So Hanna (another intern...sweet, sweet girl from Denmark) and I spent 9+ hours at the hospital the other day with the girls, which turned out to be an amazing conduit into great conversation and sharing of hearts. Those of you from Pepperdine might remember YM, she was at Pepperdine in March to share her story with Mark and Christa Crawford. The summarized version goes like this...

YM's mother sold her several times throughout her early teens, including selling her virginity to a businessman for somewhere around $500. She was rescued about 5 years ago during an IJM led raid on the brothel that she was sold to. She says that one day when she was speaking with the other girls in the brothel about how to escape, that she thought that maybe if they prayed to the Christian God, He would help them. So they did so, and according to her, that night Mark came with IJM, and began the process of freeing her from unutterable suffering. So, over the past few days I have had the wonderful opportunity to spend a lot of time with her, and she has begun to share her memories, hopes and fears with me...and it's pretty intense.

She's 18, and has two kids, one four years old and one two years old. They live with their father in a small village near Yangoon. She told me that her husband took her in when she was 14, because he saw what her mother was doing to her and believed he could prevent the trafficking if he married her, because then her mother wouldn't have the same level of control over her. They are no longer married, YM tells me that they treat each other like family members, as he is substantially older than she is. She says that 'He has so much love for me, but I do not love him, because I do not understand love.'

So YM's children are a major worry for her right now because she wants them to go to school, and worries that they do not have enough to eat. She has a lot of trouble staying put in Chiang Mai, because she desires to work to send money back to her family. Yesterday at lunch she was very dark and heavy hearted. We began to talk and she told me much about her village, and how she wishes that missionaries would go to the village where her sons live, because no one there has anything, nor any religion. As we talked she confessed that sometimes she thinks about going back to the bars, because it seems like the only way to provide money to her kids.

She just kinda dumped out her brain, telling me that she knows she can't go back to her hometown, because her mother is still there and would probably try to sell her again and keep all of the money for herself. Then she said she can't go back to Yangoon because there is no work for her there, and she can't go to school. Chiang Mai is good for her, she says, but she cannot work because Mark wants her to go to school and learn...but why should she stay here and learn when her kids don't have enough to eat? So her mind travels to the bars, where business is plentiful and money flows. As we talk, I told her that I think God sends her people to tell her there are other ways, that I think that I, or maybe my friends in America, would like to support her kids and get them money for school...that there is a way that is good for her and her children. We talked about how God knows her heart, and how it aches for her kids, and that he would never leave her to go get money selling herself.

So as we near the end of our conversation, she moves seats and sits right next to me, and leans in close. She says, 'You know, I think God tell me today, "Put those thoughts away from your mind" And I smile and thank Him for that. She smiles peacefully for the first time since we started talking....and nods in agreement with herself. "God so good," she says. We agree that we will both begin praying to see if I should take a trip to her village in Burma, so that, in her words, "You SEE Burmese...and then you go back to America with film and talk to your friends. You no talk to me about Burmese, then go to America, you GO SEE Burmese, then go to America."

It is YM's dream to go to Bible School and open a church in her village...she envisions herself, another Burmese women, and an American working together to bring God's blessings to those people. I must confess that something deep inside me jumped when she said that. The longer I'm here, and the more I hear from these women, the more I feel the pull to be connected to Burma for the rest of my life...so I'm praying, and seeking....

__________________________________________________

Tomorrow I'm heading to Pactec, a local business that develops learning technologies for Christians teaching in remote locations. Other volunteers with The Garden have formed a relationship with the two men who run the company and now they are looking to hire someone for data entry. On Tuesday night while out at the bars, I spoke with 'A' - the woman that I have continued to grow in friendship with and that I mention in a previous entry. I told her that there is a job that we think would be good for her, and that she should come with me to learn about it. She says, "Is OK, we go and see" !!!! So tomorrow, A and I, and Lisbee, another Garden intern go and see.... :)

So this week my heart is full and glad. God so good.

-Christina

it's still hot!

terrorizing (mostly through inadvertant flashing) the locals on my two wheels

Jumpy pic in Burma, at a goooorgeous temple.

Burma...$@&^#$ - so beautiful it makes me swear

Another part of the Temple - check out the landscape in the background - they farm the hillsides and it makes everything look like a quilt. So amazing!

Where to begin!?!? It's been a while since I've mustered up the discipline and brain power to post. Most days here leave me pretty drained - and I have my trusty(...errr...actually probably not so trusty) bike to thank. I've been cruising around on an old one speed beach cruiser-esqe bike that I rented when I first got to Chaing Mai. It's got a sweet basket on the front that I usually fill with either my laptop or some tasty Thai fruits. Though it gives me almost an hour of exercise each day, it morphs me into a puddle of sweat that somewhat resembles an out of shape foreigner who wasn't built for this climate. So, I blame my bike for my lack of posting, as it usually leaves me with just enough energy at the end of the day to shower and jump into bed.


