The House Collective

sister, sister: part one.

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It was beyond a privilege to have my sisters here (nearly a month ago! Whoops!), and that hasn’t fallen on me lightly. I felt like I kept reveling in it throughout their trip. It is a privilege that we have made a new home here around the world, we’ve fallen in love with this community and made this little border town our normal. And then further, we have family we love that makes incredible sacrifices and efforts to jump around the globe and visit us here, in our little place. We get to vacate together to exotic places; we get to sit together around street food and share the experience. I get to introduce them to the little kids that know our names, to the women who fill our home every day; even to the pad Thai shop owner that knows our order and knows I can never remember how to say “lime” in Burmese. What fun to say, over and over again, “These are my orders sisters! All three of them! Yes, we do look the same, don’t we?”

It was a gift beyond so many gifts.

Round 1 arrived first!

And when Round 2 arrived, we hopped ourselves right into a taxi!

And we skipped across town to another airport to catch a flight to the beach at 3am, because why not?

And we started out this epic trip with the extravagance of a few days on the beach! Again, it’s all just beyond words.

We were on the beach for my birthday, which was just the best day ever. We had a slow breakfast at our AirBnB before heading out to my favorite beach. They brought huge 3-0 balloons from the US, and my sweet hubs managed to drive an hour to the nearest place to get helium 🙂 So of course we spent the day snapping photos and carting huge balloons across the island in our little rental car.

We spent a few days exploring the different beaches, and decided that might be the best place to get over jet lag!

And we did a puzzles, because #nurtureovernature is a thing. I laughed when one sister pulled a puzzle out of her bag; and then the next day as two of us sat down giddy to do a puzzle on our holiday.

One of the things I looked forward to most with my sisters coming was to run with my sister, Keri. She’s my favorite running partner: probably because we’re the same height and build–scarily similar–so we run at the exact same pace. I love the conversation and ease of running with her, and I’ve been dreaming of it in anticipation of this visit.

She graciously got up with me at 6am on my birthday (with jet lag!) so I could start my birthday early and with running outside (the way all good days begin!). And for our last day we ended our run at the beach, where the others met us with Starbucks.

We certainly know how to holiday, since we all come from crazy lives (theirs for kids and careers chaos; me for my friendly neighborhood chaos!).

And honestly? I had a drastically awful birthday a few years back; it ended in the ER with a community stabbing, and it was a rough recovery. It had some lasting traumatic effects, where I’ve dreaded my birthday the past few years. This was the best, and I so thoroughly enjoyed the rest, the waves, the swimming and running and being outside. My sisters and husband! That’s a lot of favorite people in this extravagantly beautiful place.

It was really redemptive. And I’m not sure what more you could ask for on your 30th birthday 😊

(Okay, well, maybe for your adoption agency to place you; for your favorite neighborhood to grow and thrive and break cycles, but hey–one miracle at a time!)

when things work.

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When we started the Summer Program this year, I had an inkling it was going to be a hit.

We knew we individually didn’t have the capacity, but we also knew the summer is wide open for the kids to sink or swim. Sinking looks like: boredom, that generally drives us crazy or ends in risky games and medical accidents. Swimming looks like: opportunities to learn and play safely that wear them out, that are organized enough to maintain parental & neighborhod sanity.

The kids were still reckless. They would come for breakfast every day, and in between a bowl of rice and whatever activity started at 8, we had screaming and wall climbing and stunts and what not.

But inevitably, by 8am, we had something to wrangle the chaos.

The four teachers we “hired” for Monday & Wednesday did absolutely amazing. They organized and taught about 40 kids from 8am to 11am. The littlest group went home then, and about 20 stayed on to study Geography & Science until 12pm.

We loved seeing the teenagers step into their roles, be challenged in their skills, and ultimately find their place. We were like proud sideline parents, and I loved it.

The teachers also helped pull off a little celebration ceremony, handing out certificates and small prizes for perfect attendance and the “best in” for each subject.

On Tuesday & Thursday we had play times. Sometimes we had our usual games and activities, but we also had friends who came with soccer games, sidewalk chalk, crafts, and relay races.

This was a relay, where the kids had to put on a swimming floatie, a pair of glasses, and a headband/crown. It was one of the funniest things we did all summer!

My sister’s also brought some fun little treasures! We did water colors one day, and they gave a drawing lesson to the teacher crew.

