Poke Me, Prod Me

Yesterday Heidi and I experienced the Thai health care system. We were very pleased with the whole experience and we heard today on the final results from the tests. We know for sure it is not twins!!

These few weeks we have been out of the jungle have been punctuated by huge transition for Heidi and I. It is interesting to say the least to go from the jungle where at most moments we are within easy striking distance of the bad guys and many of the people have fled within the past month or year. There we were sleeping on the floor, eating much the same thing every day, walking anywhere and everywhere you needed to go. Maybe living simply is the best description, the only concern is where the bad guys are, how to help the good guys, food, shelter, and a bath now and then, that is all. The contrast to here in the city is so vast, we have not a drop of fear in our veins, all of our needs and many of our desires are easily met, a warm comfy bed waits for us and a hot shower. The deadliest issue around is driving the streets and those pesky mosquito's buzzing around. If you walk through the markets there is more food and trinkets and JUNK than I ever knew existed. Heidi and I have asked ourselves over and over why we are the ones that come and go so easily and in reality have this seemingly perfect life. We keep repeating the truth to each other "to whom much is given much is required and we try to do more and give more, and ask God to show us how to do it better.

Through our time in the jungle both Heidi and I waited eagerly for the day when we would see an elephant. There were numerous signs of their presence but all we managed to see were their mountainous piles of poo and the gigantic foot prints they left behind. In order to satiate our desire for the mighty elephant this past Saturday we joined the other tourists and went for a ride on one of the beasts. The crazy tourist type folks we met and the giant animal between our legs made for a great day and a fun adventure.

As for the hospital visit Heidis test came back negative for Malaria, Typhus and Dengue Fever (sorry no baby either) : ). Praise God we are in a place where we have doctor friends who speak English and deal with these problems every day. The Malaria is a tricky one and several varieties do not show up on the tests so at this point we have not ruled it out. Heidi feels fine today but yesterday she felt quite ill. Please pray for her health and a fast recovery!

My beard is getting obnoxious and hot and not fun. Heidi is getting board of the three shirts she has (especially now that I have washed them with my clothes and marred their brilliant colors). We lost over ten pounds each in the jungle but the ice cream twice a day hasn't helped keep it that way. Thai parking tickets are 12 dollars, don't be alarmed if they keep your drivers license until you pay.

From what I can tell people are getting decapitated all the time in here but the Saints have never been in the Super Bowl, I gotta go!

Anonymous

Sloth in a Foot Race with Kenyans

I held my breath for just a second as my entire body stiffened. Then, after two shallow, quick breaths, I resigned myself for the hundredth time as the words "buck up" flashed across my mind and I plunged my body into the icy river water - for my bath. As I stumbled out of the river I often thought "burr this water is freezing" and "man, this is inconvenient taking a bath with a body size wash cloth draped around me" or "quick, where's my towel" but this time I thought "phew, I'm so glad I cut my hair; it makes bath time quicker!!"







Lyle and I entered Karen State under a tarp in a wooden long boat. As we road along, suffocated from the heat under the tarp, it dawned on me that I was under this tarp because of what I looked like, where I came from, who I was. I was too different to blend in and my difference wasn't allowed where I was. I can't remember that ever happening to me before and it made me think of the thousands of people throughout history who have had to hide, run, or change because they where different. My situation was nothing compared to theirs, in fact the absurdity of it all was it felt like just another day.


After my very first cold shower in Karen State I realized what a pain my long hair was going to be for the next two months while I bathed in cold rivers. So, upon Lyle's suggestion we cut off a healthy chunk of my hair and I realized that particularly cold bath day it was much easier to manage in the jungle.

In Karen State I'm the white girl with no hops and everyone else is a Kenyan. Kenyans are known for their runners. They are born with it, it's easy, natural. The Karen are born into simple living in a war torn land. They know how to bathe in cold rivers in a dress, cook amazing food over a fire, walk for days with 30 kilos, build anything out of bamboo, and, most importantly, live under the constant threat of being attacked. Through it all they have a grace, like Kenyans running, in their actions and speech. Times when I was almost paralyzed by the hopelessness of the situation they laughed and said "we have to keep going, we wont be at war forever". When I was exhausted, sweaty, and stinky from a 10 hour hike and all I wanted was to sit, they ran about, with a smile on their faces, preparing hot water and food . . . FOR ME! and often wouldn't even let me help. When I took a bath with my hand always ready to grab my surong before it fell of, which it inevidable did at the worst times, they seemed to perform a smooth dance as they skillfully took their surongs on and off. When I carelessly loaded up logs full of ants into the firewood basket slung across my back and they worked their way down into my pants causing me to suffer from bights all over my bottom that itch even as I write this, a month later, they seem to never be bothered by the biting, stinging, poking wildlife. When I'm constantly questioning God about why these people have to endure years of injustice they are praising Him for His rich blessings of life, food, education, and family. When I cry after hearing a teacher's story about running from the enemy the same teacher tells me, with hope and joy in her eyes, that the only way we can form relationships with each other and make things better is to "pray for each and every family and for each and every village". And then they came to me and asked how to improve their education system, or how to make things better for their children, or how to play with Lego's.

