We live in a tropical paradise

How good is God to give us SUCH a beautiful home to enjoy whilst studying and equipping young leaders to serve Him in others cultures. 

There is constant noise here - frogs, birds- both local and imported, geckos (surprisingly these very small lizards make quite a noise), roosters, dogs and the house cat, Pee Paw.

Thailand has a tropical climate which is defined as: a climate which is typical of equatorial and tropical regions, that is, one with continually high temperatures and with considerable precipitation, at least during part of the year. 

Right now it is 4.30 pm and the temperature is 32 degrees C, with a comment on the weather forecast - 'feels like 36!' precipitation 55%. Tonight's forecast is 23 degrees C, 80% precipitation.

Tropical indeed!

You can check out our weather here http://www.accuweather.com/en/th/doi-saket/317508/daily-weather-forecast/317508

 

This 'fire-pit' is in our garden and is where we can have a barbeque or campfire. In an earlier post we shared this with our neighbours when we had them over for dinner.

My bedroom is on the corner downstairs. I have windows on two sides and have them open all the time. I also keep the fan going whenever I am in the room and never have more than a sheet over me at night. It's serioulsy warm and humid all the time here at this time of year.

I've let you see this picture BIG because it is breathtakingly beautiful! This is the view we all love most from the house. This photo is taken from the upstairs window in the living area and so we get to enjoy it very often.

Before I sign off I must make a couple of corrections to my last blog post. 

Olivia THROWS me under a bus rather than pushes me under a bus! Far more violent!

Some Amercians call the evening meal dinner. It depends on which state one comes from

 and I forgot to say that my American housemates 'make' an egg for breakfast rather than 'cook' an egg and they 'make' a right instead of 'turning' right in the traffic.

What a diverse and beautiful world we live in!

Living with Americans

Last night,on our way home after Lana's youth group, we stopped for icecreams. I shouted everyone!  Americans don't shout, they treat.

People can think that just because Australians speak the same language as Americans and some of our historical roots are similar, we will understand each other well.  Not necessarily so!

 Olivia enjoys 'pushing me under a bus'!! In Australia we'd say 'she dobs me in'!

Early on, I talked about putting something on the bench. My housemates wondered what I was talking about. They call it the counter!

North Americans eat supper but we eat dinner as our evening meal. They don't even know about 'our' supper. I asked what they call it when people go out for something to eat after a movie, or after youth group - a snack. I asked what they call it when they have something to eat at home around 9 pm. We don't! 

Americans put trash in the can. Aussies put rubbish in the bin.

Both Aussies and Americans can speak fast and be difficult to understand. That is certainly the case in this house! With accents on top of that, sometimes we have no idea what the other has said.

This week has been a bit different for me because we've had another Aussie in the house! 

 Derek Tucker, YFC trainer from Australia, has been here teaching us lots about missiology. The girls noticed that I communicated differently with Derek from my usual communication with them. Interesting! Not sure what that says!

But I must say I did enjoy having another Aussie around. Great to have you here, Derek!

Not wrong, just different!

What a privilege it is to be able to live, for blocks of time, in cultures other than my own. When I do I realise that there are so many things that are different from 'my normal'. It's so easy to think that 'my' way is right and 'the other' is wrong. Who says?

'Not wrong, just different' 

is a really helpful phrase to keep in mind whilst living in another culture where many things are different from home.

Take toilets, for instance!

Anyone who has travelled in developing countries knows about squat toilets. 

Not wrong, just different! 

There actually are advantages if we take time to find out about them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet 

In Thailand we have many opportunities to use 'western' toilets. But here it is customary to put the paper in the waste paper bin next to the toilet after you have used it. And then flush!
( I do need to say that there are cleaners who empty the bins every few hours in public places or daily in homes. I also believe that the water table is high here and things don't flush well)

Not wrong, just different!

Last Sunday morning as I was reading in bed at about 7 am a man drove up on his motorcycle, beeped his horn and tried to catch my attention through the bedroom window. When I went out to see what he wanted he handed me a bill!  I paid it. It was 105 Thai Baht (about AU$3) for our monthly water bill. Water bill $3 a month! Sunday morning 7am hand delivery!

Not wrong, just different!

I am so thankful to God for allowing me the opportunity to experience the variety and richness of life in other cultures where so many things are so different from 'my normal'. I love it. Only occasionally am I uneasy or uncertain - like when I have to put my paper into the bin beside the toilet!)

