hello from the heartland
It's great to send you an email from good old America. I'm so happy to be home with my family, Nick and my friends, but I sure miss Prang, her family, our women, waking up to the sunrise and Thai food. Ate rice tonight for the first time since I've been back. It's not the same on this side of the ocean :)
My last week in Buriram was marked with very precious goodbyes. We were so busy, which was great. We had a 15-year-old, Pah, start to work for us a couple weeks before I left. This is the beginning of what we hope to be many more young teens in Buriram who will choose not to find work at the bars. Prang threw me 2 goodbye parties. All sorts of neighbors, teachers and kids came over to hang out. They honored me with a very traditional Thai blessing by tying pieces of string around my wrists. Some of them stuck some small bills in the string as well. They typically do this at weddings or when a boy decides to enter the monkhood. As they tied the rope, the ones who knew me well hugged me and told me reasons they appreciated having me live with them. The most memorable for me was Prang's sister, Si. She told me that when we started working, she didn't know how to sew. No one else would have employed her, she said. She told me that I was so good at encouraging her as she took quite a while to learn. Her goodbye was so precious because I've seen her blossom personally and spiritually as she's blossomed in her sewing abilities.
Another precious moment before I left happened during our morning devotional time. We were about to pray and were talking about how we wanted others to pray for us. I explained how I was scared about the upcoming financial culture shock. After living among the poverty in Buriram, I was worried about going back to middle class America. I was worried about buying coffee for $3 - enough to feed a family for a day - and being overwhelmed with guilt. No, I've never been a $3 cup a day kind of person (maybe a $2 cup a week), but I was just making a point. As I talked, some of the others started tearing up. One woman was crying. I thought they were feeling resentful that I lived with them only to pack up and go back to my middle class life. Then Prang's oldest sister looked at me and said, 'Michaela, we have a good life now. When we're hungry, we can buy food. Our families can stay together and we have work everyday.' Another woman was crying because she said sometimes she didn't even have $3 to feed her family each day. But they made it work. She told me she was so grateful that I understood their life and loved them. She gave me two pink pillows for my car before I left.
Living with them sure didn't seem like poverty, it just seemed like life. I lived with them and in most of the same conditions they did just because Jesus called me to love people in Buriram. We can't love people very well when we don't understand them. But living poor wasn't an effort to 'try' to understand them. It was just what happened when these precious people become more important to me than Starbucks or new clothes or going somewhere exciting. Praise be to Jesus, who is our treasure :)
I will be selling purses, jewelry and cards from the Well as well as helping with some fundraising. If you are interested in looking at the products or hosting a party, you can email me to chat.
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Reply #1 on : Thu August 21, 2008, 19:50:11
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Reply #2 on : Sat August 23, 2008, 19:12:47