Learning Thai

Today I carried our digital camera with me on the trip to and from language school and recorded a few short videos along the way. Nothing terribly exciting happens in any of these clips, but they capture some of what a typical day is like for me.

Here's a short clip from my Thai class. The teacher is introducing consonant clusters and telling us how to pronounce them. Tomorrow is the last day of my third module. On Friday another 20-day module begins.

Here's a clip that I tried to record surreptitiously on the skytrain (I hate looking like a tourist). Again, nothing very thrilling happens, but if you watch the lady holding the blue bag you'll see how Thai people talk on cell phones in public. Very discreet.

And finally, here's a lady cooking my lunch - kale with crispy pork, one of my favorites.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The forecast for Wednesday, January 31, according to www.weather.com:

Mechanicsburg, Ohio: Snow showers, High 23; Low 15

Bangkok, Thailand: Sunny, High 86; Low 68

In the interest of fairness I suppose that we should revisit this topic again in April when we're in the middle of the hot season and Ohio is enjoying spring weather. But for now I'll rub it in by posting a picture that I just took of one of our orchids.

-Tom

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I found this shirt in Tesco Lotus (a big department store) and figured I had to buy it. Apparently my high school has: 1) launched an aggressive overseas promotional campaign, and 2) inexplicably adopted the crocodile as a new mascot.

For any other GMS alumnus who would like a shirt, they're available for 59 Baht (about $1.70) at the Tesco Lotus beside the On Nut skytrain station :)

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A grocery store advertisement

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We continue discovering new Thai fruits - most recently the rambutan (in Thai it's "ngaw" - be sure to pronounce it with a high tone!). They are very sweet and their texture is close to that of a grape. They look very impressive when they are piled up on the sidewalk fruit stands.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We enjoyed being back at our Thai church this morning (the pastor and his wife and their kids are our English students). We try to get there at least once a month and really like the community/family feel. On the other Sundays of the month, we attend an English speaking International church so that Claire can go to English sunday school and we also host a house church team meeting once a month. We miss having a "church family" like we had at LCF but we enjoy the diversity too. This morning when Claire saw Neno come in, we were telling her that that is Neno who comes to our house for English class. She didn't believe it- she said "The man who preaches is a lot bigger than Neno." We told her they were the same but she said, "You mean there are two Nenos?"
Some pictures from church today....
- Candice

Worship time lead by Neno and wife Oay (son Putter on right)

Eliza "reading" a Thai Bible during church

Everyone eats together outside after church

Claire and friends (on far left is Neno and Oay's daughter, Grace)

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We've had an action packed 10 days around here with 5 kids under 5 in our household! We really enjoyed hosting RMM workers and their three kids, ages 5, 2, and, 3 mos while they worked on getting new visas. It was a busy week- many yogurt boxes consumed, lots of late night girl talk, swimming at LeoLand, many small arguments, bike riding, haircuts, and American food treats like apples, cheese, goldfish crackers and root beer floats! The girls loved having new playmates!

We are now getting back to normal life after holidays and houseguests. Tom is still doing his daily commute for language school from 8:00-12:00 while I'm home with the girls. Afternoons are committed to language study, napping in the heat, visiting Thai friends, housework, and my language tutoring on Wednesdays and Fridays. We are enjoying teaching our English class on Wednesday nights, hosting team meetings, and I'm still volunteering at Nightlight (a ministry to sex trade workers in BKK) on Tuesdays. We are feeling fulfilled and are thankful for the opportunities God continues to give us. Thanks for your prayers. There are many directions that we and the team could go in ministry this year, so we would really appreciate your prayers for clarity and GOD'S vision for us.

-Candice

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This week we're enjoying some company. A family who works in India is staying with us while they wait for new visas. They have two girls (ages 5 and 2) and a baby boy. Our girls have had a lot of fun playing with their new friends. (They also all enjoyed sleeping in the same room until we seperated them since there wasn't enough sleeping going on!)

Here's a picture of Eliza holding the baby - she was quite proud of herself.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we had lunch with our landlords and they gave us some gifts for New Year's. The girls got stuffed animals and we got a hand-drawn portrait of our family. Their son Dtu drew it based on a picture of us that they had taken a while ago. We had no idea that he could draw and we're impressed that he would invest that much time in a gift for us.

What do you think - who looks the most true to life? Claire said "Daddy looks serious; like he's getting ready to spank."

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)