And water beads? So fun! The kids played in them, and the last day we also added some toys and small eggs filled with coins. They got to keep what they found and loved it! We even let the parents have a go, which left smiling parents and, uh, a few scratches! 😳

They brought a collection of egg dying kits from post-Easter sales, and Thida helped us hard boil over 150 eggs.

Adults and kids alike were pretty impressed with the dying process.

And some just wanted to eat their egg.

Mwei Mwei also kept up studying math & photography; The Reinforcers did some extra study of Burmese typing and learning Keynote.

And we just soaked up the time having fun with happy kids. It just worked! Thankful for a great community summer.

sisters, visas & fevers.

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And just like that, a month has flown by!

High: My sisters came to visit! My three older sisters came to celebrate my 30th birthday, which is just as ideal and unbelievable as it sounds! Epic enough, in fact, to require a number of posts on its own, as soon as I can sort myself to post them. Better late than never, or so I keep telling myself.

Low: We found out in April that our one-year visa for Thailand couldn’t be renewed due to a law change. It also expired right as Stephen’s work permit expired–which, I’ll save you the details–just makes things complicated. We had a narrow window to go, and wanting to wait until my sisters left, the window became even narrower. We were back in Mae Sot for four days before turning around for a visa run.

High: In this four days turnaround, we finished up the Summer Program, including a little ceremony for certificates and gifts!

Low: Due to some law changes within ASEAN, it was unlikely (many said impossible) to get another one-year visa within Asia. We could return to the US for a one-year visa, or settle for a 3-month visa from a regional Thai embassy. All this plays into the adoption process, timing and tickets; and just unknowns. We decided to go for Yangon, where there was a very small chance we could get a year visa. They were the only embassy willing to say it was a possibility, albeit just that.

Low: We found out they changed even more laws, and now Stephen’s work permit would be linked to his visa. If he received only a three-month visa, he would only get a three-month work permit. Again, to simplify the details, it was starting to look like we’d be spending about a week every three months doing paperwork and at government offices. This is not fun for us, for our budget, or for our organization doing all the paperwork.

Low: We bought a flight out of Mae Sot to Yangon, and then planned to take a car back through some of our friends’ villages and towns. We thought we could visit friends and make the trip a bit cheaper. We learned in the airport that (perhaps more law changes?) they weren’t going to let us do that. We ended up purchasing flights back in the airport, in order for them to let us check in and go through immigration. This was both #stressful and #expensive.

Low: The first day we arrived to the Embassy to find it closed.

Low: The first day I got sick. After just an afternoon of a blinding headache and the achiest body I can remember since last July, I was pretty sure it was dengue fever. Again.

Low: It was dengue fever. Even if it took some convincing of a number of doctors. The tests still came back positive, and it is just as miserable as I remembered.

High: You can only get it four times, and I’m at two. In ten months.

Low: It gets more dangerous and potentially fatal each time, so, uhh..#fingerscrossed?

High: We got one year visas! This is an incredible high, and still feels like a miracle! I’m not sure why we got it; and I’m not sure why it was so easy. Other then perhaps God knew we might just throw in the towel? I hope I never forget Stephen’s smile as he turned away from the desk.

Low: I had to fly with dengue.

Low: I had to go back to the doctor two more long days for blood tests.

High: I’m feeling good enough to write this blog; I’m sorting photos; generally I’m sitting up! And the school year is kicking off, including Year 2 of The Breakfast Club!

sojourn studio.

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Earlier this year we began a partnership with Sojourn Studio, a project of a local non-profit. They are training women and teen girls in jewelry making, and providing them part-time jobs. Two of these ladies are our very own!

They work here in our house two days a week, hand-making necklaces and earrings from start to finish. This includes working with clay, hand-painting designs, attaching metalwork, and they are beginning to learn packaging.

Their work with Sojourn also helps to fund further education for both them–Mwei Mwei is taking Thai classes and San Aye is taking Burmese literacy classes. Sojourn also creates a savings plan for them.

The work is absolutely beautiful, and we are so thankful for this partnership that allows us to keep building into these two ladies. If you didn’t see this last time, watch this short video explaining the project.

You can also learn more about them on the Sojourn Studio website. And, what we are most excited about–you can now purchase a few items online at Etsy!

The world feels exceptionally small when you can hop online to see a pair of earrings that was made by our sweet friends in our house, and have it delivered to your door. We’ve loved partnering with Sojourn Studio and we hope you do, too!

come on in.

