day 18- 21

day 18 (Monday)
Being in Thailand you have to be ready for the culture. That is easy to say and really only learned fully when you get here. Time is a huge difference in this culture. They abide by "Thai time". This basically means nothing... and gives them a free pass to be late, early, or never show up. We have found that usually it means very very late or more likely not showing up at all. Monday we were supposed to have practice for our prison concert that we were going to be putting on. But no one showed up for that. Also that night we had dinner with a couple that was getting married. My sister was going to play in her wedding, so they wanted to hear some of the music and meet us all. Everyone showed up a little late, but not bad for Thai people. The funny news came on Tuesday when we found out that Joci was not doing the wedding at all after all that practice and dinner. This was followed by another practice being skipped by everyone but my sister and I. Then on Tues. night we found out that we were not doing the Prison concert at all. So that is how it is over here. You just have to be ready for anything and be slow to anger.
Another issue is that it is a saving face culture, so the people do not want to cause you any harm, anger, or anything. This leads to them not telling you things are canceled, giving you wrong directions so that they will not have to tell you they do no know, saying you can play a wedding when they don't want you to, and just flat out telling you whats going on. With the language barrier and the difference in culture it gets really tuff at times to know whats going on or what is going to happen, but with patience and grace things get done.

Day 19 (Tuesday)
Like I said, another practice was skipped and unfortunately all of these changed plans and things really effected our schedule because we were planning on practicing, so that was frustrating, but we had a good time and still got to meet new people and different things.
The orphans are now in school so in the mornings we usually have time to do devo's and get things done that need to be done until around 3ish when they begin to get out of school. So We have been practicing alot in our spare time and getting work done. Wednesday night we got to go to an international bible study that was really cool. It is an English bible study but the people who attend are from all over the world. There were like 5 Americans, an British guy, a girl from the Netherlands, and some others. It was refreshing just to talk and studying with English speaking friends.

Day 20 (Wednesday)
Wednesday was a very busy day. We woke up and visited the biggest Buddhist temple in Chang Mai. It is on the top of a mountain and is very beautiful. It is just sad to see all the money, the time, the beauty, the artwork, and everything put into these buildings. They are everywhere and all of them are beautiful, but this one in particular is amazing. It's so disheartening to see people still worshiping idols so diligently. They just look so hopeless even when worshiping kind of staring at the statue while holding incense. It really just breaks your hear. There is no passion. The temple really just reminded me of the Bible where Jesus goes into the temple and flipps all the tables, because these Buddhists have turned this worship temple into a tourist destination and though it is still used for worship there is a coffee shop, booths of random gifts and jewelry, and photographers running around taking peoples pictures for money. I just felt offended for the Buddhist people that they let this happen in their own religion. I know if this was in a church setting I would be furious. Needless to say it was a beautiful place and on the way down the mountain we stopped at an awesome waterfall that cut through the rocks and jungle.
As soon as we got home we left for "the farm". This is owned by Asia's Hope and is a very beautiful large piece of land an hour outside of Chang Mai. There are many different crops grown there. At the moment the main crop is corn, but they have a ton of leechy fruit trees and other veggies and spices. They also have many cool technological things to help with productivity and to keep coasts down. They have water tanks under the pig pens that are warmed by the manure and pigs so they can have hot water. They also have a filter for the pigs manure and wastes that turns it into gas to be used for the stove. They have quite a few pigs for food. They have a ton of chickens as well. They have 3 fish ponds to breed the fish in, so they are doing very good for themselves. Tutu's parents live on the farm along with one of her brothers. There there is also a family of I think Niece of Tutu's who lives there with her baby and husband. They have a widows house on the farm that has room for 6 widows. There are currently 4 widows living there, They have been rescued out of their hopeless situations and now help out wherever needed on the farm. They also are begging to make bags and such to make money. In the future the Goal is to have an orphanage put on the farm so that the widows can have jobs to cook and take care of the kids not only for a job for them, but so that Asia's Hope will have another orphanage. The current problem is simply just provisions to pay for the rest of the farm land and especially the future of an orphanage. I believe they need like 30,000 dollars still for the land, so this is the current prayer of Asia's Hope so that they can simply keep the farm.

While at the farm we got to witness the sloter of 2 pigs. This was a delightful gory adventure. hah At least I know how to kill and butcher a pig if I'm starving in the wild or living in Thailand. Everything the rest of the day smelled like pig blood. It is funny how different food is over here. They just kill and eat. There is no such thing as grocery stores, the closest thing are markets where you still either buy the whole animal dead or huge chunks of it cut up laying out in the heat. So its Pretty manly here to say the last. I had the freshest pork ever that night though! literally like killed, butchered, and eaten. I had Liver and good pork meat. It was very tasty, kind of different, it was cooked in mint. Then I was talking to Tutu and her family and I had the chance to try pig heart and raw pig... So I did it. Surprisingly it was very good, especially the raw hah.

it was a wild day.

