Learning Thai

We took a bus ride today to take some pictures of "typical" street scenes. The following photos are from a market about a 10 minute bus ride from our house. The school holiday just ended so the bus was crowded with school kids. We were hanging onto the overhead bar trying not to drop Eliza out the open door! A nice girl gave Claire her seat. At the market, people were interested in and amused by us and Tom did a good job practicing Thai. We bought some mango sticky rice to taste and donuts and oranges for later. It's too bad you can't smell the aromas of burning charcoal, fish, and exhaust.

After the market we ate at what we refer to fondly as "our" noodle shop. It's an easy walk from our house, so we eat there about three times a week. Tom had the fried noodles and Claire ate basil chicken.

I couldn't resist including this one of the girls this week at one of their favorite places- the ball pit at the supermarket.

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

From Dr. Nantachai Mejudhon's doctoral thesis, Meekness: A New Approach to Christian Witness to the Thai People:

"Missionaries and Thai Christians should be characterized by preference for a non-assertive, polite, and humble type of personality (expressed through appearance, manners, and interpersonal approach), as well as preference for a relaxed and pleasant interaction. Reciprocity of kindness, particuarly the practice of gratitude, is a highly valued characteristic in Thai society...

"A meek approach is always equated with a sympathetic understanding of Buddhists, and with a senstivity to the cultural concepts of those to whom the Christians minister. Christians should seek to serve humbly and lovingly, should be able to show meekness in their lifestyles supported by the dynamic testimonies of their personal relationships with Jesus Christ. Thai meekness means that Christians shuld seek to relate to Buddhists as neighbors and equals, regarding their beliefs as worthy of serious consideration. Missionaries and Thai Christians should allow the Holy Spirit to convict themselves and through missionaries and Thai Christians he convicts the world. When missionaries and Thai Christians allow the Holy Spirit to convict Buddhists, a number of aggressive words and deeds will be absent from their Christian witness. When the Holy Spirit convicts anyone, he draws them closer to Christian communities and Christ in a powerful way."

It's tremendously comforting to remember that it is the Holy Spirit's (and not my) job to draw people into a relationship with Christ. At the same time, it's sobering to look around and see the number of people who have yet to encounter a genuine, meek, and attractive Christian witness.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The really great news in our lives is that Eliza is healed! As she says, "Tank oo ye-sus" (Thank you Jesus!). We took her to the hospital yesterday for her last appointment. The doctor said she is fine although the new skin on the burns might feel sensitive for awhile and they don't look too pretty with the skin still peeling. It's wondeful to have the bandages off though and now she can re-enter the wonderful world of baths and sleeping wtih Claire (who's been exiled to the guestroom) and playing in the hose! The doctor and nurses were really caring and we feel we were wonderfully taken care of. Dr. Damrong (who I thought of as Dr. Dumb Wrong- unjustly- just to remember his name) is actually a surgeon but took the time to see Eliza almost every time we visited and even changed bandages himself. Even better, he could sing E-I-E-I-O!

Our family had a nice long weekend together (Monday was a holiday, Chulalongkorn Day- commemorating the death of Rama the 5th). We enjoyed going back to an English church for the first time in awhile and Claire had fun in Sunday school. We also enjoyed an Italian buffet with cheese (!!) and pizza and pasta(!!) and tiramisu (!!)- so our stomachs were quite thrilled. To Claire and ELiza's delight, we rewarded them for 1) Eliza's brave suffering and 2)Claire's tolerance of all the extra attention for Eliza, by getting a new dollhouse at Toys R Us. We also checked out the night market in the city and rode an extremely large ferris wheel that made me feel a tiny bit panicky at times (tried to hide it from kids who were having a fantastic time).

Now we are back into our normal week- Tom in language school in the mornings, language practice and study in the afternoons. I have tutoring with my teacher, Ju, on Thursdays and Fridays. I'm excited to be making some new Thai friends. Tiang is a Christian and fellow mom who lives nearby. We attend a playgroup together and she brought her two boys over to our house for lunch last week. Another new friend, Chaweewan, lives in our neighborhood and is planning go with me for my first haircut here this week (yikes).

Dan Byler will be returning to Thailand Thursday and we look forward to seeing him (and the presents we heard are being sent back with him!) and having a team meeting at our house this weekend.

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I took Eliza to her bandage-changing appointment at the hospital today. Her burns look much better and the doctor thinks that Monday may be the last day she will need them. Eliza is getting more comfortable with the whole process. She still hates the part where they peel the tape off of her skin, but she let the doctor hold her (and even gave him a hug) when it was over.

Today marked the completion of my first week of Thai classes. I feel like I'm making progress with some of the difficult sounds and tones - but there's still definitely room for improvement. Today's class went something like this:

Teacher: "What is this"
Class: "That is a pencil"
Teacher: "Is this a ruler?"
Class: "No, that is a pencil"
Teacher: "What color is this pencil?"
Class: "The pencil is green"
Teacher: "Is the pencil red?"
Class: "No, the pencil is green"
Teacher: "What color is the pencil?"
Class: "The pencil is green"

Then we would go around the circle and ask each other the same kind of questions. After several hours it got somewhat tedious, but I can now identify green pencils, red rulers and white pieces of chalk.

Candice had another meeting with her language tutor this week and is enjoying that arrangement. She likes the one-on-one interaction and ability to help set the content of their sessions.

