Our "day off"

Ok, so today was our "day off". Well that's what we thought. Yesterday we were beginning to plan what we might do - go to the beach, go to the zoo, etc.. But Ajaan Bu had other plans. Tim and i were going to help him shift a couple of tons of sand from the front of his house to the back. To be honest, Ajaan Bu and Pi Joy have done so much for us that it is the very least that we could have done to repay their kindness. So Tim and I expelled our body weight in sweat, whilst being kept topped with ice cold Pepsi by Pi Joy - Pepsi has never tasted so good!

Whilst we were breaking our backs the girls continued their training in becoming experts in Thai cookery. I think that they especially enjoyed preparing the raw prawns. This generally involved ripping its head off and tearing off its legs. This was all in preparation for the amazing prawn curry that we were to later enjoy. Our hosts have invited Pi Gung, who is an amazing cook, to come to their house and cook for us all week. This means that we are being treated to some of Thailand's best home cooked cuisine.

After all that hard work we were treated to an amazing lunch before being whisked away to receive some much needed Thai Massage. This was Tim's first experience, and i'm glad to say that it was a positive one. If you have never experienced this delight, it can best be described as "enforced yoga". There was one moment when i was being folded in half and sat upon! This might not sound like everyone's cup of tea but believe me it is extremely relaxing.

Our "day off" then continued with a visit to a local village where many of the children who come to Power Church are from. This was a real experience. The people of this village are obviously very poor. Many of the houses consist of only one room where extremely large families all live. We walked around the village and invited many people to come and hear us sing and listen to Ajaan Bu talk. It was a really great evening. We were able to give out gifts and show people that they are loved. We also saw a massive flock/swarm/herd(?) of giant bats fly directs over us. Seriously, there were thousands of them, all the size of chickens!! On another note, i nearly didn't make it out of the village. I was propositioned by a lady looking for a husband for her daughter. Pi Gung had to quickly point out that i was already married to Hannah. I thought that this was have put her off the scent, but as we were driving out she grabbed my arm to try and hold on to me. A lucky escape i feel!!

Our "day off" has been nicely rounded off with that amazing prawn curry that i mentioned earlier. We're all having an amazing time and really looking forward to the rest of the week.

Oh yeah, if any of you have been trying to post comments to any of our posts but have failed, its because we hadn't turned that function on. It should all work ok now, so comment away.

Martin