Someday when my kids get out of line and forget how blessed they are, I think I will send them to Mae Chaem, Thailand. We have been here a little over two weeks now and my eyes have opened to a very different way of life. A way of life where parents sell anything they can to give their kids a better future. Where children travel from many different provinces to obtain an education. Where the average job is farming under the hot, hot sun. We are truly blessed.

We live with the Som Khuan family – we call them Pa Som Khuan and Mae (Ma) Nuan. Every day they wake up at 2am to cook and get things ready to sell at the morning market that starts at 4am. Each day they sell eggs and a couple other dishes such as of fried noodles and a coconut dessert. I guess “dish” is the wrong word; they are sold in little baggies. Most of the work is putting the food in the bags and rubber banding it in the special Thai way. I wish I could explain it well, but just know that the way they rubber band things is different and confusing, but it helps with the presentation of the food!

Mae Nuan and Pa Som Kuan work so hard. Everyone here does. They are trying to pay for their daughter’s college degree, but it is about 2,500 USD a year. They sell noodles for 16 cents a bag and sell eggs in bags of three for 30 cents a bag. Their days are spent cleaning, boiling, delivering, and selling eggs. It is going to take a lot of eggs to pay for college. They built extra rooms in their house so that they are able to house travelers like us, so the extra money we are giving them to live here is helping a lot, I’m sure. I have learned that tourism is one of the best ways we can help villages like this. They get into a system where all the money is just going between the families that live here, but when an outsider comes in and puts their money into the system, it’s a huge boost for everyone. If you want to do some good, travel to small villages and buy lots of food from the little ladies on the street. It will make them so happy!

Our living conditions are quite different from our little apartment in BYU-Hawaii. I really miss our hot shower, even though it only lasted seven minutes or so! Our bathroom just has a showerhead connected to a blue pipe which gets the water from outside. Hot water isn’t even a possibility. (That will teach me to complain about hot water that doesn’t last long enough!) Our bed is… hard. For those of you who have traveled to Asia, you know about hard beds, but let me just say that this bed puts all those hard beds to shame. It is made of wood and has a very thin mat on top. If there weren’t tons of spiders, I would sleep on the floor because I am almost positive it is more comfortable. But despite cold showers and hard beds, it is a wonderful place to live. The views are breathtaking and the people are so kind. One of our favorite things is to sit in the back of the truck and wave at everyone we see so we can see them smile back at us. It just proves you really don’t need that much to be happy.