We're both looking forward to speaking Thai with greater proficiency. It's been fun to try out new phrases and words (with varying degress of success). One of the things that I like about the language is that it often makes new words out of two or more already-existing words. For example, while looking for another word in my dictionary today, I discovered that the Thai word for "woodpecker" is "hatchet-head-bird." I have yet to see a woodpecker here in Bangkok, but when I do I'll be ready to cry out "nok-hua-kwaam" to the astonishment of all bystanders.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This evening Claire got to feed an elephant that was walking through our neighborhood. Elephants are very important animals in Thailand (and in Thai Buddhism). Their handlers lead them around and sell bags of sugarcane that people then feed to the elephant. This is a way of making merit or working towards better karma in the future.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This afternoon we had a humdinger of a thunderstorm. It rained very hard for maybe an hour and flooded our neighborhood (and yard). We postponed Eliza's appointment at the hospital, but the water still hadn't gone down by this evening so I waded out to the main street where we could get a motorcyle taxi.

Eliza's appointment went very well - they changed the bandages and she did much better than at previous visits. Hopefully that's a sign that she's healing. She continues to have a healthy appetite and is able to play and walk around without much discomfort. We are very thankful for your support and prayers - and for God's protection and healing power!

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was my first day of Thai language classes at Union Langauge School in Bangkok. It consisted of repeating a series of vowel and consonant sounds for about four hours. Some of these are sounds that I am accustomed to, but others are not. It seems that Thai has several sounds that necessitate stretching your mouth into a wide smile/grimace. My cheeks were literally sore by the end of the class. The hardest sound for me (by far) is the "ng" sound at the beginning of a word.

There are about 15 people in the class. Several of us are from the States and the rest are from South Korea, Finland, Japan, and Australia. There was something comical about this group of adults struggling to copy the sounds that the teacher was making ("Naan...Ngaan...Faan"). From what I've heard we have a couple more days of this and then we'll get into learning vocabulary and putting sentences together.

On another, completely random, note I read an article in the paper today about a man in central Thailand who has had to move a number of large crocodiles into the second-floor bathroom in his house to make sure that they don't escape due to the flooding.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those of you who haven't heard, Eliza (our 17 month old daughter) was burned on Saturday when she pulled a bowl of hot soup off of the restaurant table and onto her lap. She has burns on her left hand, side, and thigh. We took her to the hospital for treatment and they bandaged her up and sent her home. We're now taking her back into the hospital every day to have the bandages changed. The doctor is pleased with her recovery - and she is being very brave about it all. She hates having the bandages changed, and doesn't like having her hand bandaged, but overall she is doing very well.

Thanks for your prayers for her and please continue to pray for her quick recovery.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here are a few pictures from the past week...

Eliza with the daughter of people who are working on the house across the street from us.

The girls with some som-oh (pomelo). They are like a humongous orange/grapefruit hybrid with really think skin.

Claire playing Uno with Joe (left) and Ben at the team meeting we hosted this week.

We went to a park this morning to let the girls play while we studied Thai. Claire found some kindred spirits playing in the sand.

There was a group of girls practicing some kind of dance. Claire and Eliza tried to join in.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The ominous headline from today's Bangkok Post: "City could see worst flood since '95"

The article goes on to say: "Bangkok and its vicinity could see a major flood similar to the one in 1995 that submerged the entire city unless excess water in the Chao Phraya river is diverted to the vast fields along its banks in time, said senior irrigation officials yesterday...With the rapid flow of water from the upper central provinces down the river to Bangkok strengthened by expected torrential rains, heavy flooding in Bangkok suburbs and nearby provinces is forseeable within a week."

Apparently the government will need to balance flooding out villagers and ready-to-be-harvested rice fields north of Bangkok with allowing the river to overflow into the city. You can join us in praying that neither takes place.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Papaya trees in the front yard

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Somtam and grilled chicken - Somtam is a salad made from shredded green papaya, garlic, chili peppers, lime, tomatoes, dried shrimp, green beans and peanuts. All of this is mashed together in a big wooden bowl. It originated in the northern part of Thailand.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past week I attended a seminar that presented a model of Christian witness to Buddhists that is based on "meekness" (as opposed to more direct methods that have typically been employed by missionaries). It was taught by a husband and wife who were both devout Buddhists prior to encountering Jesus. Their theory (and it is convincingly backed up by statistics and the present state of Christianity in Thailand) is that Christian witness in Thailand has almost always been carried out in ways that go "against the grain" of the Thai culture.

Protestant missionaries have worked in Thailand for more than 150 years, yet less than 1% of the population is Christian. Missionaries are welcomed into the country, Christians are tolerated and even respected, but the overwhelming majority of the Thai people have decided that Christianity so foreign that it can have little relevance for their lives.

Thais (in general) highly value meekness, humility, and smooth interpersonal relationships. All of these values are violated when Western Christians are perceived as being driven by an agenda to convert others. The presenters argued passionately that Thai people will come to Jesus when the gospel is presented meekly, lovingly, and with respect for Buddhism and Thai culture.

On the last day of the class several Thai Buddhists who have had varying degress of contact with Christianity talked to us about their perceptions of Christianity. It was very clear that they have been turned off to the gospel, not because of Jesus, but because of how he has been presented.

This experience left me with conflicting emotions and a lot of questions. What are my motives for befriending Thai people? How much responsibility am I trying to take for the work that only the Holy Spirit can do? To what extent can Buddhist teachings fit in with (or lead to) Christianity?

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The other night I told Claire the story of "The Boy who Cried Wolf" (after Candice was reminding her not to scream loudly just for the fun of it). I think I got a little carried away during the wolf-attack scene because at the end of the story, when I asked Claire what she had learned, she replied "God didn't help the sheep."

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Hose baths on the patio

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