Learning Thai

We've now been in Thailand for just over three months. It's hard to say whether it feels like longer or shorter than that. We're continuing to focus on language study and building relationships here in our neighborhood. I'm halfway through the second four-week module at Union Language School. We're focusing on sentence patterns now - learning to say things like "Don't get off the bus until the bus has stopped." "Do you think it will rain today?" "Please take this book to the teacher." etc. I'm enjoying the classes and I'm looking forward to getting into the Thai script after the Christmas break.

I'm getting to the point where I can carry on simple conversations and I really need to start practicing more. I've met a guy (nicknamed Golf) who lives down the street from us who speaks English very well. He's willing to help me practice Thai, and I think that he could be very helpful in learning more about the language and culture. He also (happily for us) graduated from a prestigious Bangkok culinary/hotel management school and is now working in his mother's restaurant.

We've been blessed by a number of people who have taken an interest in us and helped us in a variety of ways. This week we discovered (when a warning notice was delivered) that I had not been paying our water bill in the correct way. We asked a Thai friend to translate the past-due notice and they then insisted on going to the water department themselves to figure out what was going on. This same friend invited us to join their family at a celebration our neighborhood is holding this coming Saturday in honor of the king's birthday. That should be a fascinating cultural experience (and I'm sure we'll have some pictures to post afterwards).

Here are some random pictures from the past few days...

We had a team meeting at our place on Sunday. It was a good time of worship, Bible study, and talking about our team goals.

Last Saturday we went to the Gulf of Thailand and ate dinner at a restaurant that sits on the end of a pier. The scenery and the seafood were both good.

Eliza with ponytails. I think that she was getting tired of me asking her to smile when she gave me this look.

-Tom