A Breath of Fresh Air

I got back last night from a four-day visit to the countryside. Jub, Cori, a lovely couple traveling around from the states and I travelled about 8 hours mostly by bus to a northern province called Buriram. P’Prong was born and raised in Buriram. She left for Bangkok when she was a teenager hoping to make good money to support herself and her poor country family. She didn’t start in the bars, but after a failed marriage and two kids to support she ended up working at a bar girl. She was one of the first students of The Well 5 or 6 years ago. She eventually decided she was ready to try to move back out to Buriram and start a children’s ministry. So we were in Buriram visiting with P’Prong and helping with a traveling medical clinic that came through her village. Here’s an excerpt from my journal on Friday:

Today was the second day of a traveling, free, Thai clinic down from Chang Mai. They brought only one foreigner – the physician – and we have four foreigners including myself. I say this because of the importance of Thai involvement in their own healing. It is a very good thing to be in the cultural minority.

So, last night we walked around P’Prong’s village to remind her neighbors that the clinic would be set up at her house today. After the walk we rode out a few miles to an orphanage – 14 kids – run by a sweet Thai couple. They had the whole team there. They fed us dinner and had an info/worship session. This morning, we woke up to the team outside our house. Some of the others were up early to make breakfast for everyone. Pork and rice mush with some veggies – a lot of yummy cilantro! Yumm! “Coffee” too- from a packet – just add water. I will be glad to have that precious Virginia gold back in my morning mug... A little pre-clinic socializing, prayer, prep, set-up, then: day 2! It was much slower than yesterday’s 334 patients.

We took turns going over to the kitchen for lunch, chicken-foot soup, a delicacy. I had a part of one of the feet – it was surprisingly supple; a bit like fat around a bone. Then Jub came out with a bowl of ants and larvae cooked with egg. We saw a man harvesting them yesterday. A long piece of bamboo with a bucket on the end. He found a nest in the top of a tree – maybe 50 feet up. He put the bucket under it and hit up on the nest – “shaking” the ants and larvae right out of the nest. It was tasty, mainly flavorless just absorbing the flavors of the egg and sauces. The larvae did have quite the texture though – pop in your mouth like a series of mini-balloons. The ants were kind of crunchy, like shrimp legs. One of the guys said the ants too were somewhat of a special treat. They can only be harvested about one week of the year. They are a “sign” that the rainy season is coming!