May 2, 2005
The day began with me waking up and highly amazed at Isaac, and how he could sleep so much (he slept like 3 hours more than me lah). And apparently I amazed him when I woke him up too ‘cos he thought I was Pisut. Another rip at me for my dark skin. Bah. Haha. In any case, I was quite irked by the delays in the timings (we were supposed to have devotions at 0730 in the morning and in the end we had it an hour late; in addition we also left the place quite a lot later too). Comic relief came in the form of me ripping my track pants as i tried to get onto the pickup truck. Yes very funny very funny. To make things worse I was filming people getting up before that and I did mention to the camera that “That looks very high man” and as I lifted my leg to get onto the truck, I heard, with a great sense of dread the “RRRIIIIIPPPP” sound. There was a look of great horror on Isaac’s face when he saw the tear. Thankfully only the exterior of the pants ripped and there was still the white inner lining left so I didn’t expose too much skin. Haha. I tried to play it cool and immediately went into the room to change, amidst much laughter both from me and the others. Ah well. Thank God for moments such as these that I can blog down for me to remember and for you to laugh at. Lesson learnt? Do NOT EVER bring along track pants that u have never tried before and that are obviously too small for you.
That having been said, it was a 2+ hour ride to Huay Paraai, and along the way we stopped for lunch at a town near to village (I am now reminded that the name of the town was called Phrao, but for simplicity’s sake let’s just call it Town).
I was slightly surprised that Town actually had handphone shops. Anyhow I did not sleep at all on the ride there and ended up really tired and exhausted by the time we reached Huay Paraai. Huay Paraai is a pretty interesting village if I might add.
Some of the houses there were built with wood, others with concrete (for the more well-to-do villagers). But – get this – some of them had solar panels installed for electricity supply. Apparently Huay Paraai has changed so much since the last batch of missionaries visited 2 years ago. That was only the beginning of our surprises though, because we were to learn at the chapel service later that night that they even had a projector (okok BORROWED) and a dvd player. That’s like how high-tech can. And honestly I tell you now that I’m beginning to detest the show The Passion of The Christ. Because I already watched it twice, once with my cell and then with my ex. And I couldn’t not watch it ‘cos they were already so nice to screen the show for us. To make things worse I had to switch the show to Thai subtitles which means… the show was COMPLETELY in 2 languages I couldn’t understand. Well done. And honestly, the guilt-trip-touch-my-heart effect of the show completely wore off, and to be real frank there was a point in the show I really wanted to show my middle finger to the bloody Pharisees and the people who kept shouting “HEEETSTALEH HEEETSTALEH” (which I believe means “CRUCIFY HIM!”) Talk about the show not having an anti-Sematic effect. Feeling disgusted after the show, I settled down for my quiet time, but it was simply too difficult. I guess not because I was disturbed by the show or even convicted but it just spoilt my mood, and it was hard to focus. Haiz. What did make the day end better was talking to her again that night. Everybody was already sound asleep but we chatted till very late if i might add. I was starting to sleep as late as her. haha.