Learning Thai

Air conditioned taxis - Since we don't have a car we rely completely on public transportation. We use a combination of buses, song-taews (pickups with 2 benches in the back), motorcyle taxis, and, most convenient of all, the taxi. The buses are cheap (fares start at about 15 cents), but it's hard to beat the comfort and convenience of the taxi (and they're not outrageously expensive either). So when we travel we pick our mode of transportation based on a complicated formula that takes into account the cost, heat index, time factor, and our current level of patience. Claire has decided that we all must have our favorite taxi colors. For the record, she and Candice like the pink and purple taxis, I have the green and yellow, and Eliza was arbitrarily assigned the red and blue.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Something happened this morning on the way home from a shopping trip that I thought was a perfect example of Thai kindness. Claire and I were sitting together on the bus and a friendly looking older man was sitting across the aisle. I noticed he was looking with concern back and forth from us to the rain beginning to come down hard outside the bus window. As we approached our stop he began taking things out of a tiny plastic bag he was carrying. To my un-technical eye it appeared to be some kind of computer equipment. He handed the bag over to Claire indicating that she should hold the bag over her head. We all got off at our stop and were immediately drenched in the torrential downpour. It was the kind of driving rain that even an umbrella can’t help. Claire held the bag against her sopping hair and the man held his unprotected gadgets clutched to his chest getting soaked.
Little kindnesses like these (people giving the girls little free snacks from their own lunches or food stands, giving us a seat on a crowed bus or skytrain, making sure we have a fan turned on us in a hot restaurant) make all our adjustments a lot more bearable. Many times I think that Thai Buddhists who come to faith will have a great start in the Christian life because of the high value placed on kindness, meekness, and gentleness in this culture.

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” Philipians 4:5

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We haven't blogged very much about what we are actually doing on a day-to-day basis in Thailand (other than our weekend sight-seeing trips). We don't want to give you (especially those of you who are financially supporting us!) the wrong impression, but our ministry here so far has consisted of small steps. Basically, we are trying to make connections - with our Thai neighbors, with our landlords, with other Christians (Thai and Western), with our team, with language teachers. We're becoming acquainted with a growing number of people, and although all of these relationships are in their infancy we're encouraged by our prospects. This week, for example:
-We will host a team meeting at our place
-I found a Thai church nearby and told them (I think) that we'd like to visit sometime soon.
-Candice and the girls attended a playgroup that she found out about at an international church. Through that she met a Thai lady from our community who has invited us over for dinner tomorrow night.
-I've spent time talking to "Mr. Mack" at his sugarcane juice stand and now get a smile and nod whenever I ride by on my bike.
-Eliza and I spent time talking with Blasit, the man who sells us bananas (and always gives at least one free one to Eliza).
-I registered for Thai language classes at a school in Bangkok and Candice found a good lead for a tutor in our community.
-We visited a Thai preschool in our community and talked with them about the possibility of Claire attending in the future.
-This evening I'm attending a meeting to hear about a Bangkok church's plan to reach out to youth in a new location.

We're also still working on furnishing our house so that it can serve as a training center for the team. We're looking forward to the arrival of more interns next year and will be focusing more on overall team ministry planning and research as we become more knowledgeable of the culture and language.

We invite you to pray with us that God would continue to guide us as we make these connections. We want Him to lead us to people who will be open to helping us learn and who will be open to seeking the Truth.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Prickly Heat Powder - As advertised, it is a "cooling, refreshing and soothing powder." After a cold shower (the only kind we have - or really want) this powder causes a rather intense tingling/cooling sensation.(It also makes me smell like vapor rub.) Candice is not yet convinced of its merits.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today Claire, Eliza, and I joined thousands of others in Thailand by wearing yellow shirts in honor of King Bhumipol. Earlier this year Thailand celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. He is currently the world's longest-reigning monarch and is held in very high esteem by the Thai people. Since he was born on a Monday, and Monday's color is yellow, it has become very popular here to wear yellow shirts on Mondays. We see them every day of the week, but on Monday's they are everywhere. We also see portraits of the king everywhere - on overpasses and billboards, in shops and on the sides of buildings.

We had lunch with Dan Byler (our regional director). We had sticky rice, papaya salad, and grilled chicken. It was all delicious and we ate it in the traditional way - with our fingers while sitting on the floor. Claire and Eliza enjoyed that, but since we were sitting on the floor it was hard to keep Eliza from scooting onto the plates of food.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we explored more of Bangkok using the boats that run up and down the Chao Phraya river. We visited Wat Pho, home of the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand (pictured above). The Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high. The reclining posture illustrates the Buddha's passage into nirvana. Eliza amazed us by saying "Buddha night-night" when she saw it.

