Ethan was the score keeper for the girl's basketball game.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
After School Activities
After school activities are in full swing for the boys. Dustin stays for High School soccer on Mondays, Jr. High basketball on Fridays with Nathan and Jr. High soccer on Thursday. Ethan plays soccer on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nathan plays basketball on Mondays and Fridays. There is transportation for after school activities that are from 3:00-4:30. If there are games on any particular day they begin right after school and are usually completed by 5:00. Because 90% of families attending the International School have drivers all activities are over in time for drivers to deliver families home and get back to pick up husbands. This schedule has been a blessing for us in that we are home every night by 5:30 and Mark is usually home about 6:30. We have been able to spend more time as a family, when Mark isn't traveling out of town since moving to Thailand. Every morning, Mark is able to have breakfast with us and participate in morning devotionals-that is a first in our home life. In the past he has always been out the door before the boys got out of bed. It has been really great having that time together as a family. Because of the driver situation, Mark is home earlier in the evenings allowing our driver to be home with his family too. Thus we have more time in the evenings as a family too since leaving the states. No more sport practices or games in the evenings-that would require overtime for drivers. It's an unexpected benefit of having a driver. Once the driver brings Mark home-we are home for the evening. Mark will be in the states in 3 weeks and may be applying for an international driver license to allow him to drive here some. He has ventured out to the infamous 7-11 a couple of times to meet the Pizza delivery guy, that's about 1 mile from our house and the extent of our driving in over 6 weeks. I'll post a couple of pictures of Dustin and Nathan's first basketball game, they lost 28-6. Neither one of them have ever played basketball, it looks like no one on their team has either! I told Dustin he looked like he was hoping they wouldn't throw the ball to him down in the center position and he said, "That pretty much sums it up!" He's the tallest guy on their team and they really need him to step up. We purchased a basketball goal last weekend and have to get it put up soon for some Mom training sessions! When the moving trucks departed our house in VA we realized the basketball goal had been left behind. It cost $300 at the only store in Pattaya that has basketball goals. Mark was trying to haggle with them and telling the sales clerk, "In the states, I bought a basketball goal for $100." They really didn't care, realizing that they have a monopoly on basketball goals in this area. We had to pay the $300 and haul that thing home in our SUV, the first thing that hasn't been delivered here.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sea-Shipment Received
On Monday the trucks started coming from Bangkok with our sea shipment. Almost 2 months and about 10,000 miles later our 'stuff' has arrived. It was really special sleeping in our own bed, eating at a table, setting on a couch and for Ethan, the highlight was getting the TV set up with movie capabilities-it's starting to feel like home. I noticed that after our weekend away, when we drove into the driveway it had that, "great to be home" feeling. I still can't get it to smell like home though. There are some strange smells in this house. Some of you may know that I have an obsession with Bath and Body Works plug-ins, man, I miss those.
The first truck arrived around 8:30 on Monday morning, with 5 men to unload and unpack. They were an excellent crew, we were very impressed with their professionalism and work ethic. It's really quite something to watch 5 small men wearing nothing but flip-flops unload a grand piano out of a truck without a forklift or dolly. Truthfully, I couldn't watch, it was just too much. Everything made it here in remarkable shape, a couple of things broken, a small edge off of Nathan's dresser, a leg wouldn't screw back into an ottoman, the electrical plug for the grill got smashed, nothing to fret over. My job was to verify each box or piece of furniture that was removed from the truck and direct them to the specific area it belonged in. Of course, there were some things that we thought, "What were we thinking bringing that?" I brought way too many dishes especially considering that I've made it over a month with a place setting for each of us, 5 sets of silverware, a couple of bowls, a couple of pans and a cookie sheet.
The VA packing crew had one very interesting member who packed my kitchen on Loth Lorian. We were told that we were not allowed to bring any food items so I had planned accordingly-giving friends food, trying to eat it all down...but when he began packing he just stuffed everything in my pantry into a box. It was kind of a mess, a small jar of coconut flavoring leaked all through one box, which is kind of funny considering we have fresh coconuts everywhere. But because of him, we have 3 cans of Rotel tomatoes, 1 large can of chili, 3 bags of Community coffee, Kool-aid, boxes of butterscotch pudding for gingerbread cookies and several packets of Ranch dressing mix-all things that we can't find here that we will treasure. I haven't quite decided what special occasion might call for a can of Rotel to be opened, maybe just one of those days when I'm missing home.
Every piece of furniture is put into its place and now I just have lots of boxes of stuff to go through and unload. It was embarrassing with our housekeeper watching all the unpacking, she is totally amazed at how much we have. I have already given her lots of things that we won't be needing. I can't even imagine how she talks about her day every evening with her family in their one room. She told me, "We have one room for eating, watching TV and sleeping." She is ecstatic about all the paper and cardboard from our move. She told me that she gets 1 Baht for 2kg/paper. Currently it is about 34 Baht/1 US Dollar or $.03/2kg/paper.
The house is coming together and maybe I'll have some pictures posted early next week. Thankfully, the echo in the huge family room has lessened with the rugs and furniture put in its place. I've really been missing my Mom, I have never decorated a new house without her help, sure wish you were here Mom!
Today, I had to go to pay all our utilities at the 7-11 just down the road from us. It's really quite efficient and amazing. You just walk into any 7-11 with your electric, water, cable, Internet, or phone bill. The cashier scans your bill and takes your cash and you can get some bottled naum all in one stop! Our electric bill isn't too much cheaper than our VA electric bill. Apparently, after a customer passes a certain amount of wattage used the price goes up exponentially thus making electricity very affordable for the poor. We only run our air-conditioners in the evening, a room at a time with all the surrounding doors shut to conserve energy. All the electricity adds up with the water well, the pool pump, the pond system, and normal usage.
I'll close-I'm tired from getting unpacked. Thanks for your prayers, this sea shipment arriving seems like one of the last big hurdles involved with this move. When we look back at how far we've come over the last 2 months it feels exhausting and we're grateful to be at this stage of the game.
The first truck arrived around 8:30 on Monday morning, with 5 men to unload and unpack. They were an excellent crew, we were very impressed with their professionalism and work ethic. It's really quite something to watch 5 small men wearing nothing but flip-flops unload a grand piano out of a truck without a forklift or dolly. Truthfully, I couldn't watch, it was just too much. Everything made it here in remarkable shape, a couple of things broken, a small edge off of Nathan's dresser, a leg wouldn't screw back into an ottoman, the electrical plug for the grill got smashed, nothing to fret over. My job was to verify each box or piece of furniture that was removed from the truck and direct them to the specific area it belonged in. Of course, there were some things that we thought, "What were we thinking bringing that?" I brought way too many dishes especially considering that I've made it over a month with a place setting for each of us, 5 sets of silverware, a couple of bowls, a couple of pans and a cookie sheet.
The VA packing crew had one very interesting member who packed my kitchen on Loth Lorian. We were told that we were not allowed to bring any food items so I had planned accordingly-giving friends food, trying to eat it all down...but when he began packing he just stuffed everything in my pantry into a box. It was kind of a mess, a small jar of coconut flavoring leaked all through one box, which is kind of funny considering we have fresh coconuts everywhere. But because of him, we have 3 cans of Rotel tomatoes, 1 large can of chili, 3 bags of Community coffee, Kool-aid, boxes of butterscotch pudding for gingerbread cookies and several packets of Ranch dressing mix-all things that we can't find here that we will treasure. I haven't quite decided what special occasion might call for a can of Rotel to be opened, maybe just one of those days when I'm missing home.
