Training Wheels

We trained alot today. We ate a tasty breakfast this morning of baby bananas shorter than my index finger, plain white bread, little oranges, and some nori seaweed and inter menu kimshi hot plate flavored potato chips. The bananas were incredibly tasty, the oranges were good, although seeded, and the potato chips...well, they were interesting. And no, I have no idea what it means for something to be "Inter Menu Kimshi Hot Plate flavored." The spicy squid potato chips that Matt got this afternoon weren't bad either. Either way, breakfast was tasty. After we ate, we had Chris and Jen lead us through Prayer Walking training. We concluded the training by setting out in 3 groups to 3 different nearby areas and prayer walking. After the prayer walking, it was already time for lunch, so we had some. Quintin and Kim's houseworker made our lunch for us and Janet brought it over. It was also quite tasty, some kind of fried rice dish with chicken...but the fish sauce was spicier than we all expected. I think Amy cried a little. During our lunch break, but after we had finished eating, we all went to the nearest 7/11 (yes, they have those...lots of them) and shopped around. We all left with some little goodies. I especially remember this item that Andrew got that said nothing in English on the package other than "Corn Cheese," it ended up being little cracker-like things that tasted like popcorn crackers with a dusting of cheese. A team from The Garden of Hope ministry came over after we returned from the 7/11. They led us in training about the problem of prostitution and child exploitation in Thailand. And now that you are all thinking, "Yes, that's right, I've always heard all that nasty stuff about what they do in Thailand," let me inform you that there are children prostitutes in America than in any other country in the world. Let that sink in a bit. Ouch, right? In our own backyard, yet none of us probably even know it was an issue. Any way, after the Garden of Hope team left we relaxed for a little while before heading off for dinner. I suppose this is a good place to interject a bit of information about what it is like here, aside from our hour by hour activities. It is busy. The people are extremely nice, Thailand is known as the "land of smiles." If someone in America smiles at you randomly on the street, you wonder what you did, or what they did. If someone smiles at you on the street in Thailand, you smile back, or leave them wondering what your problem is. There are lots and lots of people riding around (on the left side of the road, mind you) on motor-scooters. We spend lots of time riding in the back of a songtaw (Song-tao), which is basically a modified pick-up truck with bench seats in the bed facing each other and an add-on thing on the back where up to 3 more riders can stand to ride. Riding around on the back of one of these is quite the convenient way to get around. Up till now, we have had a driver working for us specifically, but starting tomorrow we will be riding the common songtaws that roam around Chiang-Mai looking for customers. They basically act as taxis for the people here. We have also spent quite a bit of time walking around. The distance we walk from place to place is a bit farther than I had imagined that it would be, but it is actually quite easy to manage. I am, however, still trying to figure out my way around our area by foot. But, we are beginning to figure it out. Anyway, back to today's story. We went to Chiang-Mai University, intending to eat dinner with the students there at an open-air cafeteria type place, but most of the food vendors were closed for the day...or at least for the afternoon. So, we ended up going to a food vendor/restaurant on the side of Suthep (the main road nearest to our accomodations) that Shawn and Brad remembered from last year's trip. We had some Papaya Salad, grilled chicken, sticky rice, fresh cabbage, fresh cucumber, and some rather spicy, but nice sauce. Dinner was quite tasty, and unique. We ate with our hands, rolling up some chicken in a piece of cabbage and dipping it in the spicy sauce or making a small ball of sticky rice and dipping that in the sauce. After we had paid, said our "Kap kuhn kaps/kas (depending on our gender)," we headed over to the market. Shawn, Laurie, Amy, and I had gone there this morning during our prayer walking exercise. It is a very interesting place with a wide variety of sights, sounds, and smells. I went there with one thing in mind, worms. I had seen them there this morning and knew that I had to get some. I did succeed in finding a nice little bowl of mealworms, which I promptly bought and put in my bag, but our market adventure did not end there. We continued to shop around and bought some more breakfast type foods for tomorrow morning, including some very tiny apply-pear type things, some more baby bananas, some regular bananas, some dragon fruit, and some fresh strawberries. After we were fruited up, we went to the Lotus express (imagine a full grocery store the size of a convenience store) and finished up our purchasing with some more white bread, apple juice, cran-grape juice, orange juice, and some pineapple and strawberry jam for the bread. Finally done, we headed back to our houses. We split up a bit on the way, as Thomas and Joel headed off towards the internet smoothie/coffee shop on their own, the girls went to their house, and Brad, Andrew, Matt, Shawn, Zac, and I headed back to our house. When we got there, we opened up my bowl of worms. Shawn and Zac headed out again before we got to try them, but the rest of us stepped up to the plate. Those mealworms are an interesting bit of food. They are a bit crunchy, hollowish, salty, and leave a bit of powderiness and flakes in your mouth after they are gone...quite interesting indeed. Luckily I had my hot dog bun full of chocolate mousse and chocolate chips from the 7/11 today to wash them down with. We all drank a bit of water to rid our mouths of powder, and then headed out to this internet cafe. It's a dandy place, but I'm about done with it. Some of us have already left, and Thomas, Brad, Barb, and I are about to. We are headed to the Night Bazaar, to buy some fun things, probably souvenirish style. So, I will bid you farewell for another day. And tomorrow should leave much to tell about, as we are splitting into 4 teams of 3 to do a scavenger hunt around the city. I'll certainly let you know how that pans out. Please continue to pray as we are shortly about to engage the Thai people on a bit deeper of a level. Oh, and have a nice day.