Staying Busy Staying Sane
- Adam
- May 26, 2020
- 4 min read
In our last update Aimee gave an overview of our trip back to America for Christmas and a brief overview of the Corona bug in relation to Thailand. Since we've got 3 months to cover I'll break them into 3 parts.
Part 1 - Water Filters and Jungle Excursions
At the beginning of March, before the Corona craziness set in, we were able to go on a couple of work trips. The first was to install a 4 barrel bio char water filter at a friend's clinic on the border of Thailand and Burma. We have been installing these filters for a while but recently God has increased our capacity to build more and also a demand.
These filters are incredibly easy to construct, maintain and give ownership of to locals. Their yearly maintenance is approximately 1 day's worth of work, if you leave them alone and keep water running through them. One complete systems costs around 200 USD and most if not all parts can be sourced locally. They have a capacity of about 300 L/day.
Our second trip was back into our training camp. Aimee taught english for 2 weeks and my Mom, a nurse practitioner, came back to teach our medic students/work at our Jungle School of Medicine Clinic. I took care of Eden while making charcoal for water filters.
Part 2 - Triathlon and March Madness
Once we returned from the jungle, Corona started to rear it's ugly head. Rumors grew of a shadow to the North East, whispers of a nameless fear. Its time had not yet come in Thailand, so we continued business as usual. Business as usual this time of year is to hold our yearly triathlon consisting of a 950m swim, 43km bike ride and finishing with a 11k run. Usually in 100 degree temperature with some of the worst air quality in the world, but it's so fun. Our office workouts continued as an act of rebellion against the smoke and to keep us sane.
We held our yearly 5k fundraising fun run to raise awareness for the situation inside of Burma, despite the air. Not as many people showed up this year due to the poor air quality and Corona threat but it was still a big success. Eden and I were able to lock down 2nd place in my age group. Might be the only time this will happen in a 5k but it felt good none the less.
Next on the docket was our yearly March Meetings dubbed "March Madness by those responsible for organizing it. Fortunately I was not that person, nor was Aimee, so we got to sit back and enjoy the show. March Meetings are where a large group of our ethnic leaders come from Burma and meet at our director's house. We talked about what God wants from us as an organization this year and individually for each person and department.
Part 3 - Corona Hits Chiang Mai
Thailand declared a state of emergency March 26th. With this they began closing all non essential businesses and locking down interprovincial travel. We knew this was coming so everyone began preparing ahead of time. Some of our staff took off for the beach, some went back to their home countries and some of us stayed put. Aimee and I prayed and felt a strong pull to stay put though we wanted to go to the beach. So we stayed.
If you were to base the threat of Corona on the number of infected cases within a population then it was relatively low in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai and it's immediate surrounding area has a population of around 1 million people with only 42 confirmed cases and 1 death. So while the city took necessary precautions the people were still out and about as much as they needed to be.
For our small community we left the decision of quarantine up to the individual. To pray about what level of quarantine they should pursue and then respect that decision while asking others to respect ours.
In the end we stayed busy by working on old projects, preparing curriculum for next year, new hobbies and hiking in the mountains. Aimee also committed to online Thai classes for April and May which kept her busy (and brain fried).
Now we have about a week and a half before we're scheduled to fly back to California. We have plane tickets booked but they could be canceled at any time due to the virus. Please pray that God puts us where we need to be and that we have the grace to be ok with wherever that is.
While preparing the house and finishing up last minute projects before we take off there is a greater potential for stress and frustration. Please pray we have love and patience for one another and do not move so quickly that we cannot hear God telling us the way.
Our second daughter is due August 5 and we hope to deliver in California. Please pray for her safe and healthy arrival and we hope we will be able to see friends and family in the meantime!
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