Nong Tao

We had the privilege of visiting Nong Tao Children's Home with new and old friends the weekend before New Years. My sister Karen has flown in from Korea for the holidays and joined us. Holly Deland from Fairbanks flew over on Christmas Day and we were all able to go together. A woman name Sarah Lappa arranged the trip for us. She is a local missionary here that we had the opportunity to meet in Fairbanks a few years ago at a Partners Relief and Development banquet.  She was their key note speaker, and we had the chance to provide her with warm clothes for her time in the cold winter of Alaska. It was such a privilege to meet her again and participate in the work she does for children in Thailand.

We rode up to the village with a local pastor and his wife. We went with a lot of gear and gifts piled high in the back of the truck, and Mike and I joined the pile and rode in the back. It was a little under a two hour drive up into the mountains. It was a paved road, but very steep and a lot of switchbacks. We really had to hang on!

We saw a lot of rice patties, corn fields, and lettuce farms as we went. Our destination was a small village of Karen people up in the mountains, who are an ethnic minority in Thailand. The home is designed so that children from more remote areas have a safe place to live during the week so that they can attend school in the village. These families speak Karen, so it is important for them to have the opportunity to go to school and learn the Thai language.

We were there for their yearly Christmas program and party, and it really was a party!  The day was filled with preparations- decorating the grounds was serious business!  Our favorite part of decorating was the children taking an old piece of packing Styrofoam, which they broke the beads out of, and then delicately skewered on to the tips of some type of Thailand pine bough to look like snow. You can imagine the time it takes to decorate a whole bough in this fashion, but it had a surprisingly classy appearance at the end.

 

In the afternoon, there were lots of fun games for the children, like pass the water balloon, or climb the greased bamboo pole to get some money! 

 They butchered a whole pig for a feast and cooked soup in a gargantuan pot...

          

Families kept arriving from local villages all afternoon, and the program started about 7 pm and went until close to midnight. There were songs, dances, two sermons, more songs, more dances, and food! It was a memorable celebration, and the children had a great time. Holly, Karen, and I were invited to participate, and sang Go Tell it on the Mountain. Holly and Mike had rigged up a guitar capo with a piece of rubber and a nail that they found on the ground, and it worked very effectively!

                         

We spent the night in the girl's dorm, which was a semi-open air tree house type building.  The party was still going strong when we finally hit the hay. The height of the building left plenty of room for the village dogs to fight below us as the party wrapped up and the night progressed. And once in awhile the fighting dogs would bump into the chicken area and set the rooster to crowing. Bottom line is that it was an eventful night of sleep.

The morning brought a quieter pace than the day and night before. Good thing, as the three of us were feeling less than perfect having been affected by something food or water related. There was a great church service that we attended in Karen with enthusiastic singing, and at least three different sermons. Mike also shared a brief word from Colossians through a translator. Holly shared a testimony, and we enjoyed the opportunity to participate in spirit even though we could understand only a little of what was spoken.
                                     

Church lasted quite awhile, so when it was done, there was a lunch served, the truck was re-packed, and we piled back in to the truck.  This time I was glad for the extra fresh air in the back. The ride down was not quite as aggressively driven, which was a blessing to our queasy stomachs. We made it back with full hearts and exhausted bodies. We rested the rest of the afternoon, slept early, and were amazed at the effect sleep can have on a body, as we awoke feeling much better the next day and ready to eat again!