In the Village

It's always a great treat to get out of town and enjoy the countryside. In Thailand that means muddy paths, pigs everywhere, squatty potties, and lots of food (fish or pork on rice. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner).

I have two dear friends who live in a rural village. They speak almost no English, and I speak even less Karen, so we settle on Thai, which is comfortable for them (being the language of public schools and official work) but is still quite laborious for me. Nonetheless, it is delightful and relaxing to spend a few days in a quieter life.

Chen, the husband, told me this trip that he is worried that the village isn't as comfortable as the USA or as Chiang Mai, and he wants to be a good host. I assured him that, although the village doesn't have internet, cell phone access, or cable TV, I find those things a distraction from the meaningful relationships that we have time to cultivate when we are away from those 'luxuries.' I would much prefer to spend my evening sitting around the cooking fire with my friends and all their neighbors and relatives who've come by to visit. And the lack of indoor pluming or hot water? The thick layer of mud on shoes and pant cuffs? Well, you just have to get used to that.

This is an old style Thai house. The family lives in a newer house next door, but all the cooking and hanging out happens in this house.

Pi Pi (Grandma) and my friend's daughter.

Cooking house/living room. Would you like some lung cancer with your fish and rice?

Chen in the family cabbage garden.

Khun Tan National Forest

Khun Tan is a national park about an hour drive from Chiang Mai (3 hours by train. If you're curious). It's a beautiful, jungle paradise that, by some amazing circumstance, Payap owns property in. That's right, we have a camp with cabins, a kitchen, sort of a pool (sort of a slime bath, though) at the top of a mountain in the middle of a national forest. That means no neighbors, no foot traffic, and someone else empties the garbage cans. It's beautiful. I spent last weekend by myself at the cabins reading, philosophizing, and enjoying nature. I don't think I've ever, in my life, not seen another human being for 24 hours. It was a grand adventure.

The aforementioned train ride.

I didn't know a place could be as beautiful as Thailand before I saw Thailand. This is my view from the train.

Made it to the bottom of the mountain. Now to get to the top...

When you travel around Thailand you have to be very wary of decaged edges. The second you take those edges out of their cages they just go WILD!

It's about a 3 hour hike from the train station to the cabins.

But I arrived!

Why does one hike to the top of the mountain for a weekend alone? The view.

[Caterpillar] Puppy pile!

I wasn't the only one hiking the mountain...

I'll save the fruits of my philosophizing for later, but it involved reading some Cicero, Plato, and the Gospel of Luke, with lots of thoughts on friendship and human interactions. 

More Thai ceremonies

One of the coolest things about my job is getting to experience Thai culture. Not only do I get to live in the dorm with 530 Thai students (and no other foreigners), but I get to go to interesting ceremonies and parties all the time.

In Thailand it is very important to go to funerals. It doesn't matter if I don't know the person who died. I probably don't even know the relative of the person who died. But the relative works in the nursing faculty, so I'd better clear my schedule for the funeral. I've been to several such funerals this year, but this week was my first Buddhist funeral.

Here's how the day went down -

3:00 AM - Wake up to feed winy puppies (I'm puppy-sitting 2 week olds)
6:00 - Wake up again to feed puppies
6:20 - Finish Chapel prep
7:00 - Pick up co-worker to lead Chapel
7:30 - A little singin', maybe some dancing, the morning has been chapeled!
8:00 - Aj. Rujira, the 60 + year old dorm supervisor and former Dean of Nursing is curious about the High 5ing I had  the students doing in said Chapel, so I give her a crash course on the culture, significance, and proper technique of a High 5, including alternate versions and practical experience.
8:05 - My dorm staff clarifies that I'm going to change out of the bright teal shirt I'm wearing before the funeral. "You wear black?" We confirm our departure time.
10:00 - Meet with Aj. Rujira and other dorm peeps to drive to the village for the funeral.

  When we arrived there were monks chanting. It was outside in the family's yard with folding chairs up under tarp tents (it was also, incidentally, raining). We politely sat as I enjoyed the stares and giggles from the Thais around. Monks chant. And continue to chant. Have you ever heard a monk chant for an hour? It all starts to sound the same after the first 5 minutes. A couple of times he had a nice, deep, drawn out syllable with a rich vibrato. I thought that it was stylized chanting until my co-workers started giggling and I realized that he was clearing his throat.

  There were beautiful flowers from the community and the family played gracious hosts. I watched Aj. Rujira for cultural cues of when to wai and what to do. After the chanting a bunch of tables were brought out and we moved our chairs around them. A delicious meal was served of rice, meat, and water, and we enjoyed socializing and explaining to everyone around why a falang (foreigner) was at the funeral.

  Before we left I was given a nice party favor of a notebook and pen with a picture of the dearly deceased on the cover. I'm open to suggestions of what I might use that for. I also discovered that this wasn't the funeral. Apparently this was some kind of pre-funeral chanting ceremony and they were all leaving for the real funeral, but we had to go home to finish our work day.