Day 21 (Thursday)
We spent the night at the farm and the next morning woke up and slotered another pig to take home to the orphans. On the way home there was a very cool hot geyser, the biggest in Thailand so that was interesting. But when we got home we spent the rest of the night practicing a tone, because we are doing a concert for the orphans this Friday. so that's literally all we did all day.

day 17 (sunday)

Today was interesting because I had to preach at church. It was to all the orphans, leaders, and such, but it went well. David Tutu's son translated for me, so it was an interesting experience. The service included: worship, special songs by every age-group of orphans, a few random speakers, communion, and then my sister and I speaking. It was a fun service. After we hung out with the kids in the blistering heat. Then we went with Tutu to "the best" noodle place around. I found out that my favorite Thai dish so far is noodles cooked in pig blood, haha so I got that again! The thing is I found out that it was pig blood the 3 time I was eating it. It is very good even though it sounds nasty. We went back to Tutu's house to wait for the instruments. They finally came in and filled up her living room. There is so much nice stuff its amazing. So It will definitely be a good time playing this concert Wednesday for the woman's prison and Friday for the orphans.

day 15 and 16

day 15

Yesterday we started our venture to get electronics for the concert we are playing for the woman's prison in Chang Mai on Monday. This is not as easy of a task as it sounds because we need a whole sounds system and every instrument, cable, amp, and everything.. so we went to multiple stores to compare instruments and prices. Yesterday we did not end up buying a thing. After we were shopping most of the day we came back to the house then went to the "wal-mart" type store of Thailand and got food for the lunch of the orphans for the following day. We also ate some cheap yet good Thai food and went home and did a video chat with crossroads for a video, then went to sleep.

day 16

Today we finished our task of getting all of the equipment. We went to a different store where some of David's friends who know music sent us to. This store was super nice, like nicer than stores in America. It was packed full of everything. I think they were surprised when we bought a PA and everything else, but we ended up spending like at the very least 3 or 4 hours in there as the guys all talked to the owner negotiating prices and figuring out what we wanted. We tested guitars and all kinds of things and finally got it all squared away. Soon after this we returned to the orphan home and played with the children. It was the final night of English camp so we played then had a massive dinner. It was a fancy nice dinner with all the kids from every orphanage, all the staff, and all of the team who put on the camp. It was Delicious and very spicy like always. After dinner we had worship then the kids danced for us. We then thanked the team for helping with the camp and gave them gifts. Then they gave the children the gift of ice cream and fire works. It was a good end to a good day. All the kids were very happy and going crazy ha.

day 11-14

day 11 (Sunday)
We woke up really early to go to the airport to head out to Thailand. we first flew to Bangkok, Thailand then got on our connecting flight to Chang Mai. It went very well and smooth. We were met by a flood of orphans and friends. We went Tutu's house, where we were staying and unloaded. When we arrived I was feeling sick so i took a nap. When I woke up it was time to go visit all 3 orphanages and meet up with Jon. So we went and ate afterword at a nice Ty restaurant. Following this we went to the night market in the middle of Chang Mai city. there were endless tents and merchants everywhere. This whole time I was still feeling sick. When we finally got home I was sick the whole night haha. I think I lost a few pounds so I'm looking good now. :) just kidding..

day 12 (Monday)
This is the day that English camp started for all the kids! It is where campus crusades comes in and helps put on a camp to teach the kids and just have a good time. I was still feeling sick so no one woke me up and I got to sleep in a bit. ha We went to the orphanage and met up with everyone once I was up. It was really fun we played games and had a good time with the kids. My favorite part was watching the Disney movie. ha so relaxing. Anyways it was a good time. after this we went to eat some pizza, our first American meal in a while. After we went back home and met up with Zack one of tutu's sons. we all hung out for a while and eventually went to bed.

day 13 (Tuesday)
We woke up late again because no one woke us up. Today we were supposed to go to get a guitar to use when we have our concert for the woman's prison next week. But this didn't end up happening. Of course Thailand time and change of plans accrued, so we basically just ended up hanging out with Daniel, another one of Tutu's sons. We went to the mall, a movie, food, food, food, we were all over the place. He showed us the ropes of Thai culture especially for a teen. We then went and met up with his girlfriend and went to this "goodwill" type of store, but it was Thai style, ha. It was under a tent in the middle of a field with clothes laid out everywhere. We soon finished dropped his girlfriend off and went home. It was a fun day with our "tour guide" Daniel.