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Life in this neighborhood is a rollercoaster.

Summertime here is from mid-March to the first of June, and it is chaotic to say the least. The kids are absolutely crazy: climbing fences and gates and trees before 7am, with so much energy and so little structure. We have kids napping on our porch; there are so many I fear aren’t fed regular meals. They’ll easily spend all day in our yard and on our porch and in our house.

Hence, the summer program. We still do Breakfast Club every weekday morning; we have two days a week of summer school classes, and two more days of play and games. We do mid-day fruit at least twice a week, plus other days of milk and packaged snacks.

Then it gets even more complicated. Many of the kids in the community live with grandparents or aunts or uncles through the school year, and their parents “call” for them over the summer. They will be sent off to Bangkok or places in Burma to stay with their parents for a few months before they return for school.

It’s also common for kids to live in Burma with grandparents while the parents work in Mae Sot. The parents, likewise, “call” for their kids over the holidays, so we have a whole new slew of kids in our neighborhood that we don’t know, but their parents know us, and they are here just for a few months.

And there is yet another group that lives here with their immediate family, but goes off to visit aunts, uncles, and cousins in Burma for the holiday.

It’s a very big, very convoluted switcheroo.

So while we still have The Breakfast Club, we added about fifteen kids and lost about twenty, presumably both temporarily. And while we have the summer program, some of the kids don’t know the routines: what our rules are, the fact that we speak Burmese (but not perfectly; no, I didn’t get that spiel…). It’s a big learning curve for all of us.

And it’s messy.

______________

This little boy, he left us in early December, just a few days before his birthday. We had a cake early and said our goodbyes as he moved back to Burma with his dad. Then he came back, just two weeks later. He didn’t like it, and came back to live with his mom, older sister, and younger brother.

He and his sister left again at the end of March, to leave over the summer. They said they’d be back for school in June. We gave them hugs and said goodbyes; just a few months, right?

The little brother followed just a few weeks after. I asked Thida last week, and she’s talking now about how they might stay. It is going well with their dad and grandmother–maybe the mother was the problem, and she’s still here in Mae Sot.  Now they might start school in Burma this year.

That might be the last of their living in our community; I don’t even know yet. And I won’t even pretend I can swallow that. We’ve been snapping photos together for over seven years. To say we love them is the understatement of our lives here.

______________

This little boy: he left us last year.

His parents got in a fight and split; he was left with a grandfather and an aunt. He was then called to Bangkok by his grandmother and yet another aunt; we said our goodbyes and hoped it might be better for his messy little life.

Then he came back, a few months later. His parents are back under the same roof. They are expecting again, and I’m just not even sure what to think.

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This is a family of first-borns, amazingly enough.

Three are first-borns in their individual families, but all sent to live with their grandparents here in Mae Sot. The littlest is a youngest child in every way you could imagine! They are two more cousins & brothers that have joined at different times and then been sent back, just to really confuse it all. But these four have stayed, and made a second little family of over-achievers.

Over the summer, the oldest got a job, which we hope is just for the summer. Reality? With her switch to Thai school last year she was put back into first grade. And money in the pocket is more generally more tempting than the promise of money through education. I’m nervous she might be a nanny forever.

The older boy was called by his parents to go to Bangkok, as was the littlest little guy.

This leaves one. Left behind, not called by his parents; and now having a few breakdowns as of late.

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This girl is one of Thida’s, and we love her!

She left to go to visit an aunt for the summer, and I was so sad to not have her in the summer program. Her smile can light up a place, and a she’s a natural leader.

Thida casually mentioned she called to ask after her daughter, and they said she was in Yangon. Thida laughed about all the fun she was going to have.

I have been praying all week for her. It terrifies me to have her traveling on her own, generally a paperless young teenage girl, in a world and region where human trafficking is rampant.

______________

One of our Breakfast Club families is in a hard season: in the past six months they have moved into a field, living in a shanty hut with no water or electricity. They are unable to afford the insurance program we are offering and supplementing; and it’s putting us in a challenging position.

Her baby was due for vaccinations last week, and while we are no longer driving out to the clinic, I did agree to drive her to a free vaccination clinic in the market. As she got in the car, Thida asked her if her husband was working that day. She said no, as her husband was hungover from yesterday and unable to work.