Grace, humility, hope, generosity, humor, determination, and love radiates out of these people. If life was a foot race the ethnic groups of Burma would be the Kenyans. I was privileged to watch them run, just for a bit, and see what it looks like to really run.

"We talk different but we laugh and cry the same"

- Htoo Htoo Eh; FBR Ranger

The Enemy Without

How do you summarize two months of heart rending, life changing, explosive moments in a few short paragraphs? I didn't know whether to laugh at the absurdity of my position or poop my pants at the possible outcomes. Heidi and I huddled under the tarp in the early morning dawn as the long boat sped down the river to deliver us to our jumping off point to walk into the Burma jungle. All we could see were feet of our security and the buts of their AR15 rifles. Hiking under the cover of darkness the first night with a few hours rest then over the mountains to the FBR training camp we felt like we were coming home as the Eubank family and many other local folks greeted us and welcomed us to the camp. The adventure was only beginning.

I don't think there is a single person in America that can truly relate to our friends in Karen state Burma. Imagine living in a beautiful country ravaged by constant war since your grandpa was a boy. Imagine, if you can, not having a penny to your name, the home you lived in as a child was burned; then you were forced to move not once but sometimes more than once a month as men encroached on your territory that would not hesitate to kill or torture you for days at their leisure. If the bad guys are coming you may have several hours warning or they may sneak to your village, surround it and shoot into your bamboo houses, killing children, men, and women as they run. Imagine, if it is possible, to raise a family in a situation were you have no security at all other than the faith you may have that there is a God and He really cares for you. Can you imagine these same people sharing their rice with you, smiling, and laughing and loving? I could never imagine anything like it unless I had seen it with my own eyes. These people are so genuine and speak of their trials so easily I feel embarrassed that I ever complain about anything at all.

The first section of our trip we had the privilege of seeing the new batch of graduates from the FBR training camp complete their three day exam in which they are not allowed to sleep or eat on a race type situation through many different obstacles testing their skills in everything from land mine detection and disarming, medical trauma patient assistance, multiple river crossings, and navigation. Heidi and I stayed busy doing any task we could lay our hands and brains to before we all packed up and headed down the trail to start our actual missions into the different areas to help people. Heidi joined the GLC group and I joined the headquarters group and we parted ways for two weeks. For our first anniversary we could only dream of each other and by our second Christmas we still had a few more days to wait before reuniting.

I thought it ironic that a man with an AK-47 strapped to his back plays with legos.

I spent quite a bit of time contemplating the situation that our new friends are in and how a lifetime of war would effect your perspective. I find these folks no different really than me, they breath air like I do, they grow and marry their true love like I did, they dream big dreams like I do but a big difference is most of their energy is fighting an enemy that they can see and feel. For most of the people reading this your enemy is likely more insidious and deceptive as it is for me. The evil that catches me is not so palpable and blatant. I find myself fighting improper desires for wealth and fame (more likely infamy : ) and to some degree power. How different it is to have your enemy be a honest to goodness bad guy out there seeking to kill you.

Heidi crossing one of the many bridges in Karen state.

A real live super hero, this man killed enimies with his sword and first fought the Japanese in the rice padi that we met him in during World War Two when he was twelve.

Home made land mines by the good guys
Despite what it looks like the two dudes on the right are not wearing skirts, they are lungies and they are very comfortable.

In a discussion among the whities about the proper way for each gender to tie their lungie we were informed that the men have a lump in the front and the womens are flat. . .

Flat tires, jet lag and culture shock

Have you ever driven a stressed out lady and her young son and infant two hours down a bumpy logging trail after she had major surgery trying to find her husband that lives eight hours walk from the meeting place only to find him not there and then driving on a crazy 4by4 trail and waited for him at that spot until he finally arrived only after trying to use an interpreter relaying through two other people over the radio to try to communicate? Now we can say we have done that. They shared a slice of their giant hot dog the size of a sumo wrestlers arm, literally, the thing was huuuuuuge, for lunch before we disappeared in a cloud of dust.

