11: my fun list...

...Of 11 Cultural Things That Aren't So Unusual Anymore

11.   Always carrying toilet paper in my bag for use as napkins, tissues, or in the public restrooms (which we call "toilets" here). And, there not being soap provided in the restrooms (no worries, I'm always packing the hand sanitizer!)
10.   Toilet talk and illness symptoms not being taboo. This includes acquaintances and friends asking lots of specific questions about your health problems and/or specific symptoms.
9.    Taking every picture at least twice
8.    Adults liking and sporting cartoons on their person/phone/bags/etc.
7.    Smelling everything before you eat it
6.    Covering your mouth while using a toothpick or while talking on the phone
5.    Taking trips, but not planning the details of them
4.    Umbrellas when it's sunny and gorgeous outside
3.    90 degree weather= women in sweaters, 70 degree weather= women in sweaters
2.    Squatting
1.    Riding on motorcycle taxis

[Proof of #9! Since next Tues is a holiday, today was my last day with this class!]

thai class.

I am so blessed to be able to study another term at Union Language School (Module 3!). This term has been one of my favorites so far. I have 3 classmates, from Korea, Taiwan and Japan... my teacher is Thai and I'm American... so 5 nationalities in one classroom! It's a great opportunity to not only improve my Thai (4 hours a day/5 days a week, how could it not improve?!) but it's also been great to learn more about their cultures as well. As with all classes at ULS, the instructions and all our communication is in Thai (although sometimes I sneak in some English for clarification). My classmates are much more proficient than I am, so often I just get pieces of the conversation, but usually it's enough. I've now finished 7 days of class, and have collected a little list of humorous incidents that I'm sharing for your enjoyment & in-culture-ation. It's a little jaunt through my head, with no real significance and in no particular order... (you've been warned!)

1. Thais think that eating durian while pregnant will make your baby strong. I find this incredibly funny. Maybe you have to have experienced durian to really appreciate this, but the only thing strong about durian is the smell. Phew. 

2. I discovered I'm eye/hand cross-dominate (as in I am right-handed but see from my left eye). Again, this was all being explained in class, but it sounded a little concerning as (from what I gathered) it is unusual. So, after returning home, I promptly googled it and found out it's not a big deal, but it does affect shooting! Which may explain some consistently bad skeet shooting I've done... I also discovered, that you can train your eye to switch dominance on command. Which led to me practicing on the BTS and eventually switching... and then I was freaked out because I couldn't switch it back. None of this is really relevant, but you should try it. For any concerned parties though, after I went to bed, my eyes reset to normal. No harm done.

3. I haven't snopes.com'd this, but supposedly furbies were originally a Japanese creation/idea and they weren't popular, so they sold the patent to America. You know what happened from there... In Thai news, a Thai celebrity recently posted a photo of herself on Instagram with a furby, and now they are making a comeback in Thailand... at 3-5,000B a furby. That's around $100-150. (See the range of things we talk about in class?)

4. Today's lesson on gifting: In Thailand, you never gift any sharp objects: knives, nail clippers, hair cutting scissors, regular scissors, anything. Not for weddings, birthdays, or even because you have extra. They're afraid that if you give someone a blade/potential weapon and it's used to hurt someone... then it's on you somehow. Interesting, no?

5. And last, but not least, a little shout out all the times I "puud pit" (speak incorrectly). In general, Thai is built very sensibly. "Tdit" means "close" and "kap" means "with"-- so "tdit kap" means adjacent (close with). "Rot" means car. So "rot tdit" is traffic (cars, close). But it's the tones that'll get you. Dog and mom are really close in Thai, only one tone different... So, I may have told someone once, "He can speak Thai well because his dog had him in Thailand." And by "may" I mean I did... Whoops. Other close words are tiger/shirt, lose/give and time/father. So many mistakes. It's part of learning the language, though. And I'm thankful for gracious classmates and a teacher who is used to figuring out what we really are trying to say!! :)

wats.

The past two weekends I have ended up at wats (Thai/Buddhist temples) and the question begs to be asked... why so many wats? Well, part of it is because I let Thais plan the excursions, so they always include a wat or two for good measure... it's part of their culture.

For me, it's a good reminder why missions matter: because there are still lost people. It pains me to see so many Thais (and tourists) sprinkling their heads with lotus flowers, lighting incense, sticking gold-leaf on statues, ringing bells, giving offerings, "making merit"... but there is also no better place to have organic spiritual conversations. My intention during this wat-time is to always bring the conversation to Christ.

["Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold." Exodus 20:23]

Recently after one of these trips, I was able to share with my Thai friend, K, why I did not participate in these "merit exercises". This, in turn, opened up a dialogue for both of us. She shared some specifics regarding what she believed and I was able to share the Gospel... that God is the Creator and He is good. He has stated the standard is perfection and as a just God can tolerate nothing less than that. As sinful people, we fail to meet His standard, and the punishment for that is death and separation from God. It's not about doing more good than bad, it's about being perfect. And, bad news, we're not. But, (the great "but" of the Gospel!) God is also a God of love, and so He made a way for our sins to be punished and for us to be able to have a relationship with Him. That way is through His Son, Jesus. Jesus was punished by God for our sins, so that justice was served, and we can now receive God's forgiveness and a relationship with Him...

I wish I could tell you that we pulled over the car, prayed, and that you have a new sister-in-Christ. But, that didn't happen. What did happen, however, is that she heard the Truth again. Thais tend to be slow to hear and slow to respond to the Gospel. Why? Maybe due to their heritage of spiritual darkness and deafness. Maybe because it is so foreign to them. Maybe they just take longer to process things. I don't know. But if it takes her hearing it 16 times before she accepts it, then praise God for the 8th time! And if she hears but never responds, then praise God that He allowed her the opportunities to hear.

[Idolatry] consists not merely in erecting an image and worshiping it, but rather in the heart, which stands gaping at something else, and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils, and neither cares for God, nor looks to Him for so much good as to believe that He is willing to help, neither believes that whatever good it experiences comes from God. 

— Martin Luther

Pray that her heart and our hearts would gape only at Christ, seek only from Him, and look only to Him as the sole source and provider of all that is good.

father's day.

"It's not Father's Day!" I hear you saying... but here in Thailand, Mother's Day and Father's Day are celebrated on the Queen and King of Thailand's birthdays, respectively. As the King was born December 5th, today is Father's Day!

Each day of the week is assigned a different color (ideally, that should be worn, but most people don't abide by that). Since the King was born on a Monday, his color is yellow. So, today, the entire country wore yellow in honor of their King.

[Proof. I took this while walking up the steps to the BTS]

It was something to see... and a little surreal, like being a part of some huge flashmob. In the morning, the King made an appearance, so everyone was travelling to see him (it was his 85th birthday, and as he has been hospitalized for quite a while now, it was a big deal). Truck-loads of people. Everywhere.

[Everyone gathered to see the King. Photo credit: Bangkok Post]

This morning, I took Claire to my favorite park (Suan Rot Fai) and as we were in our workout clothes, we weren't wearing yellow. We stuck out like a sore thumb. However, we did take a little post-run photo op with one of the shrines/monuments/things to the King.

Almost everyone in Thailand (including me!) had the day off today, so there were plenty of people milling around everywhere we went. After our run and cleaning up, I decided to try (take 2!) to find lanterns to light. One of the guys at the guesthouse graciously offered to accompany me on my quest so I wasn't wandering around Bangkok alone at night. (I share that for the peace of mind of my mom and grandma!)

And, after a cab ride, a run in with the police and a crazy tuk-tuk ride home, I'm happy to announce that I am back, safe and sound, with my 1st Thailand "Bucket List" experience checked off. (I only have 2 on my list, the other is to ride an elephant!)

[Bucket List Item: lighting a paper lantern]

If you've ever seen Tangled, you may be able to understand my excitement to light one of these lanterns... Well, here's my proof from the evening! Done in memory of Laura Landry (aka: LaLa) as she would have accompanied me had she stayed another month. Miss you, LaLa!

[The lantern... pre-lit]

[Anddd, after lighting it! Waiting for it to warm up enough to fly away]

[That's my lantern! Yay!]

loi krathong.

One of the things that is fun and frustrating about cross-cultural missions is that, the culture. Sometimes I wish I could just pop into a Thai's head for a day and figure out everything that doesn't make apparent sense to my westernized mind. But, it doesn't work like that. It's a slow process, and there is a lot to learn. The good news is, that we foreigners do have opportunities to observe Thai holidays and traditions, which are a big part of Thai culture.

Most recently, that holiday was Loi Krathong. The short version is that it is a festival to thank and pay respects to the water spirits... and to apologize for polluting it throughout the year. It takes place any and everywhere there is water on the first full moon of the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar (Nov 28th this year).

I tagged along with Meleah, one of the IMB Journeymen here, and some of her Thai friends to see what it was all about. After short ride on the BTS and a longer ride on the back of a motorcycle taxi, we arrived at Chula University. While there, we bought some "fai yen" (sparklers) and had some fun lighting them up... after all, what is a celebration without a little fire?

