MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

We have been in full swing since the Hmong celebrated Christmas on the 18th, because the 25th is their New Years celebration (for 3 days).  Because we’re not Hmong, we celebrated Christmas with you guys! Jamie made a Nativity creche out of cut up Coke cans, we made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and Santa even paid us a visit (to all of our dirty socks hung by the fireplace in exchange for a sweet roll and a box of Lactasoy).  It’s been a wonderful Christmas.  Today we hitched into town to use wi-fi and had sticky rice and som-tam (spicy papaya salad) and fried chicken.  You really get to focus on the Lord when no one else around you is celebrating with commercials and white noise.  Last night, we prayed together and read the Christmas story in Thai and English.  We really do miss you though and hope your Christmas with your family and friends was spectacular!

This week, David went on an adventure with Bruce and I to the hospital dentist.  He’s fine, he just had an inflamed tooth. So after 3 hours of waiting, a lunch break of water buffalo soup, and 2 x-rays later they decided: “Mr. Carter, you have an inflamed tooth.” Take IB Pro-fen for a few days. Total time: 7 hours, total cost: $6. Had it been a life-or-death situation I wouldn’t have trusted these hospital “professionals” with my life, but at the time it was very comical.  If you’re that curious, Kara Moon, I’ll let you know that they reused gloves, drew blood (without gloves) in the lobby with screaming and sick people all around, and the nurses and hygienists wore flip-flops and mini dresses with short lab coats over it.  The x-ray tech in the back (next to a very large  sign in Thai that said “Danger, Gamma Radiation”) had the door wide open to the lobby, the patients weren’t covered by lead jackets or anything and between charts he kept Facebook pulled up.  Crazy. The moral of the story is that the next time you are complaining about Obama care, you could be under these guys’ care and you probably wouldn’t want that. Really.

Work this week included: potting coffee seedlings, more hoeing the tea fields, cutting down vines to feed the pigs, watering banana trees. On Friday we killed the fattest porker (we have the video if you’re curious, but can’t put it on here thanks to PETA) to feed us and the neighbors in the village.  Actually, the whole village went on a mass pig killing this week because of New Years. Yep, it was a big deal, but we met some of the village elders and their wives.  We learned how to make sausages and use every part of the animal for something (even lard to make oil).

The next 3 days (25-27th) are New Years when the Hmong shoot off firecrackers and mortar shells non-stop.  People with make  pledges with their ancestor spirits for the year and they will clean their houses.  At night, gangs of boys will carry out the tradition of getting a girlfriend.  The Hmong say that to get a girl to be your wife, you go play ball (like toss and catch) with her as you sing a line of a song to her and you talk to find out if this person is your soul-mate. If she likes you she sings your heart’s duet back at you. If she drops the ball, she sings a line of the song by herself and if she misses again then you take her bracelet or earrings. If she wants them back then she arranges to meet you at night to get them back.  Then you two are officially a couple in the eyes of the village.  If the boy has money to arrange a marriage, then they will get married.  If he doesn’t have money, the other  not-so-pleasant way to get a wife is for gangs of boys to go wife stealing at night.  If a girl gets taken to a boy’s house and someone else swings a chicken’s blood over their heads together, they are married, bound together forever.  Not so romantic.  Don’t worry, the foreigners aren’t even fair game and all of the single ladies in the DTS will be locked up on these nights 🙂

The Lord has been teaching us a lot about how he provides this week.  He provides for our families while we can’t be with them this Christmas and reminds us that HE brings joy and peace this season. More than what we can provide ourselves.  He has adjusted our attitudes this week (sometimes you get bent out of shape doing the same back-breaking labor with the same people) and allowed us to show forgiveness and to give Him the glory when your work goes unnoticed by others.  We have learned from the Taylor’s generosity and how much they give of themselves when people may look at what they have and not see much.  Today, the Lord provided a pick-up truck on Christmas day as we needed to get to town (1.5 hours away). We were walking up this mountain and not a car in sight and when we asked we received.  That couple is so amazing to stop for us when they were going on a family picnic.  It’s the little things that the Lord keeps bringing up that are so meaningful to us.