Saturday Service

With the campaign going on and Saturday being never worked territory (at least for like a decade) we had some 25 people out.

The territory was quite far out Petkasem.  I live off Petkasem Soi (Road) 16, and the territory was at Petkasem Soi 116.  I was on the bus about an hour before we got there and left the house a bit after 8 in order to be there at around 9:30 - and was EARLY, believe it or not!

However, one faithful couple in our hall lives in that very territory, and makes the journey for every single meeting.  Additionally they had the Whole group to their house for a homemade lunch once preaching was concluded at noon.  Below are the pics :D

 

 

Crazy Calls Part 2: A Thai Study, Dinner and Me

Ok so "tomorrow" is, in fact, today a week later, but what do expect on Kendal Thai Central?

Thursday before last I spent the day with a Japanese sister, Chiaki (whom I adore, though per Rakhi she can be quite the task master preaching door to door! She's very serious about helping others improve their Thai.)  Last call of the day was a quick visit with a woman she studies with.

Soo Lin is very sweet and sat us down and gave us the last of her milk to drink, and as we discussed the Can the dead live again? tract she became teary eyed - she'd lost her father within the past year and still very much missed him.

She speaks some English and invited Chiaki and me to dinner on Tuesday, along with some others who have joined Chiaki on the study previously.  She had a thing of Spaghetti she was talking about making, but then Dtom Yum (a spicy, delightful soup) was also mentioned, so I wasn't sure exactly what the menu was going to be - spaghetti, or dtom yum, possibly both - maybe eaten together.  It is Thailand.

So Tuesday came along and Chiaki, Ashley (sister from Canada via service in Dominican Rep.) Candy (Indian Thai sister who speaks Hindi, Thai and English), Sister Udom (Candy's Mom) and I headed for the study's house, which is just a few houses down from a local market.

We arrive and the study is cooking, but hands Chiaki a list of things we still need from the market.  OK.  Then, she has us taste the green curry she's making, worried it may be too spicy; it's not by me :)  Then she excitedly shows me the spaghetti, asking if I know how to make spaghetti.  Of course.  She then shows me the bottle of Heinz ketchup - Thai's often use ketchup on their spaghetti and pizza as sauce.

As I head to the market with Chiaki and Candy, I come to realize this was no mere show and tell, nor her question of can I make spaghetti simple curiosity.  I'm making the spaghetti.

Oh Dear.  So I go to the market, buy some moo sup (ground pork), mushrooms, basil, onions and tomatoes then return to the study's house to prepare the spaghetti while the study and her sister in law video tape me periodically and snap pictures so they'll be able to do it themselves.

Thank heavens Ashley was also there to help a giggle at the situation with.  It was interesting - when I put the water on to boil for the noodles I, of course, added salt.  They thought it was for flavoring only - I don't think they'd ever heard that salt made the water boil faster.

Otherwise I stir fried the meat, onions and garlic, then added in the tomatoes and mushrooms - but had to balk a bit at adding the ketchup.  I know it's very Thai, but I just couldn't do it.  Instead I tossed in the noodles, and said we could each add the ketchup ourselves...or not.

All in all, despite the initial shock, it was a good night, the spaghetti turned out okay - and half the people topped it with green curry anyhow.  Ah Thailand :)

Sorry, no pics this time - my phone was dead.

Still, I am becoming better at cooking in the Thai kitchen (or lack thereof in the case of my apartment which is now equipped with an electric skillet, electric kettle and rice cooker).  With so many Witnesses in the same building as me Rakhi has compared it to a miniature Bethel.  Ashley is the Kitchen (thankfully), I've been dubiously dubbed IT (believe it or not), Rakhi (who is a nurse) is the infirmary and Terry and Alanna are HQ.

Not sure what titles Luke and Brian received - though since Luke is an Elder I think the comment was made that's where you go if you get in trouble...Eep.  Thankfully that hasn't happened as of yet to anyone. :)

So anywho, with so many people (and a couple fridges) cooking at home often makes sense, since for about the same price as eating out you can feed the building too, or save the leftovers and eat for the week.  I had mexican(ish) night in my room a couple weeks ago and tomorrow Ashley is making pizza.

Went to the grocery today and got a packet of Mussaman curry flavoring (a spicy peanut curry that they usually add to chicken and potatos and possibly eggplant) may try it out come Wednesday, see how that goes.