Each department (which, they call "faculties") made a decorative krathong for the festival. Here are a couple pictures of the more elaborate ones... made from fresh flowers and plants, so they're all bio-degradeable. That didn't matter as much for these as they didn't make it to the water, but usually it does. No one fishes the krathongs out of the water the next morning, so they need to be able to decompose quickly and naturally. Else polluting the river as an act of apology becomes counter-productive I suppose.

On the one hand, it was a fun and beautiful festival. There was lots of live music, food stands everywhere, people laughing, taking pictures, lighting sparklers and playing games. But on the other hand, it was so sad. The holiday is also a way for Thais to "release" their bad emotions (thoughts, anger, sin) by symbolically putting them on their krathong and let them float away. Their hope is that they can reduce their suffering by placing their sins on these small flower-like boats. So as they pushed the krathongs, lit with candles, out into the water, it clearly illuminated the number of people whose faith was in something other than Christ. 

Please continue to pray for the Thais, that their hope would not be placed in a krathong or a ritual, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" John 8:12

boom.

Today I got to experience a new part of Thai culture... a University Graduation! (Well, not the actual graduation, but the pre-festivities at Thammasat University!) Remember Supot, our Thai tutor in America? He introduced us, via facebook, to Air, one of his childhood friends. When we arrived in Bangkok, she took Claire and I on our first shopping excursion to JJ Market. And today was her graduation! She invited me to come and I'm so glad I was able to go and support her. 

Now, I don't claim to be an expert on Thai graduations... but I did notice a few differences I'd like to share for a cultural snapshot.

1. Lots of street vendors, selling lots of gifts! Balloons, stuffed animals, flowers, and graduation knick-nacks lined the streets of our 15 minute walk to Thammasat. Every street in every direction there were more things that could be purchased for the graduates.

[check out some of the balloon bunches!]

2. Lots of people. I've been to graduation ceremonies at decently large schools... this beat it. It was packed, everywhere. It felt like the BTS at rush hour, but as far as you could see, down every street and path.

3. Professional Photographers. Everywhere. I think that every graduate hires one. Not kidding. The photographer follows the graduate around and takes hundreds of pictures of them, them and their friends, them and their families, etc. I know this is true, because I think I'm in at least 50 of Air's graduation pictures-- It was an authentic graduation photo-shoot, props and everything.

[l-r: Eve, Air, Me, Faah]

4. Props. There were props and photo-set items everywhere! Giant stuffed teddy bears you could pose with, cardboard school buses you could "sit" in with your friends, cutout faces, people in costumes waiting for photo-ops... it was crazy! One girl's photographer brought colored balls and spread them out in the grass around her, and then had her hold a colorful umbrella while someone else blew bubbles and he took pictures.

 5. Boom. I wish we did boom? boomed? practiced booming? at American graduations! Or, maybe some schools do and I've just never seen it. I'm not sure how best to describe it, so watch this video and then I'll try to explain.

The boomers/boom team (I'm not sure how to appropriately use "boom" in all these contexts) usually all had some kind of unifying marker: matching headbands, capes, facepaint, etc. They would surround the graduate and perform some kind of dance/song/cheer. Many times they often brought props with them that the graduate could hold or pose with. The boom team could be friends/family of one particular graduate, underclassmen in the department of the graduates they were booming, or a charity. The charity boom teams would do unsolicited booms to unsuspecting graduates, and then the family of the graduate would donate some Baht to the charity. It's a great photo-op for the photographer, slightly embarrassing for the graduate, and all for a good cause!

this is thailand.

Sometimes the only proper response to situations is, "This is Thailand." While the Thai people are incredibly friendly and generous and work hard to make us feel at home, there are still occasional reminders that this is Thailand... here are a couple of those moments:

- When you have to clarify which months you are referring to when you say "winter" (a foreign season to the Thais... and an inverse season to the Aussies)

- When the price of a small package of sliced cheese is more than a whole meal at Chipotle. (Cheese is an expensive commodity in Thailand... So no cheese for Liz!)

- When you plug in your alarm clock, and it gets fried. (Forgot to check the voltage. Whoops.)

- When you go back to the car and you've been blocked in by another car... and the solution is to push it out of the way. (People leave their cars in neutral for that purpose)

- When you go to a nice restaurant and no one tips.

- When there are signs posted throughout the market to beware of pick-pockets.

- When corn and beans are dessert... and popular flavors of ice-cream and yogurt.