A Bunch of Burts

It’s me again…Leah!

This is gonna be a continuation of what Mom wrote about last time. We seriously did get busy as soon as we got here!

The people here are so friendly, it is wonderful. You can hardly go anywhere without being stopped to chat. Sometimes it gets frustrating when they only speak Thai Lue (the new village’s language) and not Central Thai (the national language). Of course, I can’t speak much Lue at all and hardly anyone speaks Central Thai to me except when they see that blank look come over my face and my little bobble head going up and down agreeing to whatever they say.

We just got back from our mission’s conference this past week. It was a blast! I always enjoy getting together with my friends in the mission. Already, we have been busy with village life. On Monday, we were in a parade, last night went to a wrist tying ceremony and this whole week has been gardening, gardening, and more gardening! It must be a cultural thing because everyone wanted to help with the hoeing, or bring us some sort of seed or give us some helpful tips. Ema is really the one who is the gardener out of all of us and she, with the help of Mom, Dad, and the Mae Luang (wife of the village leader) finished planting our small plot of land.

Captain Jack Sparrow showed up to conference!

About the parade….

Mom came home from visiting around that village and told us that there was a parade that afternoon and that we were gonna go and watch. Okay, nothing abnormal about being invited to something like that. And I like parades. No problem. Well, we get to the meeting place in the muubaan (village) and everyone is wearing their traditional Thai Lue outfits…and then a couple of them leave saying that they were going to get us, Mom and I, Lue shirts to wear. We look at each other with a look that says uh-oh…they aren’t just going to watch the parade are they? Then Mom asks and sure enough they are going to be walking in it. Inwardly I groan, not anticipating a long walk in the blazing hot sun with a heavy, long-sleeved black shirt on.

Mom and I waiting with the other ladies.

We were already wearing Thai-ish skirts so we didn’t need to change those but they brought us the Lue shirts that I just slipped on over my first shirt because its wasn’t very thick. Mom however was wearing a shirt that wraps around and is tied in the front, very similar to the Lue shirts, so she had to change hers. It would have gone fine except for one thing…there was no bathroom or other place that she could change in. We were waiting at a building that is the morning market location. The ladies there said, “Don’t worry about that! We have umbrellas here, we’ll cover you while you change.”
Mom says, “Um…no thanks, I’ll just go home and change.”
They say, “We’re all ladies! Don’t worry, we’ll cover you!” Mom didn’t really have a choice there, so she finally got it done and we were ready to go.

Nearly everyone left before us because we were waiting for our partner, Aunt Dawn, who had gone home to change into the Thai Lue outfit that she already had. So the Mae Luang waited with us. We drove to the place where we were supposed to, but no one was there. Then we drove around looking for a bunch of women in matching clothes but didn’t find them. We thought we had missed the start, so we went where the parade was supposed to end. I’m not sure why, but we were following the Mae Luang’s directions. She said that we would just wait here for the parade and there would be something going on afterward. There was another group of ladies there who were going to do a dance or something after the parade was over. We heard that the parade was getting started late, so we all hopped back in the car and headed back toward the meeting place. It was just starting so we just kinda sneaked in line with everyone.

Aunt Dawn, Will, Mom, me and Gwen.

It was kinda fun to see the people watching do a double take when they saw the five falangs (Thai word for white person) in line with Lue ladies. Aunt Dawn and her two youngest children came too. Gwen, 7, was all decked out in a Lue outfit too. But Will, 4, really brought a lot of stares.

It really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was kinda fun! I burn after being in the sun for 2 minutes so the long sleeves really protected be from being crispy by the end. Everyone was holding umbrellas so I borrowed one to protect my face. And, miraculously, I survived without a single red mark!

Today, some ladies from ESD are coming to our house. ESD stands for Extension Services Department. They work at Grace International School and are there for the home schooling families in Thailand. You can send in your schoolwork and they look over it and, if you want them to, will give a report card out every quarter or so. They also come for home visits where they come to just help with whatever the moms need done regarding school. Sometimes they help get a schedule down or help think of different activities to do or even organizing a bookcase. This will be our, the Burt’s, first home visit, but I’m not sure if the Orwilers have had one already. We are excited to have them come and can’t wait till this afternoon when we pick them up from the bus station.

That had better be all for right now, or I’ll be sorry when I haven’t memorized my science words for my upcoming test!:)