Life at Baan Wiang Doem

Welcome to July!

Well, should I be surprised or not?  The woman, Milkky, I have been trying to meet up with for a coffee cancelled AGAIN!  It’s not as though I had made the initial invitation or suggested we catch up when she came to Chiang Rai, I didn’t.  This time I let her know that I wasn’t sure what I was doing the next week, I told her if I was going into town I’d let her know.  As I had already decided I wanted to do some shopping at Central on our prearranged date, I went into the city anyway.  But instead of going in early for a coffee I had my coffee at the house and went in much later in the day for lunch instead.  Before making my coffee I wanted to grind the beans finer.  To do this I was trying to work out how I was going to hold the central pivot while turning the gauge. Usually I used a pair of plyers but I didn’t have a pair here.  Then all of a sudden it dawned on me.  I don’t need plyers as the handle on the grinder would hold the pivot while I turned the gauge!  Oh boy!  Didn’t I feel rather silly, all this time the solution was right there in my hands! Oh well, good to know for the future if I needed to change it again.

Before driving into town I made up some more kefir so that I could give some to Carolyn and Temjai who had mentioned they would like to give it a try. I then stopped off at Carolyn’s home giving the kefir to Daniel as both Carolyn and Dema were at a funeral. Making my way into town the GPS brought me to Central where it took me awhile to find a park.  I then wandered the three floors looking for the food court and supermarket, eventually finding both on the ground floor.  I ordered another round of Nam Tok Moo, this time without onions. In fact I ordered two, one to take home with me.  I then wandered the aisles of the supermarket looking for things I needed. It was also lovely and cool inside so I took my time to avoid the heat before heading back to the house.

With plenty of time on my hands between my classes and other activities, I started to read a book left by the previous owners called ‘HELP! My Halo’s Slipping’ The Saga of a First-Term Missionary by Larry Dinkins.  Larry writes of his and his wife’s experiences as first term missionaries to Thailand. It reminded me so much of my time here previously and now.  I had to laugh when I read their mission’s school motto, “Du dee dee, fung dee dee, kit dee dee, phud dang dang” meaning “Look carefully, listen carefully, think carefully and speak loudly.”  I laughed as one of the bigger boys in my class was mimicking me with these exact words which I repeatedly say to them at each class.

To help me relearn the Thai language I bought a poster with all the 65 characters – 21 vowels and 44 consonants.  The vowels are written before, above, below or behind the consonant. These bracket the words which are strung together in a sentence of one continuous line, without spacing between the words. Once you get the hang of it you start to see the individual words.  Thai is also a tonal language with five different tones; rising, falling, high, low and middle tones. If you get the right pronunciation but the wrong tone you could be in big trouble.  There are also silent letters, similar to English (eg. knife), such as the silent ending on Laos (pronounced Lao the ‘s’ is silent).  I’m not sure why the ‘s’ is also added when written in English.  And that brings me to the Thai words written in English, well actually they are written in phonetics; for example, the word Phuket is pronounced Puket, ‘ph’ is not pronounce ‘F’ as it would be in English.  Another example is Thailand which is pronounced Tailand (but you already knew that!).  When learning Thai you must first learn the phonetics, which is supposed to help with the pronunciation.  I remember trying to understand phonetics when first learning Thai, it was like a totally new language and so confusing for a dyslexic person like myself. There were strange new characters such as a crossed out ‘u’, a ‘c’ written backwards, upside down e’s and an ‘n’ with a tail. This wasn’t the end of it, some of the Thai pronunciations are very difficult for the western tongue; for example the ng sound.

Buddhism is of course a very strong influence on customs and culture here in Thailand, in fact most people think to be Thai is to be Buddhist. The head of a person is venerated and the foot, the lowest part of your anatomy, is always kept tucked under your body away from people.  Therefore you don’t pat anyone on the head or shoulders and you never point with your foot or step over any part of someone’s body.  To get around someone who might be sitting on the ground, you go around them where possible and if you have to pass in front of them and your head is above theirs, out of curtesy, you stoop low, extending your arm in front of you to pardon your movement.  Hand gestures are different too; when you are calling someone to come, the palm of the hand must face down, unlike in the west where we have the palm of our hand facing up.  In Thailand that gesture is only used to call the dog!

Life in the rural village of Baan Wiang Doem is very quiet. There are a few little shops selling a variety of things; one slightly larger than the others with a few large box-fridges on the floor containing meats and seafood and an upright fridge with drinks and vegetables. As well as four aisles of dry goods.  It’s handy to have access when I run out of something.  As previously mentioned, the food stalls are few and far between, which has forced me to cook for myself on the days I’m at the house.

There’s also an early morning market which is open from 6am to 8am which sells local products including meat, veg, fruits and snacks. There’s also a young girl who has a mini coffee stand with a single head coffee machine. Unfortunately she was not there the morning I went which was very disappointing as I was looking forward to trying her brew.  I did buy a boiler chook, greens, custard apple and a small hand of bananas which was perfect for my needs.

