spent.

I’m attempting to get an update out, but I can’t come up with a title. I’m just spent.

First, we’ll start with the news of the floods, which are mostly good. The flood waters have continued to go down.

When we arrived yesterday, the road was still flooded, but our driveway was just left muddy.  The neighbors still had a foot or two of water around their homes, but that was below their floors. Most people were back in their homes and just waiting for the water to keep going down. They didn’t seem to worried–they said they didn’t need blankets or a place to stay or anything. We did give out some rice to try to help, and we stockpiled a little in our home just in case.

They are still at risk of flooding, but the water has so far continued to go down to large, deep puddles.

The community did lift our motorbike onto our porch, where it stayed mostly dry. They lifted our air con onto a chair to keep it from being flooded, and built a stool to lift our water pump onto. This was so sweet, and very helpful in many ways. However, the air con might have been disconnected and might need some repair work. Likewise, moving the water pump required additional piping.  They used some sort of glue to put the longer piping in, but now our water is coming out very aerated and smelling of strong, strong paint fumes, presumably from the glue. It’s a little unnerving. Also in this process, about half a tank of water was lost.  Usually we get more water from the government every night, and this would be no problem; but when there is flooding, they tend to run low on water and turn it off for days or even a week or two at a time. So now, we are quite limited on water, and what we do have seems very chemical-filled.

Oh, and the neighbors brought over three little puppies to stay dry on our porch, which has resulted in twelve street dogs living on our porch, smelling of wet flood water and fighting about the puppies every hour or so. Hmm.

So where are we?

In many ways, we’re fine. We’re safe. We’re prepared to help the neighbors in any way we can when needs arise.

In many other ways, we are spent. While Chiang Mai was a good time, it revealed more than it solved. While we are thankful the floods have not continued, there are still more challenges ahead as we sort out water problems, pray for water from the government, and clean up messes.

Really, can I ask that you just keep praying? Perhaps not for the flood now as much as just for us. We still need it.