Thailand Part II.

Find Part I, Part III and Part IV here.

It's about time that I continue on this mission trip that happened many many days ago.

Part I: Travelling is here, so do read that first. Actually if you don't also it's fine lah, but you won't know the full thing then. :)

We spent our first day in Thailand with the Vineyard Outreach kids. Basically, what they did is just grab either Nic, Koay and Andrew and climb on them till they lie flat on the floor and then sit/stand/lie on them. 

Thank God I'm a girl. So no grabbing or climbing for me and Van. I was feeling pretty worn out with all the travelling so I went upstairs and took a short sweet nap. It was a hot day and we only have one standing fan but it didn't matter. 

I managed to snap some shots before collapsing on the bed.

Al of us hiding in the boys room later in the evening because the kids wouldn't stop. They are like high on sugar all the time! Haha. Prolly cos they really missed us. 

Gotta love them. I don't really remember what we did that day. I think we went to Tesco that night after dinner and then snoozed away quite early. 

Our first stop in the morning! Great hot sandwiches and super cheap Latte/Mocha.. Best 7-11 everrrr.

As you can see, they really love climbing/pulling/grabbing you. They looked so small but oh so full with endless energy. Must be the type of rice they eat. Hmm.

Anyways, we said goodbye and off we went to Santisuk, where we spent the next 5 days there. Last year, we went to Santisuk for a full day. We didn't spend our night there but this time most of our ministry was going to be based there. 

We were told to get things that we need/want because up there no 7-11! Hahaha. So, when we found out that there were two small shops that sells drinks/chips/toiletries/TOILET ROLLS nearby, it was such huge relief! TOILET ROLLS ARE VERY IMPORTANT! 

Anyways, here comes a lot of photos. All not edited because I'm way too lazy and even if I edit, all I do is just click the 'Auto Adjust' button. Hah.

Our home for the next one week. Two rooms that has one row of beds like that. There were no fans in the rooms so we moved the mattresses out and slept in the common area, which is also where the children have their activities. Of course they didn't use it since we were staying there. 

The day we arrived was the day we started painting. No time to rest guys. They were quite scared that we were not able to finish by Friday. 

This is day one's work and we were already pretty much covered in brown. Needless to say, after 4 days of painting, we had to throw these shirts and shorts away. Mine not so bad because since I've gained weight, the shorts that I was wearing couldn't really fit me anymore. It was just in Thailand that it fits perfectly since I lost so much kgs lau sai all out.

The sad part is VANESSA KHOO DECIDED TO WEAR MY floorball t-shirt with my name printed on it and it can no longer be saved. That's the sad part! 

Preparing for his sharing that night. The villagers have daily cell groups in different homes every night. 

To go to cell group, Pastor Panupan usually rides his bike but since there were so many of us so we walked UP the hill. UP! In the dark. Dark as in realllly dark. Thank God for smartphones.

One of the leaders' home. The first group that we went were called 6, based on their location. 6 is the highest hill where homes are built or something like that. So, first night we went to 6 and other nights were a lot easier. 

One of the small shop within walking distance. Actually, everything also have to be walking distance since they walk everywhere. Not everyone can afford a bike. Most of them doesn't own any bike, or flashlight.

Our bedroom! I think Nic was already flat on his bed, next to Andrew.

 Okay, let's take a break! Advertisement time! 

I LOVE THESE UNIHOC tops! THANK YOU GARY! :)

Our farewell meal with all the leaders of the church. This is the Chairman of the Church praying before we start feasting! 

The meals that they prepared for the farewell is equivalent to what they will eat during wedding dinners. 

One of the nights we got back quite early so we lazed around, talked and watched The Voice. No, we didn't sleep all together. We separated our beds with the boys. Pastor Cowan slept in the room with his own personal fan because he snores too loud. HAHA.

Okay, we gonna have to continue Part III next time. My brain is tired already. 

Struggle.

Can't eat. Can't sleep. Can't watch TV. Can't do anything, but can blog. 

Blogging really relaxes me somehow. 

My parents are now on their way to GMC with Vanessa for second opinion. 

Thanks Abigail and your dad for the doctor's contact that links us to bringing her to GMC. 

The bacteria continues to thin her cornea. This is not good because she could lose her vision. She could be blind on the right eye. 

Wow. Typing the word blind pierced through my heart like what only. 

My hope is in the Lord and always will be. As heartbroken as we are, we continue praying for miracles and full recovery. 

Jesus, take over. 

A Night In The Hospital.

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, you would already know that we (my eldest sister and I) spent a night with the lil sister in the hospital last night.

