first baking experience, mildly poisonous jellyfish, a demonic festival, and beach volleyball

It was quite a weekend, although most of the excitement happened yesterday. On Friday night I went to the church's community group, where we ate a nice dinner and had a good time of sharing. We went around the circle, and each person shared something the Lord had encouraged them with. There were lots of foreigners there b/c of the visiting missionaries (Steve and Melvin, as well as a few others from the Philippines). We sang a very simple Thai worship song that was fun; the foreigners had to stand up during the "hallelujah" part, and the Thais had to stand up during the "praise the Lord"- in Thai- part. On Saturday night, Paul, Steve and I went to Gaan and Geng's for dinner again; this time we brought the seafood and meat to barbecue. Oh, and I baked for the first time in Thailand! I made banana bread, which turned out delicious, but unfortunately nobody in the house can figure out how to work the oven (or it's not working), so I had to borrow the neighbor's oven. Anyhow, Gaan and Geng enjoyed the banana bread, but I'm still determined to cook dinner for them; Gaan is a little wary of Western food, haha! But I'll change her mind.

This weekend and throughout this week, there's a festival going on in Phuket and in this area called the Vegetarian Festival. It is a gruesome and demonic thing. People abstain from meat and other things (caffeine, alcohol, etc.) and then some people mutilate themselves by sticking sharp objects through their cheeks and try to become possessed by "gods" (the devil). So we've seen people in the back of pick-up trucks driving around, shaking and in trances with sharp objects sticking out of their faces. They drive around in a procession and beat drums and shoot off fireworks. It is really dark.

On Sunday after church, Paul, Steve, Chayot and I took off on the scooters to hit the beach. But it poured on us all the way there; the rain was pelting us like nails and it was really cold! So once we got there, we ran into the water, which was warmer than the rainwater. But almost immediately, Chayot got stung by a jellyfish! (and then Steve, then Paul... but somehow I escaped them!) Apparently, they only have the kind that are mildly poisonous, and Paul said the rain must have brought them closer to the shore. Well, we ran back out of that water in a matter of seconds! It was kind of a funny situation, but I felt bad for the guys. I guess stings from these jellyfish aren't too much worse than a bee sting. By then, the rain had let up, and we just hit the volleyball around on shore for a while.

In the evening, we drove out to one of the small churches for a BBQ, different style than any I've done before! The church is pretty primitive- concrete floors, no sink, and just a squatty potty. But there was electricity. Rach won't like this at all, but the guys killed a live chicken and barbecued it, and we had barbecued squid and fish as well. We sat on the floor around the little grills and dipped stuff in really spicy lime sauce. It tasted really good. I didn't use much spicy sauce, but I had to use some, b/c it was the only seasoning. We had a great time and just sat around the fire talking for a long time.