A Bunch of Burts

As promised, here is a blog about explosions, gunpowder and fire!!

While were were up in Chiang Kham for the Thai Lue cultural celebration, one of the events was a fireworks contest.
Lue from all over came to participate in this contest with the grand prize being 6000Baht!

The men, and you know this is a men’s event :), dug their holes deep in the ground with poles and dropped their sealed bamboo tube filled with gunpowder. The holes were then filled back in, tamped down, and marked by an upturned meal bowl with a candle burning on top.

This man is tamping the ground back in around his combustible. The metal tamping rod is the same thing he used to dig the hole as well.

This one is done, but does not yet have its bowl on it. You can see the small opening in the top of the bamboo where a lit candle is dropped to ingite it.

The upturned bowls are in and around the people’s feet. The one in the front looks as though those contestants were done early!

From our observations, it appeared as though each digging team had a monk around them, and when the fountains were lit, a monk accompanied the lighter out to the field as well. We do not yet what was going on with that, but will be an interesting thing to investigate later.

After everyone was ready, the show began!

One by one the fountains were lit. The bowl was removed, a new candle lit, and dropped down a hole to light the fuse of the big, explosive packed bamboo tube. As the lighters nonchalantly turned their backs and walked away, the fountain of fire and sparks began.

They were very impressive, the spark shower reaching up to 50ft away! (not an exact measurement, just my very amateur estimate.)

Not only was the display huge and very bright, it was extremely loud as well.

I love the sparks ’splashing’ in this picture. Don’t worry, I was under a roof when I took the picture. We kept moving more and more under cover as the rain of fire kept reaching us!

I know this picture is dark, but you may be able to just make out the outline of a large, old bo tree in the distance. We were walking back to the car and I turned around to get a picture of a fountain from a distance. Can you say Krakatoa?

As we drove off, we had to drive around the back side of the temple, and caught a couple more displays.

A sparkler just does not seem the same anymore.

We have lots to share with you!

If the last few weeks are any indication of the future, we will be busy indeed! The next year and a half before we head back to the States on furlough will indeed speed by.

After Greg got home from his trip he went right into some other adventures, a men’s retreat with a group of guys from our church, and then out to Maesariang to spend a day with his friends out there who were graduating from the Bible School program we began with them last May.

While he was out there, a young man from our church happened to be getting married in a village near by. OK, and hour and half away, but that is fairly nearby.
The kids and I had really wanted to attend as the village is one that many of our friends from church are from, but we could not sneak away during the week. So Greg went to represent all of us.
This village is way up in the hills, water actually freezes there in cold season!

This is the wedding procession up to the church. Many in this village are Christians. This people group is one of the first ones that NTM began working with more than 30 years ago. The man at the back in the suit is the pastor of our church and friend, Boontip.

Yo and his new wife.

The next week, I took my own trip back out to Maesaring. I had been invited to attend the annual Lawa ladies gathering that takes place out at the Bible School campus.

No, I do not speak Lawa, but some of the teaching and meeting times were conducted in Thai.

For the other times, sometimes my friend Philene translated for me, and sometimes I stole away to visit with my friend Beth whose family serves at the Bible School. Leah went with me and enjoyed an extended weekend with her friend Jane, Beth’s daughter. Leah tried something for the first time that weekend. Can you guess what it was?
I will put the picture at the end of the post.
No peeking!!
But definitely a sign of things to come in our family.

Can you find me in the picture? hint: I am dressed like a Lawa lady >

Here’s a close up of me in my outfit and my friend Gaysawn. Does that help?

The ladies meeting was a very good experience, even though I understood absolutely no Lawa. It was encouraging to see this group come together, to hear the Word, to encourage each other with what the Lord is doing in their lives, and to see the representatives and leadership from several churches that are the direct fruit of the lives of previous missionaries and their diligent work in discipleship and teaching and translation. One day, I hope to be granted the privilege of seeing such a gathering of Thai Lue men and women gathering to worship the living God and study His Word together in a similar way!

The next week, our co-workers called and told us that a big Thai Lue gathering/celebration was happening up in their village. Of course we jumped at the chance to get a sort of sneak peek. One of the events was a wedding ceremony at one of the oldest houses in the village. As we checked the house out ahead of time, one of the organizers asked Greg if he would like to get married again as well. He wisely answered that one wife is enough!

The ceremony was very interesting and I have lots of questions and took many pictures which I hope to be able to use later when we actually live among the Lue. They will be a good tool for us to ask questions about the culture and gain language and vocabulary.

There were two couples getting married. The one in the pink headscarves is the dress of the village that wedding took place in, and the other is from somewhere else. The piece of embroidered cloth is a sort of wedding certificate.

Whew! Enough for now?
The next post will be more manly. And include things like gunpowder and explosions. Seriously.

OK, did you guess yet what Leah did for the first time?

She can get her license when she turns 15 this year. But definitely needs more practice before then. Mom too. I can’t let Leah get her motorcycle license before me!