NTM Part 7 - ANIMALS

I went to CHOL with the mental preparation that i would be sleeping less or probably not able to fall asleep. And true enough, i had all 6 sleepless nights. It wasnt that bad in previous trips as in usually by 3rd or 4th day i would have easily fallen asleep due to tiredness. But somehow it was not so for this trip. Why?

These creatures are the culprits:

Culprit No 1 - Billy Goat

Initially i thot there was a cow making his rounds in the night. During our first night, we heard it at close to 12Midnight, right under our dorm. As the bamboo house was raised up, we thot it was possible for animals to wander underneath us. Afterall, the bells ringing seemed to come right below us. And so this cow that we thot came every night. And he would wander to and fro and i could hear the bells all too clearly.

There was one particular night, Mon night, that i was literally being kept awake because of the bells. I could even count the number of times he made his rounds. The ringing of bells sound was actually not loud but being a light sleeper.... it was a constant torture to me.

On Tues, as i was getting ready to go to the hotspring, i took a good look round the compound and realised there aint no cow. And the gate being locked in the night, where can we find a cow???? Not the neighbours definitely. Then i spotted this creature

Billy Goat! Evidence of the bells round his neck proved his guilt. He looked being tied up in this pic and so wouldnt wander in the night......WRONG! The bells round the neck sounded when he moved reminded me of the OT high priest's robe with bells, and when no sound was heard, he would be presumed dead. Dont get me wrong, I dont want this billy goat dead but at least could he just keep still for the night and sleep just like everyone else?

Bursting with curiosity, i asked Robert on Wednesday if he ever let loose this billy goat in the night. His answer was a NO. Then how in the world could we hear him just below us? Science tells me that sound travels and indeed it must have coz the distance bet his enclosure and our dorm is about 60 metres. But Robert did add that they do get loose on their own and wander out. AHA! See! I told you! I heard him right below me alright!

Take a good look at him in broad day light:

Culprit No 2 - Dogs

Robert has 5 dogs in his compound. They can bark all they want in the day but in the night they dont bark anymore. The new dog sound is HOWLING......like werewolf. It was super super super eeeeeerrrrrriiiiiieeee! I have never heard dogs do this kind of thing and terribly loud too. They would start exactly at 12midnight, if not +/- 5 mins. Every night without fail we heard howling, except for one night, perhaps Tues or Wed of which i couldnt remember. They were howling but not too loud.

We asked Robert one day why do they howl like this. His explanation: "They were talking among themselves and then they were in pain or too tired and so they said OWOOOOOOOOOO to one another". Oh man, this was so lame.....guess he didnt have an answer too.

But i am beginning to worry after what Warunee told me. When i met her in Chiang mai and told her about the howling sound, she said her dogs in BDC and all the other dogs in the neighbourhood are doing the same thing!!!!! Is it the New Dog Phenomena or what word should i even use to describe this????

Culprit No. 3 - Gecko

Icould never catch a pic of this creature, wherever it was, and so i took one from the internet....Thailand Gecko, so you could understand what i am talking about.

This gecko, or at least the one above our dorm or near our dorm made its presence known nightly. Its range of vocals is pretty impressive. Why do i say that? For those who know music, you will understand what i mean by harmonic chords in progression. For those who dont, it sang every night the following:

Taking Doh as the base note, it produced this tune - Ti Doh, La Doh, So Doh, Fa Doh, Mi Doh, Re Doh. Haha... no Doh Doh. I followed its pattern closely coz i couldnt sleep, remember?

The ones i heard in BDC last year didnt sing like this. Angela asked me one night when she heard the gecko's sound what creature was that. i told her gecko and said it looked like lizard. And so she learned something new about God's creation :)

Culprit No 4 - THE MOST IRRITATING, MOST ANNOYING - NEXT DOOR ROOSTER

In case anyone of you think rooster is cute, think again. The rooster in the neighbour's compound right behind our dorm is the No. 1 irritant! It wasnt just me who said this. Voted and seconded by every lady in our dorm. I could never got hold of a pic of the actual culprit and so make do with a drawing.

