A Very Busy Week - Hanna Reisdorff

January 10, 2013

This was an eventful week at Legacy. We have a Burmese family attending classes here (4 girls and 2 boys). I have one of the boys in my second year English class, but all of his siblings are first year students. Meet our Burmese/Karen Family:

Beginning from the back, left to right: Htoo Mya Shwe (2nd year), great Aunty, Nomya (mother), cousin, great aunt, Hser Nay Htoo (1st year). Second Row: Neh Blu Htoo (1st year), Hser Nay Say (1st year), Hser Nay Paw (1st year), Jo Htoo (father). Front row: Akene Htoo (little brother), Stle Lin Shwe (1st year student and the oldest child).

Nomya’s sister lives nearby in Chiang Mai city. This past weekend Nomya’s sister (the students’ aunt) got married and all of Legacy was invited to the wedding.

We (15 of us all together) piled into a local sung tao and headed into Chiang Mai. It was a traditional Karen wedding – so we were asked to wear our traditional Karen clothing! Abby and I had a ton of fun dressing up.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful – they had several groups that sang songs dedicated to the couple… including us!! The ‘Legacy Choir’ sang two songs dedicated to the couple. We sang ‘When You Say Nothing At All’ and a Burmese love song.

Practicing before the ceremony.

Practicing before the ceremony

The (many) flower girls.

The whole procession wore white

The bride and her father, followed by all of their relatives.

The bride and groom!

The bride and her little niece (Neh Blu Htoo).

After the ceremony, we also enjoyed fantastic Karen cooking!!

Many of the students after the wedding.

When in Rome, do as the Romans. When at a Karen wedding...eat with your fingers!

It was a fun and relaxing day – which was just what we all needed at the time. The night leading up to the wedding was stressful.

It was simultaneously the best and worst night since I’ve arrived in Thailand.

THE WORST:

Stle Lin Shwe and his brother, Htoo Mya Shwe had gone to Chiang Mai to help their family set up for the wedding. They were coming back on two motorbikes around 8:30pm when Stle Lin Shwe’s bike was hit by a car. The driver with Stle Lin Shwe riding on the back was taking a right turn. In Thailand, that means you have to cross traffic (they drive on the left side of the road). The driver hit their back tire and the bike catapulted into the air, throwing the driver and Stle Lin Shwe off. Stle Lin Shwe landed with his head down, his neck taking all the impact of the fall.

Stle Lin Shwe and his sisters Neh Blu Htoo and Hser Nay Say on a motorbike (before the accident). The girls were not riding when the accident happened.

THE BEST:

God used this as an opportunity to show the students (and me) that He is a powerful God who is full of mercy.

When Stle Lin Shwe arrived at the school he seemed ok. He was limping a bit and as I bent down to check out his limp I realized that he didn’t have any shoes. Where were they? He began to tell the story of the motorbike accident. He had been wearing thick rubber sandals – they usually last for 3-4 years of every day use. This is a similar style:

Thick rubber sandals, the same type that Stle Lin Shwe was wearing in the accident

His shoes had been left at the scene of the accident because they had been sliced in half lengthwise. They had been sliced through the top and bottom of the shoe – it was completely separated in half! I looked down at Stle Lin Shwe’s foot. There was not even a scratch on it.

His jeans were a similar story. One leg of his jeans was completely missing. It had been torn to shreds in the accident. Again, his leg was bruised but there was no permanent damage done. No major cuts or gashes, no breaks or fractures.

Stle Line Shwe's bruised leg after the accident

The jeans that Stle Lin Shwe was wearing on the motorbike. The missing leg was ripped up and shredded in the accident.

Then the two brothers began to describe the accident in more detail. They had, thankfully been wearing helmets. That is, in itself a miracle. The culture here is definitely not to be worried about motorbike safety. Mothers with children, babies even, ride motorbikes with no extra protection. That morning, another student (Seng Aung) had had a really ‘bad’ feeling about their trip. Seng Aung actually kept the brothers from leaving campus until they agreed to put on a helmet. Otherwise, they would have been completely unprotected.

Stle Lin Shwe, riding with another relative, had been hit while making a right turn (crossing traffic) at a fairly busy intersection. The motorbike flew into the air and all three; the motorbike, the driver and Stle Lin Shwe, landed ACROSS two lanes of traffic on the dirt shoulder opposite of where the accident occurred. They were out of the way of traffic and nobody else was hurt. Htoo Mya Shwe told me that he’d never in his life seen a motorbike fly that way, or travel so far.

Stle Lin Shwe, who landed on his head told me, “Very funny Ajan. I landed and the ground – not hard. Soft. Soft ground. Very funny”.

Now, roughly a week later Stle Lin Shwe is doing well. There is a lot of muscle soreness and he will be visiting a chiropractor to ensure that there is no permanent damage. Currently several people have examined him and confirmed that there were really no serious injuries from the accident.

His whole story shows over and over again that our God is so merciful and is protecting us even before we know we need help.

After this experience, the students have had great attitudes. There is a spirit of unity, gratitude and fun on campus. I think we have all learned more fully how God can turn even the most awful experiences into an opportunity to glorify Him.