New Year

We did some cool things for the New Year this year. On New Year's Eve we went to a reservoir a little north of Chiangmai and rented a house boat with about 20 other teachers from Grace. The reservoir is huge and much more like a lake than anything else. The scenery was beautiful. The word house boat is somewhat modest for the barge that we stayed on. The "house boat" included at least 10 rooms, each with a bathroom, 3 large common areas, a restaurant and a small fish farm. This complex was anchored but small boats were available for rental. We had a really lovely time. We played games nearly the whole time we were there. Gabe had some friends to play with as well. After we arrived home the next day, we prepared for a trip up to a village populated by the "B" tribal group. The "B" people had New Year celebrations going all day. We were invited to participate by a couple who has been translating the scriptures into "B" language for many years. The "B"people tend to have a harder time assimilating into Thai society, but are actually able to be self-sufficient for the most part. They make just about anything you can think of out of bamboo and they showed us all the different types and what they were good for. For the occasion, they killed a pig. That was probably the worst part of the trip. They bludgeoned it's head till it died. Still, we ate the pork and it was delicious. Eric also was able to pick up some of their dances and danced with them. I can't begin to describe everything we saw, but perhaps sometime we can show you the videos we took of the day.