Sunday was the day we headed north, going up to where the Adams and the school are and drop off some items before heading on up to Chiang Mai to take care of some medical issues that need to be done for us and some meetings for Mike & Marilee. It gave us a couple more days to more completely recover from jet lag before we are full time at the school, plus more time with M & M to learn more words, customs and culture of our new home.
We loaded the car, had worship, ate breakfast and headed out. Several stops needed to be made by M & M, but by 9:30am we were headed north on the Asiatic Hwy, destination: Sunshine Orchard. How interesting it was to see the Central Valley of Thailand with all of its agriculture. We passed by all stages of the rice farming process: watching the field be prepped for planting to watching the seeds being broadcasted for another crop of rice, we saw the harvest to processing the harvest and storage. The bright green planted fields are so pretty to see at all stages of growth. We also saw fields of corn, tomatoes, tobacco, cassava, pumpkin (which we would call winter squash), luffa sponge or bitter gourd, mountain rice and greens of some kind, not all in the Central Valley necessarily. All along the hwy were periodic groups of little bamboo shelters where a family would be selling mainly one item such as: roasted corn, jicama, baskets, sugar cane, mangoes, pineapple, guava, bananas, ant larva (anyone hungry?), hammocks, big steel bowls, etc. The interesting thing is that if you find a shelter selling roasted corn, for instances, all the roasted corn will be found in that same short section of hwy. All lumped together. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of one to show.
We stopped at several little shelters on our way up to get lunch items: roasted corn, jicama, jack fruit and sugar cane, yum! Because of our various stops it took us longer than anticipated to go from Ayutthaya to Sunshine Orchard Children's Home and Learning Center. Instead of the 7 hours we had been told we managed to lengthen it to 10 1/2 hours. We stopped to eat our lunch at a pleasant little rest area, which is quite unusual, with grass, flowers, a bathroom with western toilets and toilet paper, which added to our travel time! Toilet paper is a rare commodity in this part of the world so is greatly prized and appreciated when found with a toilet. Typically, you must carry toilet paper or tissues with you if you want to have them to use.
As we neared our destination we came to what appeared to be a village snuggled between the road we were traveling on to the mountains which ran parallel to our road about 500 yards West. But "this little village", went on and on and on. Mike pointed out that this was probably one of the refugee camps. Sure enough, it all made sense now. A VERY large refugee camp. Amazingly sad.
It was dark by now but we finally arrived at Maesolit, the little village not far from the orphanage and school. Marilee was the only one in our group who had been there before so she was on high alert to help direct us to the correct place. As she was watching, looking, she looked over in a parking area and saw a truck, she thought was the schools truck! Mike called the Adams and got Paul's phone and guess what, it was his truck! It all seemed amazing to me. Soon there was Paul, giving us instructions on best places to stay (there is no guest accommodations at the school and the hut our family will be living in is being "remodeled", (they are adding a door and not sure what else. The Karen people do not have doors on their huts giving an "open door" way of living).
We finally found a guest house where we all settled into for the night. We found out in the morning that this guest house was owned and run by some Christian Thai's. We were happy to support others working for the harvest of souls. In the morning we would get our first glimpse of our new home! We could hardly wait!
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