  Stay tuned for next week's Thai Ceremony - Wai Crew, where the students crawl on their knees to give flowers to the Ajaans. It's like Teacher Appreciation Day mixed with a flower arranging competition and with more bowing.

In case all of that funeral talk made you sad, here's a picture of me with a puppy!

My Global Family

I think it is a common experience to find instant close friends when you work overseas. My Thai friends stand beside me with strong support as I learn about their home. Nearly all of my foreign friends are far from their families, and so we become like family to each other. Added is the galvanization of shared passions and convictions. 

In Thailand you use the words P' and Nong ('older brother/sister' and 'younger brother/sister') in many situations, from friends to coworkers to waitresses or waiters. I have many siblings.

It is also true that Chiang Mai is notorious for it's revolving door. People come and go frequently.

4 little sisters left last week. My heart is encouraged by their drawings that I've hung by my desk. I am touched to read, "I will miss you Katie." I miss you too, little one. I worry about your adjustment to America. I  am praying for you all.

A dear, dear friend is here for the weekend after moving several hours away. It felt so natural to see her walk into The Nest tonight. I almost forgot the geographic distance between us.

My first friends in Chiang Mai (Facebook friends before I even arrived) will leave next week. I will miss their wisdom. I will miss heartfelt conversations with her. I will miss laughing when he jokes, and gleaning wisdom when he is serious.

This afternoon my big sister and brother left for 2 months in America, as many friends have for this season. Maybe it won't seem long from the other end, but from here it seems an eternity without the love and support of my dear sister.

And now the one that makes me cry; I don't know how to envision life without my two little sisters. I haven't lived here without them. Will The Nest feel like home without them? Will Thailand feel like home without them? I can never treasure enough the time I have had with my sisters, the shared movies, meals, homework, school dance prep, markets, cooking, sports, and all the rest. They have grown into my heart and given me a bigger capacity to love. For the first time in my life I have had younger siblings, and what a blessing it has been. God is good to give me such amazing girls for my family. I will look at grad schools in southern California.

We talk about it all the time. It's as much a part of our lives as breathing or paying our bills at 7-11. Saying 'goodbye' is really, really hard. But, as I read in a fellow Chiang Mai-ian's blog recently, "the relationship is ALWAYS worth the goodbye."

I am blessed. My family is ever growing, and ever spreading out in the world. My family is global.

Kevin from Bangkok

There is nothing that tests one's patience and sanity like a broken computer. I generally pride myself on keeping a pretty level head in intense situations. I can keep cool through yelling in my face, intense physical pain, or emergencies, but I might fall apart if my computer freezes while I'm trying to load my e-mail.

Thailand is hard on computers. Several of my friends have had to get repairs or new computers since coming last year. Only months into my stint I'd lost my 'b' key and acquired two lines of dead pixels up my screen.

The last several months my computer has been slowing down, like a wind-up toy that you painfully watch get slower...and slower...and slower.........

And then 3 weeks ago it got worse. A blob of dead screen appeared at the bottom of my screen. Small at first, but the successive time has seen a slow, creeping progression of dead space up my screen. As of last week it completely covers the typing area for Facebook chat, making it a guessing game of what will actually show up once I hit enter. The growing blackness of my screen is fittingly analogous to the growing anxious blackness of my soul as I watch my computer, my dear and beloved companion these 4 years, slowly, painfully, and irrecoverably die.

For a while I've had my eye on the Asus eee Pad Transformer Prime. This baby packs a powerful punch of awesomeness. If Tolstoy's War and Peace were a computer (i.e. the most amazing creation of all time) it would be THIS computer. So I Craigslisted it.

And I found Kevin from Bangkok.

Kevin got into some kind of accident a month ago, and to pay his medical bills he's selling all his stuff, including his almost new eee Pad Transformer Prime. And selling it for $200 under new! I wanted it. But it had already been posted for 3 weeks.

Wednesday, June 6th:  Me - "Is your computer still available?" (summarized for brevity)

20 hours later: Kevin - "Yes it's still available."

I spend the rest of the day making arrangements for a friend to pick it up in Bangkok.

10 hours later: Me - "I'd like it! I have a friend in Bangkok right now who can come look at it."

The next night, (Friday): Kevin - "There's a guy coming to get it tomorrow."

My disappointment is deep, but with a persistence that is a genetic trait from my father, I persevere. I search, I seek, I browse Craigslist. Kevin's add is still up.

Sunday, June 10th: Me - "Hey, I noticed that your add is still up on CL. Did that guy pick it up? I'd love to send my friend over to buy it if he didn't."

Nothing from Kevin. Silence. So I enlist my friend Caitlin to e-mail Kevin an inquiry. She uses a childhood e-mail address and a fake name. Nothing. Silence. Add is still up on Craigslist.

