Ban Per Village

Today I went to a nearby village about 40 km away with the youth and others from my church. There is no church in this village, so they go each month to put on a special program for the kids and to build relationships. A short term medical team came through about 6 months ago and helped to build a positive relationship for the church. While the youth were getting ready for the camp, a few of us went and visited the community leader, just to let him know that we were putting on a program and would be playing music, so it might be a bit noisy. He was really supportive and said next time he would broadcast the program over the community loud speaker...and that we could use his house and property, which was not overly excessive, but was really nice and big, especially compared to other houses in the community. He and his wife are really interested in Christianity, so they are open and supportive.


Here are some pictures of the kids.....I really enjoyed spending time with them and feel like spending time out in the villages helps me to understand life here more and more.






I enjoyed talking to Lee, the woman who hosted us, she has a 1 year old daughter and lives with her mother and brother in a 1 room house, with a kitchen and bathroom off the back. Her husband is working in Singapore, working as a laborer building the subway system. She showed me his picture and said that he's been gone for almost a year and hasn't met his little girl yet, but will come home next month and stay for 1 month before returning again to Singapore. This is a common story here in the Northeast, families are split as young men and sometimes women go overseas with contract companies to Taiwan, Israel, Japan or Singapore. Although they often spend up to 2 years working just to pay off the "start up fees" that they had to pay, they still take these jobs and feel that they are worth it. There are few other options, not a lot of economic opportunities in this part of the country, just farming.

Here's a picture of Lee's cute little girl...