Home Visits and Pork Pan!

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I’m currently stuffed to the rim with food in my belly! I feel like i gained 10lbs after eating our dinner tonight. We had our buddies come and make pork pan with us outside on mats in the driveway. I wasn’t all to excited about pork pan because I thought it was just going to be pork, but i was wrong! Pork pan is a pan over a coal fire in a terra-cotta pot. The pan has a moat with a dome in the center. The dome has slits in it so the heat can cook the food. Meat (chicken, pork, bacon, fish) is placed on the dome, and the juices of the meat run down into a broth that sits in the moat. Veggies and rice noodles simmer in the broth and meat juice, creating a delicious flavor! The veggies included pumpkin, mushrooms, cabbage, morning glory, and another herb. My buddies kept making me try different foods, which wasn’t surprising to me. At one point a plate of colorful foods came out. They looked like marshmallows, and when i asked my buddies what it was they didn’t know. They made me try it first, and it was not a marshmallow! It was actually fish tofu… nasty! After our pork pan we taught our buddies how to make s’mores. They all seemed to really enjoy them! Oil ended up eating 5 marshmallows, 3 of which were s’mores! I hope she doesn’t get a tummy ache tonight. Nu left dinner early because he had cheerleading practice, and Oil left a little bit later to go study for her anatomy exam tomorrow.



This morning we went on 3 home visits with the community hospital staff. The first patient we visited was an older lady who was paralyzed from the waist down due to a car accident 17 years prior. It was interesting to hear how her caregiver prevents infections, bed sores, and other complications. This lady was in pretty good health considering her circumstances. Her neighbor had created a pulley system for her to do leg and arm exercises. It was really innovative and showed how much the community cares for their elders. Her caregiver has been working with her for 17 years, which is incredible. She must feel more like family than an employee. The next patient we visited was a 34 year old man who had gotten injured in a motorcycle accident 4 months prior. Of course he was not wearing a helmet. He now lives with his mother, father, 12 year old daughter, and another little boy. The mother and daughter are the primary caregivers for this patient. The patient has neurological issues and is bedridden. The hardest part of this visit was seeing the patient’s daughter. I could tell that she was trying to be strong, and that she really loved her family, but she was hurting inside. I so desperately wanted to comfort her and talk with her, but the language barrier made it difficult. At one point Emmie told her she should grow up and be a nurse, and i just had to cringe. What happens if the daughter only knows how to care for others because its been her job since she was young, and she just falls into nursing because its what others tell her she’s good at. I want the best for this little girl. I want her to follow her dreams and be who she wants to be, but thats easier said than done especially in this culture. My heart broke for her. The last patient we visited was an older gentleman who was dying of bladder cancer. This case was interesting because the family didn’t want the patient to know that he had cancer. We had to be careful not to let that secret slip during the visit. The interesting thing is we all got the feeling that the man knew that he was dying, but just didn’t know from what illness. He could tell his family was keeping a secret from him. At one point he started crying and asking why he was sick. He started questioning if he had done something wrong to deserve his illness. This really broke my heart! I felt so convicted to share with him the gospel and just the fact that we live in a fallen world, its not his fault that he’s sick. I didn’t want him to have to live in condemnation anymore. I started getting frustrated with myself because i realized the opportunity I had to share the truth, and yet i was doing nothing about it. Here’s 14 christians in a buddhist household with a dying man who’s scared, feels condemned and is searching for answers (which we can help him solve), and none of us are doing anything. We may be his last christian contact before he passes and we are only concerned about his physical and emotional wellbeing and not his spiritual wellbeing. While I was standing in this mans house I started praying for him and his family. This morning during my devotional time I had made the conscious decision to communicate with Jesus throughout my day. I also decided that I wanted to pray for each patient i met today. The hard part is, I prayed silently for each patient before leaving their households, but i really wanted to pray out loud for them. I wanted to offer healing words, but didn’t know if it would be appropriate. My spirit said “yes, there’s an urgency. These people could be saved and healed by your boldness”, but my brain said “no, you can’t do that. Its going to offend them and everyone else will be watching. You could get in trouble”. I headed to lunch feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with myself. I still don’ t know what I should have done…





For lunch we went to a noodle restaurant and had… noodles. I also got a cold Thai herbal drink, which was interesting. When we returned to BCNC we had class and talked about teamwork and personalities. My personality is a ESFJ. I took the personality test a few years back and I was an ESFJ then too. My percentages were even very similar in both cases. I guess i’m pretty consistent. My highest percentage was feeling at 92%! I was surprised it was that high, but at the same time I know that I’m a very feeling oriented person. Even though I may not cry in-front of people a lot, i am internally very emotional. This is a blessing and a curse. I know that my empathy can get the best of me so I’m working on it. My extrovert percentage was 72%, which again wasn’t shocking. Although I’m not miss popular, I do have a very strong desire to be around people. Its better for my mental health to be around people than to be alone. I tend to process best when I’m able to talk out my thoughts with an individual. Even though I’m an extrovert i really enjoy small groups and one on ones. One thing thats interesting is that my best friend from college is ISFJ, and is 72% introverted. The rest of her percentages are very similar to mine as well. I guess we balance each other out! I was surprised to find out just how diverse our Thailand group is, personality wise. It's interesting to watch how our personalities effect how our ability to work as a team. Speaking of teams, we completed a team activity today in which we made a free standing structure out of a few materials. My team was at a disadvantage because our table was tilted, but thats okay. After class Brielle and I went on a walk and debriefed about today, which was nice. The weather was beautiful. It had cooled down by the time we went on our walk. On our way back we stopped by the cafe and I got…. you guessed it, an iced cocoa! I love those things! Where else can you buy an iced cocoa for less than $1? I’m going to miss that when i go back to the states. Okay I should go to bed, Fun dee!

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