Every piece of furniture is put into its place and now I just have lots of boxes of stuff to go through and unload. It was embarrassing with our housekeeper watching all the unpacking, she is totally amazed at how much we have. I have already given her lots of things that we won't be needing. I can't even imagine how she talks about her day every evening with her family in their one room. She told me, "We have one room for eating, watching TV and sleeping." She is ecstatic about all the paper and cardboard from our move. She told me that she gets 1 Baht for 2kg/paper. Currently it is about 34 Baht/1 US Dollar or $.03/2kg/paper.
The house is coming together and maybe I'll have some pictures posted early next week. Thankfully, the echo in the huge family room has lessened with the rugs and furniture put in its place. I've really been missing my Mom, I have never decorated a new house without her help, sure wish you were here Mom!
Today, I had to go to pay all our utilities at the 7-11 just down the road from us. It's really quite efficient and amazing. You just walk into any 7-11 with your electric, water, cable, Internet, or phone bill. The cashier scans your bill and takes your cash and you can get some bottled naum all in one stop! Our electric bill isn't too much cheaper than our VA electric bill. Apparently, after a customer passes a certain amount of wattage used the price goes up exponentially thus making electricity very affordable for the poor. We only run our air-conditioners in the evening, a room at a time with all the surrounding doors shut to conserve energy. All the electricity adds up with the water well, the pool pump, the pond system, and normal usage.
I'll close-I'm tired from getting unpacked. Thanks for your prayers, this sea shipment arriving seems like one of the last big hurdles involved with this move. When we look back at how far we've come over the last 2 months it feels exhausting and we're grateful to be at this stage of the game.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
A Weekend Away
The boys had their first school holiday on Friday so we took the opportunity to get away for a few days to Koh Chang. Koh means island in Thai and Chang is elephant. Koh Chang is the second largest island in Thailand, second to Phuket. Supposedly, the island takes on the shape of an elephant from a distance and has a lot of elephants on the island. The boys and I made the 3 hour,southern, trek down on Thursday and Mark joined us on Friday. We arrived to the ferry site at about 4:30 for the 40 minute trip across the waters of the Bay of Thailand. It was an open air ferry that also transported cars, trucks and lots of motorbikes. We were told that our hotel van would be awaiting our arrival-NOT! By the time we got to the other side it was beginning to get dark. There were several Baht buses awaiting the ferry but we waved them off as we had hotel transportation-NOT! We were quickly reminded that this is a third world country. I had told the boys we would eat dinner on the other side when we reached the island, thinking that if for some reason we had to wait on our hotel transportation we could use up some time eating. After the taxis had all departed and the ferry totally disembarked it became a very dark, foreign, small place. I contacted the hotel and was unable to tell them which ferry we had arrived at because of the poor lighting and lacking of any signs. I handed the phone to a lady on the road motioning for her to please tell the hotel where we were exactly. (I have got to learn Thai!) The hotel informed me they would arrive in 25 minutes. Okay, I have to put on a brave front for 30 minutes, especially for Ethan. It was dark with two little huts by the ferry ticket office. One of the huts sold fruit the other was a cantina with six men setting around smoking and drinking, directly across from the ticket office where we were waiting because that had the only decent light. Ethan was getting really nervous because the men were staring at the farangs. I was praying and trying to encourage the boys. We occupied ourselves by counting gecko lizards, watching the stray dogs, (one of which was busily trying to rid itself of fleas near our stoop.) and trying to avoid the rude stares of the drinking men. After about 20 minutes the hotel called and said they were unable to find us. There was a nice older looking lady in the ticket booth who I handed our phone to. She scared me because she told me we weren't at Koh Chang (there are a lot of islands in the vicinity) but she meant the Koh Chang ferry but we were at the Centerpoint ferry. So the hotel assured me they would now arrive in 15 minutes, I really thought Ethan was going to lose it. Dustin and Nathan were a big help in encouraging him and thankfully after only about 10 minutes our van arrived on the dark, lonely road. We were so glad to be found! We were able to direct Mark on Friday to the correct ferry site and he was going to just hop on a Baht bus as the hotel had already dispatched our one free hotel transport on Friday night. Not to many things are easy here or go as planned. After about 30 minutes of waiting for his ride to depart the ferry site it was finally understood that the taxi man wasn't leaving for just 6 people, they would have to wait for next ferry to get at least 6 more people which would be at least 30 more minutes. Mark was the only non-Thai person on board but one of the younger girls understood English and they decided as a group to pay double to get them moving. There was an older woman with 3 young kids, Mark guessed they were 9, 5, and 3 years old. When they came to her home about 20 minutes into the trip she didn't have enough money and left the 3 children by the taxi while she went to search for more money. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the taxi man reloaded the oldest child (perhaps for ransom?) left the other two beside the road in the dark and drove off to deposit his other customers. Mark assumed that he would take the child back after everyone else got off to collect his money, he said the young girl put up no protest. Things are so different here.
The trip may have got off to a rough start but we ended up having a great restful weekend. We had a nice bungalow by the beach. On Friday, the boys and I enjoyed the beach and then we went on ATV tour through the rainforest, it was really beautiful. On Saturday we took a tour of the entire island and visited a fishing village entirely built on stilts above the water. We bought the most interesting ice cream cone I have ever had from a village woman on her bike and cart. On the bottom of the cone was sticky rice, followed by a small piece of fruit, ice cream topped with some sort of salty dried corn, it was really yummy with the sweet and salty combinations.
Sunday morning we went snorkeling before departing at 2 to head home. Every day we have to take off our Western mindset, today was no different. Two things that struck us, on the island we didn't see one gas station, gas is sold in glass jars, it looks like some sort of alcohol, like whiskey sold on the road side. The other is the lack of safety concerns-the number of people they squeeze into a Baht bus, no seat belts...but today it really struck us. We had scheduled the half-day snorkel tour through our hotel. At 9 am they van takes us to a pier where a man with a boat is waiting for us. There is no exchange of money, no pleasantries, no release forms to sign, no snorkel instruction...We were taken about 1 mile across the bay to this small uninhabited island, handed our snorkel masks, 5 life jackets and asked, "what time?" Mark said, "Noon." Which I quickly reminded him that noon means one in Thai, we flipped through our Thai book and found the correct time. I happened to ask for, "Naum?" and he handed us two waters and sped away. It just cracks us up, thankfully we all have snorkeled before, we had no idea we would be left all alone on this island to snorkel just trusting that they would return for us, otherwise it would be a loooonng swim back to Koh Chang. After we got used to the set-up it became really neat to have a whole island to ourselves and we so enjoyed our snorkel time and he didn't leave us stranded! He came back as promised. Another weekend for the memory book! I'll post some pictures of our weekend away.
The trip may have got off to a rough start but we ended up having a great restful weekend. We had a nice bungalow by the beach. On Friday, the boys and I enjoyed the beach and then we went on ATV tour through the rainforest, it was really beautiful. On Saturday we took a tour of the entire island and visited a fishing village entirely built on stilts above the water. We bought the most interesting ice cream cone I have ever had from a village woman on her bike and cart. On the bottom of the cone was sticky rice, followed by a small piece of fruit, ice cream topped with some sort of salty dried corn, it was really yummy with the sweet and salty combinations.
