Another look Back: CC's Going Away Party

One of the tough things about serving where the need is greater is that of constantly having to say good-bye as people move on to other assignments.  Since I've been back, Christina (aka CC) and Aki have returned home and Kerry and Winston (both from Australia and here for a month or so total) have come and gone.  It's a bittersweet experience.



The Girl of the Hour, along with Brian and Br. Takayuki

 Today, though, I'm writing about Christina's well supported going away party.  Because there were so many ones invited it was held at a barbeque restaurant.  You pick your meat, veggies and noodles raw then cook it at the table yourself.  It's buffet style, so you can have as much as you like, but if you waste food you'll be charged extra.  Sounded fair to me.

It was a bit difficult for me as all this had to be accomplished using chopsticks.  I regularly either couldn't pick up the meat or ended up dropping it in my sauce - eek!  Still, after I got past my original trepidation at trying something new, it was a lot of fun and the food was quite delightful.  My favorite combo was grilled beef with a spicy green sauce - which was very odd to the Thai friends because that's apparently a sauce used for fish.

What do want?  I am a bit odd :)

For the less adventurous there was also precooked foods, sala bao (steam buns), fruits and even ice cream!


Group Shots!  We filled two whole tables!

 Note Mito, sister on the right two back.  In every photo taken she's doing some sort of hilarious pose with food.  Before this we'd not hung out a lot, partly because she has limited English, I have no Japanese and my last visit we both only had a little Thai.  Now we mostly communicate in Thai - though I also have to be careful what I say in English...which I sometimes forget.

 

Funny story, I was saying I'd like some more soda, but my glass was taken, and Alanna suggested that I use one of the other glasses since she knew I'd previously shared drinks with Dayanna.  I said it's different, I knew who I was sharing with.  So she points at one glass and says, well that belonged to either Luke or Brian, and I respond (joking) Ewww, boys have cooties!  And Mito, who'd been standing nearby, burst out laughing.  Oh you'd understood that???  Oops.  Hee hee hee.

 

 

You'll find when taking group photos here - you can only manage to stay out of one - then a well meaning sister will offer to take the photo so you can be in it - and there is no getting around it. 

Raywot and Terry being silly -
like you'd need to warm your hands in Thailand!

Fami with desert - cream filled steam buns mmm...

 

 

A Retrospective Look back: To the Convention

Okay so it wasn't That long ago since I went to my first District Convention (or at least that how I'm soothing my conscience), but I think now is the time to (finally) post the experience.

Before session started:

Left: Ashley sitting pretty in the auditorium.
Right: Alanna with her new Bible - she'd just received it recently and almost didn't want to open it!  Thailand wasn't part of the annual meeting, so many English speakers here are still waiting on their Bible - went to Bangkok English meeting just last week and most of the audience still had the old New World.

I'm unsure why, but I expected the Thai convention to be the same size as our conventions back home.  This is, of course, completely illogical when you consider that we regularly have 7,000 people at a convention, but Thailand's total publishers for the ENTIRE COUNTRY is half that.  Hence, in size it was more like a Circuit Assembly.

I hadn't been back in Thailand long before the convention, so I must admit I was worried about how much I would understand - and with all the mental exertion if I would fall asleep ignominiously.

It was a definite Plus that I'd gone to the convention in English.  I didn't feel stressed about missing a point, because I'd already taken it in at English.  Also, since I'd taken notes I could then follow along almost point by point, and (depending on the subject and speaker) understood more than I expected.

At one point I turned to Alanna to say: Hey I totally understand this speaker and she replies he's Japanese.  Ironic, but true, other foreigners are sometimes easier to understand than the native Thai speakers.  Reason being they typically talk slower and enunciate more clearly.  I also theorize that they have a vocabulary similar to mine because if they came here to serve they probably picked up most of their vocab from our publications.

As is often the case, the Baptism was of particular note, yet a bit different from the US.  Fortunately I'd been a bit prepared after attending Assemblies in English and Thai during my last visit.

My View from the 2nd floor:

Note the size of the pools.  They reach maybe to mid-thigh, so they have people carefully watching to be sure the person is fully submersed.  There were a couple, few poor souls who had to be dunked a second time.

 The pool on the left was used for sisters, the right for brothers.  However, the brother line moved much faster than the one for sisters, so by the end sisters were going to both pools.

 And an official group shot of all the baptismal candidates before they got wet :)  Why don't we do this I wonder???

Alanna with the new tract - very exciting!  Especially after doing last months campaign, I have a new appreciation for the set up of these tracts.  They're amazingly easy to use and follow up on!

Ashley was so excited I believe she'd placed all her tracts on the bus that night before we'd even returned home!  I believe she also placed many of her new brochures - Thai received some brochures newly translated into their language in addition to the other publications we received in English.

My most exciting addition - the Imitate their Faith book.  I been slowly making headway studying the Thai since then.  It's particularly slow going since I never run out of things to study in Thai and preparing for the meeting and field service has to take precedence.

Ah the life of a language learner.  Always, always more to be learnt.

To conclude the day we were trying to do a group shot, but clearly had some difficulties keeping straight faces.

 Sadly I don't remember now what was even so funny, but third times the charm.

On Monday Morning

Our usual Monday field service group is taken care of by two older Thai brothers, Bro Suchan and Bro Sextan.  They take this responsibility very seriously.  This Monday was a bit of an adventure to get to the territory (we meet on the territory rather than at a set location).