I have often dreamt of sailing across the Pacific Ocean, actually it is one of my life goals. It took us fourteen hours to cross the great ocean going over 500 miles an hour, it is a stinkin long way over here, that would be a long trip going seven or eight knots over all that water. I think we'll stop in Fiji for a break on the way. We have been in Chiang Mai now for two nights and the jet lag is wearing off. Tomorrow morning we hit the road again heading into the Burmese jungle!!! We are so excited, so excited I just peed myself a little thinking about it. We have been drilling people with questions since we arrived, feeling a little naive as to what to expect and what we will be doing. For the next six to eight weeks we will be hiking the jungle, arriving first at the training area helping the FBR army guys and participating as we can for a week or two. Next, we will be helping with the good life clubs or hiking further into the jungle and visiting villages along the way. We will be unable to update our blog until we return to Chiang Mai in six or eight weeks so both of you who read this (thanks moms : ) will have to hold your breath until we come out!

Before we left our friends in Mexico Heidi and I both filled our days as best we could using up our last hours to finish all the loose ends. Heidi installed all the trim in three rooms that she had been cutting and painting, I built three sets of shelves for Mark, we watched a three hour movie in Spanish, Dave and I agonised over how to get some tires to Mark after his had gone irreversibly flat, and we packed our bags to enter the next phase of our adventure.

Sometimes Heidi and I look at each other and exclaim at how lucky and blessed and fortunate and maybe even a little stupid we are for jumping into an adventure like this. We have had more adventure in the past month and a half than many people experience in a lifetime. Heidi and I are struck at Gods provision for us along the way already, mostly the friends that He has clearly put in our lives to bless and be blessed by, God is so good!! Sometimes we have felt an expectation of what God is going to do and we feel that now as we head out into the jungle, we are waiting, and praying to see His hand move!!

"STINKING POOPY"

Our favorite quote in flawless english by Daves wife Delia after losing a game of UNO

Picking the scab

The flight would have been longer if I hadn't thrown my headset out the door with the air drop we were making. Yes, you read correctly, it seams I have a habit here of destroying things right and left. First it was the pots we scraped some of the Teflon off then snapping one of the living room chairs, cutting the cord on the skill saw, and the list goes on. I feel a bit like an accident waiting to happen. Anyway, Dave and I prepared the airdrops the night before and I was able to ride along with Mark to throw the packages out for John the Mennonite. The first two dropped perfectly with the shoots opening to soften the reunion with the earth. The last one I forced from the plane with half my body hanging out the plane but somehow my arm hooked the headset cord and flung the thing off my head and out into space. Angry with myself I forgot to look to see if the package landed OK and see if my headset missile killed anyone on the ground as it plummeted to earth.

The following day Mark, Carmen, Heidi and I along with Dexter the dog, piled into a jeep to bump our way out to Rowadiche and spend the next three days hiking to rural villages to help the sick and visit friends. Carmen is a doctor at the mission hospital and has spent many of her days off hikeing to the bush villages to help where she can. For Heidi and I it was a spectacular dichotomy seeing the awesome beauty of the high sierra and immensity of the canyons with shear cliffs and unforgiving beauty and seeing the beautiful people that carve out an existence there and their rugged way of life and the palpable spiritual darkness. We feel honored to gain insight into this place and see what life is like for our neighbors here.

It is a staggering reality check for Heidi and I gaining a little idea of life for these folks. Many of the friends we have made live a true subsistence lifestyle growing corn and beans to last the year and find other work occasionally to provide the other necessities. Infant mortality here in the sierra is the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Simple sanitation education would dramatically improve that statistic but new ideas are slow to take root.

One of the nights we spent out in the bush the family we stayed with offered their own house for us to sleep in. We were honored still even when we found that they had been spending the last several moons sleeping under the stars to avoid the starving flees that were infesting their house. We enjoyed an evening under the milky way that night.

Carmen put us to work on one of the children that had scabbed over wounds on his head with the dried puss mounding up in his thick black hair. With my leatherman I cut the hair away to expose the wound and we picked away at the scab to expose the bloody flesh in order to treat it with ointment. If left unattended Carmen informed us the problem would eventually cause serious kidney damage.

We are two days away from leaving our new home down here and looking forward to the next chapter. Mixed feelings follow as we must leave old friends and our new friends alike. I don't think I will miss the flees, but the parasites in the jungle are bound to treat us less kindly.

