A busy day.

Megan:

And so the rice has begun.

After a lovely sleep (thanks to everyone at home who prayed for us to have a good first night's sleep here!) we both got up and had a leisurely breakfast of yogurt, bread with peanut butter (only me), and dragon fruit (only Ruth Anne). After hearing from both Ruth Anne and Starr about how amazing dragon fruit is, I feel a little traitorous saying that I don't like it...but I don't! It reminds me of papaya, and if there's one fruit I never want to see again for the rest of my life, it's papaya (ask anyone on the Haiti team about the weird papaya drink we had, and you'll understand).

Tutu picked us up at 11:30am sharp, and brought along Nem and her little son Aiden (I have no clue if I've spelled either of those right...at least they're spelled phonetically) who live at the Wiang Pa Pao farm (again...I have no clue about spelling and Ruth Anne's having a nap so I can't ask her. Sorry!). We went straight to Makro (think Costco...but bigger) to buy supplies for the Doi Saket orphanages (all four of them!). It was amazing to see two carts piled high with supplies for over 150 kids, and really makes you realize the work that goes into something like that. Tutu is an amazing woman.

She took us to the restaurant there, and this is where the rice comes into play. I had egg fried rice (rice with onions and egg thrown in) and Ruth Anne had pork fried rice (self-explanatory). It was very tasty, but quite filling, and I felt bad not finishing it all. Tutu and Nem had "papaya salad" as well, which Ruth Anne tried, but I stayed away from. There's just something about staring at pointy crustaceans in my food that doesn't sit well with me.

From there we went to Doi Saket 1 to drop off the first load of supplies. Ruth Anne was quite excited to see her friend Birdy again, and we also met Zachary and his wife again (who you'll recall from two posts back). Doi Saket 1 reminds me a lot of going to summer camp. There's a girls and boys dorm, the learning center, the "auditorium", the kitchen, etc. There weren't too many kids around there, we were wondering if some of them might still be in school.

After that it was off to Doi Saket 2. It's amazing the love these children obviously have for Tutu. She gets out of the truck and right away there are at least four kids suddenly attached to her. However, there were many affectionate children who also came up to me and Ruth Anne and offered little "sawatdee's" and hugs to us. Doi Saket 2 marked our second group picture with lots of children. :) Hopefully there will be many more to come.

Then we went to Doi Saket 3 and 4 (they're together now) where we met many more very affectionate children all offering us hugs. It was so cute. And they absolutely love having their picture taken. When they get to see themselves on that little screen they just giggle away. So be



prepared for quite a few pictures of children when we get back!

As we were driving away, Tutu turns around and goes "Want to see crazy fish?" Seeing as we're getting into the habit of "going with the flow" we both said sure, not knowing at all if we were literally going to see 'crazy fish' or not. But sure enough, we got to a body of water, Tutu and Nem bought some fish food, and they threw it into the water. I don't think I've ever seen so many fish at the surface before. It was incredible. Ruth Anne and Tutu tell me there were ENORMOUS catfish on the other side, but that required crossing this rickety little bridge which I had no faith in, so I stayed with Nem and Aiden and watched the normal kind of crazy catfish.

Now we're back at Mike and Debbie's, taking a rest before Tutu comes and takes us to the pool for a quick swim. Some interesting stories of the day:

Ruth Anne started taking her promise to my parents (to take good care of me) a little too literally, which I realized when I tried to get out of Tutu's truck and found the child safety lock to be on. I had to wait for Ruth Anne to walk around and let me out. Just kidding about taking it too literally though, apparently Tutu didn't even know the child safety lock was on. I just happened to get lucky. :)

Ruth Anne has also begun to confuse me, sometimes while trying and others without. For instance, while we were at Doi Saket 3 and 4 she leans over and goes "So are you ready for the documentary?" I just kind of looked at her, eyebrows raised, as she started going on about the commitment I'd made to Asia's Hope to make a documentary of my time here. After several minutes of me staring at her with a somewhat glazed expression, she started laughing. Yep, it had all been a joke. Thanks Ruth Anne. haha.

But then when we got back to the house I went to the fridge and realized we only had one bottle of water left. So I came out and asked if I should put the water we got last night into the fridge. She just looked at me and went "What water?" And I said "The water we got last night?" And she goes "What water?" It didn't take her long to realize we had actually gotten water, and it was sitting about five feet away from her. I guess the heat is taking it's toll! ;)

Thanks to everyone for their prayers, they're very much appreciated! More to come. :)