Yes, the tortilla maker.

Another Partners staff member made this amazing monstrosity. It makes handmade tortillas into gorgeous, round, thin tortillas. And fast.

They were kind to let us take it home with us for a few days, and we sufficiently stocked our freezer tonight. We made 59 tortillas in five flavors: wheat, white, spinach-wheat, tomato basil with spinach, and jalepeno cheddar. All amazing.

I’m admittedly more excited about this than I should be. I have really begun to love cooking, particularly when I can experiment with the local produce and a variety of flavors. I’m hoping to have one made for my kitchen before too long!

Often, it gets worse before it gets better. But we’re on the upswing.

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at the hospital. One of the little boys woke up with a fever and quick breathing, so we took him to the hospital. The poor little kiddo had pneumonia, but he did get to experience an elevator, x-ray, and breathing machine out of the ordeal.

Yesterday afternoon, our water turned back on. Unfortunately, with everyone re-filling their tanks, the water pressure was too low to get into our tank. It could only manage a slow drip into the smaller pool. Thus, Stephen began to take buckets from the smaller tank and refill our bigger tank.

As you can tell, he was thrilled at the opportunity 🙂

And it was about halfway through this process that we realized the inside of our tank had molded over the past few days of being empty and damp. Gorgeous. Now we had half a tank of very, very brown water.

Out came the mop, and Stephen proceeded to mop the inside of our water tank and drain out all the water he had just put in.

I was too short to help too much, and photos didn’t seem worth it.  By this point, both of us were too frustrated and exhausted to appreciate whatever lesson we were learning.

To be honest, it wasn’t when there were thirty people in my home on Friday that I wanted to flee. I was thankful to be here for that, however stressful it may have been. It was last night–with a sink full of dishes, a washer full of mildewing wet clothes, no water to flush the toilet, and unshowered–that a one-way ticket really began to tempt me…

Stephen re-filled the tank again with the bucket method, but was oh-so-thankful to have the water gain pressure last night about 8pm. It was a small dribble that made it into the tank, but it was enough to convince ourselves it would fill up overnight.

And this morning, when I turned on the faucet to brush my teeth? I was more thankful than I could say. There is something very beautiful about water coming out of your faucet right into your home. There is something very freeing about finishing that load of laundry that you started on Saturday evening.

We are telling ourselves we’re on the upswing. It has to get easier, right?  We can shower in our own home, do our dishes, and eventually do all six loads of laundry that await us!

Maybe that lesson was gratitude for the things we are tempted to take for granted!

And today, we recover.

We woke up this morning as the kids crept out of our house. We shared the last of the rice and curry from yesterday and enjoyed one last movie together. The parents started moving belongings back across the street, but have continued to cook under our driveway awning. Partners brought plenty of rice and noodles yesterday, so there is a little extra for the community this weekend.

Stephen also saw that one of the families had a charcoal cooker that cracked yesterday while being used by everyone. He thought it would be nice to replace it, particularly since they had already had so much stress on them. Sometimes you can just sense the small things that might be the last straw, and this was it. He went down the road and bought a new charcoal cooker with two bags of charcoal for $2; he said she was so surprised and grateful, she just kept repeating “thank you” in Burmese.

Sometimes I think its more important that we watch for little opportunities to bless them rather than look for things we can keep up. For instance, I can’t really provide jobs for them right now or cook a meal for all the kids once a week. But, I can look for the little girl that needs a hug today, or the mother that just needs her stove to work–or something to work.

Andrew, the Partners volunteer that came out to help us yesterday, graciously showed up at 7:30am on his Saturday off. He helped us clean our house–dishes, sorting toys, sweeping, and more. Really, it was so kind of him, and our house was much improved by mid-morning. I’ll probably be catching up on laundry–washing all my sweaters (or at least the ones returned…), the blankets and sleeping bags, sheets, all of our towels, and the couch covers that got a bowl of soup spilled on them–for days, perhaps even weeks since we don’t have a dryer!

So, now, we recover. We spent more time with the community this week than we have in a long time, with about seventeen hours spent at the hospital before Thursday, and all day Friday with everyone. We might need another vacation; or perhaps our vacation was more perfectly orchestrated than we thought!

Thank you for all your prayers and support of our work here. Everyone has been very encouraging, and it’s so welcomed. It looks glorious, but my selfishness shines through it all. I did cringe when the soup was spilled on my lovely couch, and I am washing all the pillow covers for fear of lice. I’m a little sad when I see scratched paint areas and water rings on our tables; or the three used Q-tips I found shoved in our couch and one stuck to the wall. I think they were really excited to have found our Q-tip stash in the bathroom.

I know what I should do, but I’m still growing in the love to actually do it.  And really, there are so many people that keep us here, from regular support for rent and food to sweet packages full of toys for the kids, kind words sent to us over email, and faithful prayers.

Thank you. And please don’t stop praying 🙂

…And then a day went by.

This is what we woke up to this morning.

This is what they woke up to this morning.

Ours was one of the few dry areas on the road, so we opened up the gate, and treasures began to fill up our yard: bicycles, chickens, clothes, blankets, pots, and televisions.

Stephen and a volunteer with Partners, Andrew, helped to carry items over. The kids were also sent over pretty quickly and our house became the play zone, complete with sweaters and blankets to warm up all the wet kiddos. The young ones were too small to stand in the depth and current of the water, so Stephen helped to carry some to our yard.

And then one of the older kids told us that her mother had her baby, which we have been waiting for. A little boy arrived five days ago, and we thought it was best to have him a drier environment. The mother was brought over soon, and this little guy wasn’t too far behind her.

Of all days, the gas tank for our stove ran out just as I was starting the second batch of noodles for breakfast. A charcoal stove had to the do the trick until we could get a new tank for lunch and dinner.

Partners was so sweet and sent over some staff members with supplies! They loaded us up with rice, eggs, noodles, oil, and vegetables. We were able to serve lunch to everyone as well as dinner. Everyone seemed so grateful.

The kids thought it was the best day ever. They got to play in water, come into our house, and wear our warm clothes. They played all day, sat around on the couch, and watched four movies!  They loved the food, the cold water, and the freedom to use our bathroom. There was literally some child in the bathroom all day. A few of them would just go in every half hour to see if anything changed.

And now, it’s a sleepover.

There are seven or eight children (I should probably know more specifically…) and the newborn’s mother sleeping over in our house. Others in the community are sleeping on our concrete driveway out front, and still more might be coming before too long.

Not only has it been raining incessantly, but there is also a dam in Mae Sot that they open nearly every year when the floodwaters are too high. Such is today. They have already opened it for a little while earlier, at which point the already two-feet deep water rose about a foot in an hour. It crept up into our driveway and gave all of us more of a scare. Thankfully, they took a rest and let the waters go down again, but there are reports the dam will be opened again during the night.

Thus, we have left our door unlocked so that more can retreat inside if waters continue to rise. Please do continue to pray that waters will go down, and the rain will stop for even just a few days. And pray that we would love well, because my energy is fading quickly and my selfishness, well, that has always been prevalent.

And that was our day.

I have no idea what tomorrow will hold; I’m a little fearful it might look too much like today. I do know that many days to come will be spent cleaning up after a house full of twenty children eating, jumping, and playing. Oh, my.