Day 9 - update

After church today we came back to the hotel to have orientation with Stacey. She gave us a couple of books, one explained cultural facts and the other some Thai words to get us by on our short mission. Some of the things we had planned have fallen through. As Stacey says "You need to be very flexible in Thailand because nothing is for sure until you show up and they let you in the doors". Stacey also reviewed some teaching lessons that we will be using in the prisons, at the school and the church. We will be separated into pairs and half of us will go to a school and the other half will go to the prison. Each day we will trade locations so we all get a chance to visit the prison. On Monday, we will go as one large group and teach a 1 hour lesson of English with Stacey.

Approximately 70% of children in the Udon province are involved in prostitution. There are alarming rates of HIV and STD's. There is little education to deal with this issue here and many families sell their children thinking they are going to the city to work in factories.

Many of people are in the prison system here because of drug related offenses. Drug charges carry the longest sentences because they are considered crimes against people. If you committed a crime against one person you would get a much smaller sentence.

After orientation we went to John and Joy's for supper. John and Joy are missionaries and have been in Thailand for several years. We ate a traditional Isaan meal which John, Hank, Craig and Fred went to get from a market. They made a stop along the way for Hank to run in a buy a watermelon. Hank expressed that apparently there is no word in the Thai language for watermelon so it was challenging to actually find it.

Isaan is an area, a people group and a language in North East Thailand. Most people in the larger centres also speak Central Thai.