Here, north-east of Chiang Rai, at Dan Wiang Doem primary school, I have been asked to help out with conversational English as well as on a Saturday at the Baptist Mission Australia compound where the mission has two homes one rented the other owned by a Thai Christian organisation. One building has been made into a school come accommodation for teams and a permanent worker which at this time was Temjai.
It was my first Saturday in Chiang Rai and I was awake at midnight unable to sleep for a couple of hours before dozing off again. I was half asleep when I heard the roosters but ignored them as I knew they often crowed long before dawn. When I heard the birds start their morning song I knew it was time to get up, it was 6am. There were a few things I wanted to get done before breakfast and before I joined the Baan Sawang (House of Light) classes at 9am. When I got to class, I introduced myself to the students and staff then hung around for a bit before I decided to return to the house as I couldn’t see where I could productively join in.
Later that morning Tamjai messaged me to come and help with the older class. This class was learning future tense; Temjai had prepared some games to help them construct sentences. She divided the class into two groups of seven, and she too one group and me the other. I felt a lot more useful. We joined the groups together at the desks to finish with finding and writing the correct sentence to go with the picture on the page, and we helped when students found it difficult. By 11:30am all the classes were finished and parents arrived to take the children home.
I went back to the house for a little break before joining Tamjai who drove us to a local food store which had an array of different dishes to choose from. It’s not far from the school, about 11 mins walk from where I live and I think will become a familiar eatery for my lunch as it’s not far from the local school where I’ll be teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays. We sat there awhile getting to know each other before driving further down the road, just for a look around. Tamjai just wanted me to see there really wasn’t much more to offer in the way of food shops or stores. Returning home, I wanted to cook up some of the vegies I’d bought to eat with the noodles I’d also bought at the night market. If I didn’t eat it they would soon go off and as we were going to church and out for lunch the following day it had to be cooked and eaten that afternoon. Although lunch had been a small plate, I was really full after this second lunch. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and crashed out for an hour.
I was surprised that night that by 8:30pm I was again tired and fell asleep quickly. I did wake around 2:30am so read my Bible studies online before putting on my wave sound and falling asleep within the hour. I realised the roosters were also awake at 3am so not to be trusted as a morning alarm, instead I waited for the birds who are a more reliable alarm clock. I was up again by 6am, I didn’t hear the temple loudspeakers this morning, was I just getting used to it? They usually don’t worry me as I usually am awake before the start, unlike the call to prayer from the mosques. Praise the Lord there aren’t many in the north of Thailand and none around here.
9:30am on Sunday, I drove Temjai to church. I thought it would be good practice as I had a navigator and co-pilot helping me. It was quite a distance; in fact it was on the outskirts of Chiang Rai. The service was ok as it had English with Thai translation in both the message and songs, which made the service quite long. I was able to get some tracts, which I hope to give out during my stay here, although I’m not sure I’d want them to attend this church as I didn’t really agree with the message that morning. Still they are evangelical so I’d have to commit it all to the Lord.
On the way home we pulled over to buy some durian, but it was a bit firm for my liking so when I saw the markets we stopped there too. I bought some Esan sausage which I’ll keep for another day and some more durian which was softer. In fact it was the best texture and flavour from all the durians I’ve tasted thus far. From the market we drove towards the house, stopping off at a place called Horizons for lunch. The prices were more than I thought they would be and more than I usually pay but I had promised Temjai that I’d pay as she had bought the previous lunch we had together. To be able to use my card we needed to spend 500 Baht so we added on a slice of cheese cake to share between us. Then after, I can’t remember how many attempts were made, the card was still not being accepted so I ended up paying in cash. It was a lovely meal with some left overs for me to take home to eat with my sausage the following day.
