I arrived back in Chiang Mai only a few hours ago. While it feels good to be back "home", it really felt awful to say goodbye to Muskee, my beautiful Karen brothers and sisters there, and the purple mountains, green rice fields, dark blue skies, and clean air. It's hard to imagine that I was there just this morning, saying some tearful goodbyes to some of the young girls who lived in our compound.
These last few weeks have been full of new experiences. It's hard to remember everything that's happened, without consulting my journal, but one thing that was particularly important to me was The Life Center. It's comparable to (but not) a camp with a bible program, of sorts, with a special emphasis on accepting those who struggle with drug addictions. They had eight students there and Tatu-Mo and Tatu-Pa were the "parents"/"directors". Their community was so loving and inviting and I spent a lot of time there, worshipping with them in the evenings. I learned so much about what it means to live lives of hospitality and fully trust in God's provision, as they have no income and no budget. It was great to see the way their community functioned and was built on a foundation of loving one another unconditionally. I grew to love them so much.
Some things that are interesting/exciting: meeting and interviewing a 110 year old man, spontaneously singing and speaking at a bible camp, going frog-hunting with the locals, baking American cakes and delivering them to my friends in the village, making friendship bracelets with the girls in my compound, playing the guitar! and singing with Kratai (one of the translators/a really wonderful friend), completing my research paper on development projects in Musekee and surrounding villages, doing various homestays in villages near and far, drinking bitter tea with neighbors, making bamboo baskets with some of the locals, weaving traditional Karen cloth with the local women, and attending a few weddings and funerals. Most recently, I was recruited to spend the night at one of the pastor's houses so that his daughter could practice speaking English. That night, the pastor told me that I was going to learn a Thai love song. The next day, they dressed me in the traditional white Karen dress for virgin girls and took me to a wedding where I performed the song in front of all the guests. Just call me the wedding singer. Really, I do that now, apparently. :)
It really is so sad to leave Musekee. I know I am going to miss this part of Thailand the most because it's so hard to explain the things that have happened and the people I have met with anyone who has not seen/known them. I suppose this is my fear in coming home: not being able to articulate things. But I gave up my right to be understood a long time ago. Please be patient with me, I know I'm going to be needing more grace than normal. I'm eager to see how you've changed and be able to see how I've changed from outside this experience. For now, I'm plowing through and I'm almost done!
In two days, most of the people who made this experience ridiculously amazing are going to be heading back to your side of the world. I'll be staying on, but there's been a slight change of plans. Originally, I was going to travel down south to visit my friends from this summer (namely the kids at ALH, Ricky and the other missionaries, and Melody). After Ricky and the orphans visited Agape (the aids orphanage I interned at in Chiang Mai) and I was able to see them and after my even crazier meeting with Melody in Lopuburi, I've been feeling more and more peace about not going back (at least not during this stint in Thailand...) Instead, a series of crazy meetings and random events (that are really not random at all) have led me to a pretty rare opportunity: God has opened the door for me to go to a refugee camp for my remaining days in Thailand. There are a lot of Burmese Karen refugees living in Thailand and I have no idea what to expect. The camp I'm going to is called Mehsaat (and the spelling is most definitely butchered) and there are 50,000 people living there...50,000 lives in limbo. I have no emotional energy left to further discuss this, but you can make your own conclusions about how I feel. I'll be "teaching English" and staying at a bible school there and I heard that there is an orphanage, which I'd love to spend time at. So it sounds like I'll be loving some people and holding some babies. Awesome. God is good. Pray for me.
Blessings on your days,
Dao (my Thai name, which means "star"), Chaa-la-eh (my Karen name, which means "lovely star")