Thida later told me this is her second husband, and shared their sad story. Apparently their are two more kids in Burma, and it’s just messy.  We talked about how we just aren’t sure how to help, because if we help with one thing, it will just be another.

______________

This little boy moved to Bangkok to join his mom and dad, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Bangkok last year.

We have visited him there, and while we missed him terribly, we were hopeful.

But his grandmother & primary caregiver didn’t like Bangkok–not enough people to talk to during the day–and wanted to move back to Mae Sot with him. This week, we helped move them in a shanty room off the main road, amidst a rough crowd.

______________

One of the bread ladies is unexpectedly pregnant again, struggling with morning sickness with a toddler and unsure about the coming season. This week she said her husband’s boss left town–he had a great job installing windows, and the boss owed him a month’s salary when he left.

This happened last month to another bread ladies’ husband. A month’s salary owed, and the boss skips town.

______________

The Breakfast Club is no easy task. Creating a summer curriculum for forty kids in your house in 100 degree weather sans air con is not to be taken lightly. Sharing your kitchen with a breakfast service and bread business is challenging.

The hard part, though: It isn’t serving breakfast to 50 kids before 8am. It isn’t even the hot, sweaty kids shouting out their ABCs.

It is opening up your door to fifty kids with broken families, painful stories, instability; and saying,
Yeah, COME ON IN, with all that baggage.
Every day before 8am.

summer program 2018.

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We’re already a week into the chaos of Summer Program 2018!

For about eight weeks through the summer, we have “hired” four teenage students–two are The Reinforcers, one works at our house regularly, and the other is Mwei Mwei’s sister & Thida’s daughter. In short, they are our sisters & brothers! We are quite close to them and have known them all since they were 8 or 9.

We had their shirts made at a local Bible school in town, and I love them! The back says “teacher.” (Technically, “male teacher” and “female teacher” respectively.)

We’ve asked them to come on Mondays & Wednesdays from 8-12 to be teachers for the kids. This allows us to simply coordinate–a big enough task!–and equips them to be learning and helping provide for their families over the summer.

The week before, we met together with the teachers to prep all the materials. They were able to help us translate some of the lessons I’d put together and prepare some lessons themselves. Stephen has also already taught the two guys to type in Burmese, so they were typing up documents for us!  It was fun to work with them, even amidst the chaos and lack of sleep. (Hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have scheduled the Summer Program to start the same week as Easter, OneHouse, and Flour & Flowers + Cinnamon Rolls; and the same week we started the M-Fund insurance program. Whoops!)

They are teaching Burmese reading and writing, English writing and speaking, math, geography, and science. We have about forty kids enrolled, from ages 5 to 14; and they are at all levels of reading and writing.

So far, it’s going swimmingly! Each subject has different levels. For Burmese, the lowest level is learning to write their consonants; the second level is learning vowels and tones. The middle level can read simple Burmese, so they are reading stories in The Storybook Bible in Burmese (which is in colloquial Burmese) and then answering questions. And the final level is reading Wikipedia articles (which Wikipedia translates into Burmese, but literary style) about famous people: Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Galileo Galilei, Nelson Mandela, and more. I am so excited about all of these.

For English, we have some writing the alphabet, others learning basic words; the older groups are using lessons from an ESL program. Math is divided into eight groups at all different levels, mostly done through self-study. The teachers are there to help explain new concepts one-on-one.

After these three subjects, the kids that aren’t literate get to go home. The older kids stay for two classes of Geography & Science. In Geography, they are learning continents and oceans, plus thirteen specific countries (which the boys picked, so mostly those famous for soccer!). In those countries they learn the flag, the capital city, the population, the languages they speak, and few interesting facts. In science they are learning the basics of the solar system and planets.

Overall, I feel like the kids are learning so much. After the classes, every student gets a piece of fruit on their way home, and the teachers have lunch with Stephen, Thida & I.

Every child enrolled–and all the kids in the neighborhood under 5–are getting free breakfast for the summer. This includes malnourished & nourished kids! We are doing this through the summer. For next school year, The Breakfast Club will be free for malnourished kids, but available to purchase for healthy kids (as we have more that have passed into nourishment!). We’ll offer a well-balanced meal with unlimited refills for 15 cents per person per day; or 9 cents per day if pre-paid for the week. We’re trying to promote health, planning ahead and savings all in one 😃

In addition to the two days of classes, on Tuesday & Thursday we have Playhouse. We have made in the morning for these summer days, when it is cooler. Honestly, we also hope to wear them out with safe activities before they come up with other ideas, too!

