Spinning Cotton

Living in an Akha village is a constant discovery of talents and craftsmanship. Whether it's a man making a bamboo ladder, women creating ornate Akha stitch work, or the simple, pure skill of the machete as a daily tool.

The other day while Lori was out in the village she came across another incredible sight. Our Akha grandma had picked cotton off of the tree behind her home and was spinning it by hand into yarn.

Here are a few moments of her incredible skill:

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It's truly a blessing to live among these people.

Tags:

• Akha
• culture
• video

Side by Side

We're in the city this week catching up on computer work before heading back up to the village for three weeks or so. In my efforts to share a little more about everyday life, I thought I would share this picture of Paul and our Akha friend working side by side on their computers. Paul has been teaching this young man how to edit video off and on for several months now, but because the video editing program is in English, he's still not completely confident with it. So, he's set up camp in Paul's office this week (Thank goodness we purchased a new larger desk a couple weeks back!) and can ask Paul questions if he get's stuck.

This is one of the best things about living here... the spontaneity of life! We had no idea that we would get to spend so much time with this young man this week, but he had time and we had time, so here we are. We're so excited about this young man and the powerful work he is doing as he reaches out to his Akha brothers and sisters in Laos. We are honored to be even a tiny part of what he and his co-workers are doing! Join us in prayer for them and the nation of Laos!

Tags:

• everyday~life
• tech
• missions

CMCC 2008 Missions Team

We have had (and will have) visitors and teams from all over the world in these months from July to September.
We've had doctors from Singapore and Germany who offered their expertise in free Akha village clinics.
We've had an old Colorado friend who now lives in Scotland come through for a few days.
We are about to have a number of dentists from America come out to do volunteer dental care for the Akha.
And we had a missions team of international students living in Chiang Mai, Thailand who attend the CMCC youth group come spend a week with us in Mae Salong on a work project building stairs in the common path areas of the village.

Although all of these visitors deserve their own posts, notes, pictures and videos - the group that spent the most time in our village was the CMCC team - so we put together a video of their project to share with them and with the village. Take a look here...

(there's also a short moment of Abi in all her village glory ...dirty, dirty, dirty! and loving it)

Here's the clip:

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In case you are wondering. All these videos are finally getting completed because I am in the city helping teach a young Akha man who is reaching out to his fellow Akha in Laos how to edit videos. He is editing videos of Laos trips on his desktop while I edit videos right next to him on our computer. It's a strange time for the Akha world... Grass roofs, dirt floors and nicely edited home videos on the television. Pray for he and his coworkers in their wonderful work.

Tags:

• Akha
• village
• team

How to Take a Village Shower

Recently I've been thinking about how much you (our beloved readers) still don't know about our lives in Thailand! Even after three years of blogging, we haven't begun to scratch the surface of all the interesting things we see and do on a daily basis. So, I'm hoping to start blogging a bit more about everyday topics (in addition to the special events and stories that we already try to post) to help help you better understand our lives and ministry to the Akha.

I've often been asked how I bathe in the village, so I thought I'd give you a step by step tutorial on the process! When I first arrived in the village, I had no idea how to shower at the public wells and had to walk about a mile to our Akha mom's house to bathe in her indoor bathroom. Luckily, some of the young women in the village took pity on me and taught me all the ins and outs of bathing modestly in public! Of course, with our new house (We promise a video tour of the finished house is coming soon!) we have an indoor bathroom, so indoor bucket showers are also possible. However, I actually enjoy being outside and have become quite accustomed to showering like this, so I still prefer sarong showers (weather permitting).

Remember to click on the pictures below in order to read the captions and view the full size photo.

Tags:

• village
• culture
• everyday~life

Pray For Lori (and Abi, Esther & some Germans)

While I'm stuck in meetings discussing the new Akha orthography (actually, a really cool experience that I will fill you all in more on later) Lori is much more literally stuck in Mae Salong with a broken vehicle.

You heard it right, our truck is broken again.

A very similar problem to all our other vehicle issues, actually, as there seems to be a crack in the feed from the radiator to the engine.

She has the baby, Esther and two German visitors - (one of whom is a doctor who just helped out with a free clinic in a local village, I'm sure that's another cool story that we will fill you all in more on later) - so her hands are full.

Please pray for peace for them, for safety and for a tow truck that actually can tow a vehicle (as opposed to the rope/bamboo contraption we dealt with before.)

Don't worry, we'll leave the vehicle in Mae Salong before we have Lori do anything dangerous.

Thanks for your prayers.