Back in July, I won a prize from The Charis Project’s contest raising funds to help buy a truck to transport kids to school in Thailand. Through the amazing support of the blogosphere and twitterland, they raised enough money (and more!) to buy the truck. I was excited to pick from a selection of prizes like tribal weapons, jewelry, pottery, or wall hangings (naturally, I put the weapons as my highest priority). But not half as excited as my kids when I came home to a surprise box filled with an “ordinary knife,” that more closely resembles a machete, and a woven fish trap, both hand picked in Thailand and sent halfway around the world to my house.
Of course, everyone had to hold the machete. Then everyone had to have their picture taken with the machete.
The knife is “just a regular sort of knife for them that they use for everything from cleaning brusk to preparing food.” While I had needed some new cooking utensils for a while and had been using a site like Buyers Impact to read product reviews, this giant knife was definitely not on my list! I have no idea what brusk is, but my kids were certainly looking for something they could chop with it! (Carrien cleared up below that brusk is actually brush, but I left it because it was part of the experience! LOL)
Carrien’s note said “The woven basket is a fish trap from a Karen village. It’s made out of bamboo. This one was no longer useful to the person who made it, so they let Aaron bring it back (to the U.S.).”
We had a hard time figuring out what was non-functional about the trap. But it was mighty cool.
Both our prizes will have treasured places on our bookshelf and in our hearts.
Thank you, Carrien Blue and The Charis Project, for our delightful prizes, and all the wonderful work you do to support children in Thailand!
I wish the pick showed the whole little boy's face! With just that snippet he looks wide-eyed and somewhat terrified! Funny!
~JD
That is a mighty cool knife. The basket reminds me of Graceling.
What a great thing to be a part of! Love the photos!
@Justine I have a personal "no kid's pics on the internet" rule, so even half-a-face was stretching it for me! But wide-eyed and terrified was pretty accurate! 🙂
@Adam I was so excited! Thanks again for letting me know about Charis Project!
@Kristi Still kinda blows my mind that these were hand-picked and sent across the world. Awesome.
Perhaps they meant "clearing brush" rather than "cleaning brusk"?
And you totally confirmed your coolness by asking for an edged weapon.
@Bryan You could be right – the "cleaning" could easily be "clearing" instead, and maybe the "k" was just a hand-written-typo. 🙂
Machetes are always cool. I can still picture my grandfather using one to trim weeds. We gave him wide berth!
oops. That should have said "clearing brush". Blame my bad hand writing.
So glad you like them. 🙂
@Carrien Yay, mystery solved! Machetes. Clearing Brush. Um, probably should have figured that one out for myself. LOL.
Thanks again!
Wow – VERY cool stuff. My son would go ape over that knife! Ha ha ha. 🙂