Also couldn't resist the markets across the street from the mall (malls have grocery stores here), and splurged a little on a new top - but it's so cute!!! (and only about $4)  Plan on wearing it tomorrow to immigration - guessing the asymetry is going to drive Ashley nuts (ba dump bump - get it because it's a squirrel).


So yeah it's 11;28 pm here, and clearly I'm getting a little punchy.

I'll have to go back in time soon and post pics of the Thai district convention - wait until you get a load of the baptism pool!

 

Crazy Calls

So we all know Return Visits can go any direction, but I've had a couple lately that were of particular note.

Getting Lost with the Hindi Crowd

In case you hadn't yet heard the exciting news, there is now an official Hindi Pre-Group at Thonburi (my KH).  They have a Sunday meeting twice a month, and their own FS group everyday but Wednesday, when they meet together with the Thai.  The group currently consists of 2 brothers and about 5 sisters.

So last Wednesday one of the sisters, Rakhi and I had a plan.  We'd preach together in Thai for the first part of the morning, then I'd go with her on a call she'd met the week before in that territory.

Part 1 of the Plan went off without a hitch.  Then Terry showed us on the territory map where Rakhi's call was, and off we went to wait for our bus.  Which wasn't coming.  However little song taos (basically trucks with seats in the back and a cap) kept coming and I was able to read that they went to Talat Plu, which is where we needed to go.  After affirming with Rakhi that she was feeling adventurous, we took a Song tao.

Territory map - * is Rakhi's call

And went to the end of the line, confused the driver and got dropped off next to a very large sign declaring "Talat Plu" :)  Fortunately we saw another couple of brothers, who guided us in the right direction. (And FYI we had actually been on the right track already - Yay me!!!)

We start walking, find an area we believe is familiar, but no it's from another day we worked in the territory, so we walk on.  Eventually we find #21, the road we're looking for (Realize here that Thailand can be worse than Athens when it comes to marking roads).  By now Rakhi is done walking and decided to give her RV a call to find the most direct route to their house.  Instead of giving directions, he comes to pick us up on the family motorbike.

You ever tried to fit 3 people on a motorbike?  In Thailand it's fairly common, sometimes you see the who family PLUS their dog, but Rakhi and I are both wearing skirts and would much prefer to sit sidesaddle, which you can't really do with 3 people.  Fortunately I was wearing shorts under my skirt so I bit the bullet and straddled the bike, then Rakhi sat sidesaddle behind me, arms wrapped around my waist as though hanging on for dear life.

Halfway through the ride she tells me she's only half on the bike!  Eek.


Then we get to the house - only it's not her RV's house, but home to a group of Indians whom Rakhi has been told need to hear her message also.  So we sit down.  Primarily we talk to an older Indian woman who has lived in Thailand 30 years, but other people drift through, and in two back rooms I can see people listening intently, though they don't come out.

At some points Rakhi had an audience of 8 or 9 people!

Rakhi ends with the Bible's promise of everlasting life, which greatly interests the woman, who demands to know how to get this.  Rakhi tells her next time, and the subject of food comes up.  Rakhi's RV is going to feed us, which then raises a question amongst the group - a question i still get a chuckle at:

Does the white girl eat Indian food?

Rakhi answers yes.  (Of course.)  Though they continue to reasure that it's just chicken and rice.

So we get back on the motorbike and head to the RV's home...where the RV announces to all his Thai neighbors that a "falang" (white person) is visiting him, and she speaks Thai too!  I felt like quite the spectacle...but they were all very sweet.  Brian has made the comment that it's unusual for a white person to take an interest in the Indians (or the Thai, for that matter) so it makes them curious.  Also, per Rakhi, this family is from a little town in India, so not used to seeing foreigners.

There I meet his wife and son, whom Rakhi had also spoken with previously, and the wife is reminding Rakhi that she'd promised to answer her question (though now I don't remember what the question was...)

 

We all sit on the floor together and Rakhi talks about the Bible with them.  Then the wife makes us Indian food - a yummy, slightly spicy dish of Chicken with rice, coated in a soup-like curry.