day 14 (Wednesday, today)
Ok so it has been very laid back being in Thailand they really want to serve you as well as possible, so we want to serve them and help them out in any way possible. After our morning we headed back over to the English camp. we were taking all the kids swimming today, but first my favorite time, Disney movie time! hah We loaded the kids into huge vans and dumped them off at the pool. It was so fun, just crushing kids in the water. Though there is a language barrier for me, it is still fun and really easy to connect and get along with these children. So we played for a while and i slit my foot on the pool bottom all the fun times that go with being at a pool. Oh yes and throughout the day I have been learning and driving a motorcycle, it's the funnest thing ever! After being with the kids again today we went to this amazing dame with a restaurant on it. we were in this tiny little shack overhanging a Cliff and lake surrounded by mountains. Pretty much the most beautiful thing possible, with the best meal ever, 2 full fish, and a plate of shrimp, and papaya salad(super spicy nose running fun). So it was Delicious and beautiful to the max.

later

day 10

This day we really fun and relaxing. Srey Mao took us out on the town. First we went to Tuol Slen which was a concentration camp/ killing place during the Khmer Rouge take over in Cambodia. It was intense with pictures of all the people killed there on the walls, because they took pictures before or after they killed ever person. Also there were still beds where they had found bodies on in rooms, with the pictures of the bed and body on it when they found it. Needless to say it was a pretty early place.
the second thing we did was go to the Russian market. There was tons and tons of stuff there, so this was fun though hit was so hot I just wanted to sleep ha. after this we went home for a late lunch. But soon we were back in action and took a moto tour of the city. Srey Mao's cousin was with us the whole day so her and her cousin took us by moto to see the town. It was so fun.. really like just to see what was happening in the city. We ended up going to a huge arena where they said everyone goes to exercise. So there were like 30 soccer games going on, tennis, badminton, you name it! We found out that it was the stadium where the Olympics had taken place and when we reached the top of the stadium.. there were people dancing everywhere! It is funny because in Cambodia there will be a huge group of people dancing, and they call it exercise. there will be an instructor in front and like 200 people dancing.. its really funny.. but there there was at least 10 groups of 200 people dancing with different leaders so it was super funny.
After this we went home and made dinner again. Then we wen to bed..

Day 9

This day was really up in the air at fist. We had no idea what we were going to be doing, but it ended up going very well. First we went to the christian school and met the kids. They did a dance and did some singing for us! The Cambodians are so good and dancing.. maybe not at the singing part as much ha. But it was good to meet the kids of the city.

After we met these kids we went to one of the orphanages and ate with a few of the orphanage leaders and team. It was a good Cambodian meal. Full of spicy mango's, little full bodied fish, and stir fries and such.. but good stuff. after we ate we got the opportunity to go back and teach english at the school. Finally after all this we went back to the guest house where we were staying with our good friend Srey Mao. She is a crazy Cambodian girl who is super outgoing. She is 24 and just pretend to be my "girl friend" the whole time. ha It was really funny when we were in town she would tell people in Kamhai that I was her boyfriend. So we had fun together.

when we got back to the Guest house we just made our own food and went to bed.

day 8

sorry that I am so late... But we have not had Internet till Now. We just arrived in Thailand.

back to day 8...

Day 8 was a sad day, it was the day we had to say goodbye to the orphans and Batdambang. We woke up extra early so we could meet the kids at the orphanage before they took off for school. Basically we just played with them and hung out for a little bit. Then came the sad part, the goodbyes. It was so sad! All the kids started to crazy, even the orphan mom and dad, Savey and his wife, it was so sad and hard to leave.
Then we proceeded from the orphanage to the bus station for our 5 hour drive back to Phnom Penh. I was kind of expecting a really crusty bus, but we got a stinking nice coach air conditioned bus. There was even a plasma screen on it playing Cambodian movies. We got back to "the big city", Phnom Penh, and got to the guest house where we were staying. It was nice and air conditioned as well. we were really living in high class in the Cambodian culture because many homes do not even have a roof, let alone walls, so every thing we had been treated to while here is really their best of the best. The funny thing is even their best of the best in many areas is mediocre at best for us Americans. But we've truly been blessed while in Cambodia.
After we had unpacked and gotten settled Sivorn picked us back up and we went to "lucky market" which is basically a little chunk of American in the middle of this town. There was a 6 story mall that was stinkin' nice! also we shopped at the American style grocery store connected to the mall. After this quick adventure we returned to the guest house and slept till the next day...