I'm just about at the end of my second week working at The Garden of Hope. So, a brief introduction to what I'm doing this summer...The Garden of Hope is an outreach ministry that focuses on reaching out to prostitutes in the bars of Chiang Mai, and also to children of local hill tribes who are found many a late night approaching tourists with necklaces, roses, and anything else that they might be able to get 10 baht for. The Garden works to develop micro-business ventures and vocational training to give the women viable skills and hopefully a job opportunity so that they can leave the sex trade. We're also working on opening a Culinary Arts Academy, to train women in professional cooking/baking so that they can work in the luxury hotel industry here in Northern Thailand; and in addition, opening a childcare drop center where kids can come to be tutored and cared for. There is an arm of the Garden of Hope working up on the Myanmar (Burma) / Thai border, working to provide safe housing and assistance to sex trafficking victims and prostitutes near the border region. Myanmar is in serious trouble, under an extremely oppressive military junta regime, and thus the work that the Garden does within that country is much more dangerous for the women working there.

Last week was pretty amazing, the highlight being my trip to Myanmar (Burma) to meet these women. We spent two days up on the northern border, spending time in a border town inside Myanmar. The culture up there was something that literally has to be experienced, cause verbose descriptions just will not do it justice. The five women that we met were some of the most beautiful, God-filled people I've ever met, who doted on us the entire time we were there. In Myanmar and in Thailand, affection shown between people is basically the opposite of how we do things in the states. You often see women walking hand-in-hand, with their fingers interlaced, or with their arms around each other. Men do some of the same. But it is entirely socially inappropriate for an unmarried woman and man to show the type of affection to each other that many Westerners do. So - we were met with unexpected affection by the women, having someone walk up to hold your hand anytime you walked any measurable distance. They are wonderfully humble and generous, never thinking to touch food before we had all served ourselves, and eaten our fill (which was ridiculously embarrassing, because they do so much with so little, and will sit and watch chubby Americans eat and never complain). They live, five of them, in a one bedroom run down apartment, and at times have had as many as ten people living there. We were invited into their home, to listen to them worship God through song, and it was moving - beyond words... Through the difficulties they face, God has provided for them in amazing ways, and much of our meeting with them served to encourage them in their work and continue to pray for God to provide safety, shelter, favor with the Authorities and ways to help the exploited women of their community. So if you would, please remember them in your prayers. (I'm not listing specific names/locations due to the sensitive nature of their work).

So...I could go on about Myanmar all day, but for those of you who are interested in learning more about the country, here are a few websites....

http://www.freeburmarangers.org/
http://www.voicesforburma.org/about/

Outside of our Burma trip, I've mostly been going through orientation stuff at the Garden, and going on outreach to the bars in Chiang Mai. I must admit that outreach is harder than I thought it would be. I've never had to sit face to face with the ugliness of prostitution, and I think it's must easier to deal with the topic by convincing yourself that the women who sell themselves choose to do it and probably don't mind it. In reality, you sit down and talk with these women and find out that many of them are from small villages in Thailand or surrounding countries, and have a sick parent, or child to support and can't seem to find another way to pay the bills. Women here are expected by the culture to begin providing financially for their families from a very young age, so without other opportunities, they come to the city to make a lot of money...but at great cost. But it is shocking to speak with these women, and then see the men milling about the bars, knowing full well what it is their looking for, and that these wonderful women will give it to them, for a price.

Despite the darkness, God has really blessed the outreach so far. Every woman that I have met is beautifully warm, and easy to talk to. We usually chat about how my Thai sucks, ask them about themselves, their families - and we try to teach them bits and pieces of English. We made contact with a girl, only 20 yrs. old, who has had a good friendship with Garden volunteers in the past. Only a day after meeting her, she called my cell phone and spent Sunday afternoon with us, walking through the market and having dinner. She's a smart girl, and has already opened up somewhat to us, telling us that she knows that the work she does is not good, and that she wants to find another job..but is worried she can't make enough money. So another item to lift up in prayer, that our friendship with her would grow and we'd be able to find her a job.

The other exciting item to briefly report is that I can now ask people their names, talk about classroom items and discuss colors in Thai! I can also read about 30 characters - so it's nice that the language no longer looks like total gibberish. :) yay!

Ok - more updates later, this is long enough!

-Many blessings-

24 in Thailand

It's my 24th b-day in Thailand... Don't have much planned, and I feel old. I keep thinking...24, seriously?!?!?! I'm 24? I think when I was sixteen I was planning on being a housewife by now! ;) but I am treating myself to some wireless internet today. I've been without internet for a few days. Traumatic to the max... :) I moved into an apartment and out of the guest house I was staying in for the first week that I was here. I really like the new place, it's almost exactly like the guest house, but about 1/4 the price...(though the guest house wasn't too steep either...about $15/night...) Anywho, I haven't been able to get my internet connection to work over there, and have been a bit shakey and sweaty for the last few days, thinking obsessively about the emails I've been missing...I wish I was kidding. So here I sit, at an internet cafe, enjoying a mocha and typing on my blog...amazing how much Chiang Mai can feel like LA.