The rest of the afternoon we both relaxed at our individual homes. Actually I decided to try to reapply for my Indonesian visa and that wasn’t so relaxing! This time after filling in all the information and still not knowing how to pay, I asked Google AI which explained I needed to click on the registration number which then took me through to another page asking for a verification code which was sent to my email address. Once entered I was able to fill in all the payment details and Voila! The payment went through. Now the wait for the acceptance and my eVisa. That amazingly enough only took a few seconds! But then the link didn’t work, saying the server was down. Oh dear this procedure has many complexities! At every stage there are what seem to be unrelated links or those that are not obvious. For example to pay your fee you don’t click on the highlighted ‘payment due’ at the end of the row of information, which looks like a tab, no you click on the registration number at the beginning of the row which doesn’t have an obvious link attached. This takes you to a page where you need to put in the ID code which was sent to your email address. Once payment is made you will receive another email with what looks like a link to download your visa. It actually says download! No, those links take you online where it says ‘no server found’. I was scratching my head by this time (not due to nits either). Then after sending out a cry for help from my prayer warriors, when I woke at midnight and couldn’t sleep, I tried again and then realised; Oh look there is an attachment at the bottom of the email (not very obvious on my phone) and wow! Look there’s my visa! Hallelujah! Thank you Lord!
I thought I was quite good at this IT stuff. Well I certainly got stumped by this procedure! I’ve written it all down so, God willing, I’ll remember for next time. I don’t remember there being so many confusing steps last time.
Monday morning, having taken 3hrs to get back to sleep, I took it easy getting out of bed but was still up by 7am. I had a chat to Jen who was having breakfast in Bali before she and Ralf headed to Lombok. She had given me an update of her experience getting through immigration. Her passport wasn’t being read by the scanner at the self-check-in so she needed to go to another area. Also the Grab taxi’s had moved their pickup point, but their app would let me know where to go.
There wasn’t much for me to do after that so I pottered around doing things on phone and computer. Then for lunch I cooked up the remaining greens I’d bought from the market, cooked up some fresh rice and heated the leftovers from the day before. It was a feast! I would have loved to be able to watch a movie online but with my VPN in Thailand I’m not able to access my usual catch up TV. It’s far too hot and humid to go out for a walk so instead I cleaned up my email folders. It’s amazing how many emails one keeps just in case! Some from way back in 2014!
I’m still getting eaten by creepy crawlies; I suspect ants as they are so itchy and some bites come up in large welts!
The bed here is so soft I had to take off the pillow mattress protector and still it was too soft, so now I sleep in the middle where it’s a bit firmer. I woke at 3:30am, read a bit and was able to go back to sleep after listening to a couple of rounds of wave sounds. I took my time to get up that morning as I wasn’t going out till 10:15am. It was my first day at school. I walked there with my umbrella up to shade myself from the sun. I messaged Dema to say I had arrived and waited for him to find me. I was taking his class from 10:30-11:30am. He had five student, boys who barely knew any English. I went over some of the work they had on paper then asked them to ask each another the questions. This was difficult as they all had different levels of understanding and spoken English was very limited. After a bit of practice I broke it up by getting them to stand up and sing ‘If you happy and you know it’ with the actions. They weren’t very impressed and reluctantly joined in. One boy was mucking around so I called him to the front and asked him to lead the singing. Mister smarty pants quickly came into line. After this I asked them to construct sentences using the phrases we had learnt and to add words; like “I like to ……… “ ‘play football, go swimming etc’ I hope they learnt something along the way.
After school I walked a little further to where Tamjai and I had eaten lunch the previous day. I asked the store owner if she cooked any of the things I like but she didn’t do those dishes. I explained I didn’t want soupy dishes, I wanted something dry as I wanted to take it home to eat with the rice I’d made, which I had a lot of. She then cooked me up a plate of garlic pork, just a little garlic so my gut wouldn’t complain. We then had a chat both in Thai and English about different things while she cooked. She said she would get the ingredients for Larb moo (pronounced Larp moo and is a typical Thai minced pork dish) and I promised to come back on the Thursday after my class at the school. She also asked if I went to the morning market just down the road from me. I told her I hoped to the following morning (6-8am) and would meet her there; unfortunately she had already finished her shop when I arrived at 6:30am.
When more customers arrived and ordered their lunch, I left her to do her cooking and walked back, stopping at a couple of local stores to look for fresh milk. The 1lt bottles were not available anywhere, so I bought a 250ml bottle instead. I also bought some cabbage which I ate with my rice and garlic pork.
That afternoon Temjai asked if I wanted to go into the city to shop. She knew I would be getting bored having nothing to do at home. I jumped at the chance. We drove into Macro where she wanted to do a bulk shop for things needed for the Saturday school. I asked if we could go to Big C as I could use my card there, although all I really wanted was more milk. I bought 2lt of milk and one of soy to go with my muesli.