Sunday morning we went snorkeling before departing at 2 to head home. Every day we have to take off our Western mindset, today was no different. Two things that struck us, on the island we didn't see one gas station, gas is sold in glass jars, it looks like some sort of alcohol, like whiskey sold on the road side. The other is the lack of safety concerns-the number of people they squeeze into a Baht bus, no seat belts...but today it really struck us. We had scheduled the half-day snorkel tour through our hotel. At 9 am they van takes us to a pier where a man with a boat is waiting for us. There is no exchange of money, no pleasantries, no release forms to sign, no snorkel instruction...We were taken about 1 mile across the bay to this small uninhabited island, handed our snorkel masks, 5 life jackets and asked, "what time?" Mark said, "Noon." Which I quickly reminded him that noon means one in Thai, we flipped through our Thai book and found the correct time. I happened to ask for, "Naum?" and he handed us two waters and sped away. It just cracks us up, thankfully we all have snorkeled before, we had no idea we would be left all alone on this island to snorkel just trusting that they would return for us, otherwise it would be a loooonng swim back to Koh Chang. After we got used to the set-up it became really neat to have a whole island to ourselves and we so enjoyed our snorkel time and he didn't leave us stranded! He came back as promised. Another weekend for the memory book! I'll post some pictures of our weekend away.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Times in Thailand
Well, I knew this would happen, life would get busy and my posts would slow way down. When I finally have the time to set down and write you all it's hard to choose what story to tell you next. We still don't have our sea shipment, thus no furniture. (We've been assured-Monday and Tuesday for sure as our shipment has now cleared customs!) Tile is really hard! especially when you have to set on it for meals if it is raining outside, which it does a lot of late. This is the official rainy season and almost everyday it does just that-rains. Most of the time it's just a spattering of rain and we go on about our business but as we've gone along in the season we are seeing more lightening, thundering and rainstorms. It is quite spectacular in our family room because it has a glass ceiling. Getting back to the hard floors, most Thai people have incredibly flat feet, I assume from walking on tile and concrete their entire life barefoot. They remove their shoes when they enter a house and otherwise they usually wear flat, rubber, flip-flops. Their feet are really spread out, I wonder how hard it would be for my Dad to fit them in a pair of boots?
Every time I'm riding alone with Songkran we try to converse some and he is very gracious to help me with my Thai, or maybe he's just entertained, he laughs a lot at my pronunciation. I'm so glad that so many Thai people find my language ability so entertaining!!! Anyway, I just think it is amazing how different our languages are and how confusing it must be when he hears us talking English. For instance, their word for 5 is ha. I have a funny Thai friend, Khun Lek, and when she emails she always puts 5555, hahahaha. Speaking of Khun Lek here's a funny story about language barriers. I was at the boys school one morning and I saw Khun Lek setting with a table of Thai ladies, she is the only one that speaks English. I approach the table to say hello to my friend and right away a lady jumps up to give me her seat.I motion to her to please keep her seat but she insists and as she is getting up she says something in Thai that causes a little laugh around the table. I jokingly ask, "Okay, did she just say I hope her big, American, bottom fits?" Khun Lek shockingly remarks, "You speak Thai?" Well, again I'm amusing my new Thai friends!
Okay, here's some of the words that I've learned that make me laugh.
My poo-a is men!! My husband is stinky!! I always knew Mark was a poo-a! and I'm his mee-a.
I love my food pet-or spicy but I don't usually eat my pets.
A cow is a woo-u, a pig a moo,a goat is called pa in Thai
but of course! It does seem to make some sense that a cat would be called a meow-ee though and a chicken a guy if an egg is a kuy
We are having lots of fun lately, or rain.
We want a ma or a dog and ironically we have already had someone ask us for a dog or loan for 80,000Baht. I've just purchased some dog-my for my pool area and they look beautiful.
We love all the fresh supaloet or pineapple and have discovered a new fruit-shampoo that tastes a little like an apple and not at all like a hair product.
Our house is our bon or home.
It's difficult but My-pen-lie-no worries!
We had a little bit of stress with the whole dog(or loan) business. On Wednesday my friend Nong came to the door looking very, very distressed. Remember, she speaks NO English, well that's really not true she did say, "Money" and was motioning to her throat like she was slashing it. I could tell after two minutes that we were getting no where fast and called Noik, her sister and my housekeeper to please come over and translate. I really couldn't tell if Nong was sick and needed surgery or if she was in a bind thus the slashing the throat motion. Noik arrived shortly on her motorbike and tried to translate the whole sorted details. It was a terrible position to be placed in, my first Thai friend already asking me for money not for food or surgery. Apparently, she co-signed a loan for a friend to help start a machine shop. The business failed, the friend has 'relocated'and now loan-sharks are threatening to kill Nong if she doesn't come up with 80,000Baht ($2400 US). To complicate things she never told her poo-a any of this. She asked for a dog rather than a gift because in January she has sold some land and the second installment will be made on it and she will be able to repay us then? And, we
can not mention this to her husband as he will beat her severely. Oh no, what a quandary. I tell her right away that it is never a good thing to keep such big secrets from the poo-a and that I will have to talk to my poo-a and would she please return Thursday morning. Let's just say at our house the mee-a and the poo-a balance each other out! Of course I'm feeling like we need to help her right away and Mark is very leery of the whole situation but of course he doesn't know Nong and hadn't heard or seen her distress. At the men's Bible study that evening he mentioned it as a prayer request and Daniel, our pastor really advised us to be so careful in this situation. He has lived here 13 years and speaks Thai fluently. We asked he and his wife to come on Thursday morning and translate as we needed more details. I was so grateful for their help. They expressed that we did not want to get into the middle of any Thai, sticky, shady business deals or between her husband and her. They also explained that she had placed us in a very awkward position in just two weeks of living in our bon in Thailand. After a lengthy back and forth discussion in English, Thai and Africanese (Daniel and Marina's language) we finally came to this decision. Khun Mark and I would discuss and pray about this situation now that we have all the details then if we decided to help we would give Noik a gift and she could decide how she would like to use it, therefore far removing us from the whole, shady affair. We suggested that she offer the loan shark a smaller amount of money and give him copy of land sale agreement perhaps even in presence of police with guarantee to pay the full amount in January when she receives her money. She adamantly refuses to get the police involved. It's a position we didn't want to find ourselves in so quickly. There is a saying in Thailand among the farangs to not loan money to anyone telling you the sad story that their water buffalo died and they have no way to plow their fields... so we knew this would happen sooner or later but this soon? I hope this story is all on the up and up but realize that any money we give to help should never be expected to be seen again. We struggle with the way Jesus shows us to live-when they ask for your shirt give them your coat too...It seems so unjust, we are billionaires in their eyes, we are compared to them. How does all this foreign money really affect their economy and culture and change the whole dynamics of their society? Pray for us as we discern who and when we should help here. Pray that we can be a light on the hill. Pray that the loan sharks hearts will be softened toward Nong and give her time to pay her debt.
La-gone for now
Every time I'm riding alone with Songkran we try to converse some and he is very gracious to help me with my Thai, or maybe he's just entertained, he laughs a lot at my pronunciation. I'm so glad that so many Thai people find my language ability so entertaining!!! Anyway, I just think it is amazing how different our languages are and how confusing it must be when he hears us talking English. For instance, their word for 5 is ha. I have a funny Thai friend, Khun Lek, and when she emails she always puts 5555, hahahaha. Speaking of Khun Lek here's a funny story about language barriers. I was at the boys school one morning and I saw Khun Lek setting with a table of Thai ladies, she is the only one that speaks English. I approach the table to say hello to my friend and right away a lady jumps up to give me her seat.I motion to her to please keep her seat but she insists and as she is getting up she says something in Thai that causes a little laugh around the table. I jokingly ask, "Okay, did she just say I hope her big, American, bottom fits?" Khun Lek shockingly remarks, "You speak Thai?" Well, again I'm amusing my new Thai friends!
Okay, here's some of the words that I've learned that make me laugh.
My poo-a is men!! My husband is stinky!! I always knew Mark was a poo-a! and I'm his mee-a.
I love my food pet-or spicy but I don't usually eat my pets.
A cow is a woo-u, a pig a moo,a goat is called pa in Thai
but of course! It does seem to make some sense that a cat would be called a meow-ee though and a chicken a guy if an egg is a kuy
We are having lots of fun lately, or rain.
