Recently, I spent some time in a few of the Akha villages and was privileged to take part in their daily happenings. As you might assume, life is pretty simplistic yet raw. Their mode is survival and unfortunately, this brings out the harsh temperaments of the Akha, to the point where they don't even have the phrases "I love you," I'm sorry," "Hello, how are you?" in their original language. When the first missionaries came to the Akha, they incorporated those phrases borrowing from the surrounding languages.
Their days are spent in the fields (rice, coffee, or tea) working early morning to evening. They are very hard working people, in fact, when women have babies, they are given but a few days rest and it's back out to the fields with their babies tied to their backs. Because the Akha are the lowest of the low in Thailand, they do not have the best of opportunities to enhance their situation so they heavily depend on this lifestyle. Many of the older generation cannot read or write which poses a problem when it comes to disciple those who have chosen to follow Christ. Even then, those who have claimed to be a follower leave it at that, a declaration of no further value. It is difficult for those who have become believers because they are first generation Christians and they come with a lot of baggage; spiritual strongholds that need breaking, emotional strongholds, etc.. In addition to the negative pressure of their fellow village members. Not too long ago, one Sunday I went up to the villages and saw about four families turn their lives over to Christ. Although, the entire family converts when the husband, the head of the family, decides to, so I am not sure how much in agreement the family members were in each of the families. When they make this decision, we go into their house, pray and worship with them, then take down their household gods and cut their spirit bracelets which they have always worn. It is truly a powerful moment.
There are a lot of superstitions and fears that flow within the community, such as distrust of doctors. So they have their own and I was able to witness some of their 'practices'. I was sitting chatting with a staff member here at AOF in her house with her mom, who happened to be one of the doctors. A boy walks in explaining how his ankle was injured during his playing football (soccer). (I didn't even see a scratch) but, the lady took out a stick with a piece of broken glass on one end and started tapping the sore ankle until blood came up. She then flipped the stick to the flat end and patted the area, in the meantime, she was melting lead to which she put on his ankle and let dry. Then, a girl walks in and says her neck hurts, so the lady takes a tennis ball with which a side is cut off and before she suctions it on to the area, she does the same step she did on the boys ankle with the glass stick (she just rinsed the blood of the glass). After about ten minutes she takes the tennis ball off and shows me the amount of blood in it. I do not understand how this seems to work but I do believe it is more of a mind issue.
There is so much more I wish to write, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will gladly respond.
I have included a video of some of the Akha students here on campus singing.
Their days are spent in the fields (rice, coffee, or tea) working early morning to evening. They are very hard working people, in fact, when women have babies, they are given but a few days rest and it's back out to the fields with their babies tied to their backs. Because the Akha are the lowest of the low in Thailand, they do not have the best of opportunities to enhance their situation so they heavily depend on this lifestyle. Many of the older generation cannot read or write which poses a problem when it comes to disciple those who have chosen to follow Christ. Even then, those who have claimed to be a follower leave it at that, a declaration of no further value. It is difficult for those who have become believers because they are first generation Christians and they come with a lot of baggage; spiritual strongholds that need breaking, emotional strongholds, etc.. In addition to the negative pressure of their fellow village members. Not too long ago, one Sunday I went up to the villages and saw about four families turn their lives over to Christ. Although, the entire family converts when the husband, the head of the family, decides to, so I am not sure how much in agreement the family members were in each of the families. When they make this decision, we go into their house, pray and worship with them, then take down their household gods and cut their spirit bracelets which they have always worn. It is truly a powerful moment.
There are a lot of superstitions and fears that flow within the community, such as distrust of doctors. So they have their own and I was able to witness some of their 'practices'. I was sitting chatting with a staff member here at AOF in her house with her mom, who happened to be one of the doctors. A boy walks in explaining how his ankle was injured during his playing football (soccer). (I didn't even see a scratch) but, the lady took out a stick with a piece of broken glass on one end and started tapping the sore ankle until blood came up. She then flipped the stick to the flat end and patted the area, in the meantime, she was melting lead to which she put on his ankle and let dry. Then, a girl walks in and says her neck hurts, so the lady takes a tennis ball with which a side is cut off and before she suctions it on to the area, she does the same step she did on the boys ankle with the glass stick (she just rinsed the blood of the glass). After about ten minutes she takes the tennis ball off and shows me the amount of blood in it. I do not understand how this seems to work but I do believe it is more of a mind issue.
There is so much more I wish to write, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will gladly respond.
I have included a video of some of the Akha students here on campus singing.
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