 

Thai flora and fauna

Little creatures at our place here are different here from what I find at my place in Australia.

We have many tiny little frogs in our garden. When we walk across the lawn we are likely to disturb quite a number in just a few metres.

 

This little fellow is about the size of my thumb nail. 

And this is one of many little geckos that keep our place almost mozzie free as they climb on our wire screens and eat the insects. I have counted up to eleven of them on the screens at one time. Very cute and very useful!

But I don't think the lizards do anything to keep the ants away! These are about the size of my thumbnail and aparently they give a nasty bite. I haven't had the misfortune to be bitten by one.

And have you ever seen anything like this? I haven't! I have no idea what he might be but I think he's really interesting!

This stunning orchid is in flower outside my bedroom window right now. What we might see as exotic and exceptional orchids at home are commonplace here. I marvel at God's amazing creation. How diverse! How magnificent! 

And last of all a gorgeous water lily growing in some water along the street in the city.

The tropical climate here grows very different things and grows things very differently! 

The bamboo is HUGE in our garden!

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

We have just completed 4 weeks of TESOL training.

It was lots of hard work, stressful nights and I am thankful that it is over. I had no idea it was going to stretch me so much. But I am certainly glad I stuck it out because each one of us is now well equipped to teach TESOL just about anywhere in the world.

During the first two weeks we learned all the basics. We sat up together revising for our grammar tests

and spent an afternoon at Starbucks in the airconditioning working on our syllabuses (syllabi!)

We were all very good students

 

 with an excellent teacher.

The second two weeks of the TESOL training were our practicum and our students were the YFC Chiang Mai staff and volunteers. We had such a great time with them putting our new skills into practice.

  Our students were eager and we had a lot of fun together

with all sorts of activities that got them up and enjoying learning English.

Kristi and I taught the more advanced students and our goal had been to give the students the tools they needed to share their faith stories by answering what, which, who, where, when , how and why questions.

 At the final class each student was interviewed and they were awesome. Their English had improved so much and their faith stories were inspiring. We were really thrilled with the way they responded to the English classes and to us.

We will continue teaching them each Wednesday evening from now on.
What a wonderful way to build relationship and a great skill for Senior Servants to have.

Youth for Christ Thailand is looking for 4 native English speakers who are certified to teach English to come to teach in schools in Chiang Mai. Please do let me know if you'd like me to connect you.

We met a little elephant in the street today!! ...as you do!!

While we were waiting for our lunch in a little restaurant in our village yesterday we thought we saw an elephant go into a shop! 

 We did see an elephant go into a shop!!

 And then he came out again and 'talked' to us!

 And walked along beside me holding my hand!

What a great bonus for Kristi's birthday!

A weekend in northern Thailand

Last weekend I had a wonderful weekend away with our TESOL teacher, Julie in Chiang Rai.

Julie was determined to give me a great weekend and she succeeded bigtime!

We left Chiang Mai around midday and headed north. Julie has lived in Thailand for 10 years and drives this road quite often and so she knew all the best places to stop for lunch, coconut cream pie for afternoon tea and a beautiful outdoor restaurant for dinner.

When we arrived at Julie's home these were waiting for me in my bedroom! How special.

Julie owns the Sea English Academy in Chiang Rai http://www.seaenglishacademy.com/component/option,com_contact/Itemid,62/catid,48/ and is the president of Deeper Still Ministries http://www.ideeperstill.org/

This place is peaceful and restful and a wonderful place to relax after two intensive weeks of TESOL training. 

On Saturday we headed further north to the Burmese border. This is Burma (Myanmar) as we approached Mae Sai, the northern most town and the border crossing.

And here I am standing at the northern most point in Thailand.

We visited a fantastic mulberry paper making factory out in the middle of nowhere! I LOVE paper stuff and had a ball buying presents to take home. It was as beautiful paper as I have seen and extremely cheap.

http://www.asiandesignconcepts.com/index1.html

I bought so much that they gave me a discount and threw in several free packets of paper. I think you'll like some of this stuff Em, Lou and Clare!

And their bathrooms were really cute. Check out the tap!

We headed back to Chiang Mai after lunch at our same outdoor restaurant for lunch on Sunday. The food there was as good as it gets!

Thank you Julie for a lovely weekend.