We want a ma or a dog and ironically we have already had someone ask us for a dog or loan for 80,000Baht. I've just purchased some dog-my for my pool area and they look beautiful.
We love all the fresh supaloet or pineapple and have discovered a new fruit-shampoo that tastes a little like an apple and not at all like a hair product.
Our house is our bon or home.
It's difficult but My-pen-lie-no worries!
We had a little bit of stress with the whole dog(or loan) business. On Wednesday my friend Nong came to the door looking very, very distressed. Remember, she speaks NO English, well that's really not true she did say, "Money" and was motioning to her throat like she was slashing it. I could tell after two minutes that we were getting no where fast and called Noik, her sister and my housekeeper to please come over and translate. I really couldn't tell if Nong was sick and needed surgery or if she was in a bind thus the slashing the throat motion. Noik arrived shortly on her motorbike and tried to translate the whole sorted details. It was a terrible position to be placed in, my first Thai friend already asking me for money not for food or surgery. Apparently, she co-signed a loan for a friend to help start a machine shop. The business failed, the friend has 'relocated'and now loan-sharks are threatening to kill Nong if she doesn't come up with 80,000Baht ($2400 US). To complicate things she never told her poo-a any of this. She asked for a dog rather than a gift because in January she has sold some land and the second installment will be made on it and she will be able to repay us then? And, we
can not mention this to her husband as he will beat her severely. Oh no, what a quandary. I tell her right away that it is never a good thing to keep such big secrets from the poo-a and that I will have to talk to my poo-a and would she please return Thursday morning. Let's just say at our house the mee-a and the poo-a balance each other out! Of course I'm feeling like we need to help her right away and Mark is very leery of the whole situation but of course he doesn't know Nong and hadn't heard or seen her distress. At the men's Bible study that evening he mentioned it as a prayer request and Daniel, our pastor really advised us to be so careful in this situation. He has lived here 13 years and speaks Thai fluently. We asked he and his wife to come on Thursday morning and translate as we needed more details. I was so grateful for their help. They expressed that we did not want to get into the middle of any Thai, sticky, shady business deals or between her husband and her. They also explained that she had placed us in a very awkward position in just two weeks of living in our bon in Thailand. After a lengthy back and forth discussion in English, Thai and Africanese (Daniel and Marina's language) we finally came to this decision. Khun Mark and I would discuss and pray about this situation now that we have all the details then if we decided to help we would give Noik a gift and she could decide how she would like to use it, therefore far removing us from the whole, shady affair. We suggested that she offer the loan shark a smaller amount of money and give him copy of land sale agreement perhaps even in presence of police with guarantee to pay the full amount in January when she receives her money. She adamantly refuses to get the police involved. It's a position we didn't want to find ourselves in so quickly. There is a saying in Thailand among the farangs to not loan money to anyone telling you the sad story that their water buffalo died and they have no way to plow their fields... so we knew this would happen sooner or later but this soon? I hope this story is all on the up and up but realize that any money we give to help should never be expected to be seen again. We struggle with the way Jesus shows us to live-when they ask for your shirt give them your coat too...It seems so unjust, we are billionaires in their eyes, we are compared to them. How does all this foreign money really affect their economy and culture and change the whole dynamics of their society? Pray for us as we discern who and when we should help here. Pray that we can be a light on the hill. Pray that the loan sharks hearts will be softened toward Nong and give her time to pay her debt.
La-gone for now
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Noik
I want you all to meet Noik-my korng-kwan or gift to me. (She looks so much like my nephew's girlfriend Meagan. The boys have all commented on the similiarities, it's uncanny.) She started cleaning for me this week and has been such a wonderful blessing. She is about 35 years old and lives right behind our property. She has 3 sons too-17,15 and 2 years old. From what I gather she worked in housekeeping at the hospital in Pattaya before she delivered her youngest son. She has been looking for a job for a while and seems so grateful and thankful to be working for us. So much so that she has already asked me if we would take her back to the states with us when we leave. My words to her were, "If you still like us in 3 years we might talk about it!" That was after asking about her little son to which she replied, "He can stay with my mother." Her mother lives with her and babysits her son while she is here, along with their 11 dogs!! Thankfully, we can't hear all the dogs, from what I understand they just keep having puppies and they have no way to sterilize them. I then asked her about Noon, her husband and she said, "My-pen-lie!" No worries or no problem? (Note: all the Thai translations I provide are written how I would pronounce them, not their spelling? FYI)
Noik comes M,T,TH,F from 10-4 to clean, do laundry and iron. She insists on ironing way more than I ever would, she doesn't believe in taking them out of the dryer and hanging them up right away. She really doesn't believe in the dryer but has consented to use it until I have a proper Thai "metal" line put up this week in the backyard for her. The timing is great, I cook breakfast, see the boys and Mark off, clean up the kitchen, go for a morning walk and do my Bible study before she comes. Then she leaves shortly after the boys arrive home from school. I like that we can still have some privacy. I pay her $6000 Baht/month ($180) and the neighbors say that is too much! That is the same pay our driver receives as a base salary and he is way higher on the Thai status pole. She also gets to take all of our trash home. We had been told to just leave our trash at the end of the road and the local people will snatch it up to recycle every bit of it. They love cardboard, all the empty 'naum' bottles-we will never be able to drink from the public water system or our well. We can use our well water for pool, shower, dishwasher and cold-water only washing machine. All that to say, we have a lot of recycleable plastic in our trash that Noik seems to really appreciate, along with some soda cans-she considers it bonus pay.
Her English is pretty good and we really have quite a bit of success in communicating. She likes to laugh with me and at me. She thought it was the funniest thing that I offered some paper towels for her to use in cleaning the windows. I gave her a roll of paper towels and she is motioning-for what? to wipe my face? and I motion-no, for cleaning windows. She thought that was the most hilarious thing she had ever heard of. When you think about it, paper towels are very expensive to her and why wouldn't you use an old t-shirt instead, that she washes everyday and uses again and again.
Another thing she found very hilarious. She was telling me to be careful in that she has VERY big snakes-cobras and such in her yard at times. I motioned to her do you cut off their heads. No, that would be bad luck. I told her- well, then he will crawl over to my house and it will be bad luck for me. She thought that was so funny.
I told her that I was a Christian and that I had prayed for a good housekeeper and that she was an answer to prayer, a gift. She told me that she is Buddhist and she works hard cleaning for me to make merit. Noik-my korng-kwan. She calls me Khun Da, to show respect you address people as Khun rather than Mrs. or Mr. All Thai people have nicknames because their proper names are crazy long. A lot of times they take one syllable of the official name so there are a lot of Noi, Na, Nong, Nip, Nit... She took the last syllable of JoRonda giving me my Thai name-Khun Da.
