The Hamletts’ Blog

Hello again all!

The last month or so has been very fun as well as eventful. We always say we are busy (and we are) but we do miss you all and thank you so much for keeping up with us! Thanks to all the faithful “poster’s” your words are so encouraging!

We traveled to Udon Thani (about an hour away) with the Hunt’s. On the way we saw a terrible bus crashed in the median of the road. It was in really bad shape.

Melody prayed at that time and we could only hope for the best – it looked really bad. Later that night we talked to PSur and told him about it and because he works for the Rescue squad he had heard about it and said there were close to 40 injured but no deaths! Thank the Lord!

Crashed bus a few days after. When it happened, the bus had overturned and was on it’s roof.

Anyways Udon was fun. The Hunt’s were going to visit and treat a little girl named Byou, who lives in an orphanage .The Hunt’s had wanted to adopt but the mother was reluctant to let her be adopted. They continue to see her occasionally and take her out to do things with them. So we picked her up and went to the big mall in Udon and shopped and then ate at the SIZZLER! What a treat! It was very affordable and you get an entrée with soup and salad bar. We enjoyed pork and French fries as well as much Thom Yum (slightly spicy Thai soup) and salad as we wanted. It may seem like all we talk about is American style food but we really do enjoy Thai food we just eat it so often!

Lunch together                              Mandy, Melody and Beyou

The Sizzler in the mall                 Having fun with cameras!

November 3^rd was Bobby’s birthday and his mom sent some money so we could have a family birthday party. We decided to have it the next weekend of the 8^th because of conflicting dates with a church function. It was held at Bobby’s Aunt NaaAck’s house and a lot of the family came. We also invited the Hunt’s and our Thai friend and Campus Outreach staff person PNai to come and help with translating into Isaan. Our family speaks Thai but also speaks Isaan, which is basically the language of Laos. Many people here in the Isaan region of Thailand speak this dialect.

The food was delicious! We had Thom Yum (coconut kind), moo taut (like beef jerky but pork), cowpat (fried rice) French fries, and fruit as well as a bunch of spicy Isaan food. The Hunt’s brought their guitar and John Mark and Joseph played us some tunes! We even sang a few praise songs! PNai helped translate a game we played with everyone we called “Bobby trivia”. We came up with random questions about Bobby and PNai translated the questions to Isaan and everyone had to guess. It was a lot of fun and we even gave away some candy prizes. It seemed to really go over well with the family and we all shared a few laughs.

After the game we had PNai read a letter we wrote to the family thanking them for all they have done for us and it explained a little about why we are here helping out CO here in Khon Kaen. It was such a blessing to be able to spend Bobby’s birthday with almost all of our immediate Thai family here and to be able to share a little about our faith as well. How blessed we are! We know God is working here in Khon Kaen, not just at KKU but in the community as well. It is our hope and prayer that our family here one day can experience the joy we are given each day.

Katie and NaaAck                            BaaDang, Bobby, Baalot          BaaDang presenting me with bday attire

Birthday Cake!                             Us with PNai (translator)                         “Hunt 9″

John Mark, Megan, John singing       NaaAck loves her nephew              Mandy and Katie

Melody & the women w/ ice cream,      Group shot, before playing trivia

Bobby’s aunts minus BaaEtt                           :)                                   Group photo (missing many)

Katie, PJane, PNid, Megan, Mandy

Shortly after the birthday celebration we had to leave Thailand and travel to Laos to get our Visas stamped. Our visa is good for up to one year but you must renew it every 90 days by leaving the country and getting it stamped. We left early one morning and headed for Nongkai which is the Thai city on the border. We took a bus across into Laos, got stamped, had lunch, did a little shopping and left. Before we shopped we traded money and saw that one US dollar = 8,000+ Lak, which the currency of Laos is. Laos is extremely poor, I believe it is a third world country. For reference, one USD = 35 baht (currency of Thailand) so you can see just how weak the Lao money is. The bills were so confusing too! They had different numbers on the front and back – we quickly decided to trade the money back for we could buy things with Thai currency as well.

Katie & PNid eating in Laos           PSur and Bobby eating in Laos     The bus ride between Thailand & Laos

We have a confession…we have been driving! We sent away for our international licenses through AAA and got them back within a month or so and have been driving periodically. We drive about once a week – when it is too inconvenient for PNid and Psur to pick us up. It is very different but not too difficult – it just takes a lot of patience.

Katie the “serious” driver!

Katie and I have begun teaching the older teens a bible study on dating. It has been really neat. It’s great because we can relate somewhat because of age. It is helping us pour ourselves into others and it helps them have someone they can talk to about teenage dating issues.

We attended a big holiday here in Thailand called Roy Kratung. Roy Kratung is a holiday in which Thai’s buy little boats made of leaves and flowers with lit candles and they send them out into a lake to “send away their sins”. It is very interesting to watch and at the same time somewhat sad knowing that if the Thai people came to know Christ they wouldn’t need to pay for their sins to be “floated away”. Nevertheless, it was a great time in which we played many games and had a wonderful time with PNid, Psur and James.

Bobby playing dart balloons     Prizes from balloon pop         James, PNid, Psur with their Kratongs

Lake with many Kratongs floating

The Fall Festival was the last big event that we’ve done so far. It was kind of like a pre-Thanksgiving party for the staff here. The new church sanctuary was decorated and set up with many games for the children. Everyone dresses up in costume and plays games and eats plenty! Katie had the great idea (thanks to Becca Henderson) of dressing up like Mr. and Mrs. Pacman, so she worked hard on making the costumes for the last month or so and we went as the “Pacman’s”. We ended up winning best costume prize with a 100 baht gift certificate to Swensons (ice cream)!! What a great time! We were in charge of the free popcorn stand for a while and then proceeded to play games and chow down!

Mr. & Mrs. Pacman,                Mickey Mouse PJ family,           Matt Firpo taking Katie to “jail”

Harry Potter - PYute,                  Is that Neo from the Matrix?             Winners of best costumes!

John’s game Ladder (hillbilly) golf - he made it all himself - it was a hit!      Entrance to Fall Festival

So we’ve been having a lot of fun and expect the holiday season to be a blast!

Miss you all,

Katie and Bobby