This became the big question of the weekend! We had just returned from Mae Sot where I told you we purchased a truck load and a half of second hand wood. We were elated at the thought of begining work on our house and replacing the bamboo. We had to go through 3 check points on our trip back. We planned to take it to LKY and store it there, taking one safe truck load at a time up that dangerous and difficult road. Even now as we drove, our heavy load caused the headlights to zoom strangely up to the sky instead of the road because the load was so heavy. The front wheels seemed not even heavily attached to the road! Jason was behind us with a half load of wood. There was no problem with the first 2 check points, which seemed to us to be the most threatening ones, so we came up to the third and last with great confidence. Alas! There was a problem! We showed them our receipt, but we were not allowed any further. I was very proud of Bradley who used every word of Thai that he knew to try to explain to the soldiers that we only wanted to take the wood to Mae Salit and then procede to BYT later with smaller loads. Well that went over like a lead balloon, maybe there were misunderstandings as there always are between our different languages and cultures, but they would let us no further. Wood is very hard to aquire here, there are many rules and regulations about it which even the higher officials seem to differ on. Many people make and sell new beautiful wood but it is expensive and illegal. We waited as they brought a higher official in. It seemed like a long time, but when he and others finally arrived all were intoxicated and a descision was not made. They left and we were told that the next higher up official would come. Almost 2 hours later he came – no- we could take the wood no further. It must be off loaded from Jason’s truck, and our truck with the wood must stay until we got more papers on Monday.
Well Sabbath came and we were in Sabbath School. I was teaching the kindergarten class and enjoying it emmensely, when through the bamboo walls I saw some of the same soldiers and officials that dealt with us at the check point! They were needing to speak to me, but I needed to finish teaching the lesson as it was so important to put God first. Then with an interpreter, Bradley and I spoke to them. They told us we must go to some government building in Mae Sot and get a paper signed giving us permission to buy the wood. They tried to explain where it was, but finally told us to come to the check point Monday morning and they would accompany us there.
We had a little apprehension that Sabbath day, especially Bradley who desperately squelched the idea that he, the driver could land up in jail, with the wood and truck taken away from us forever! Monday morning finally came and Micah drove us to the checkpoint on his motorbike. He went on to Meta to get his brakes worked on. At the checkpoint they told us we just missed the official who would take us. We waited once again until finally they told us we might as well go on our own. Happily we jumped on the next songtow which took us to Meta. We than found Micah who let us take his motorbike to Mae Sot. It was a good thing we did, because no songtow could have taken us to all the places we had to go! To make a long story short we met a soldier who spoke a little English and liked the work we were doing in Thailand. He said he had worked with the top official for 4 years and not to worry he would take us to him. I drove with him in his car and Bradley followed on the bike. They took pictures of us and filled out 2 forms with information on what wood we had and where we were taking it. He sent us back to the check point with his hands full of papers, but none for us! He was to contact that check point by phone. Still a bit confused how all this would end up, we took off on our 1 1/2 hour drive to the check point. Sure enough there was still confusion there. They did not want us to take the wood past that point to Mae Salit, so we were forced to take it to BYT that night. It was more than one truck load and darkness would come soon. It is not good to travel those roads to BYT in the dark, but what else could we do? We called Micah who brought Jason and helped us load the wood back on his truck and off we went in the direction of BYT. We stopped at a place where we could reorganize the wood in the 2 trucks, as it was we would never make it up the steep places. Though we loaded with great care and tied it down with as much rope as we possesed we still had to stop and reload first one truck and then the other 5 times on that late night treck to BYT. Finally reaching our house exhausted, we collapsed and slept – it was 2 a.m.! Jason stayed the next day and helped us get started on our project. He had brought a skill saw and we had some nails and a generator!
We were told that we could not get wood in Mae Sot again. Only one time is permitted, any more than that you need a construction license and something else. As I look closely at the wood I see that in American standards this wood is rubbish! It is split, full of rusted nails, all different colors sizes and shapes. Some pieces are burned, others rotted. It was also too expensive. But at this point in time it looks like gold to us, and proudly the boys worked figuring out the best peices to put together on the floor. Though the floor has holes, is uneven and you can see some spacious gaps in it, to us it is beautiful and so much better than the bamboo which still is causing allergies. I know God will provide wood enough to finish our house. He has provided for our needs in every other way so we have no reason to doubt.
Look for pictures later. My next story tells howcome we got to a computer shop unexpectedly to write this story today, and why we have no SD card to put in the pictures!