Before I close today I want to ask you all to join me in praying for all of our dear friends and family that are now in Ike's path. Psalm 34:17-"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles." Our thoughts and prayers are with you all, we love you!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Shopping
Today, I ventured out to start trying to find needed furniture, rugs, linen...I was in a store that is very similar to Bed, Bath and Beyond in the states looking for a duvet, sheets and pillowcases for Dustin's room. I found one on display that I liked because of the bright colors and frankly it was the most masculine one I spotted. I hunted a sales person down, I've heard that salespeople here avoid English speakers because they feel insecure. I finally found someone to help me who promptly called someone else that presumably spoke English. Remember that is a relative term! He informed me that the bedspread I liked was only on display and I couldn't purchase display. I also was unable to order, after a lengthy back and forth, "Why can't I buy display?" he told me that he would call friend? He called friend and told me that his friend would meet me at Esso gas station in 20 minutes with the desired bedspread?? I'm really confused now. I told him that I didn't want to go to Esso at the moment but had more shopping to do in the area, I was heading next door to the Big C (like WalMart). "No problem, he will meet you there." Okay? Weird! He confirmed my cell phone # and we agreed on a price to be paid upon delivery. I walk next door and after about 20 minutes a man comes up behind me and says, "Madam JoRonda? I have bedspread outside on my motorbike." I follow him out to the busy parking lot, as we're walking I ask him how he knew I was JoRonda? Yes, they're aren't too many white people but this is a huge store and there are some. I jokingly ask him was he told to find the fat, white woman? I don't think he comprehended. Anyway, we proceed out to the parking lot and setting there, unattended on his motorbike is the desired bedspread set. It just cracked me up!! I gave him the cash and then asked him if I could take his picture and then he was on his way. It seemed a little shady but I don't know how things are normally done here.
I then went to the French WalMart-Carrfour to try to purchase a wall mount for our new flat screen TV. They said sure, give us your address and we will come and place wall mount on wall tonight. I gave them our driver's cell phone # so he could direct them to our house. Everyone seems to get lost when they're trying to find us, all I know is that we are between the 7-11 and Crocodile Farm, all of Pattaya seems to know those two landmarks. They just showed up and are trying to mount the TV right now and I guess I just give them the cash when they're done. There are so many things that are different.
One thing I really, really like here is the service at the stores. They all sack your groceries, at a couple of grocery stores there are men in uniform that sack your goods, I guess they do security guarding/sacking. Today, I purchased a small shelf at Carrfour and the salesperson stayed with it (a $12 item) until I was ready to check out and then escorted me to the car, I'm thinking there was some commission involved. I bought a rug at another store and when I began to lift it I thought the salesperson was going to have a heart attack, "No! Madam!", promptly a man arrived to carry the medium size rug to my car. I motioned to them that I was strong and they just smiled. I guess enjoy it while I can!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
School Days
Sa-wat-dee-kaa from Thailand. We are all safe and sound here, we've had a couple of inquiries from our friends that follow world news about our safety with the political unrest here. We are fine, the only way we have been affected is our sea shipment may be delayed because of strikes on the dock, which is frustrating. Currently we have 8 wooden, outdoor, hard chairs with 2 outdoor wooden tables and three beds that are still wrapped in plastic. We're anxious to receive our stuff! It seems the protesters have been protesting for weeks demanding the Prime Minister step down from his position and there had been a stand-off. Two days ago he was put out of office because of a conflict of interest-apparently he had been doing a TV cooking show on the side and that was a good reason for him to leave, while saving face which is of utmost importance here. So we will see what happens from here on, it's front page news and there has been nominal amount of violence in Bangkok. Mark is there all this week for business and said his hotel feels very safe and far removed from all the activity around the government buildings.
Thank you for praying for us while he is away. I've had to place all my fears at the feet of Christ and I just picture God's angels perched on the walls surrounding our home, guarding us in all our ways. I love Psalm 91:9-10-Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Our air-conditioners are loud enough that I wouldn't hear anyone, anyway! Each room has it's own air unit, that's why you see homes listed and it says 8 air units-just different.
Today, was an eventful day as I attended my very first PTA meeting! I was promptly recruited to be the secretary of the group, the only requirement being that they needed an English speaker that doesn't mind taking notes. All other positions were filled and they very enthusiastically welcomed me. The PTA board consists of women from the Netherlands, Brazil, Venzuela, Korea, Japan, Thailand and now me, the US representative. I never in a million years pictured myself serving on a PTA board. There were about 100 people at the meeting of all nationalities, I love that. It takes longer than normal PTA's (I assume) because a translator is provided for the Korean, Japanese, and Thai contingencies.
So far, I'm at the school about twice a week and get to see the boys. Today, we all rode in together as the meeting was at 8:30. Dustin and Nathan seem to be adjusting very well to a 'real' school. Dustin ran for Student Council representative for his class and there was a tie, he will serve the Spring semester. Dustin and Nathan are both trying out for basketball, I think the team will be weeded down to 12 in a few weeks. Nathan just amazes me, he really wanted to play even though I was encouraging him to be the team manager. I just have to let him try whatever he thinks he can do and help him if and when failure occurs. I admire his courage and determination. In the Thai culture it is a known fact that they stare. Nathan doesn't seem the least bit affected that many stare at his gait, I just pray that in Nathan's weaknesses God will be made strong. Dustin is also playing soccer on the Jr. High and High School team at the moment. They asked him to try out for the High School team and we
will see if he makes the cut. Remember, this is a very small school, 400 total students from K-12. They both are playing brass instruments in the marching band, Nathan the trombone and Dustin the french horn. They are also participating in the jazz band, and taking drama and Spanish. They are busy but seem to enjoy it.
Now my little guy has not had as easy of an adjustment, he has had some tears. About two weeks ago he got off the bus and said, "Mom, I had a mental breakdown today." He apparently just burst into tears during class and said he couldn't stop. His teacher called Mark at work just to make sure he was aware. I think he was more embarrassed than anything. He said he heard some boys talking in their language and heard his name come up later. His words, "Jibberjabber, jibberjabber, Ethan, jibberjabber."
Later that night he mentioned that he was thankful for a note I had left in his desk that he found during class and I asked him if he found the note before he started crying and he said, "Yes." and started crying again and then I started crying. He conveyed to me that he really misses just us staying at home together, that nothing feels normal, nothing feels like home, no one speaks his language...it's a big transition. Yesterday he had after-school soccer and had to ride the bus home without Dustin and Nathan. He called before getting on the bus crying and he really couldn't tell me why. I offered to talk to him the entire ride home on the bus but he recovered after a few minutes and was fine when he arrived home. If you think of him please pray for him.
I do think it was the best decision not to homeschool here, I have my plate full trying to adjust to a third world country and don't know that I would have had the energy to homeschool and it would have been so isolating. I haven't met one other homeschooler here in Pattaya, I did meet two in Bangkok and they participate with a co-op. The school has provided us an instant community and a great exposure to the Thai language, among other things! We just pray that they will resolve in their hearts to stand up for God and his glory.
Thank you for praying for us while he is away. I've had to place all my fears at the feet of Christ and I just picture God's angels perched on the walls surrounding our home, guarding us in all our ways. I love Psalm 91:9-10-Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Our air-conditioners are loud enough that I wouldn't hear anyone, anyway! Each room has it's own air unit, that's why you see homes listed and it says 8 air units-just different.
Today, was an eventful day as I attended my very first PTA meeting! I was promptly recruited to be the secretary of the group, the only requirement being that they needed an English speaker that doesn't mind taking notes. All other positions were filled and they very enthusiastically welcomed me. The PTA board consists of women from the Netherlands, Brazil, Venzuela, Korea, Japan, Thailand and now me, the US representative. I never in a million years pictured myself serving on a PTA board. There were about 100 people at the meeting of all nationalities, I love that. It takes longer than normal PTA's (I assume) because a translator is provided for the Korean, Japanese, and Thai contingencies.
So far, I'm at the school about twice a week and get to see the boys. Today, we all rode in together as the meeting was at 8:30. Dustin and Nathan seem to be adjusting very well to a 'real' school. Dustin ran for Student Council representative for his class and there was a tie, he will serve the Spring semester. Dustin and Nathan are both trying out for basketball, I think the team will be weeded down to 12 in a few weeks. Nathan just amazes me, he really wanted to play even though I was encouraging him to be the team manager. I just have to let him try whatever he thinks he can do and help him if and when failure occurs. I admire his courage and determination. In the Thai culture it is a known fact that they stare. Nathan doesn't seem the least bit affected that many stare at his gait, I just pray that in Nathan's weaknesses God will be made strong. Dustin is also playing soccer on the Jr. High and High School team at the moment. They asked him to try out for the High School team and we
will see if he makes the cut. Remember, this is a very small school, 400 total students from K-12. They both are playing brass instruments in the marching band, Nathan the trombone and Dustin the french horn. They are also participating in the jazz band, and taking drama and Spanish. They are busy but seem to enjoy it.