Yes, rooster cuckcoo coo coo everyday.... i know that. I cant blame them for doing that but this one rooster just loved to come right behind us, adjacent to us, flapped his wings so so so loudly and then cuckoo coo coo his way whole night. He will start between 4 or 4.30am and all the way until he is satisfied. No other rooster start the calling. Only him giving the cue every morning.

It was super super irritating one night and Angela upon waking up on Sun morning told us she was just about to go over and tape the mouth of this rooster. I laughed at her suggestion tho i secretly wished we could actually do that. haha... But on Tues morning, my feelings for this rooster was no more taping up the mouth. I felt like strangling and killing it to eat, thereby permanently solve my sleeping problem.

Can you imagine i was trying to fall asleep at 11 plus and when my eyes were about to shut, the dogs started to howl. Then the billy goat made his rounds a few times. The gecko was next. And then back to the dogs again. Just when i thot everything was peaceful, rooster made his opening note for the feather orchestra. And sometimes, the dogs will add to that. Oh man! How to sleep like this???

Melissa took a flu tablet from me on Sat night (our second night) and i took one too. She had Angela's ear plugs on and she slept pretty ok. I dont think the ear plug would have helped me. It is just me.....lousy sleeper...Sigh. I am pretty sure Shing would sleep thro and so would all those who could sleep like a log when the heaven fall down :) Well, thank God for blessing you with good sleep if you are one of those.

NTM Part 6 - INSECTS!!!! EEw....

This is one ntm trip, perhaps the first, where i SCREAMED the most. Cockroaches, some giant beetle that resembled killer bee or Amazon roach & real bee plagued our ladies dorm.

First it was a roach that crawled under my bag on day 1 & brave Susan caught it bare hand before it devour my unzip bag. This made us on high alert & placed our bags inside our little "nests", shielded from all invasion possible. See our lovely nests....

BK & i share the first one. Angela & Melissa each took the inidividual. Susan & Cindy share the last nest.

Then it was BK's turn to catch. In fact she didnt even catch. The roach was near the dressing table one day & upon the scream of Melissa, BK did a super fast whack on the roach with a bottle of shampoo nearby. It was 100% accuracy. Well done!

Angela was in between the scarety gang & bravo ones. She was brave enough to bathe daily at Eld John's toilet & did attempt to kill if she could. Guess our most unforgettable episode was on Sun night.

We were getting ready to sleep when i spotted a huge huge black thingy hovering above us. i sounded the alarm. Only the brave ones looked up. Melissa screamed & both of us quickly got into my nest, nearest n safest. We saw it landed on top of a wooden beam. Susan & BK approached with extreme caution armed with whatever they could grab. None of us knew whatever that was. Then it kind of disappeared. Strange. Both lady warriors looked hard & us too. We thot it had gone off for good until melissa gave a loud scream that it was inside our nest! The safest haven became the perilous & torturous pit...... I didnt even see it but trusted her judgement. Both of us literally sprung out in lightning speed. If ever there was a trophy for 1st prize, it would be us :) Oh man, i didnt want to stay around to cfm its presence. She ran towards the back while i ran out of the dorm, erh both screaming. It was hilarious, scary n silly!!! Hmmm, guess i wouldnt scream in ctyf presence. Die die also pretend to be brave but not this time. I felt the liberty to release my energy, sound & kinetic.

And so BK got to work. She opened the net & whacked it with slippers i think (not sure). All i knew was when i peeped inside the dorm, creature was all curled up & still on the bamboo floor. It measured so small now in its death stage. Angela took a pic of it with the heroine's foot in position. Ha ha ha ha.:)

We made so much noise that some children downstairs, probably having night bible reading sssh us up. I felt terribly guilty coz we did disturb them, especially me lah. Wow, i am putting my reputation at stake here but honestly, i didnt want to pretend & whatever was that? A giant beetle. When i told Dr lowly, he made me even more guilty by saying this: "Beetle is the most gentle & harmless creature ever"...:( At home whenever Rac n IZ screamed for beetle invasion, i would try to shoo it away. But that night i thot it was an amazon roach invasion! Sigh.

