After months of waiting and wondering, Heather and I took a taxi out to our new home, M Town, yesterday to check it out. There also just so happens to be a religious holiday going on that we were able to observe as we drove along. During this holiday- people get water from the holy river and walk with it along the road. They dress up in orange and carry these elaborate water holders to carry the water in. People young and old do this. I even saw a little baby stroller all decorated up in orange. The baby even had a little baby bottle of holy water he was holding up.... just kidding.
I am not sure where they take the holy water. I have heard that some take it to the temple. Some just take it to another river and dump it. Part of me wonders if they are tempted to drink any...they gotta get pretty thirsty out there on the road. As they walk along on their journey, they dance and have these trucks follow them playing loud music. There are also these tents that they set up along the way- set up like pit stops. It is at these pit stops that people worship their idols, rest, eat and dance. Some of the dances were pretty creepy. Several of the men had these Halloween looking masks on their faces as they twirled around and around to the beating of the drums. A sad and unsettled feeling rested on my heart as I observed the festivities out my window.
I decided to put my ipod on in hopes of finding some sort of familiarity. I usually just put it on shuffle- where it just randomly chooses songs. And Pat Green's 'Texas On My Mind" was the first song to come on. Well, I am most certainly not in Texas. At that moment I felt very
far from home. How did I find this place? What am I
doing here? I thought about a fellow coworker's words... "sometimes it feels like we are trying to storm hell with a water gun".
So yeah, no big insight came from my experience yesterday. It was just sad to me. And creepy. I woke up this morning to a new day. Yesterday still sticks with me though. But I drink my coffee, study my Hindi and get ready for another day.
A picture of the sun being almost totally covered over. Some places it was 100% covered. I was annoying Heather yesterday because I kept singing "Total eclipse of the heart..."
These glasses remind me of those 3-D glasses we got at the movie theater as a kid.
This is at the holy river that I visited several weeks back when I was living in Abad. They worship things that they fear here.
Well, I have returned back home from my two weeks in Thailand. Overall, I had a really great time. I enjoyed the meetings and the worship time that we had together. I was able to see old friends and make new ones. I had the chance to spend more time in the Word and reflect over these past several months. I also really enjoyed the simple things in life the most- like hot showers, soft beds, central AC, slurpies at 7-11 as well as all sorts of Western food. Here I am about to eat me a big OLE hamburger. It was pure heaven. I didn't take any pictures of me in meetings because I thought you might find that boring but following are some pictures from my time in Thailand.