Now my little guy has not had as easy of an adjustment, he has had some tears. About two weeks ago he got off the bus and said, "Mom, I had a mental breakdown today." He apparently just burst into tears during class and said he couldn't stop. His teacher called Mark at work just to make sure he was aware. I think he was more embarrassed than anything. He said he heard some boys talking in their language and heard his name come up later. His words, "Jibberjabber, jibberjabber, Ethan, jibberjabber."
Later that night he mentioned that he was thankful for a note I had left in his desk that he found during class and I asked him if he found the note before he started crying and he said, "Yes." and started crying again and then I started crying. He conveyed to me that he really misses just us staying at home together, that nothing feels normal, nothing feels like home, no one speaks his language...it's a big transition. Yesterday he had after-school soccer and had to ride the bus home without Dustin and Nathan. He called before getting on the bus crying and he really couldn't tell me why. I offered to talk to him the entire ride home on the bus but he recovered after a few minutes and was fine when he arrived home. If you think of him please pray for him.
I do think it was the best decision not to homeschool here, I have my plate full trying to adjust to a third world country and don't know that I would have had the energy to homeschool and it would have been so isolating. I haven't met one other homeschooler here in Pattaya, I did meet two in Bangkok and they participate with a co-op. The school has provided us an instant community and a great exposure to the Thai language, among other things! We just pray that they will resolve in their hearts to stand up for God and his glory.
Monday, September 8, 2008
The House Story
I had been waiting to share with you all how we really came about getting this house until I had some time to write it all down. For you all that have known us for a long while you can testify to how God has moved in some mysterious ways when it comes to us finding a home. I think the best story is when we were renting our first home in Houston and received a certified letter in the mail notifying us that we had 3 days to evacuate the premises. We had been faithfully paying our monthly rent to a management company and unbeknown est to us the owner had been foreclosed on. After contacting the law firm that sent us the letter and explaining the circumstances they graciously gave us 30 days to move out. We were in a spot and needed to find a house quickly. We found a nice neighborhood in a good location with a great first house for us that someones loan had fallen through, thus the house was ready to move in and accommodated our 30 day time frame. It would require us putting $10,000 down. Mark and I decided to walk around the neighborhood, enquiring about the builder. The first house we went to backed up to the house we were considering buying and happened to be the same exact house. We told the man that answered the door that we were considering buying the home behind them and wondered how they liked their builder and the neighborhood. He said,"Well, my wife and I are considering selling our home, we just inherited some property and want to move on to it, you could just move in here and pick up the payments." The house was only 6 months old, the exact house we were considering, had all the new house bugs worked out, a low interest rate... They invited us back to see the house the next night and amazingly the lady had picked out all her bathroom wallpaper to match her bedspread and guess what? I had the exact same bedspread!! It was a very unusual antique lace bedspread!! We were concerned telling them about our time crunch and they said, "No worries, we have an empty rental property that we can move into and you can move in here within the week." What a blessing that house on Little Redwood was to us. Anyway, I could tell you several other house stories but I'll save those for another day, I'll get to this Thailand house.
I think some of you sensed that we just weren't sure about the house on the golf course, but really getting the contract signed just wasn't happening for a number of reasons. We should have been signed and settled there three weeks ago. Remember, the landlord was on vacation, then they raised the price and didn't want to work through our realtor...We wanted to be really close to the boys school but didn't know if we wanted to live on an American feeling country club in Thailand. It is very secluded and is almost entirely filled with students'families from the International school. After a few weeks at the school the boys weren't sure they wanted to be with those specific kids 24/7. I had talked to a couple of moms in the development that had voiced some frustrations with kids from the neighborhood always in your house and the development being so far from the city feeling isolated at times. I wasn't too worried about the isolation part except relocating requires a lot of shopping trips getting settled. It seemed the door to this house continued to be closed to us and after a few days we felt like we just needed to start looking again-arrggh. I was tired of searching for a house but my friend, Molly had told me about a house that another ex-pat had looked at that was a great house that had been for sale and the owner had agreed to lease but was too big for their single child family. I found out the general area and relayed the information to our realtor, he said he could find out the details. The following day we venture out to see this house. After some searching and several phone calls we think we are at the house. After numerous attempts to get someone to open the gate, the housekeeper lets us in to this really, really beautiful home, the garden and pool were small but the decorating was just great. I was excited. As we are looking through the house the owner arrives and wants to know what we are doing in his house, "This house isn't for lease!" How embarrassing but thankfully he remembered our realtor from a prior transaction. He was a friendly chap who understood our predicament and mentioned that his neighbor who had been trying to sell his property for 9 months and was in a bit of financial duress might be open to leasing. He provided his phone number and after speaking with our realtor he said come over and have a look and that yes, he would consider leasing. Martin (our new neighbor) led us over to the property and within the hour we were talking specific lease items. We would have never found this property otherwise! That's why I think God led us to this house.
It is a great property for the boys, lots of land, a nice pond and a great pool. Later, I brought the boys and Mark to see it and right away the boys were sold on this house even though it would require a bus ride to the school. I think it will allow us more family time, it's half the distance to our church than the original house, and 7 minutes from the Clarkson family and it really is like living in Thailand. We have open fields all around the perimeter of our property, on the other side of our rock fence. On one side we always have some cattle staked out grazing on the empty lots. This morning I saw 3 water buffalo grazing on the other side of the property. We hear roosters every morning around 6:30 and have goats in the roads at times. I took a different walking route this morning and passed many surprised faces to see a Farang or white person in their neighborhood. I'm just dying to communicate with some of the Thai women who are outside their tin huts cooking or washing their clothes in a tub, but it very difficult and for now I just smile and wave. It is very humbling to see how so many of the people live here, lots of our neighbors don't have electricity, we are so, so blessed and have so much. I pray that we can be a blessing in this neighborhood. It will be a challenge because we are all 'walled' in and the language is an issue. Tomorrow, Nong's sister is coming to perhaps clean for me. When I told Nong's husband I would pay 6000 Baht/month ($180 roughly) I think he said that Nong would come and clean for me!! But she likes her hut by the roadside that sells water and soft drinks, I think he said that she won't even clean their house!! Our driver is given 6000 Baht for his base pay from his company and he does receive benefits of some sort and overtime pay, but driving jobs are sought after and are prestigious. Our driver has a wife and son to support on that! America is a blessed nation for sure.
Please pray for our safety in this new neighborhood, that we would have an impact here and bring much glory to God during our time in Thailand. "As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord."
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Our House?
Surprise! I'm back in the cyberworld much earlier than expected. Our new landlord-Dennis dropped by with a modem on Wednesday and we got it plugged in on Friday, I'm back. It's probably a good thing that I wasn't posting during the week. I had a down day on Wednesday as I made my first real trip to the grocery store to stock my cabinets, it felt depressing and a little overwhelming, "Really, what am I going to cook over here?" I pondered. I can't read most of the labels so I just took my best guess-later the dishwasher was overflowing because it really wasn't dishwashing soap after all. Vegis have to be weighed and labeled in the vegi section not at the register. There is not a wedge of Velveeta to be found or a bag of Tostitos to save your life-wham! a food group just gone out of our diet!! No doubt I will lose some weight over here, it's like being in a perpetual sauna, I am continually sweating. Mark likes the weather except when he has to go into the plant with the heavy work clothes, he said some of the workers wear jackets in this heat, around all that steam!