The girls did a great job. We rode on three buses, four trains, three boats, and a motorcycle taxi before the trip was over. Their endurance and their ability to sleep in strange places have definitely increased. Here is Eliza sleeping on the boat.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meeting many friendly people. Whenever we go out the girls attract attention. People often come up to meet them and ask about their names and ages. Since many Thais have trouble with the "Cl" sound, Claire has begun telling people that her nickname is Abby (her middle name is Abigail.) That is much easier for them to pronounce and since most Thai people use nicknames she is fitting in with the culture.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here are the pictures of our house that some of you have been asking for! I hope this will help you picture our life here a little better. It's amazing how fast it's begun to feel like home. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

This is our front entry. Thais don't wear shoes in the house, so there is always a pile of sandals right here. I'm trying out growing some orchids although I don't know much about it yet. They are beautiful and amazingly cheap. Claire likes to ride her new bike out front here.

Veranda in the front of the house. We like to sit out here in the evenings because there is a little breeze and neighbors or landlords sometimes join us. I'm having fun collecting plants. Our landlady brought me some new ones- she said the one by the door is supposed to bring us good luck in money!

Here is the living room. The downstairs is basically one large, tiled room, with stairs going up the middle. The other end of this room has our desk and the girls toys. The downstairs bathroom is off this room - you can see the door in the picture. Our team is beginning to meet here every other week.

Another veiw of our living room. We can't wait to get our boxes of books we sent from the states to fill up our bookcase. Claire is getting tired of the books we brought with us! We don't understand much of what is going on on Thai TV!

This is the kitchen. When we came it was basically the counter with shelves underneath and the sink. We bought the shelves, fridge, coffee maker, toaster, and hotplate. I also recently got a rice cooker since we eat so much rice. I do my cooking on the hotplate so far. We usually eat one at least one meal a day in the neighborhood- it's actually cheaper to eat out than cook at home.

This is our dining room area. The furniture in here (the table/bench and writing desk and lamp in the background) are all from our landlords. The benches are super heavy- very hard to move!

Our bedroom. We just got our curtains this week. I always have to have my one red room in the house, so this is it!

More bedroom.

This is the girls' room. They ordered Pooh curtains. They have a dresser the same as ours. I couldn't get a camera angle in there to get a better pic. They sleep on a mattress on the floor which we gather is typical for kids here.

The girls/guests bathroom. Claire takes cold showers and Eliza takes cold baths in here. They are getting used to it but it can be quite a shock!
The guest room isn't furnished yet so I didn't include pics of that. We also have a back patio with the washer and portable clothes racks for hanging clothes and where the girls like to play in the hose.

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The situation here in Thailand seems to have stabilized rapidly. We have not heard of any reports of violence or even unrest. The leaders of the coup (the Council for Democratic Reform) have received the blessing of the King and have laid out a timeline for transition to a civilian government. General Sonthi (the coup leader) has pledged to select a new prime minister within two weeks and proposed that elections be held in October 2007.

Television programming has returned to normal (it had been suspended during the coup). So now we can watch reporting about the coup (but not understand it since it's in Thai). Other than the fact that the usual crowd of school kids was absent from our community yesterday we have not so far personally experienced any effects of the political unrest.

Thanks again for your interest and prayers. We praise God that these events are unfolding peacefully and that the Thai people have seemed to at least accept (and in many cases, welcome) these changes.

Here is a sampling of articles (in English) about the coup from the Thai press:
-Coup as it Unfolds

-Ousted PM's Desperate, Frustrated Hours

-King Endorses CDR

-Sonthi: Civilian Gov't in Two Weeks

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Some of you may have heard about the political unrest that’s taking place in Thailand. From what we’re able to gather there has been a military coup and the armed forces are currently patrolling the city of Bangkok. This was not totally unexpected and it appears to have been carried out peacefully. Today has been declared a holiday and banks, schools, etc. are closed. We have not observed any effects of this unrest in our neighborhood. Our landlord came by this morning to check on us and recommended that we not travel into the city today. So we’re planning to stay close to home today and trust that this will all be sorted out without any major complications.

We’re depending on the internet for our news at this point since all of the television stations are being controlled by the military and are only showing patriotic videos about the royal family. That has been an education in itself – they are repeatedly playing a song in tribute to the King ("He's the sun the moon and stars to his people near and far...") and it’s given us a new understanding of how much he is revered by the Thai people.