I've had Indian food previously, but it's been fairly limited - and I've certainly not had proper instructions on how to eat it!  So I'm looking to Rakhi for guidance.  Only she and I eat, so I feel even more awkward.  We're given spoons to eat it with, and Rakhi explains it's an adoption of Thai custom, because Indians prefer to eat with their hands.

While we eat the Uncle (a term for an older Indian man, not necessarily blood related at all, which can make figuring out actual relationships tricky) cuts up a vegetable for us.  Look good.  Do I use my spoon, which I've been eating off of to get it?  I whisper this to Rakhi, who's like just use your hands.

So I place the cucumber like slice on my plate by hand, then use my spoon to chop it and eat it.  Mm, wrong.  Another Indian man has wandered in (no clue the relation) and is reading over the Bible Teach Book, but stops to demonstrate, pick up with hand, and eat, no detour to the plate or spoon necessary.

It gets better.  I finish the food and have picked the meat off the chicken bones the best I can using the spoon, so set down my dish.  The wife is speaking in Hindi and gesturing - clearly I've done something wrong, while the husband says "Mai bpen lai, mai bpen lai", "don't worry about it".  Rakhi is clearly also conflicted, but eventually translates that normally they pick the bones clean so as to not have any waste.  Which I do.

Except now my hands are gunky.  We're brought water with ice in it, and Rakhi uses it to rinse her fingers over her plate.  But I just can't do it.  It'd be wasting good drinking water, so I use a wet wipe I have in by bag.

Then we finish the study and the RV's son and the other man who'd come in gave us rides to Wong Wian Yai (thankfully they'd determined that 3 to a bike didn't work so well) which was very sweet of them.  And after that lovely Indian meal, I, of course, had to buy some Indian cookies from the bakery.


Which the RV's son thought was hilarious, after Rakhi totally gave up my Indian mitai (sweets) addiction.


 And this has, of course, ended up a lot longer than anticipated...so tune in tomorrow for part two: A Thai Study, Dinner and Me.

Hanging with the Cool Kids :)

 Oh yes and they were mortified!

Just Kidding!  This is Amara and Appun, two lovely Thai sisters who invited me to eat with them after the meeting.  Appun mostly just speaks Thai, but Amara is fluent in English - and helped me with my abominable Thai.

Apparently I've been saying Free (Wang with a rising tone) instead of Sweet (Wan with a falling then rising tone).  No wonder I've gotten such funny looks asking for my coffee little bit free!

We ate (bottom of the picture, starting from left) Moo Yaang (grilled pork with dipping sauce), som tom boo (spicy papaya salad with pickled crab), and som tom kai kim (papaya salad with salty egg).  All very arroi (delicious, which I say a LOT and apparently ALSO say incorrectly, as do most foreigners according to Amara.  Oh well...)  This is all Isaan food - the place from which we also get my all time favorite food, Nam Dtok.  Mmmm....  Haven't had that as of yet since I've been back, but have had loads of Guay Dteow, possibly my next favorite Thai dish.

Anywho had loads of fun - Appun is super sweet and Amara is sassy and sarcastic, so we get along great.  They, I believe, most enjoyed laughing at all my faux pas - I asked if I could make a call instead of take this picture...(torisup instead of tairoop) yes this is me blushing.  Fortunately Amara loves hamming it up to the camera :)

Meeting was lovely also - Brother Shoko gave the public talk.  What an amazing Japanese brother!  He and his wife Fami had been here six months when I came last time, were already conversing in Thai, and now he's already giving public discourses!  Oh and did I mention that they also both speak English and I believe Fami speaks Korean as well!  They're my heroes.  Wow!

While I was away the (official!) pre-Hindi group has begun having their own meeting in the back library every other Sunday.  So far their interested ones had come on the wrong Sunday!  But today they got it right and had three additional attendees, including Amrit, a call I had gone on with Dayanna (I believe...)!  How fantastic is that!  Brian is trying to convince me to join, and just how easy the Hindi alphabet is.  Interesting sidenote - the Hindi songbook only has 55 songs.  I'm curious as they why, I must admit, if it's planned to translate the rest, or if they don't translate well culturally??? Dunno.  Oh and the group is up to 6 members!  Though two may be leaving soon :(  Seems I'm just driving everyone out of the country!

