Did we just eat a rat?

There are times when I leave Bangla road asking myself, “What did I even accomplish tonight?” Trying our best to make relationships with these woman can be a hard task and emotionally draining. Thankfully, when you seek God you find him, and from this I have found God to be more abundant than I could ever imagine. Going onto Bangla road I expected to encourage and bless these woman who are being sexually abused and neglected and I have been the one leaving encouraged and blessed. How does this happen? God has given me friendships with these girls who are so delighted in just seeing me for only 20 minutes of their night. Their faces light up and embrace me like we have been friends forever and I cant help but thank Jesus that he's letting me LIVE here for four months to let these relationships grow.

Even from the very first night we went out, we got to meet Ale. She is a burst of energy and is honestly hilarious. Immediately we didn’t feel the need to put on a show, but danced the night away as friends. We joked around and laughed so hard our stomachs hurt. Thankfully we kept coming back and she said she'd love to hangout as friends during the day! We were ecstatic that she trusted us and considered us such good friends so fast. Once again, I was being blessed. Although we were extremely excited, we were also filled with nervousness. We knew that Ale couldn't speak English very well, and we aren’t exactly experts at Thai's tonal language. So, we prayed it out and headed on our way to meet Ale at McDonald's on Bangla road. Once we got there, it was instant relief. She was waiting with a bag full of delicious fresh fruit she got for us and we both took out our English/Thai books for reference of what we wanted to say. We may have looked ridiculous holding our travel books and pointing out sentences, but we were loving it! Laughing and trying to chose where we wanted to eat Ale said, “NO hamburger. Real Thai food.” So, by taking us by the hand she lead the way to where her favorite street vendor was.

Walking through the streets its not uncommon for many Thai's to call out, “where you from?” since were so obviously Americanized. Being American can often mean you have money, or that you may be dumb enough to buy their over priced tourist items. We usually just smile and walk on by, but Ale insisted that we say were from Bangkok. Laughing while telling people we were from Bangkok she would say, “and I am from America” in her snob valley girl voice. It was so funny! Once we reached the street vendor Alexa, Sabrina and I got instant anxiety. Alexa and I aren't very good at consuming spicy food and trust me, Thai food is spicy! We kept telling Ale “Mai Phet, Mai Phet!” which means “no spicy” in Thai. Watching the woman make our food we couldn't stop laughing because half the time we had no idea WHAT she was putting in our food. At one point we even saw a full on crab that we swear is a spider go in. Thankfully Ale is not shy what so ever and kept getting in the woman’s business and throwing more nuts and carrots into our food to make it less spicy. Shes the best. Ale also got us a bunch of meat that were on sticks. We know that one was chicken, but the other “meat” is still unknown. It may have even been rat, and Sabrina may have ate the head, HA! As scary as that was, we didn’t want to disrespect Ale and defiantly trusted the Lord that we wouldn’t get sick.

While we were waiting for our food to be fully cooked, Ale ran and got us waters and a mat that we sat on by the beach. It is by far the best picnic I have EVER been on. I cant even put words on it, it was that perfect. Our smiles and laughter made me forget that we had such a language barrier. Some people may think you cant be friends without words, but actions are so much more powerful. She even invited her two roommates Weh and Ying. Ying even brought her daughter Monica. Monica was so precious, and the girls accepted us right away. We even were invited to have them cook for us next week, which is such an honor. I cant express how delighted I am that God has given me this opportunity to live in this country and not only bless the people around me, but be blessed as well.