Thanks to those of you who have already let us know that you’re praying about this situation. Join us in asking God for a peaceful resolution to this confrontation.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

(This is projected to be an occasional series of posts introducing some of the small pleasures of living in this country.)

Dairy Queen's 39-cent Oreo Blizzards.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We're renting our house from a lady named Ulai and we've been enjoying becoming acquainted with her and her family. Her husband speaks a little bit of English (but a little bit goes a long way when combined with hand gestures!). He consistently refers to his wife as "my husband," but we can usually understand what he's trying to say. Ulai doesn't speak any English and we understand very little Thai at this point but that doesn't stop her from telling us quite a bit. They both like the girls a lot and Claire and Eliza are getting much more comfortable with them.

They have been taking very good care of us - in fact we think that they may doubt our ability to fend for ourselves. They relate to us with a mixture of concern and bemusement. So far they've brought us: several meals, some plants, a lamp, an incredibly heavy writing desk and chair carved out of a tree trunk/root, pillows for the girls, pineapple, a bicycle, a TV stand, trash cans, and a telephone. We never know when they are going to ring the bell at the gate and come in with some new item for us.

We feel blessed to have this house and to have them as landlords and we hope that we'll be able to deepen our relationship with them as we learn more of the language. It will be interesting to learn more about their religious beliefs. I get the impression that they are nominal Buddhists - so join us in praying that we'll be able to share God's love with them through our actions and (later on) words.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This morning we explored a bit more of our province (Samut Prakan) when we travelled by bus to the capital city (also named Samut Prakan). It's on the Chao Praya river, in between the Gulf of Thailand and Bangkok.

We explored the town's indoor market - they had a lot of very interesting items for sale.

From there we rode a ferry across the river and visited the Phra Chedi Klang Nam. Construction on this Buddhist monument was begun in 1827 and it was designed to welcome visitors to Bangkok. It used to be on an island in the middle of the river, but silt buildup has joined the island to the western shore.

After visiting the chedi we ate a delicious lunch before going back across the river and home to Thippawan.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This guy was in our bathroom tonight. For some reason Claire didn't act very interested in catching him.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the realities of living here in Thailand as a foreigner (especially a foreigner with young children) is that we stand out - and we're often the objects of attention. We're constantly being watched and so we're very conscious of the importance of always acting friendly and composed. That's not necessarily bad, but it can be tiring!

Our "foreigness" stood out to me yesterday in two different settings. One was while we were riding a bus (pictured above) and I was struck by how much Claire stood out on the bus full of Thai people. (We don't usually have her sit with strange men, but the bus was full!)

I also thought about our status as strangers and aliens during a communion service at a church we attended in Bangkok. We were worshipping with people from all over the world and that multi-ethnic environment made the taking of communion even more meaningful. It was a wonderful representation of the body of Christ and a good reminder to me of my true citizenship.

We'll try to update again soon with some more details about our day-to-day activities. Thanks for your interest and your prayer support

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls...

We're trying to find ways to cope with the afternoon heat. They both enjoyed this very much.

We have these fun little lizards around our place. Claire loves chasing them and is keeping track of her successes. So far she reports catching "two lizards and one frog."

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today I got my first haircut in Thailand. Like so many other things that we do here I was unsure of exactly how I was supposed to act or what the outcome would be. It turned out pretty well (Candice likes it) but the process was almost nothing like what I was used to at Dons Barbershop in Mechanicsburg. Getting my hair cut here included having it washed and rinsed about 5 times (is that normal or is my hair extra dirty?), being offered q-tips and a glass of water (I drank the water - I think that was what I was supposed to do), getting my hair cut, having my head rinsed again, then blow-dried and "styled." All that for 4 bucks.

I also bought some Thai clothes today. Right now I am wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top. Both are signficantly tighter than what I'm accustomed to wearing. I think I'll need to move up to the XL size.

All in all it was a good day...we're still looking for a language tutor, but I'm trying to practice what I know with the people in this neighborhood. They are usually very gracious and patient with my attempts. Tomorrow we pick up Sharon and Trish from the airport. It will be good to have them here as part of the team and should be fun to share with them what we've learned so far.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Claire & Eliza in our veranda "window"

One of the thousands of streetside vendors in this city. We're taking advantage of the plentiful and cheap fresh fruit - especially the pineapple and bananas.

We'd been warned about Bangkok's infamous traffic - and it has exceeded our expectations! We're getting used to sitting for long periods of time in taxis and buses and we continue to marvel at the motorcyle drivers' ability to weave their way to the front of the pack.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)