Thursday night, June 14th: Kevin - "That guy never showed! You still want it?"

Kevin sends a similar e-mail to Caitlin, who politely declines, leaving the door wide open for me!

Friday morning: Me - "YES! Please get me your contact info so my friend can come get it. He's there until Monday, or I can hop on a bus tonight!"

Nothing from Kevin. Silence.

Friday night: Me - "Hey Kevin, can I get your phone number so we can arrange a pickup?"

Silence.

By now I'm annoyed. I've spent two weekends wondering each day if I need to get on an all night bus so I can snag this awesome deal in Bangkok.

Saturday night: Me - "Hey dude, please tell me what is going on. I'm trying to make arrangements to pick up the computer, but I haven't heard from you. My friend is headed back to Chiang Mai on Monday, can he come pick it up? If you've sold it that's fine, just PLEASE tell me either way."

Sunday night (that's 3 days after he offered it to me): Kevin - "Hey dudette, sorry you know I have a life I am not online 24hours a day! That guy said he'd come back to get it. His phone and e-mail aren't working. If he doesn't show in a couple of days whoever comes to my office first gets it."

Me: - "If you want cash in hand by tomorrow morning, let me know, I'll have it to you."

I haven't heard from him.

Whatever Kevin, I don't want your computer anyway. You probably left crumbs in the keyboard.

One More Birthday Memory

I have many birthday memories with Melissa from our childhood, both her birthdays and mine. When I was not older than 6 I tried to cancel my party when I found out that Melissa couldn't come, but mom wouldn't let me and Melissa sent some horse figurines that were favorite childhood toys from then forward.

For my 9th birthday Melissa, Joy, my mom and theirs packed us up with the horses to go riding at my family's property on Eagle Island. After enjoying ridding for a while our moms went to visit a neighbor while we played in the field.

We found a creek running around the property, and discovered that there was a cement gate we could block with old boards, and sat happily watching the water spill over our homemade dame or playing in the pool created upstream.

The next day, in the middle of my homework, my mom called me over. Apparently she got a phone call from some neighbors downstream who were not getting any water from the irrigation canal. Little did I know that ancestral wars were fought over water rights for farming! *

This birthday, this 26th birthday, Melissa and I had no such youthful  and innocent shenanigans up our sleeves. After a week long mini-tour of Thailand (Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Ko Tao) we spent my birthday in the ancient capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. The capital was moved further south after the Burmen sacked Ayutthaya about 350 years ago (if my memory serves).

My favorite was this iconic Thai site, this limestone Buddha head that is now part of nature. 

The novelty of elephants hasn't worn off for Melissa, although we were both charmed by their clever antics.

No words can express how wonderful it is to spend time with a friend who I have known literally as long as I can remember. In a place where everything is new, where I am new to everyone, a strong, happy and loving connection to my deepest roots is a great blessing. Thanks, Melissa, for sharing a little of my life in Thailand and adding such wonderful memories to those we already have.

* This story is subject to  my  9 year old memory. Any corrections or modifications by parents involved would be taken into advisement.

Singapore

The end of the school year here was quite busy, with little time for adventures or the ensuing blogs. But now it is summer (you heard me right, it's summer here) and there's a little more free time to share my escapades.

Two weeks ago my friends and I visited our friend Aimee while she was visiting home in Singapore. It was wonderful to see a new city, country, and culture, as well as spend time with a wonderful family.

Things you can learn about Singapore

Even the 7-11s look really classy!

Food is important. Taking pictures of your food is equally important. I spared you the rest, but this is one of the many Indian dishes that we ate.

Two things you can learn here: they take law enforcement very seriously. This is a no trespassing sign. Also all signs in Singapore are in 4 languages: English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. 

(English because Singapore was a British colony, and the three major people groups are Chinese, Indian and Malaysian.)

The wildlife in Singapore is amazing!

(You wouldn't think it in a country that is literally a city)

You might not be able to tell, but this ant is about the size of a dog. No joke. German Shepherd size. And we didn't get a video, but right after this he looked up and said in perfect English (with a Singapore accent) "we're genetically refining our race to be human sized and take over the world. We're going to live off of human brains!" 

This monitor lizard was a few feet long. He's a relative of the Komodo Dragon, and they can grow up to 2 meters long. We saw 3 or 4 of these big guys.

We took a wonderful hike, complete with canopy walk, on which we saw lizards, skinks, car-sized ants, a giant centipede, turtles, and about 10 monkeys!

Friends

Aimee's back yard.

Legend says that vomit from the magical Merlion will make you a clean, non-gum chewing, non-spitting citizen who loves to eat and shop. It seems to be working for Singapore and it's visitors!

Singapore has the world's only nighttime horse race. We had to check it out (although we had to leave for the airport before night). This is us pretending to care about the results.