The Macarena

Last night we were up in Huisan Akha Village to celebrate Christmas with the church and watch performances from the kids at the center and villages...mostly singing, and some choreographed dances. Rusty had a sudden urge to teach the villagers how to do the Macarena so this was sporadically incorporated into the program. Rusty got really into the dancing and even added a few original moves of his own. All to say that the villagers were happily taking part and most everyone had the giggles.

Photos from clinic and mobile clinic

Faces of the kids at the Akha Youth Development Center

One of our favorite parts of living where we do is being able to interact and spend time with the kids at the Akha Youth Development Center. Learning the language is giving us more and more of an ability to connect with the kids beyond just spending time with them, and we are very grateful for this. Each child at the center has a very unique story as to why they are living here, and in another blog post I would love to share some of those, but for today I am just going to post some photos of them.

Doi Chang Coffee

We headed up to visit the Akha Village that our favorite coffee here in Thailand comes from. Doi Chang Coffee is the cafe that we frequent for internet access, and is also some of the best coffee I have ever had.  We were able to learn more about the various processes that coffee must go through before being poured into a mug for drinking, and it was really fascinating.  Here are some photos of our time there...please note Rusty's face on the last picture.

Oolong 12 Green Tea

Where we live at the Akha Youth Development Center is a large tea field of Oolong 12 organic green tea. 

On Saturdays you will often see students from the center picking tea leaves to earn extra spending money, or their parents coming to help contribute to the center. I have picked with the villagers before and was slightly horrified at how slow I was compared to the rest of them. I tried my best to keep up, but was clearly inexperienced. Rusty took these photos 2 weeks or so ago.

Christmas in Tom Luang Akha Village

Last weekend Rusty drove a truckload of kids from the Akha Youth Development Center and villagers to Tom Luang Akha Village (10 minutes from the Burma border) to celebrate Christmas together. I stayed home to work on the child sponsorship program. Anyways, here are a few pictures he took while there...

Creating Activities for the Grandmas of the Village

Ever since we opened up the clinic consistently in Huisan Akha Village, Libby and I have been taking note of the common theme of loneliness that the elderly villagers seem to experience during the daytime when their families are all working in the fields. 

We asked the women throughout the week what they thought about having weekly  aerobics together followed by a potluck lunch, and they were all excited about the offer. We had our first session last week and had so much fun. We only had one cd of dance music available to us, so we put it on shuffle. Libby and I had the giggles a few times when the woman were unknowingly shaking their hips to "I'm to sexy for my shirt" or some of the other odd songs that randomly came up. The aerobics session ended with the woman singing and teaching us different Akha traditional style dances, and followed by a delicious meal of rice, vegetables, and oranges. They all voiced enjoying the time and wanting to continue again in the weeks to come. 

Life...

Life here in Chiang Rai has felt full lately...full of the many things we are learning, full or work, stress, and all of the things we have to be grateful for. 

We are still studying Thai in Chiang Rai, and beyond that we are both involved in separate work. I (Lynette) have been working in a clinic in a nearby Akha village 2 days a week, and every other weekend going to different Akha villages on medical mobile clinics, as well as working with the Akha Youth Development Center sponsorship program. 

Rusty has been spending quite a bit of his time working with two volunteers Bryan and Jordan who are here for six weeks helping with a film project. The film is focused on capturing stories of the first Akha Christians in Thailand to present to the younger Akha generations. So far things are progressing well with this project, and it seems to be a very meaningful project for this older generation to be able to share these stories with the younger generation.

Libby has been here for a month now, and is living in a nearby Akha village where the medical clinic is located. We are so thankful to have her here for this next year. Libby is a friend of ours who is a Nurse Practitioner from Seattle, WA that I (Lynette) will be working under this next year with another local Akha woman named Ae. Two weekends ago we were able to go visit an Akha village in Burma that one of our students from the Akha Youth Development Center is from (Meeju) and were able to have a small mobile clinic there. This last weekend we had a mobile clinic in Patchee Akha Village (a village about 2.5 hours away) that went really well. Beyond this we also had our second monthly training on preventative health care for the pastors and evangelists working in 12 different Akha villages. This time the focus was on high blood pressure, snake bites, broken bones, and antibiotics. It has been both rewarding and exciting to finally be using my nursing skills in this context. There is so much I'm looking forward to learning more about this next year between language study and working with the clinic.

Life has also had some stressful situations come up, but nothing too big for those of you at home to worry over. I don't have much time to write more today, so I will try to update more later this week. 

We would love to hear from those of you reading this if you get a chance to send an e-mail and update us on the happenings in your lives.

Photos from the last few months...

Rusty with Lawyee, Win, Sailoong, and Anong--some of the students who live at the Akha Youth Development Center.

Some of the kids that are sponsored through the AYDC program that live in a nearby village (Huisan Akha Village)

Ahmee's mother shared some beatle nut with me that she chews on to help numb her mouth for tooth pain...it is also meant to look beautiful.

Rusty with Boomee and Goo Geek (two girls from the Akha Youth Development Center)

A delicious spread of Akha food to celebrate rice harvesting season.

Libby and Ahraya

Visiting Basaat for Thanksgiving

Last weekend I went with some of the villagers for a thanksgiving celebration. After an extremely bumpy and long ride to this village we arrived. The roads to this particular village are inaccessible during rainy season because they are easily washed out and very steep at different parts of them, but an adventure all the while. I wish I could describe to you the beauty of the landscape as you drive higher and higher into the mountains and farther from the conveniences of the lowland.

Upon arriving we had breakfast at the headman's house which consisted of fried pork, rice wrapped in banana leaves, soup, peanuts, and coke. Following eating we walked up to the church which was decorated with crops they had brought in from their fields (tomatoes, garlic, ginger, melons, squash, peppers, onions..etc) as well as a few chickens. Following the service we all ate another big meal together standing around tables covered with banana leaves and an assortment of food. The specialty of the day was raw pork. I was very impressed with the generosity of these villagers who had welcomed their neighboring Lisu village to join them for the service and for the meal. Though their own resources were limited, they generously shared what they had with their guests.