Rachel went in first at about 9pm and I was still at home. I reached the hospital at about 10pm and once I passed the security guard at ground floor, I thought it wasn't safe yet, since I still have to pass the nurse station. 

The whole 'eye ward' is pretty empty so the nurse knows who you are there for. I just walked normally, passed the station and said a very friendly hi. 

After spending some time in the room, we figured that the nurses knew there were 2 people in there but they were so kind to not say anything.

Kind but lazy! I'm sorry but according to the doctor, Vanessa's treatment was to go through INTENSIVE EYE DROPS HOURLY in order to 'kill' the bacteria that's attacking her cornea. When Rachel went out to ask if they coming in soon to put the eye drops, they simply answered, "Malam tak letak pun tak apa!"

SERIOUSLY!? I got angry upon hearing that but I couldn't do anything. If I confront them, they might be rough to her next time or they might just shoo me away and I've got no car to go home.

So, I woke up every 30 minutes (at first) to clean her right eye and put those eye drops. Then, every 1 hour because I was physically so tired. Then, every two hours. I'm not trained for this guys! Anyways, I tried my best in waking up as often as I can to clean her eyes and put those antibiotics. 

My dad came at 8am and I told him about it. What if Rachel was the only one that accompanied her? She didn't have the courage to do it then how? So, my dad informed the doctor in a nice way because this is an eye we're talking about. 

I like the nurses there. They are friendly and stuff, but it's just disappointing that they said that. Imagine for other patients, they could have recover faster but because the nurses feel that at night no need to do treatment also nevermind, then they just spend more days in hospital.

Of course it's not easy to be a nurse but it's really important that they do what the doctor say. Very important.

I'm sorry if this turns out to be an angry post but this is my sister's life we're talking about. Her vision. It's important.

Okaylah, not going to end it like that. More happy news now.

According to the doctor, her condition has improved quite a lot. The pus between her cornea has reduced. The bacteria has been identified. They are still working on the one spot that continues to thin her cornea. This is very dangerous because if her cornea is scarred, her vision is affected. 

Other than that, her emotions are getting better. Thank you guys for visiting her and making her laugh. Laughing definitely speeds up her recovery. 

Earlier, she didn't know about her condition. She asked my dad and he explained everything to her with my mom there. Both of them cried of course because it is a tough thing to absorb. We continue to pray as a family and believing for complete healing. 

There is no way we can thank you all enough for spending hours at the hospital just making her feel better. It meant so much to us. Also, to take turns taking care of her so that we could rest at home. 

THANK YOU, YOU GUYS ROCK! :)

Thankful.

It's amazing to see people offering to help us during this time.

Friends whom I haven't spoken to for years, some even more than a decade, texting me and wishing Vanessa of speedy recovery and for complete healing. 

Some even offered help in different ways. 

I am grateful. We are all very grateful. My family is blessed because of people like you guys.

We continue to pray and believe for a miraculous healing on her right eye's cornea. 

Nothing is too difficult for Jesus. 

He allows this to happen, for sure He is guiding and guarding us through it.

Thank You Jesus. 

Corneal Ulcer.

Friday night, she came home with a red eye and rested early. She woke up the next day to only have the condition of her eye worsen. So, she rested the whole day and on Sunday noon when we checked on her again, we noticed a white patch right in front of her eyeball and couldn't get it out. 

That was when we rushed her to Emergency at GH. 

Considering that there were quite many people at the Emergency Section, I would say we got to the doctor quite fast. 

After all the checking and taking samples from her eye WITH A NEEDLE, we finally were able to check in. 

Corneal ulcer is an open sore on the cornea. If not treated immediately, it could cause possible loss of eyesight.

It is a seriously very dangerous thing.

How she got it still remains unanswered.

Doctor/we suspected it could be partly from the contact lens. Apparently, people who have got this ulcer are all contact lens users. So yeah..

Do keep her in prayers. 

Oh Well.

I wanted to update Part II of Thailand but seems like time sort of flew away.

Oh well.

One thing I need to do by this week is.. REMOVE ALL THE PLASTIC COVERS IN HIS CAR!

10D9N Thailand Part I: Travelling.

All the other parts are updated too! Part II, Part III and Part IV.

Date: 11-20 May 2014
With: Pastor Cowan, Nikki, Andrew, Vanessa and lover.

The day finally came. We celebrated Mother's Day in church and then lunched with a few buddies. It was an exciting day because the day finally came for us to go to our mission field. You can really tell that we're pumped up by the way we talked perhaps. Talking and smiling and taking photo with the uncle who refused to smile with us.

