Christmas in Thailand

Merry Christmas!! 

(okay, so I know it’s a little after Christmas, but at least it’s before the new year). 

We drove out to the village in the afternoon and stayed there for the night. That evening we went caroling through the village, stopping at the church members homes.

Christmas caroling in a village

Caroling without snow on the ground isn't an experience I've had often.

The next morning we got up and held a Christmas service. 

The church was decorated inside and out with balloons and streamers for the Christmas celebration.

The outside of the church

Before the morning service I answered medical questions and gave out medications.

The afternoon we arrived there was a pig tied up outside the church, in the morning the pig had disappeared and there was lots of fresh cooked pork for breakfast and lunch.

We also held a Christmas party for the AYDC kids the Saturday after Christmas. At 9 a.m. there were stands set up around the compound for them to play games. Then we all ate lunch together, during the afternoon there was homemade coconut ice cream to be eaten! (it's so good!!!!) Dinner was served, and then it was time for the Christmas program and handing out the gifts to the kids. 

 

That's shows you a little of my Christmas experience in Thailand. There was so much good food to eat, and fun time to had by all.  

Rice Harvest

A couple weeks ago it was time to harvest the rice. There are 2 different ways of harvesting the rice, by hand or by machine. Doing all the work by hand takes time and is backbreaking work and if you also need to hire people to help. Hiring the combine is faster but a little more expensive. of course, all this depends on the size of your rice fields.

The foundation decided that it was worth the money to hire the combine, it was faster and the cost was about equal to having others come help for several days. It was fun to watch the combine out in the field and to see the rice being harvested. After the field was cleared we sat and ate lunch together surrounded by lots of rice.  

The combine harvesting the rice

Rice

Saving every grain

The combine unloading the rice it's harvested

Filling the rice sacks

Changing out the full rice sack

Loading the full sacks onto the pickup truck

The combine is hard at work while everyone else sits around talking 

Drying the rice 

 Hope you have enjoyed the pictures of our rice harvest! If I remember correctly, we harvested 7,340 pounds of rice that day. That rice will feed the 100 kids here for 5 months, after that it's back to buying rice for the remaining 7 months. 

The following two pictures are of people harvesting their rice fields by hand.