We have some friends who come to join for street football and crafts.

They brought chalk this week for the street, and it officially felt like summer! Sidewalk chalk & hopscotch? We’ve arrived.

This is all a bit of a switch up to our schedule, and our house got even crazier (somehow!). But, we love that the kids are learning and utilizing their summer months. We are also glad that they are at least getting a meal a day, snacks, structure and stability. We hope it goes a long way for all of them, but we know it does for some families in particular.

the breakfast club | year one.

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On March 30, The Breakfast Club completed it’s first school year!

The very next Monday we started The Summer Breakfast Club, so I can’t say it looks much different. Except to say that one school year was completed!

And in the first year, Thida smoothly served up 5,977 meals before 8:00am.

Did I mention she’s my hero? And the families who have committed to support this project!

one giant leap for this community.

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We made a big leap last week.

Just a few months after we moved into this community, a seven-year-old little girl broke her finger {at our house, because of our “creative, fun” idea}. Her parents said they couldn’t go to the hospital because they were afraid of the police. And since her finger was blatant perpendicular to where it was supposed to be, and because it was our fault, and because she is adorable–we took her to the hospital.

Little did we know, but this would unfold years of helping with medical in this community. It opened doors to trips and admissions to the hospital, trips to the emergency room, trips to the free clinic. It turned into trips for more labors & new babies than we could count, more vaccinations, more broken & set bones, and more bloody disasters than we knew a community could create.

If I didn’t love that little-girl-turned-teenager so very, very much and have celebrated her baptism last year, I might regret that first trip to the hospital. And if so many of those emergencies hadn’t turned this community into our best friends, I might regret them.

Instead, we celebrate that House Calls has created epic opportunities this community.

We’ve had to adjust our methods all along–when we couldn’t afford to pay for the hospital for everyone, we started accessing the free clinic. When they couldn’t do everything, we had to learn what their specialties were. When we had medical problems beyond our capacity, we had to call in reinforcements.

And after a few recent situations–including the breech baby emergency–we realized the free clinic was no longer a good option for our neighbors. We felt we needed to come up with something else that was still feasible. It was also through the breech baby emergency that we learned about M-Fund.

M-Fund started last year, and is a local organization that has partnered with the public Thai hospital to create an insurance program for undocumented migrants in Mae Sot and surrounding areas. For our neighbors, they can pay $3 per person per month (plus family discounts; and a higher rate for chronic situations) and receive entirely free treatment at the public hospital, up to $3200.

For those of you in the turmoil of American healthcare who perhaps just paid a premium of hundreds or thousands of dollars, I know you’re thinking this is insane. It is a bit. Even at $3 per person, that’s about 1/3 of a day’s wage, and not readily available for the community around us.

But, it’s an incredible development. For our community, access to this means that they will get better treatment available within biking distance. The better treatment includes X-rays and CAT scans; casts for broken bones; and surgeries. It also means that pregnant mothers can have their baby in a hospital, where a C-section is available if necessary, and their child will receive some form of official birth certificate & access to some Thai social programs and even legality in some cases.

!!!!!

For us, it means we can be done with 30 minute trips out to the clinic multiple times per week.

!!!!!

However, it is no easy feat to convince a community of impoverished families to invest in healthcare and insurance. We admit we are a bit of the problem: if we provide a free ride to a free clinic, even with poor care, it’s still free. It’s still easy and non-committal. We also realize that jumping into pay for your whole family is a big portion of their income–comparable to rent–and not easy.

Looking at our community budget, so much of our finances goes toward emergencies: C-sections, broken bones, and hospital stays. We decided to present a plan to the community that we think (we hope!) uses our community fund more wisely and more sustainably for the next couple years, while also helping our neighbors toward development.

Our plan, which we presented at a community meeting last week, is to offer M-Fund subsidies for the first year. After a community family applies for M-Fund and is given their premium, they have an opportunity to apply with us. From now until October, we’ll pay a percentage up to 50% for different families. We’re creating a tiered system–50% for Tier 1, 25% for Tier 2, and 10% for Tier 3. We pay that percentage for 6 months, and then they are moved down a tier (or out for Tier 1). This happens again six months later. So that even for the highest tiers, we no longer subsidize at the end of 2019.

