~Gone BANANAS!~

Has anyone ever told you that "you've gone BANANAS"? Well, on Sunday, the day before school started, that saying became very litteral to me in an amazing, unforgetable way. Would you like to go on a "BANANA Adventure" with me? Here we go...

"Maria and some students are going to go get BANANAS for the school. Do you want to go?" asked Hannah.

Bananas, here we come!

It was shortly after breakfast when sixteen of our oldest students, Tharamoo Paw Guh Doo, Tharamoo Maria Adams, baby Jabez, mom, and I crammed into the Adams' truck and drove about fifteen minutes down the highway and parked on the side of the road near the "BANANA jungle trail."

The hike was quite fun and a new, exciting adventure. Ducking under bamboo, walking on a trail that you can't always see because of dense follage on and over it, steping over logs, trying not to slide on the very slippery red clay, trecking across this little hill and over another and another, stopping for a brief rest at a little shelter, walking through streams,

winding around rice patties,  learning from one of our

girls how to say  "eggplant", "green beans"  and  other



The "BANANA Hunters" and the lady who lives there!

objects in Karen, bonding with and getting to know students...and other things made an amazing hike to a little BANANA plantation next to the Moei River!



 Finally, after treking for one hour and wondering for a while where and how far we were going to go into the jungle, we arrived at our little destination--the BANANA plantation.

 "Wow", I thought to myself, "we came a long ways just to get BANANAS! It's sure not a  really quick and easy thing around here to get enough BANANAS for 180+ students plus some teachers. 

A dear old couple owned the place and had a tiny hut tucked amongst the BANANA trees. It began to rain shortly after we got there. Some of us went into the
hut and under the eves while I and and some others found a little shelter from the rain under BANANA leaves.


Students harvesting BANANAS.



When the rain began to calm down, the students began harvesting the clusters of green BANANAS and putting them on the ground near the hut. 

Meanwhile, tharamoo Paw Guh Doo was roasting ripe and green BANANAS over the fire place on the floor of the hut. Green ones are okay, ripe ones are better.

After the picking was pretty much finished, some of the boys began splitting the larger clumps of BANANAS into smaller ones and then putting them into bags.

It was then time for a relaxing break. Some of us gathered around a little fire and peeled green BANANAS for roasting. Our hands were very sticky from the starch-like sap from the banana. So we rubbed ashes on our palms and fingers to help get it off. Just when we were about done with that, two of the students found a couple small scorpians in a piece of dry bamboo. 

Peeling green BANANAS....a very sticky, pitchy-like fun.

Thankfully, those two unfriendly critters ended up in the fire. I decided to join tharamoo Maria, tharamoo Paw Guh Doo, baby Jabez, and a few students in the hut while we enjoyed some more roasted BANANAS. And, yes, some dried ones, too, that were dried above the indoor fire. I found a few bugs in the dried ones, but oh well...I just picked out the ones I saw and continued eating. While enjoying them, Maria and I talked about how we used to and now relate to bugs in food. I've been quite amazed how much I have changed in this area of life in just the short time that I've been here. Back in America, if I saw aphids on some food from our garden that we were serving at a meal, it would be hard for me to consider eating it, but now I pluck the bugs off and continue eating with hardly a problem and try not to dwell to much on the fact that I may not see every bug. They were good BANANAS.

Soon, our relaxation and energy restoring time was over. Some of the boys finished putting BANANAS in bags.

Carrying our treasures!

Again, we hiked through the eggplant and green bean fields, rice patties, into the bamboos, over the hills, and around the corners with lots of BANANAS. I had lots of fun carrying my bag on my head most of the way.

We had to be extra careful on our way back. The trail was much more slippery after it had rained while we were at the BANANA plantation. It wasn't long before I found myself on the muddy ground while I was heading down a hill with the two girls in the right of the above picture. The three of us had a good laugh. They slid a little on their way down, but got down the hill without falling down. By the time I was down that hill I had fallen three times, and fell two more times later on.

What a blessing it was to have creeks to walk through at times. We stopped at one of them to cool off and clean up a bit. One of the girls helped me clean up from my first falls. She and another girl told me how to say "dirty" in Karen. I don't remember how to say it, now. I tried saying it a few times to them, but remembering it is a bit more chalenging, at times.

Gone BANANAS! :-)

After an hour's treck out, I and most of the group arrived at the road and released our BANANA treasures into the truck. We waited next to the road for the rest of the group, but after a while we decided to walk down the road until the others would pick us up.

I have to say that I appreciate BANANAS more now than before that experience. All of this was so much fun, but the funnest and most important was the opportunity to bond with some of our students more and get to know them better. It was wonderful spending this time with them. They bring joy to my heart! Precious students...I long for each one of them to be in heaven with me.

Thank you, Lord, for precious opportunities, such as this one, to connect with our students. Thank you, for each one of them. You brought them to your school because you have a special plan for their lives and you want them to know you, the big God that we can't see, feel...like they can with their Buddha gods. Thank you, for bringing me here to be a part of leading them to you.