The morning starts with a bit of excitement as I'm crossing the footbridge to the bus stop.  I look to the right and happily see a number of sisters waiting.  Yay!  I'll be able to find the territory!  Then I look to the left and see the number 7 bus coming - this is the bus they'll be taking.  I speed up my pace and run most of the way to the bus stop - who knows if when another 7 will come and IF I'll be able to find the territory on my own!  But I make it okay - and not even particularly out of breath.  Sister Yoko is smiling at me - tells me I was fast :)  Hey, catching the bus is serious business!

We took the 7 Bus up Petkasem rd, past Seacon mall first.  I see Seacon is celebrating Christmas right now with several Santas in sleighs being pulled, randomly enough, by horses painted in a variety of colors and patterns.  To the side, 3 of these circus horses are sitting dog-style watching.  Not really sure how this relates to the holiday, but it's a curious display nonetheless, I'll have to take a picture if I get the chance - words don't do the wackiness justice.  It just demonstrates, to my mind, what Christmas is like to people that only celebrate it because it seems the fun thing to do - there's not really religiousness, or tradition involved - last year's decoration was giant gummy bears, some of which wore Santa beards.

Next we pass Tesco, Bangkok's version of Walmart, and finally the Mall Bangkae, (also unfortunately decorated for Christmas, but more traditionally and no spelling mistakes).  These are my general landmarks on Petkasem.  If something is far away it's past Bangkae.

Territory was past Bangkae, but only by one road.  The bus turns on Petkasem 69 and we continue on our way.  I didn't make it out last week so I watch the sisters I'm travelling with for cues as to if it's close.  No one seems to be collecting their bags, so I settle back to watch the scenes go by until we get off.

We reach the destination and the group of us disembark and turn down a side street - this, I notice, was the road name on the territory board at the hall that I'd been unable to understand.  So we get to walking, and it is a fair distance.  At one point the group pauses to discuss if we were supposed to meet at the bok soi - mouth, or entrance of the street - but the discussion ends when Sister Wan Sai goes buzzing by on a motorcycle taxi, motioning us onward.

We make it to the meeting point and Brother Sexton breaks out our breakfast snacks - crackers and mayonnaise.  Okay, here I'll admit that I thought ew for a moment.  Who puts mayo on crackers?  But, now having tried it it's actually not bad.  And brother Sexton is insistent that we eat it all - he's such a sweety :)  This is actually a normal Monday morning - Brother Sexton always provides snacks in the morning and then lunch at the end of group - and Brother Suchan will regularly treat the group to waters or sodas or coffees during our midmorning break - and for the record you can't say no.  The generosity is heart touching.

I also always find this to be so remarkable.

When you venture into the touristy areas of Bangkok you find a vicious cycle being played out.  Foreigner tourists are suspicious of the Thais, convinced they're all out to swindle them, and don't necessarily treat the locals with respect - and Definitely don't respect their customs or even bother to learn them (not to mention the number of tourists that come to Bangkok for immoral purposes).  In turn the Thais in the tourist areas are used to being treated not so nicely, are the ones that move there wanting to make a quick buck, are willing to put up the tourists and now may, in fact, be out swindle them if they can (though it's a bit of chicken/egg scenario).  At the very least, the view is that Foreigners have lots of money and could be their meal ticket - or piggy bank.

Don't get me started on the number of couples you see that are an old white guy and a very young cute Thai girl.

Yet with our Thai brothers and sisters we see the exact opposite.  Rather than seeing us as an income source, they recognize that we're living simply in order to serve here and help with their territory.  They are amazingly kind and generous, even if they don't have much.  Just last Sunday Sister Weena treated Jennifer and I, along with several others to lunch after the meeting - and Monday another sister paid for our bus and songtao back!

Truly this is a demonstration of love being the defining mark of true religion!  Particularly when you consider we're in a country where "rice Christians" (people that go to Church because they'll receive food) are still fairly common.

All in all, it was a good field service day - never worked territory again per Sayaka.  Though there were lots of dogs which made some nervous.  I had one heartbreaking door of a Grandmother watching her two grandkids, who were darling.  Seeing there were kids, I focused on our offer for the month (special to our part of the world) "How to raise responsible children" brochure.  She seemed interested, yet admitted she couldn't read.  How sad!  It's also not terribly uncommon; off hand I can think of at least 4 instances where I've understood this to be their reply.  Sadly yesterday I didn't even have the Listen to God brochure...I'm thinking I may try back with the new brochure for little kids, gage interest in learning then try the Listen to God brochure - after all Jehovah isn't biased against those who can't read!

It's also always a big help to have Sayaka as a partner - she's a language whiz!  Came to Thailand for the first time just a bit before me, yet is now amazingly fluent.  She's always so generous about helping me to improve my Thai and answer language questions I have.  Though a good portion of yesterday we admired Sing Song Saang - things created (i.e. creation) and talked about what we appreciated from last week's Watchtower article.  This came up because of the large number of butterflies we saw yesterday - so delicate, yet as we read the Monarch butterfly travels vast distances.

Our Creator is amazing. :)  And travelling only reinforces this conviction.  Though Alanna made the comment - and I wholeheartedly agree - that it's when we travel and connect with Jehovah's organization that our travels are most memorable, no matter how exotic or ordinary the locale.

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).