We have also committed to help with pregnant mothers indefinitely, and we’ll pay their individual premium from the time they know they are pregnant until 3 months after birth. This is mostly because of the breech baby emergency, and that paying premiums has both the potential to save us thousands and change the trajectory of the baby’s life by giving them access to Thai social programs.

Meanwhile, we hope that this creates a window for development: a chance to see how insurance works and how it is beneficial for the family. It also creates a habit of saving and planning. It also helps to create a long-term plan for the community for the future, when we might not be here to help in the same capacity or at all.

And guys, it feels pretty epic. We’re not driving out to the clinic anymore! I just gained two hours most Tuesdays!
Instead, we’re pushing for huge strides toward development.

Following our community meeting last week, we’ve had three more to register new families. Over 60 people have registered!

It comes with challenges to: drawing a hard line in the sand is complicated. There are grey areas; there are hard no’s and situations to mourn. It’s not easy.

But it’s also a part of moving forward. And we do feel like more than ever, our strategies and involvement in the community are intentional: intentional for development, for projects that create returns, for things that are sustainable. And honestly, it wasn’t something we set out to do or had a long-term plan for, but God has led us.

Despite it just being the two of us, despite being in over our heads regularly, despite our inexperience and disorganization, God is good. He has heard our cries, and we are often amazed to look around and see how he led us forward, even just showing us a tiny step in front of us.

And that’s how we’re seeing M-Fund. We didn’t know it would come or when, but we’re excited for what it means practically and developmentally for the community. It’s a giant leap forward for these friends of ours.

whispered needs.

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It’s been almost a year since Mwei Mwei came back from Bangkok. It’s been just over two years since she left.

I remember sitting with Thida after summer program in 2016, trying to use my limited Burmese to explain trafficking and why we were worried about her thirteen-year-old going off to Bangkok by herself.

I remember sitting with Mwei Mwei at an ice cream shop in Bangkok, after we miraculously found her in January 2017. We showed her pictures of her family and tried to gauge the danger of the situation she was in. She cried, and we left worried.

In Sara Hagerty’s book Unseen, she writes, “To meet any need, I first have to hear God’s whisper about that need.” I think that’s what happened as we sat with her over ice cream. We didn’t know the details of what she was in, or where it would go, or what was true. But we knew he had whispered that we needed to do something.

We told Thida we’d create her a job if they’d bring her back to Mae Sot, even if we didn’t know how we felt about hiring a fifteen-year-old. We weren’t really sure what it was we needed to do, but we felt there was a need.

And then she arrived back to Mae Sot just as we landed back from America, and we scrambled to get her into a sewing training and ultimately, to come up with a plan.

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The past year has been a lot of “coming up with plans.”

While we tried to create additional sewing work for Mwei Mwei, our regular seamstress–who had a contracted job with a local organization–lost that contract. We now had two ladies, both coming from painful, rough situations, looking to us for work.

There were a lot of weeks of made up projects. I have a whole stack of zipper pouches and bunting and bags that we made samples of as I tried out new ideas and chased new prospects.

While her family has told her she’s not the smart one, we knew she had so much potential. We didn’t want to see her end her education. Somehow, we wanted her getting some education while she was able to work and be viewed as a contributor to the family.

But coming up with education opportunities wasn’t easy, either. We created a group English class for her join, but she hated it. We had our church come teach a group Thai class, but she sat in the back silently. I worked with her in math, and it was like pulling teeth. I tried to have her read Burmese books and write book reports, and then spent ages trying to read them myself, realizing this wasn’t a time-efficient plan as her “teacher.”

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In the end, we found solutions. It just took a little time & chaos.

For work, we are so thankful to be partnering with Sojourn Studios here in town. This is a project of a local Christian nonprofit, training teenagers and women to make ceramic jewelry. Both Mwei Mwei & San Aye make jewelry for them two days a week, and Mwei Mwei also participates in their Youth Program, where she makes jewelry with other students her age and participates in a life skills course.

Sojourn Studios plans to have this jewelry for sale internationally in coming months, but for now–watch this video, and be inspired!

We are also just beginning a partnership with a local Bible school. They screen print on to t-shirts, and we are partnering with them to sell reusable grocery bags with screen prints on them. We hope this will be available internationally soon, too.

Either way, they both have steady, sustainable work, right in our home! 🎉

_________________________

We found a few solutions for education, too.

