We had a pair of sisters staying with us recently. One studied fashion design as a second career. As soon as we found this out, we were not shy to ask for a lesson! She and Jada made a skirt and shirt out of curtains and bed sheets for Jada to wear. Jada then made a skirt for her teacher by herself and a night gown from flannel the next day. Helpful, loving people are the best teachers! Thank you, Hannah!
I saw this mural in a monastary and it immediately got me thinking. First, the tiger is pulling away from the master. Second, the master is actually holding the tiger back…..he IS exerting effort but still, he IS doing it. In reality, wouldn’t the tiger be ATTACKING the master; not pulling away??? Wouldn’t the master be RUNNING AWAY from the tiger; not trying to keep it from running away???
There are some Buddhist, spiritual implications here and I won’t go into my own thoughts on what those are or could be. I will, however, exert my own world view on this mural and it will likely reflect where I am in relation to my own walk.
I think this mural represents what we THINK we are doing. We think we have control over what our problems are. We think we can tame them, curb them, and even keep them ourselves. But, isn’t that chain broken? Haven’t we all been freed? Why do we keep struggling with things that are bigger than ourselves? We don’t even have to run AWAY but TO. Amen.
We got these letters from students who stayed with us with the Odyssey group; words immortalized further on the internet.
These last two weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting an annual group of students. This group comes almost every year to Yunnan to do some experiential learning and serving in the community. The students spend 10 days in another remote village; about a 3 hour drive away. The students and teachers change but the love and learning stay the same.
An almost 10 mile hike, round trip, to this beautiful waterfall.
Harvesting barley for the family that owns and operates the roadhouse that hosts us. The students spend about 3 days doing some volunteer stuff around the village.
This year, the kids and I wanted to go with, like last year. There weren’t enough beds in the roadhouse for us so we got to camp. It was awesome. It stayed cool in the evenings and rained very little. Plus, the view from it was amazing!
Helping at the village preschool.
They spent 3 days more on a plateau camping and learning together. Nathan and John hiked with them. Below is the mule guide and a memeber of the family that takes care of the roadhouse. Two kids and I headed home during this time to shower and do more food prep. Ephrem (2nd time) and Hosanna (1st time) got to go up to the plateau; an 8 hour hike up the mountain one-way!
Their last day, they all came back to our town and ate lunch at our favorite cafe. They stayed in town while the kids and I got groceries for the evening meal. On the way home from town, our car broke down so the kids and I hiked it back to our house with heavy vegetables. We were only a kilometer away from home. Good thing that didn’t happen earlier or in the rain or to a car with students in it!!! And the kids didn’t even complain…….much.
We hosted their last dinner and night at our home. And, it’s always a party with frozen fruit-Sprite punch!!!
Another great group!
This last February, we and our company planned a trip to Thailand in May. It was a time to catch up on news, relax, see some familiar Thailand faces, and decompress what has been happening in Asia the last several months. 
We got to climb some famous climbing spots. 
And all the kids got stung by jellyfish within the first 8 minutes on the beach. Fun times.
So it turns out, the birds were not a good, lasting thing. While we enjoy their company, we do not enjoy the mess they leave behind!! Said mess is not great for a guesthouse! Plus, they were obviously sick and not getting better. We were burying them quite regularly. There were 7 left that seemed to be doing well.
We gathered them up…..well, what we could……
….and brought them to their new home not far from our house.
And released them….again. Live free, birds!…Again….
The next day after the kids’ first climbing competition, we spent one day doing MORE climbing. This time, we were outside with friends and playing in water. What a great day!
We took turns climbing this huge, split rock to the left of the stream.
Whomever wasnt climbing played in the stream. It was super fun because it hadn’t been raining. There were lots of little pools running down and I’m told the boys had an elaborate shoe washing system.
Goodbye!!!
We went again because the first time was so great!
Ephrem learns to belay. Actually, his first time was belaying me while I was climbing in Thailand and Nathan spotted. Yes, it was scary for me and yes, he did drop me but yes, I didn’t die and yes, he learned. He is solo belaying Hosanna here.
This cute CUTE dog followed us up the trail to the route.
We were planning on going to this next city last weekend but when we heard there was a climbing competiton, we changed our plans to this weekend.
There were two age groups: 6 to 9 and 10 to 18. Yep. A little rough! But the oldest kid was 12 so, it wasn’t too bad.
Listening to the host/judge.
Climbing warm ups and before the start.
Final score board. They all had 2 minutes to complete a rout and got points based on the point markers they reached.
Final route competitors! The top 3 finishers had 3 minutes to complete the most proportionately difficult route. It was a tough one but really fun to watch.
Ephrem got 1st place in his age group and Hosanna got 2nd. What a great intro to climbing competition! They got some free gear and climbing passes. Score!
Shirgu-Stone Drum. So named because of a large stone drum located nearby.
Our family has started outdoor climbing because we don’t do enough! Just kidding! We do it as a way to spend time together, get outside to some cool places, and exercise. We found this place named Shigu (meaning “stone drum”) located only a few hours drive from our home. I was shocked to find that this place has over 200 bolted routes! That’s A LOT!
We were also suprised to find this rock climbing community, after all these years. We never saw or heard of climbing around here until we got into it and searched. It’s weird not knowing about such a thing after spending years in the same place; running similar circles with these climbers but never intersecting paths. Here are some pictures from our first weekend visit.