Ok, next to mention would be this one huge insect of what not that stuck on the back of my left elbow during the BBQ steamboat dinner downtown, which happened before this beetle incident on the same night. I felt something at my left elbow and so I used my right hand to feel. To my horror, it felt like 1.5 inch long by 3/4 inch wide. I turned pale & thank God for auto reflex action that swept it away. Phoebe was sitting bet Susan & myself but i didnt want to create commotion in public. My hair stood on ends & i tried not to imagine what it was. Over n done with. Oh my, should give myself a pat on the back huh? Lol.

Killer bee came to our toilet during the day (probably Tues or Wed). Cindy & Susan so determined to kill it that they sprayed an awful huge amount of insecticide, so much so we were forbidden to use toilet because of the fumigation smell! How long we abstained? Maybe 30mins. Both of them didnt know if target was hit. I was the first to use the toilet, i think, & i found it all curled up on the floor, small sized too. Hee hee. Robert has good foresight to buy this new can of insecticide spray for our use & use it loosely we did!

I had one more encounter with an insect, perhaps a locust? I dont know. Or thailand grasshopper but didnt look like one. It was during prayer meeting on Wed night when Eld John was testifying. It flew near me & seemed to come nearer. Then it was Hendrick's turn to share. The creature was still there and seemed even nearer. I covered my ears & started to curl up, looking down (i was sitting on the floor). Good old Susan noticed me & came to my rescue. She came to sit bet insect & me & shooed it away. Hurray!

Last to mention would be about Eld John. He erh, is afraid of roach & so he happily allow angela to use his toilet every night, so as to screen the place for him. U know for someone afraid of roach, it didnt make sense that he would leave his bags all opened up on the floor 24/7! We were teasing him that he most likely would bring one or two into the van on our last day back to chiang mai town. Ha ha. We didnt want that to happen & so check was performed on his bags. His 2 bags passed the QC test.

Whoa, thinking of CtYF NTM to BDC now......insects.....Xiao fen will be my heroine. Yeah!

NEW ENTRY: Oops, i missed out one animal that gave me a little scare..... it was the toad.....a giant toad. It stationed itself at the main toilet in the building for two nights, after everyone went to sleep. In the morning at 6am when i went to bathe, i found it at the entrance to the toilet. That was Wed morning. I stepped on the floor a few times and it hopped away. But Thurs morning was not so. I was actually on the lookout for it and saw it inside the toilet. Oh boy, how was i going to chase it out? As i stepped in, it went deeper inside. I didnt know what to do and decided to go back for the warrior ladies. Susan was in the toilet and BK was somewhere else. Reluctantly, i went back to the toilet & as i walked back, was trying to devise a way to lure it out. BUt i didnt have to in the end coz it hopped out and stationed itself outside the toilet while i was gone for a brief 5 mins. Haha... it knew i needed to bathe and brushed my teeth and so it gave way to me. Slamming my foot on the ground made this toad disappear into thin air and now i could have a good bath...... Eew, i cant imagine if it hopped onto me.....definitely wouldnt turn into a charming prince.....haahaahaahaa :)

NTM Part 5 - ACTIVITIES

Our team had lots of fun and extra activities during our stay in CHOL. What were they?

A. BBQ Steamboat (erh, the one ctyf been to in 2005 had since closed shop).

At 99 baht per adult and 59, 49, 39 for various age groups of children, it was super cheap for buffet! Oh well at least for this once i didnt waste my sin $4 coz i ate every cent of it and perhaps much more! Liver was the one item i ingested most, with robert's help in choosing the real fresh goody red ones. I think i had temporarily updated and stock up my depleted red blood cells that night :)

Magdalene, Adam's mom, sat with most of our team members and she came over to my table telling Dara that Singaporeans never bbq their food coz they threw all into the soup! Hmmm, our people so healthy conscious?? :) LOL! Ahh..... i bbq my chicken, pork and fish but all the liver went into the soup coz i love it that way. It was super yummy! I was also told one of our member even put the cut fruits into the soup to "clean" it before eating.....oh man...... And yes, the sight of the lump of oil at the tip of the steamboat tray reminded me of Shing who on previous trip ate them all up thinking they were fish meat! Hee!