I love travelling, more so when it's with people that I know and people I'm comfortable with. But the first day of all the travelling was so tiring I can't even. We already expected it so it wasn't as bad as it looks. I remembered feeling so thankful when we were at Vineyard Outreach. Even more thankful when I lied down on their bed. I think I took a short nap while some of the team went down and wrestled with the kids. Haha. Really tak boleh tahan. I love travelling but I have motion sickness. So annoyingly sad.

Anyways, despite the tiredness, we all have so much fun together. We somehow are able to find the strength to laugh at each other. There are times we felt like zombies but when someone teases someone or someone did something really clumsy and silly, our laughters are often the loudest. I kid you not! Especially that moment when we were all supposed to sleep to gain our energy for an early flight to Chiang Mai and we spent a good 30 minutes laughing our heads off at Nic using Macbook's photobooth. We laughed the loudest and hardest there. People around us were probably very annoyed because they were all sleeping. One of them is Koay. He fell asleep almost immediately when we found our sleeping spot. Nic has a gift, we just discovered. Later you will see some of the snapshots. It's funnier in video because of how he moves. Funniest if you can hear him. Keet Chai ah Keet Chai..

So, we traveled for four hours and arrived at KL at about evening time. Our first destination was Andrew's new place. Since we taking a flight to Chiang Mai, it's only wise to park our Toyota AVANZA (big letters because I lose the bet to Nic, being so convinced that it was an Innova!) at Andrew's place and take the KTM to KL Sentral. So, we stopped there, took a nice warm shower and toured the place a bit.

The infinity pool is the best ever! It's view is seriously crazily beautiful. So perfect. Perfect for a small birthday gathering. Actually, it's perfect for marriage proposal! Andrew, I found a spot for your proposal d! :)

The thought of going to KL Sentral via KTM was horrible because of all the boxes that we've got. So, when Andrew's sister's friend offered to send us there, such relief went through my body. Such relief. 

We got to KL Sentral and bought the tickets to KLIA 2. Taking a taxi will cost us a bomb since there's 5 of us and that means we'll have to get 2 taxis. So, via Aerobus it is. Only RM10 per pax for one way. Okay what.

While waiting for the bus, we went to have dinner. KFC again. In one month, I think I have too many times of KFC d. Jelak liau.

It took us about 1 hour to reach KLIA 2. We slept in the bus for a while. I wouldn't say that it's a comfortable bus ride because the condition inside the bus so horrible, but again it's cheap compared to other alternatives like the KLIA Express, which costs about RM35 per way. That one takes only 33 minutes to KLIA 2. 

KLIA 2 is better than what I expected. It's huge, bright, clean and fun. Fun because really can shop till you drop there. When I saw the ASK ME, I got very excited. I thought that they looked so cute walking around with that giant board. Looked cute lah but I wouldn't want to be doing what they do. Leg sure pain like no one's business. A few times our luggage dropped on the floor because we all waled in front of Andrew and stopped without warning. So many times till he almost got angry. Haha. Such an angry boy la.

We walked from floor to floor, explored the airport and finally found a level that became our bedroom. We saw quite a number of people on the floor so we thought this must be it already. Too bad no plug points there. Look below to see the snapshots that entertained us for a good half an hour. I went  to sleep right after. Nic and Vanessa read books, Andrew don't know do what with his laptop and Koay snoring away already. Pastor Cowan joined us after that. 

Our flight was at 6:55am AK854 arriving at Chiang Mai at 8:40am (Thailand's time which is 1 hour before us). We got up at 4:30-ish and washed up. Did our group check in. We were so worried that our baggage allowance of 20kg each will not be enough. Our personal things not heavy, the items were very heavy. Good thing we still had extra of 30kg I think. It was very early in the morning right so it's a good excuse to makan on board. Very expensive leh. I sholud have pre-book my meals. 20% cheaper. Anyhow, hungry already so don't care liau. Both Koay and I ordered one meal each. We tried the Chef's Recommendation :) We will be posting it up soon on WhatTwoEatHere :)

We arrived at Chiang Mai safely and proceed to the Bus Terminal for our next 3 hours of bus ride. By this time, I was already so exhauste. We all were. So, we slept 90% of the bus ride. When we reached Chiang Rai, we were early so we had quick lunch at a random makan place. Pastor Randall came and it was another 45 minutes car ride to the place that we stayed. 

Get to bathe and lie down, best thing ever after long day of travelling.

Travelling itself already such a long post. I can not post such a lengthy post about this trip but years down the road, i want to be able to read these and smile. Then, maybe my children can read it too, read about their mommy's life. Haha. I say till like I'm going to die young like that. 

Alright. That's about it for today. 

Keep reading to find out more about this trip. It has been a fruitful one. Also, if you got extra time, feel free to click on the ads :)