Anyway, back to the grocery store. I went to Carrfour which is the French version of WalMart. The meat is just in trays, chicken parts just piled up, uncovered, unrefrigerated in bins and you bag it up and take it to someone to weigh. I'm trying not to think with a Western mindset. Did you know that eggs don't have to be refrigerated at all? I stick with the brown only slightly dirty eggs and veer away from the smaller, bluish, gray eggs-quail eggs perhaps? There is no thought of Costco size packaging, I'm going to be at the grocery store at least once a week, at least! The largest container of milk is a quart or the metric equivalent. It's hard to tell the butcher how many grams you want of hamburger meat or what degrees Celsius to cook it. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate over here and both it and flour come in plastic bags, I had two carts full and you have to put them on a downhill escalator without steps...are you sensing some of the adjustment I'm having to go through, and that's just a jaunt to the grocery store. I actually saw a girl from my Bible study as I was leaving, in this huge store, I was so excited! A friend-I ran up to her and said, "I'm so glad to see someone I know, I just really need a hug." She's from Peru and there is some language issues or hugging issues and she just stared at me with a smile. I said, "No, I Really need a hug." She just couldn't get it, I refused to ask a third time, she did offer to help with my extra cart though. I will tell you something way cool though, this particular store was playing instrumental hymns while I was shopping, I went again yesterday with Molly and we were just amazed to hear hymns while we were shopping-God is everywhere! I don't think it's an intentional thing, I like to think that God just did that for me, whispering, "I'm in this, I'm here with you..."
There have been several frustrating events this week, Thailand adjustment. I'll cover them at some point. Our first night in the house was not restful at all-lots of new noises, this big property is so cool in the daytime but it feels dark and scary at night. It has all these security systems in place that we still have to figure out, the first night we had the outside motion detectors on and I was up twice and Mark twice checking the cameras after it would trigger, it makes a pretty soft beeping noise that Mark was able to sleep through a couple of times but I was unable to, I think one of the thousands of geckos or a moth may have been triggering it, every time I got up to check the security cameras there was nothing. We are running our air-conditioners only at night, each room has its own system, otherwise all our doors and windows are open-surprisingly, there are few flying bugs that get into the house. Anyway, the first night our air unit leaked continuously on the floor enough to soak two beach towels during the night and to make a really annoying dripping sound all night. Just wasn't restful that first night! Plus, we are sleeping on brand new hard mattresses that are covered in plastic until our sea shipment arrives, at least we weren't on the hard tile floor. The boys seemed to do okay way on the other side of the house thankfully. After four nights and the air system being repaired it's getting easier to sleep. So Wednesday's frustrations were compounded by the fact that I had no sleep the night before. My second and third trip weren't nearly as traumatic.
After feeling scared the first night, I made it my mission the next day to get out and meet the neighbors, they have no idea what has moved in next door!! There are several housed with 6 foot fences and locked gates near us and we are surrounded by lots of Thai people-they are easy to greet just hard to communicate with and the others are walled in and hard to catch. The first day I did manage to meet Nong and her husband that own a little hut by our house and sell cokes, water..I bought a tall water for 10 Baht and tried to explain to them I'm their new neighbor. They have a 5 dogs that lounge around the place and their new house that they are so proud of looks just like a small chapel, if it just had a cross above the front door. I have to carry a stick as I walk because of all the dogs running around. I met another lady on my trek, no English but she smiled a lot and she has a little outside hut I think we might could walk to and eat at. Her name is Birda. As I was returning home I saw a vehicle coming out of one of the compounds that had a basketball goal, so I flagged them down and said, "Howdy!" (Not really about the Howdy but a funny story, Songkran our driver greeted me with a big smile and Howdy one morning this week, it made me laugh! I don't know where in the world he had heard that but guess he could tell it was an appropriate greeting in my case. I tried to explain to him that my Dad is a cowboy and has woo-us (cows), he just smiles a lot, I really like that about him. Anyway, it didn't take long for the new neighbors to figure out I was from America, I was unsure about them. Lee is Cambodian and Sheryl his wife is from the Philippines but they lived in Kansas for over 30 years and both of their boys, Justin 14 and Tyler 9 were born in Kansas. They are only two houses down and were very friendly and not put off by my bombarding them with questions. But because of them I post Our House with a big ?
Last night, the boys came down with a friend to meet our boys, after 30 minutes or so they warmed up to each other. Ironically, I had just made my first batch of hot sauce here and we had two medium bags of some sort of corn chip that we sacrificially shared with them. It took less than 5 minutes for the 6 guys to devour them, they liked the hot sauce (I mean hot, I used 3 little Thai peppers, little about 1 inch a piece and it was smoking. Make the hair on your chest curl as my granddaddy would say!) They weren't a hard group to please though, they said their favorite Mexican food place in the states is Taco Bell, we'll try not to hold that against them though. Shortly thereafter their Dad-Lee came to visit and at one point he told us that he just wanted us to know that Dennis our landlord is in big financial trouble and Lee is personal friends with the builder of this house and they are filing charges against Dennis because he hasn't paid anything on this house. The builder was upset that he had leased it when it is going to the court system, so now you understand the ?. Mark will call our realtor today and just make sure he is abreast of the situation and what we should do. Pray that God will make his will clear to us, if we have to find another house I hope that it can be determined before our sea shipment arrives, right now it would be kinda like moving out of a hotel. I really don't want to have to look again and the boys like this property already, just pray with us. Really it may be no worries at all, the Thai court system is infamous for being slow, slow and we may be gone before it becomes an issue. Our Landlord has been very nice and helpful to us but he is really not liked in this neighborhood, more of that later.
Another prayer concern the political unrest here. We have felt very safe, most of the problems have been contained to Bangkok and the Government center. Some Exxon people were stranded in Phuket when three airports were closed in Thailand because of the protesters and had to take a 17 hour bus ride back to Pattaya. But here is how it affects us personally. The sea dock employees went on strike in support of one of the political parties, the dock where our sea containers are supposed to arrive today or tomorrow, we've been told this will be a one day or two strike. We sure hope. Once it gets to the dock it will take 1-2 weeks to clear customs. It sure will be nice to have our couch, a chair, more dishes-I brought a 5 piece place setting with silverware, one small skillet, a sauce pan, a cake pan, a cookie sheet, sheets for our beds, our pillows, a towel a piece, some beach towels-that all came on our air shipment, that arrived safe and sound on Tuesday afternoon. Okay, I've talked your ears off and I need to get some work done, much more later. Love you and miss you all. I'm so grateful our LA friends were spared Gustav's wrath and are safe and sound. Our Bible study group on Friday morning here were praying for you all, we actually have a woman from New Orleans that is a part of the group-anyway you all were in our thoughts and prayers. Much love!! Here's pictures of the empty ? house, you can see my challenges with the big open room and the deck needs furniture and tons of plants, a thing at a time though.