First, we bribed her. I couldn’t get her over the hump of her multiplication tables, but I knew she could do it. I gave her three weeks to memorize them, with a reward of an extra weeks’ salary as a reward. She couldn’t give it to her family collective, though–where money traditionally goes. She’d go on a special trip to the market with us to spend it on her.

It worked 😁

More than anything, I think it showed her she could. Since then, she has completed all her multiplication lessons and passed the “exam” I gave her with flying colors. We’re on to division, and she says it’s easy. And I am loving that time with her every week.

Second, we let her vote on what she actually wanted to learn. And we’ve learned: if she wants to learn it, she gives it her all.

English got ousted; she just wasn’t interested. She hopes to open a nail salon someday (as you can see in the video above), and if she plans to do that in Thailand, we wanted her to start learning Thai. So now a portion of her salary ifrom Sojourn Studios goes to hire a Thai teacher once a week. She has just started, but the teacher already says she’s doing great.

We also offered her most of the things we know and could train her in: and photography was voted highest. Enter Stephen. He now is teaching her photography using our Canon DSLR & Mac software on our computers.

Mwei Mwei’s also becoming a bit of a teacher herself. San Aye is becoming literate in Burmese, and has a teacher that comes once or twice a week. However, she requested more practice and study time. As part of her work time, she now studies with Mwei Mwei helping her three days a week.

And still further–she’s one of our teachers for the Summer Program this year! Two mornings over the summer she teaches Burmese, Science, Math & basic English to the younger kids in the community. She is absolutely thriving in so many things these days.

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She celebrated her sixteen birthday a few weeks ago. It fell right near when the two Reinforcers were both turning seventeen, so we hosted a party for all three! We told them they could each bring five friends, and pick what day & time, the menu, and what movie we’d watch on the projector.

They initially picked Saturday morning at 8am for hamburgers, which surprised us a little.

Our laughter led them to think that wasn’t cool, so it was switched to Saturday night at 5pm. They still picked hamburgers, but wanted chicken.

{Beef is pretty expensive and not that favored by Burmese, so I asked if they wanted some beef and some pork. They all made faces of disgust–“Not beef! We like chicken.” Right. Chicken hamburgers, coming right up.}

They invited a collection of friends and family, including two toddlers…so it wasn’t we expected by any means. But, hey, we had chicken hamburgers and sodas and cake and popcorn. We watched Spiderman. And Mwei Mwei fell asleep, so… 🤷🏼‍♀️

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We gifted her a set of nail polish and nail care kit for her birthday. She loved it. She came the next day with her nails all done and I snapped this photo.

I don’t want to forget where we’ve come.

I don’t want to forget how her demeanor has changed since we sat with her in the ice cream shop last January. I don’t want to forget the day I had to use broken Burmese to ask her if she was cutting. I don’t want to forget the scowl on her face at every math lesson, Thai class, and English class.

I don’t want to forget the day she passed her multiplication tables. I don’t want to forget the day we talked about how much we believe in her. I don’t want to forget the day she thanked us for her new Thai class and teacher. I don’t want to forget my pride for her as became an excellent teacher in the Summer Program.

I don’t want her working alongside her mom, chatting and laughing, to become so normal that I don’t give thanks for the gift it is. It wasn’t there a year ago, and it’s a beautiful, beautiful growth.

So much has changed in the last year, and it’s been messy. I’m so glad she’s sixteen, because somehow that feels less ridiculous that we’re hiring her. I’m so glad we have some sustainable work solutions, because we were just pouring money into ideas.

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It still feels unfair, sometimes when I look at who we have hired: it’s uneven; it’s random. We have three ladies making bread, one lady making flower bouquets, two ladies making jewelry and sewing. We have one woman making breakfast for fifty & overseeing the community space. We have two boys running sound. Some work one day a week; some two, some five. Some have savings plans and some don’t. Some have extra education built into their hours, and some don’t.

The only pattern is that they are needs God whispered to us about. And I’m really thankful we felt the whisper for this need.

bits of the chaos.

by Filed Under: house church, kelli, onehouse, photos, playhouse 2 Comments

International Women’s Day happened–about a month ago now!–and we participated in a local event. The Reinforcers ran sound for a local band, and Flour & Flowers donated & served cinnamon rolls to the audience. Mwei Mwei also came along to practice her newly acquired photography skills.