The school is within walking distance and even if it’s raining I still like to walk there twice a week, so I can get some exercise.  Across the road from the school there is a food shop as well as the one further down the road which I frequent at least once a week.

The house in which I’m staying has a very big yard which has several fruit trees including lime, mangosteen and rambutan. Many of the rambutan’s had split, possibly due to all the rain we have been getting but there are still some we can pick and eat.  The mangosteens are ripening every week although the house keeper is very persistent in picking large amounts which really annoys me as she doesn’t offer any for Temjai and me, I but takes them with her when she leaves.  I’m told she takes them for her family and the family whose house it is.  I did try to ask her to leave some to ripen on the tree so we could have some for later but I’m not sure how much she understood of my broken Thai, or was she just ignoring me?

I eventually remembered to catch some rainwater in a bucket which I started using to wash my hair. There is an abundant supply filling the bucket most nights so I’m able to rinse my hair in rain water most days, which is essential as I’m always hot and sweaty!

Friday is my washing day but this first Friday of the month it was still raining in the morning so I had to hang my clothes inside with the fan on them to help them dry.  I was going out at 12:30pm with Carolyn and Dema to do some shopping so wanted my clothes to be partly dry by then.  We were going into town to look for a water dispenser for the Baan Luang Fellowship as at present they are using one-use-only plastic bottles. This dispenser will be very handy for leadership meetings as well as for visiting teams when they come from Australia.  The dispenser has both cold and hot water which can be used to make tea and coffee.

On the way to the store we stopped at a huge undercover wholesale market where people could drive in and load fruits into their vehicles. We walked up and down the lanes looking for things to buy.  I wanted a red pomelo, durian and a pineapple. Although the farmers preferred we buy in bulk they did sell individual fruits which was a blessing. We loaded the car with our purchases then off to buy the water dispenser.  Then with our new dispenser in the back of the ute, we stopped at a bulk buy store where we bought some spray bottles for our Saturday’s horticultural class.

Before returning home Carolyn and I were once again dropped off at the market near her home.  I bought some herbs, Pad Thai for my lunch the following day plus some more Thai desserts which I later shared with Temjai.

This Saturday we had only just started class when the power went off.  That was what the early announcement in the village was about at 5am that morning.  The power company was changing a power pole. We were unable to use the internet or the online videos which we usually used so it was back to manual teaching for all three classes.  I was surprised it went so well. Our biggest drawback was no fans!  Even the children complained that it was so hot!  Our English topic was weather which was very appropriate.  I was dripping wet by the end of classes and went upstairs for a shower, but of course there was no water pump so no water in the pipes.  Praise God I had two, one litre bottles of rain water to pour over my dripping body to cool me down.

The power eventually came on around 1pm giving me time to get ready for my horticultural class with the ladies in the afternoon.  I had already tested the TV screen with my computer for the PowerPoint which worked well.  I had translated all my notes to Thai via Google translate and Carolyn printed out notes on how to make insect spray, liquid fertiliser and making yogurt.

The afternoon went well with four attending, two from the Bible Study class and our house keeper, Yay Ja, who is self-taught in many gardening practices. The PowerPoint presentation was read out in Thai by our new horticultural friend Po, who was also able to help explain things in Thai, while I drew lots of illustrations on the whiteboard.  Making compost was the longest session with a break for snacks which Carolyn brought with her. This was followed by a practical lesson on how to make white oil insect spray.  We used the spray bottle we had bought the day before, some vegetable oil and dishwashing detergent. After this I asked who wanted to know about making their own yogurt.  They were all interested so I handed out the papers with the ingredients and method on how to make it.  This led us to talking about kefir and kombucha and how to make them.  I then gave them a taste of my kefir (which I’m still making from my batch from Australia).  They all agreed it was quite sour. It had been a fun day with lots of laughs but I was a long afternoon, having started just after 3pm and ending near 5pm.  We were all invited to visit Yay Ja’s home but I declined as I was exhausted having been awake from 2am to 4am and only sleeping again till 5:30am. Instead, I packed up, then had another shower to cool down before catching up on my blog notes.

 

Photos:  1. Wild Passion fruit – Passiflora foetida    2. Thai alphabet chart    3. Making Kefir    4. Wholesale fruit market    5. Horticultural class

Prayer & Praise Points:

I am constantly in awe of the opportunities the Lord has brought my way, His provision, protection and open doors to serve Him and praise Him for bringing me back to Thailand.

I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to practice speaking Thai with the locals.  I’m still struggling to remember and read many of the Thai characters.  Please pray that this will improve and I will remember more, both the spoken and written Thai.

Praise the Lord for the doors that are opening up for me to bless others with some of the gifts the Lord has given me.  Please pray that He will complete the work He has started in me.

Please continue to pray for the Karen families not only here in Thailand but also left in Myanmar. Persecution continues as churches are not only bombed but landmines are placed within their grounds.

Pray for families who have applied for visas and permanent residency with their families abroad, especially Matt’s family in Mae Sot. Pray that they will be united with family soon.   Pray also that, while they wait, their situation in Thailand 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.