Moving on, I had a small victory (for me) today.  I commented in Thai for the 2nd meeting in a row.  Don't know if anyone understood me, but hey I commented, which for me is not easy!  However Candy (and others) remarked that it's encouraging to others, so I keep trying.  On the plus side, even if speaking Thai is still a daily, hourly, secondly struggle, reading is becoming increasingly easy - especially the Watchtower, which I LOVE.  (Tho during the watchtower today that cheeky boy Beam tried to steal my brand new English Bible - Can you believe that!)

Well, now I have some more personal study (Seuksa suan dtua) to do, along with a week's worth of dishes (that I accumulated in only 5 days - yes I'm that good).

A Thai Haircut

So finally got brave (here read desperate) enough to get my hair cut here in Thailand (it's REALLY hot here, I think the official greeting has changed to "Ron chai mai?" Hot isn't it?)

Christina was brave enough to go to a place in our soi and they did good so I thought I'd do the same, though I wanted a bit more off than her - after 6 months my hair was looking quite shaggy.  The salon was open and the hairdressers unoccupied this evening, so I took off my flip flops and stepped on in.  Had the gentlest, longest shampoo job ever - three different products were used - then sat with my hair dresser flipping through magazines for a picture of what I'd like.

The picture I ended up choosing was a bit too long for my hair, so I wasn't exactly sure what I'd end up with... but she promised to "Tam suay", she'd make pretty :) She took her time and was very detailed - she went over each section of my hair at least three times then spent a good 15 minutes drying it - my hair has never received so much attention in its life!

And I was quite pleased with the end result (though you can judge for yourself below) - at least thus far, I've not styled it myself, but it seems to have a good, strong shape to it - and it's sooooo much cooler!  I don't care what anyone says, while a ponytail may be convenient, just knowing all that hair is back there makes me sweat - chopping it off is way to go :)

Grand total for this extravagance?  180 Baht - $6, plus the tip of 40 baht I chose to give, though Thai's don't customarily tip.  What can I say?  I really appreciate it when my hairdresser is patient and thorough.

 

The Big Transformation

BEFORE...

Heh heh heh, ok for real... but that is about how I felt!!!

 

 Before (Two weeks ago at Bethel)

Do you see how long the back is??? Ugh!

After

How great is the back???  At six bucks a pop, I would actually consider maintaining such a tight cut with the suggested trim every 4-6 weeks!

Apparently I should have stopped trying to communicate in the same language as my hairdresser years ago!

Ao Nang/Krabi

Breakfast in Krabi

79 Steak restaurant in Krabi.  Food was good in Krabi, but in general the town is entirely skippable.

My breakfast - mmmmmmm....

Ao Nang

This view was about 10 feet from where we stayed. Ao Nang is absolutely stunning. My only complaint is that it is abit expensive because it is definitely on the tourist route.

Where we stayed. We actually bartered for our room and the owner came down 100 baht! Really a verynicelitle place - Baan lay bungalows.

The beach - there was a portion after a gate called the last fisherman where the entire left side were massage gazebos with beds. Can have a massage and listen to the sound of the waves.

In town.

Our dinner, we shared Mussaman curry (peanut,coconut chicken) and a green curry. They were both delish, though spicy (my mouth was pleasantly on fire). South Thailand has More of a Malaysian / Indian influence so curries are everywhere. I enjoyed it immensely!!

Dayanna with Blinky (he was dehydrated - long story :)

Our last night in Ao Nang. We were both wanting a good burger so decided to splurge and eat right on the beach - our total bill was 400 baht for both!!!! ($13)

Bridge leaving Ao Nang - isn't it cute?

Our final brekky (breakfast in Australian tho please forgive the spelling) in Ao Nang. Sitting there as I write this sharing a pot of Coffee with Day. Ahhh its atough life ;p

Next we head back to Hua Hin and from there home to Bangkok and Day's last week here :(

Phuket (note said Poo-Ket)

 On the boardwalk in Phuket.

 sweet payback for the pics of innocent me sleeping now floating about - Dayanna looking so comfortable on the train to Surat Thani third class (only 244 baht!)- from there we took the bus to Phuket.

 Our lunchtime view.

 The lovely couple kind enough to put us up for a few nights.

 Dinner at the catfish grill, food was Amazing!!! (I got the peanut chicken).

Heading on to Krabi.

We also spent one day sea canoeing in caves under some of the islands near Phuket - pictures to come...