B. Cooking

Initially the ladies were feeling rather bored with nothing to do during free time. We spent our time packing the goodies and talking among ourselves in the dorm. Thank God on day 3, they found stuff to do - cooking! Angela did and taught sushi, Susan and Cindy with the rest, learned from Abigail (the number one cook) secret chilli recipe plus loads of other sumptuous thai food. On Wed night, Angela baked durian cake whilst Cindy made her delicious jelly for the birthday people namely, John, Annie & Jemima (see insert below). Some stuff were not available in the Fang supermarket and so the final look of the cake didnt match up to angela's usual. But it tasted so good and even lovelier after we left it in freezer for one night. We had durian ice cream cake the next day and i put 3 pieces into my mouth! Simply awesome!

guess which is the durian cake?

group pic

silly pic :O

C. Hot Spring

Same spot Ctyf went tho i couldnt remember. It was Mary & Rachel who cfm this. We took some pics here.......

It is amazing that Thailand, a country that has no volcanoes, yet able to have hotsprings like this. How is this possible? Geography students care to explain????

group pic

Rachel, me and Mary

We next head to the waterfall area for a dip (only CHOL kids and Matthew, the young man from Zion church). Singaporeans stay dry :) Children were given 5 mins to jump into the freezing cold water and they wasted no time despite the low temperature.

Our people preferred to take pics on the suspension bridge only to be disturbed by my constant jumping on it.

What do u do with a suspension bridge? Rock it for fun! Ha ha. Abigail prepared nasi lemak dinner n we ate at the waterfall.

While the sushi was being served by me, Evangel, who walked passed me, suddenly raised his hands and kind of propelled the big tub like pilot ejecting from crashing planes. All the lovely food plus hard work would have gone to waste if this tub went to the floor. Matthew & Eld John tried to save the tub. Guess who saved the day?

Me! I caught it before it landed on the floor. Not bad huh?

D. Market

Eld Wee suggested to bring us to a Wed-only day market and so we did. The Pehs treated us to the best beef noodles in town (at 30 baht per bowl)! I took noodle with meat and beef ball. It was fantabulous.

I actually craved for more balls after my first bowl and so Melissa & I decided to share one bowl of beef balls without noodles. Dara made the order for us and i guess she asked them to give us a big serving (without us knowing). Before our food arrived, Eld john looked like he wanted a share too but since i didnt know how many balls they would give us, i didnt promise him that he would get some or even one. Haha, so we made a deal: even number he has no share; odd number he gets one ball. Fair right? The bowl finally came and it looked overcrowed. i counted 15 balls in total! Wow! The 15th piece went into his mouth alright. We also gave one to Angela, Laura & i think Susan (couldnt remember). Left with 6 in my bowl of which i managed to squeeze in 5 (max capacity). The last piece went to the ever-hungry elder.... :)

After breakfast, we proceeded to the huge market. No pics here to show coz everyone was so into buying lots of good bargain within 45 mins or less. BK bought so many pieces of clothing & i am proud of her for one particular piece she bought in our (ahem, image consultant) absence. It is a sweet pink tee at only 49 baht ($2.10)! We also bought clothing for the 3 birthday babies from this market. Susan & Cindy bought 1,000 baht worth of heh bee (dried prawns), say almost 3-4kg to bring back to SIN. They also bought fruits for the children.

