Yesterday after the boys had worked an hour or so on their homework, they asked if they could invite a new friend from school over to swim. Willy rides the bus to school with them from the city of Pattaya and has been friendly to them. Willy and his 9 year old neighbor came over to visit after catching a ride to our hotel on a motorbike with a friend. What a nice young man, who has grown up in this city his entire 15 years of life. His mother is Thai and his father is from Oklahoma, but hasn't returned there in over 30 years. Willy has never been to the states and lives with his father as his parents are divorced. He speaks fluent Thai and English, how great it was to have him around to translate and explain some things to us. Nathan had asked why the bus driver is always tooting his horn, Willy explained that it is thought to be good luck if while you are passing a spirit house you honk your horn three times, there are a lot of spirit houses between the hotel and the school. Our realtor had explained the presence of so many spirit houses outside businesses, if someone who is associated with the business dies it is believed to be bad luck if you don't construct a spirit house on the premises and then sacrifices of fruit and flower decorations are left in the spirit house to appease their idol. Flower decorations are sold on every corner for sacrifices.We have so much to learn.
We enjoyed our time with Willy and appreciate his friendliness. He said that he transferred to the ISE school after 3 years at a Thai public school and remembers how hard it is to be new. He has much to learn from us as well. Nathan had commented that on the bus they were talking about a kid at school and Nathan said, "Yea, but he cusses a lot." Willy responded, "Is swearing bad?" to which Nathan explained that we don't use that kind of language in our family and don't say God's name in vain.
We took all the boys out for dinner to Willy's favorite place which wasn't too far from our hotel. We had our first 'American' meal since being in Thailand and it was really good. We enjoyed some nachos, hot dogs, BBQ and some live music. Music from the 80's seems to be all the rage here, isn't it strange how you just don't forget the words to that music you grew up with? It's amazing how a Thai person who knows very little English can sing in English? At one point last night we were trying to figure out what language they were singing in and it was Spanish!
Before we started eating we told Willy and Johnny that we like to pray before our meals and Willy said, "How do you do that?" Mark explained that we just like to pause and thank God for the food that He has provided for us and for new friends. We all held hands and Mark prayed. "Wow! that was weird!" replied Willy. He didn't seem to be too traumatized the rest of the evening and hopefully he will still be friendly towards the boys next week. It is going to be lonely here I'm afraid. Mark and I were talking about that last night and he reminded me that David grew to love the Lord more when he was alone with the sheep as a boy and Mark feels like he grew more spiritually when he was all alone in Forsan, TX in that little camper trailer one summer working for Mobil than any other time of his life. He's assuring me that feeling lonely isn't always a bad thing and hopefully it causes us to cling more to God.
1 comment:
I cannot say w/o tears how much this post was just what I needed. I read your newer posts first, and felt so envious of God putting friends in your path so soon, when He has not done that for us yet in 11 months. And then I read this, about David growing closer to God while alone with the sheep, and I realized that Mark is right -- loneliness isn't always a bad thing. Thanks for posting this truth; I so needed it today.
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