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I’ve been {attempting} teaching Sunday school at our Burmese church once per month. It’s been a challenge, to say the least. First, attempting to teach Bible (most often presented in very high level language) in Burmese is no small feat, and I’m just not there yet. Second, the kids tend to know they can walk on me. Our neighbor kids are slightly better, but most of the other kids at church know I only understand some of what goes on!

I’m learning.

First, I’ve learned to bribe: they are each promised a small prize at the end if they are good. If they cause problems, it gets taken away. This worked wonders, and was well-worth handing out snacks and toothbrushes.

Second, I’ve simplified. Perhaps communicating how the prodigal son returning to the Lord is a parallel to us returning to our Heavenly Father was a bit ambitious. This past time I set my goal at one verse. I chose Psalm 119:105. We practiced it in English, we memorized it in Burmese; we discussed what it generally meant. We learned a song for it in English.

Then, we each got a pair of $1 flip-flops, which we decorated with the verse and it’s meaning with Sharpies.

And last, I taped paper to the floor to make a human-sized CandyLand game. Each square was either a color, ABC, ကခဂ, or 🎵. They drew and went to the square, where they either had to say the color, the verse in English, the verse in Burmese, or sing the song.

They left with a much simpler understanding, but I also felt like I could successfully communicate it all! I felt like they learned more overall, kept their attention, and for a group of lower-income kids, they went home with new shoes, snacks & toothbrushes.

We also were able to finally get in touch with a couple in Burma who recently translated the Children’s Storybook Bible into colloquial Burmese!

This is an incredible resource, and I’m so excited to use it, both for our summer program & for Sunday school. It should be easy to understand for even lower-education levels, and I’m just beyond excited.

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High school for the migrant schools goes up to Grade 10, at which point the students take their final matriculations. This is a weeklong exam–one subject per day, including English, Burmese, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Math–that is similar to an ACT or SAT for us. It’s incredibly difficult, and how they score not only determines their acceptance to college, but also decides your major for you.

No pressure or anything.

For the past six months, most of the students have lived in a dorm at the school, where they attend regular classes during the day and return to eat, then study together until midnight. They also study in the morning before school from 6am to 8am, on Saturday morning and on Sunday evening–with a 24 hour break on the weekend to visit their families. Every day for six months.

Our sweet little sister, Pwei Pwei, has been living at the dorm for these past six months, and we’ve only seen her occasionally. We’ve gone to visit, we delivered her Christmas present…but we’ve missed her! The day she came back from her exam she fell asleep on our floor, surrounded by fifty screaming, playing kids.

She’s now one of our teachers for the Summer Program, and we’re so glad we get to see her everyday!

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Thida and I were on our weekly market & Makro trips. I was looking for ant poison because, well, I live here. She asked if I knew anything that could work for rats, as they had some at their house and she just didn’t know what to do about it. I helped her pick out some glue traps and explained how to use them.

As we unloaded things from the car, her son saw the picture of the rat on the front of the package and asked what they were. I explained they were to kill rats; and he said, “Oh! We need these!” He was relieved to know his mom had bought them.

Just two days later, she told me they worked great and she was so pleased.

“Oh, have you caught some already?” I asked.
“Yes! Ten!”

😳😱

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We came home last Wednesday to the two ladies sewing in the Housewares room, per usual; and then four kids asleep on our community floor.

I have no idea.

In general, I have a hard time understanding the fleece blankets when it’s April, and ’roundabout 100 degrees.

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With our new duplex-style living (with one house ours and one house for the community) we have a new front yard area that is kid-free. We have recently put in a little grill, an outdoor table, and a lovely hammock!

But this “kid-free zone” has a gate that a few tiny little kiddos can squeeze right under.

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I received this Facebook message from one of our community friends.

I have no idea. But, unfortunately, I’m fairly certain that’s a Bitmoji of me.

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Easter weekend arrived! We had a OneHouse for Good Friday, and it was absolutely beautiful. I love hearing worship in multiple languages, and Stephen is doing a great job of bringing people together.


 I had my first attempt at hot cross buns, too!

And at church on Easter Sunday, they had a basket of hard-boiled eggs up front! We were a bit excited, in hopes of an egg hunt for the kids. Instead, we were all handed a hard-boiled egg on our way out.

Almost as quintessential.

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Otherwise, we often have kids around us. And more often then not, they are smiling or making us smile.

So, #winning.