Dara called my HP to gather group back at the breakfast stall & so i tried to find everyone, 11 in total. It wasnt that hard to spot our people in this crowded market. Hendrick & laura were the last few i found, together with Eld John. While waiting for the Foos to pay up for their goods, feeling thirsty, Eld John treated me to fresh mix fruit juice...... The stall had individual cups of fruits and you get to pick and choose which cup. Some had mixed fruits, some just one type of fruit. I chose the mix ones... never tried mixed fruit juice in my entire life (always drinking watermelon or orange or mango). Initially the whole cup looked so pinky that i felt "bandung" and kind of put off (i never liked bandung btw). But after one sip, i didnt want to exchange the cup with anything else.....slurpy!!!!!

Our fruit juice stall was just next to the Foos but when we turned round to lead them back, they had disappeared! So fast! We hurried down to catch them just in case they made the wrong turn of which they did. They turned back when they realised we were not ahead of them. And so we rushed back to the van & yup, we werent the last few :) Our people continued to shop even on the way back to vehicle, can u imagine that? Eld John's conclusion of our Tengah group - can eat n can really shop!

NTM Part 4 - VILLAGE

Sat trip up to Hui Pu village was filled with laughter and songs. CHOL kids sang and sang, out of pure memory with loads of action too. It was during this ride that we first heard the Hokkien songs. Oh my, it took me a while to know they were singing hokkien......haha.... Still remember the hokkien song Shing asked me to listen of which i probably understood 1%.

Back to the journey.....the children suddenly called out to us to look up and so i did....angela, eveready with camera in hand, clicked and took this pic. What did we see? Superman? Superbird? Nah.... it was a kite in mid air at a certain 5.15pm in fang :)

Children taught me to play this sek sek hand game and i kind of perfected it coz no one was able to beat me thereafter (hee hee). Some pics to show all the happy faces.....

annie and me

the boys, Adam, John & Enoch

Solomon, Evangel & Melissa
Mark, Samuel & me!
the girls, Rebekah & Mary

It wasnt long before we reached the village and it was getting dark (sun sets at 6.15pm in thailand). Robert and the older children immediately set to work, tying up the puppet show curtain, fixing up speakers for puppet story cd and lights for the night...both running on some portable batteries he brought along. By the time singspiration started, it was pitch dark.

Finally the hour to deliver the show arrived, the team a little anxious about coming in at the right timing (story in thai and they kind of depended on me to give the cue). Barely 3 mins into the story, cd player halted, probably for 2-3 seconds. Then it happened more frequent with longer pauses. Alas, no more power to run the remaining one third of story. Had to finish the story and so needed to narrate with dara interpreting, while the puppeteers animate at the back ground.

Science enthusiast will tell us it takes a lot of energy to run a cd player then lights and those batteries were insufficient to begin with :) nvm, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise coz dara interpreted to lahu which meant more could understand. Thank God team finished the show and Hendrick delivered the gospel message.

During the message, we hid behind the curtain to prepack notebook with the craft for each individual. It was a challenge to work in the dark with little light from robert's torches. Thank God it went well..... we had just enough of the materials and notebooks for everyone.

The caterpillar game was fun too. Our team had the privilege to demo of which we totally flopped with the speed we "crawled". The children moved like lightning speed and so we realised what a difference 30 years can do :) Ha ha...

Giving out goodies (our prepacked sweets and yummies) plus one big tin of biscuits (from robert) was next. Distribution went smoothly in 2 columns.

Village preacher in the centre, Ya Er is his name.

By the time we journeyed home, it was close to 9pm. Super hungry for most coz we had an early dinner at 4pm, ha ha, and robert "treated" us to a big bump that made our real bumps left the wooden hard flooring of the lorry for a mere 1 second, just before we reached CHOL.

We did some shopping in the morning and bought doughnuts for all to eat for supper. But seemed like the thai instant noodles was an instant and popular hit than the colourful doughnuts. Dara said all Singaporeans like doughnuts.....not me though. I was not too hungry, thot i was at first and so tried eating one doughnut, only to give away to my backup...ha ha... For the entire trip, he was always helping me to finish my food. Angela and BK commented he has become my "pun so tang" (rubbish bin in hokkien)! You know who?