Chinese proverb say - Don't open a shop unless you like to smile

Hospital, hospital, we have a transport

It took exactly 2 weeks, numerous discussions on the best methods, several e-mails to Super Cub experts (thank you Jeremy and Matt), and lots of laughs for Lyle and Dave to finish the annual on the plane. The timing could not have been better either as Mark and his new wife Carmen arrived home on Friday evening and the plane was needed the next morning. Praise the Lord! Often during those two weeks, while I was puttering around the hanger doing odd jobs, I had the privilege of listening to Dave and Lyle banter back and forth. It brought me such joy because I could see Lyle was really filling a need for Dave. He helped with the annual and was a wealth of information about different ways to do things in the aviation world. God's timing is perfect and I really feel He orchestrated our trip perfectly for Lyle to be of service to Dave.

The rest of the week leading up to the completion of the annual was filled with much the same task as the previous week. On Saturday we had one more chance to head to Delia's family ranch to retrieve the picked corn before all the little animals had their way with it. Lyle and Dave spent the week days working tirelessly on the plane and I found jobs here and there to be useful. The hospital had an eye-surgery weekend where they bring down skilled doctors from the states and do hundreds of different eye-surgeries. Therefore I spent a few days there helping with the preparations, including one day where I spent 3 hours doing nothing but laundry because the hospital uses one load of water twice, draining one machine into the other. You must watch the laundry to catch it at the right moment. Spending time at the hospital is always a comical event sense I know very little Spanish. Creative hand-signalling has become my new second language. One additional activity Lyle and I were able to be part of was a patient transport. We drove about one hour in the hospital ambulance to a near by town, dropped of the patient, then Lyle drove home sounding the sirens merrily all the way.

Over the past two and a half weeks I have thought endlessly about God's blueprint for saving people. Questions about methods, and approaches, techniques, and attitudes have all run over and over in my brain. Always God has brought me back to one basic but difficult answer. There is NO set method or formula. God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of situations, in all kinds of ways to meet all kinds of needs. The way to be used by Him in His smorgasbord approach is to continually be seeking a deeper relationship with Him so we are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. To punctuate this answer to all my burning questions He had my beautiful sister-in-law send an e-mail that they recently found great truth in.

"The impact God has planned for us does not occur when we are pursuing impact.

It occurs when we are pursuing God."

unknown

The Hard Way

The teacher, John the Mennonite.

Last weekend Heidi and I tagged along with Dave, Delia and their four month old bambino on an overnight trip to see a friend that lives up the valley from Samique past Wachochi. A location becomes a village when more than one family lives there and from a distance you can spot a town by the cleared ground for growing corn. John the Mennonite lives in just such a place, two hours walk from the nearest road and road is a loose translation of a sketchy logging trail where Dave should never drive his van. You can easily spot John from a distance and recognise him by his lanky body and long stride lengthened by hundreds of miles of trail troding in his sandals cut from a car tire and skinny Amish beard squaring off his ruddy good looks. John seems wise beyond his years and talks easily and honestly of the trials and problems he has and sees and the joy in his life pours out of his body like water from a spring. John originally hailed from Tennessee but God clearly placed him with the Tarahumura Indians and he came and found a bright eyed young Tarahumare to marry and now he is sowing his oats evidenced by two rugged children. John has hewn out a life for himself in this jagged rock strewn territory but it was his sweet tooth what allowed me the chance to meet him in the first place. He had come to town, a full days walk with the children, to get his fill of Coke and cookies and run a few errands before strapping on the kids and hiking the eight hours back home! Every Sunday John leaves at dawn and walks to several villages to share what he has learned from the Bible as most of the people can not read and there are very few writings in the Tarahumura language. He returns before the sun makes its exit from the evening sky, on most nights, to enjoy his family. It is interesting experiencing the adventure of the teachers life when it has worn off for them but through our eyes still vivid, dangerous, and strangely alluring.

The days and nights since then have been filled with projects, chief among them for me is helping Dave complete the annual inspection on the super cub they use for the mission hospital. For Heidi, helping out at the hospital and hanger where ever needed has been her work de jouir. On the mundane side several of Heidi's hours were filled by plucking a pinch of cotton from a pile to make a cotton ball while listening to the fellow laborers talk, in Spanish, about all the goings on around the place. Heidi has also been asked to cut and paint and install trim in the guest bedroom and tend to the home made water filter that is being tested for use with the locals for personal use. We are stoked to feel needed and soaking up the experience, loving every minute of it!!

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.

Gandhi