Anyway, back to the grocery store. I went to Carrfour which is the French version of WalMart. The meat is just in trays, chicken parts just piled up, uncovered, unrefrigerated in bins and you bag it up and take it to someone to weigh. I'm trying not to think with a Western mindset. Did you know that eggs don't have to be refrigerated at all? I stick with the brown only slightly dirty eggs and veer away from the smaller, bluish, gray eggs-quail eggs perhaps? There is no thought of Costco size packaging, I'm going to be at the grocery store at least once a week, at least! The largest container of milk is a quart or the metric equivalent. It's hard to tell the butcher how many grams you want of hamburger meat or what degrees Celsius to cook it. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate over here and both it and flour come in plastic bags, I had two carts full and you have to put them on a downhill escalator without steps...are you sensing some of the adjustment I'm having to go through, and that's just a jaunt to the grocery store. I actually saw a girl from my Bible study as I was leaving, in this huge store, I was so excited! A friend-I ran up to her and said, "I'm so glad to see someone I know, I just really need a hug." She's from Peru and there is some language issues or hugging issues and she just stared at me with a smile. I said, "No, I Really need a hug." She just couldn't get it, I refused to ask a third time, she did offer to help with my extra cart though. I will tell you something way cool though, this particular store was playing instrumental hymns while I was shopping, I went again yesterday with Molly and we were just amazed to hear hymns while we were shopping-God is everywhere! I don't think it's an intentional thing, I like to think that God just did that for me, whispering, "I'm in this, I'm here with you..."
There have been several frustrating events this week, Thailand adjustment. I'll cover them at some point. Our first night in the house was not restful at all-lots of new noises, this big property is so cool in the daytime but it feels dark and scary at night. It has all these security systems in place that we still have to figure out, the first night we had the outside motion detectors on and I was up twice and Mark twice checking the cameras after it would trigger, it makes a pretty soft beeping noise that Mark was able to sleep through a couple of times but I was unable to, I think one of the thousands of geckos or a moth may have been triggering it, every time I got up to check the security cameras there was nothing. We are running our air-conditioners only at night, each room has its own system, otherwise all our doors and windows are open-surprisingly, there are few flying bugs that get into the house. Anyway, the first night our air unit leaked continuously on the floor enough to soak two beach towels during the night and to make a really annoying dripping sound all night. Just wasn't restful that first night! Plus, we are sleeping on brand new hard mattresses that are covered in plastic until our sea shipment arrives, at least we weren't on the hard tile floor. The boys seemed to do okay way on the other side of the house thankfully. After four nights and the air system being repaired it's getting easier to sleep. So Wednesday's frustrations were compounded by the fact that I had no sleep the night before. My second and third trip weren't nearly as traumatic.
After feeling scared the first night, I made it my mission the next day to get out and meet the neighbors, they have no idea what has moved in next door!! There are several housed with 6 foot fences and locked gates near us and we are surrounded by lots of Thai people-they are easy to greet just hard to communicate with and the others are walled in and hard to catch. The first day I did manage to meet Nong and her husband that own a little hut by our house and sell cokes, water..I bought a tall water for 10 Baht and tried to explain to them I'm their new neighbor. They have a 5 dogs that lounge around the place and their new house that they are so proud of looks just like a small chapel, if it just had a cross above the front door. I have to carry a stick as I walk because of all the dogs running around. I met another lady on my trek, no English but she smiled a lot and she has a little outside hut I think we might could walk to and eat at. Her name is Birda. As I was returning home I saw a vehicle coming out of one of the compounds that had a basketball goal, so I flagged them down and said, "Howdy!" (Not really about the Howdy but a funny story, Songkran our driver greeted me with a big smile and Howdy one morning this week, it made me laugh! I don't know where in the world he had heard that but guess he could tell it was an appropriate greeting in my case. I tried to explain to him that my Dad is a cowboy and has woo-us (cows), he just smiles a lot, I really like that about him. Anyway, it didn't take long for the new neighbors to figure out I was from America, I was unsure about them. Lee is Cambodian and Sheryl his wife is from the Philippines but they lived in Kansas for over 30 years and both of their boys, Justin 14 and Tyler 9 were born in Kansas. They are only two houses down and were very friendly and not put off by my bombarding them with questions. But because of them I post Our House with a big ?
Last night, the boys came down with a friend to meet our boys, after 30 minutes or so they warmed up to each other. Ironically, I had just made my first batch of hot sauce here and we had two medium bags of some sort of corn chip that we sacrificially shared with them. It took less than 5 minutes for the 6 guys to devour them, they liked the hot sauce (I mean hot, I used 3 little Thai peppers, little about 1 inch a piece and it was smoking. Make the hair on your chest curl as my granddaddy would say!) They weren't a hard group to please though, they said their favorite Mexican food place in the states is Taco Bell, we'll try not to hold that against them though. Shortly thereafter their Dad-Lee came to visit and at one point he told us that he just wanted us to know that Dennis our landlord is in big financial trouble and Lee is personal friends with the builder of this house and they are filing charges against Dennis because he hasn't paid anything on this house. The builder was upset that he had leased it when it is going to the court system, so now you understand the ?. Mark will call our realtor today and just make sure he is abreast of the situation and what we should do. Pray that God will make his will clear to us, if we have to find another house I hope that it can be determined before our sea shipment arrives, right now it would be kinda like moving out of a hotel. I really don't want to have to look again and the boys like this property already, just pray with us. Really it may be no worries at all, the Thai court system is infamous for being slow, slow and we may be gone before it becomes an issue. Our Landlord has been very nice and helpful to us but he is really not liked in this neighborhood, more of that later.
Another prayer concern the political unrest here. We have felt very safe, most of the problems have been contained to Bangkok and the Government center. Some Exxon people were stranded in Phuket when three airports were closed in Thailand because of the protesters and had to take a 17 hour bus ride back to Pattaya. But here is how it affects us personally. The sea dock employees went on strike in support of one of the political parties, the dock where our sea containers are supposed to arrive today or tomorrow, we've been told this will be a one day or two strike. We sure hope. Once it gets to the dock it will take 1-2 weeks to clear customs. It sure will be nice to have our couch, a chair, more dishes-I brought a 5 piece place setting with silverware, one small skillet, a sauce pan, a cake pan, a cookie sheet, sheets for our beds, our pillows, a towel a piece, some beach towels-that all came on our air shipment, that arrived safe and sound on Tuesday afternoon. Okay, I've talked your ears off and I need to get some work done, much more later. Love you and miss you all. I'm so grateful our LA friends were spared Gustav's wrath and are safe and sound. Our Bible study group on Friday morning here were praying for you all, we actually have a woman from New Orleans that is a part of the group-anyway you all were in our thoughts and prayers. Much love!! Here's pictures of the empty ? house, you can see my challenges with the big open room and the deck needs furniture and tons of plants, a thing at a time though.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Off-Line
I will be off line for two weeks or so as we wait to have internet placed in our new home, how am I going to survive without email contact that long?? I guess it will give me lots of extra time to set up a household in Thailand. We will check out of our hotel in the morning and spend our first night in our new home tomorrow night. Now that it's a done deal I feel scared, hoping and praying this really is the house for us. The boys reminded me how God opened the door at this particular house for us to lease it. I will have pictures some time and tell you the whole story about how it all came about. I don't want you all to see pictures until I have had a chance to warm it up a tad. It's a brand new house that has never been lived in. It has a pretty pool and a nice size pond with a huge yard and 6 foot rock fence around the perimeter. Every bedroom opens up unto the pool, it has one huge family kitchen area, that will be the challenge area, trying to arrange the furniture in such a way that it feels homey. It's flooring is entirely tile to help keep it cooler which also adds to the cold feeling..We had very good news though, we were notified that our sea container should be in Thailand by September 5, it can stay in customs for up to two weeks but we were fully expecting that it could be 4-6 more weeks before we received our furnishings. Our landlord graciously left 3 beds and one small table with 5 chairs in the house for us. We have linen in our air shipment with a setting of dishes for each of us, a bare minimum of pots and pans, some additional clothes, and our computers. How about this for a new address: Mark Northcutt 43/54, Moo 1, Pornchai Vithee 10, Off Crocodile Farm Lane, Banglamung Chomburi, 20150 Thailand, does that crack you up? How in the world am I ever going to commit that to memory? Pray for us as we start our new life off Crocodile Farm Lane.
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