Temjai then drove back past the Horizons Café, then stopped at some roadside markets for me to look for some bananas. It poured with rain as I got out of the car but I didn’t mind, I’m not superstitious and don’t believe the old wives’ tale about rain making us ill; it’s the viruses that make us ill not the cold or the rain. I asked a seller if she would cut the hand of bananas in half for me but she said no and laughed with her friends to think I only wanted half. I told her it was only for me and I don’t eat many. She wouldn’t budge so I left. We drove a little further when I spotted some more bananas. This time the lady was more than obliging. As she was cutting the hand in half, she also cut into one of the bananas then gave me the better half. I said no, I’d take the one with the damaged banana, I didn’t mind. She then told me she didn’t want any money for the bananas. I was a bit confused, we were speaking Thai so I thought I had miss understood and asked how much. She said no money, then said; ‘God bless you in Thai’. Oh! Wow! I asked if she was a Christian and she said yes, I said I was also and accepted her kindness praying that the Lord would abundantly bless her for her generosity. I must admit I was feeling guilty for not paying but took note where she was so hopefully I could return the favour by buying from her in the future.
Back at the house, I unpacked, ate some of my Thai desserts then chatted on the phone to Mim in Perth who had sent me all the labels of native plants the shire had given our community garden. It was a lot of fun putting together a plan for where to plant what in the garden and kept me busy till 8pm.
The next morning although I was up during the night, I woke just after 6am, dragged myself out of bed so that I could go to the local morning market. People nodded to me as they passed me walking along the road. One lady sitting outside her house waiting for the monks to collect her food offering asked if I was going to the market to which I replied I was. At the market I could hear everyone talking about the Farang (European) who had come. Some greeted me in Thai to which I responded also in Thai which started more chatter, saying “oh she speaks a little Thai”. I only bought fresh ginger as I thought I was meeting my new friend for coffee but she later messaged me to say she wasn’t well and we should try to catch up next week.
I saw Tamjai earlier that morning who said she was going into the Bandu market in Chiang Rai later that day after her Thai lessons so I asked if I could tag along. We were halfway to her class when her teacher called to say she also wasn’t well. We continued into town anyway, stopping at Central where I wanted to buy some postcard but it seems no-one has them anymore. Or is it because I haven’t visited any tourist spots? We sat inside for a while just enjoying the air conditioning before returning home. I had invited Tamjai to lunch but she declined as she had things to do. I cooked up some of my pork with the tomatoes which needed using up and heated my veg with some soup broth. It wasn’t bad with rice, but a bit spicy as I’d added too many chillies.
That night while getting ready for bed, I was drying myself with the towel when I was bitten/stung three times! I couldn’t see what it was but boy did it burn! I threw my towel into the washing machine. I had planned to do so on Friday but I wasn’t going to use that towel again! What on earth is it that keeps attacking me? To help with the reaction I took a Phenergan before sleeping, which helped prevent the welts. I’m getting really paranoid at all the little stings I constantly feel day and night!
For a few nights now, around 9pm I keep hearing what sounds like gunshots. I asked Temjai about it and she said she thought it was part of a funeral ceremony. She had heard it before and had asked what it was, and was told it was part of a Buddhist funeral to scare away the spirits.
Photos: 1. Flame lily – Gloriosa superb 2. Temjai and Thai helper teaching on Saturday at Baan Sawang 3. Me supervising a game 4. Home restaurant 5. Teaching body at the primary school. “This is a finger”. 6. Village market
Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for helping me adjust to this new routine; for His leading, guidance and protection while I’m here in the north of Thailand.
I appreciate your prayers for my Thai language as I practice with the local Thai people. Please pray that the Lord will continue to use me to be a blessing to others while I’m here and that He will complete the work He has started in me.
Please continue to pray for the Karen families here in Thailand who have applied for visas and permanent residency with their families abroad, especially Matt’s family in Mae Sot. Pray also that their situation in Thailand, while they wait, will improve and that they will be able to provide for their families.
Continue to pray for world peace and countries dealing with major disasters, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause. Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused. Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live with despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.
Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers. Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.