In more interesting news, I got language classes set up for next week, and am so excited to start learning the language. Right now my communication skills are limited to the following:

Hello = sawatdee ka
thank you = khop khun ka
very delicious! = arroy mak mak!
nevermind (a state of mind for Thais...they say this when things happen that would make someone flip you off and try to kill you in LA) = mai pen rai!
I don't understand = mai cow jai
God Bless you = praa jow ooie pon

Welcome to the creepy non-language that you have to write in to tell people how to speak Thai. Since it's a completely different alphabet, with different sounds, and the attempted English spelling of Thai words gets crazy and is completely inconsistent. But I think it's awesome nonetheless.

Yesterday was IN-CREDDDDD-I-BLLLE. We went on a one day trek about an hour south of Chiang Mai in the mountains. Started out with a gnarly hike up to a Hmong village, bout 45 mins up super steep jungle in a million degree heat. I was literally a puddle, I don't think I've sweat like that since my dancing days. We got to the top and visited the people, it's amazing but sad what the tourism industry has done to the culture. When you get up to the villages of the hill tribe people, they're all set up with their crafts, ready to sell to you. Most can't speak more english than "50 baht" (baht is the Thai currency) and pointing at the jewelry they want you to buy. Their h0mes are mostly bamboo and leaves, and there are chickens everywhere. :)

After we hiked back down we went ELEPHANT RIDING, which I think will be one of my favorite things I'll do in Thailand. They're such huge, melancholy looking animals. So beautiful. We rode two by two on a seat on top of the elephant through incredibly beautiful jungle....and then a thunderstorm rolled in. So there we were, voyaging through the jungle in the rain, on an elephant. It was truly amazing. I thought I was going to fall off a few times, cause the terrain was so steep. Watching the elephant's feet was so great, huge stumpy things creating craters in the watery mud. Our guide grabbed a huge leaf and stuck it on his head as an umbrella. At the end we stood up on top of the platform and fed the elephants little mini bananas. mmmmm...I want to go back for more.

After that we ate a yummy lunch...yellow curry, my favorite. Then we went to a Karen village and saw a billion acres of rice patties. They terrace the land in a really incredible way that looks almost artistic. Picture an amphitheater, but with really big, flat stairs...that's about the best way I can think to describe how the fields looked. We sat and watched a Karen woman make scarves on a loom, so I ended up buying like 5 of them. They cost 100 baht a piece, or about $3. crazy. There are a lot of Karen people in the hills of Thailand, as they have been viciously persecuted in Burma by the military junta government. One of the sects of the Karen people are the 'long neck' Karen...those women who wear the gold rings around their neck which push down their collarbone and make them look like giraffes. Most of the long neck population is north of Chiang Mai, so we didn't see any of them on this trip. Then we went to an awesome waterfall. yum.

And lastly, we rode a bamboo raft down a river of what looked like chocolate milk. The rivers here are so muddy, it's crazy. The raft was a bundle of about 30' bamboo poles that were about 4-5 inches in diameter, laid horizontally and tied together with rubber. Since you're basically sitting on a few logs, when you sat on it, you got all wet. A little Thai dude captained this rickety little ship with only a 12' pole. We went through mini rapids...it was amazingly fun! The guide told us that the rafting was better than usual because of all the rain...the river was much deeper than normal. Good for us!

I have my first work meeting tomorrow, and am really looking forward to it. Being a cheesy tourist has been fun so far, but I'm definitely feeling like I'm ready to get to work. Being here so far has been an amazing blessing; great people, beautiful land, unforgettable experiences.

grace and peace,
Christina

echoes of affection

So - first post from Thailand! I travelled for about 40 hours....ugggg, through Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, and finally arrived in Chiang Mai on Saturday night. Thank God, I really didn't have much jetlag, I got in about 10 pm, slept the night, and felt normal - no weird time zone issues or anything. So in the last two days, I've gotten a couple home-cooked Thai meals, learned like 5 Thai phrases, gone to a Buddist Temple up on a mountain...so incredible....and explored the city. People get around here on small motorbikes, itty bitty cars and in little vehicles called songtaew's which function sorta like taxis and look like small trucks with a covered truck bed where people sit.....see photo. I'm renting a bike, which you drive on the streets in traffic - and hoping I come back with all my limbs.

So, I'll spend the rest of this week settling in. I'm thinking about going on a trek this weekend, which would include elephant riding, river rafting and hiking. There are also Thai cooking schools that you can attend for a day, so I think that's on my to-do as well. I start work next week, can't wait!

...here's a few interesting tidbits to leave you with...
1) There are green oranges in Thailand. They taste normal, and are orange on the inside. who knew?
2) There are monks everywhere. From what I can tell, they function fairly normally, seem to go to school, etc. But they can't touch women...so gotta stay out of their way.
3) There are LOTS of transvestites. It's a really accepted thing in Thai culture, and you really can't tell that they're men unless you hear them talk. The Thai language is gendered, so at the end of a sentence, women say "Ka" and men say "Kup." The 'ladyboys' (as they're called) say "ha" at the end of a sentence.
4) Thai massage parlors EVERYWHERE, probably going to check one out soon. :)
5) The "Wats" - buddist temples - are incredibly gorgeous and scattered throughout Chiang Mai. See the photo - that's the one I visited this week.

ok. tired.

sawatdee ka!
Christina