Learning Thai

Today we took a bus to the Cambodian border and back in order to the fulfill the requirement of our visa that we leave the country every 90 days. It's a convenient way to renew our visas but it makes for a very long day on the bus. Thankfully the girls did really well. Claire even declared that she would like to do it again tomorrow. The rest of us, however, are perfectly content to wait for 3 months. And hopefully then we'll have time to do something more adventurous than spend half an hour standing around at the border waiting for our paperwork to be processed.

Eliza enjoys her huge serving of fried rice

Claire and Eliza release their pent-up energy by acting goofy while we wait at the border.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

TWO YEARS AGO TODAY....

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY.....

TODAY.......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZA GRACE!!

We had a really fun day celebrating the baby of our family turning two years old today....

Claire started Eliza's day off right right with french toast and candles and the first of maybe 12 happy birthday songs! Also got serenaded by Grandaddy and Grandmom via Skype!

Then we met daddy on the skytrain and headed down the Dusit Zoo downtown. It was HOT but we enjoyed the animals. Eliza's favorites were the tiger and the big turtle she's pointing at here.

Claire with a strange animal called a tamir which looks like a cross between a pig and elephant!

We saw quite a few monks at the zoo (they were having a large Buddhist rally at the nearby parliment building and apparently some of them slipped away to enjoy the animals). Upon seeing the first several groups of them Eliza shouted "Monks!" and pointed at them. One of them heard her, but seemed more amused than offended.

Eliza devouring an icing tree from her cake.

Enjoying some presents. Thanks family for the great birthday packages in the mail. Eliza and Claire are going to have a great day tomorrow playing with all the new toys!! Masts- Eliza loved the e-mail video and cracked up at Elmo in the backgound! Dara- thanks for singing!

We are really proud of our big girl and having so much fun watching her grow. We love you Eliza!!

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 05:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We've tried a couple of different restaurants in Bangkok recently - one to get at taste of American food and the other for a new experience. We're still exploring the many kinds of Thai food as well. We're at the point now where we have a good rotation of dishes that we like. Then we occasionally try something different (like the spicy salad with pork liver that I had on Sunday). The girls know what their favorite foods are and they discuss (and sometimes argue) about what they will share when we order from a restaurant.

We were excited to read about an American-style BBQ place in Bangkok and we were not disappointed by the food!

This past weekend we tried Japanese. There are lots of Japanse restaurants in Thailand (they even sell sushi in the Sky Train stations). We all really enjoyed this meal and are anxious to try some more.

-Tom

p.s. If you think about us this week, we'd appreciate your prayers. Several factors have made the past few days emotionally draining as we continue to adjust and also look ahead to future decisions.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The hot season is now upon us - and are we ever glad that we shelled out the money to air condition one room in our house! There's been a noticeable change in the weather since last weekend - it's very hot and humid and it stays that way into the night. I looked up the weather forecast online the other day and it reported the "feels like" temperature for Bangkok as being 112. We're finding it necessary to slow down a little and just not expect to get as much done when the weather is like this. We've had pity on the girls and are letting them sleep in our bedroom since it's the one cool place in the house. They are enjoying that change.

In other random news...

-I'm enjoying my current module at langauge school. We are focusing on reading and writing and I can tell that I'm improving in those areas. The other day I was looking at a Thai newspaper and managed to decipher an entire picture caption - something about a Koala bear in the Chiang Mai zoo that has a new baby in its pouch. That may not seem like much, but when you're learning a new language you need to savor the few successes in the midst of all the confusion and blunders!

-Claire and Eliza have been doing a great job of playing together recently. A few minutes ago they were taking turns going up to the landing on our steps and playing Claire's toy piano. The one who wasn't playing would sit in a chair at the bottom of the steps to watch the performance. Now they're laying on their stomachs, sharing a coloring book.

-The political situation in Thailand has remained fairly calm for the past several months. A committee is still working on the first draft of a new constitution - and one of the issues they are currently debating is whether or not to state explicitly that Buddhism is the official national religion. There will be a referendum on the new constitution (I believe within the next month) and then elections will be held in December. I just read that this will be Thailand's 18th constitution since 1932.

Well, since our computer is not set up directly underneath a ceiling fan I'm beginning to sweat profusely...I'd better move on to cooler environs.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A couple of weeks ago a video on the YouTube website came to the Thai government's attention. (YouTube is the popular video-sharing site that we've occasionally used to post video clips on this blog). This particular video contained images of the Thai king that were deemed to be very offensive to the monarchy and to the Thai people, so the government blocked all access to YouTube from within Thailand. The local media is not even reporting what was in the video clip - just that it was extremely offensive. The government asked YouTube (and their owners, Google) to remove the clip, but according to them it didn't violate any of their policies. Eventually the person who had posted the clip removed it on their own, but by that time a series of copycat videos had been posted. So, for now, our access to YouTube remains cut off and our video clips of Claire and Eliza will remain unseen!

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We're now on our third day of Songkran - the traditional Thai New Year's holiday that will last through Monday. It's a time that has important religious significance and is the main holiday for families to get together. However the parts of the holiday that we're noticing the most are: people wearing very colorful flowered shirts, shockingly uncongested streets in Bangkok (since many people return to their hometowns), and lots and lots of waterfighting. The Thai people refer to this as "len naam" or "water play." Basically, for four days, everyone has the freedom to douse everyone else with water and smear powder on their faces.

On Saturday Claire and I decided to go out and get involved. So, we took her new water gun and rode the motorcycle around until we found a group that was "playing." After they drenched us with icy water and put the powder on our faces they welcomed us to join them. They were set up at the side of the street with a big barrel of ice water. We would wait for motorcycles, buses with open windows, and pickups full of people with their own barrels of water to come by. Then we'd all throw water on them and, in the case of the roving pickup waterfighters, they would throw water on us. Claire had a great time squirting the other kids and is hoping that we can go do it again tomorrow.

Even in waterfighting the Thai people are suprisingly polite. When a motorcycle would come along the waterfighters would step out into the street and wave, inviting the motorcyle driver to pull closer to the curb. When they did they would pour water on them and let them go on their way. And at least one person took time to wai me before smearing my face with powder.

Tonight I got soaked again when I went out to get our traditional weekend meal of grilled pork, somtam (green papaya salad), and sticky rice. I was hoping to avoid it, but it did cool me down. It's definitely better to just grin and go along with it - otherwise it would just be annoying!

Claire practicing for Songkran.

Claire helping to douse a pickup.

A wet and powdered Claire.

Part of the group that let us join them.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just had to show you the fancy princesses we have gracing us with their presence these days....

Thank you Uncle Fred and Aunt Michelle! We love you!
Uncle Martin and Aunt Sylvia- we love the giant sticker book, dress, and jelly beans (we can't get jelly beans here, so that was a special thrill). It was a very exciting mail day around here!!

Also wanted to share our "wall of fame" above the sink. Here is where I put the pictures you send us so I can see your lovely faces while I do dishes. It also reminds me to pray for you....and occassionally makes me really, really homesick. Feel free to send us pictures to add! We love the new ones of Laci and Elliot!

Thanks to those of you who have been praying for Eliza. Her fever is finally gone today although she is still tired and cranky and has a cough and growly voice. Tom now seems to be coming down with the same thing. He went to the clinic today and came home with a bunch of medicine, so hopefully that will help. He also got totally soaked on the motorcyle! We have been enjoying a few rainstorms this week. After about 4 dry and hot months, the rain is a really wonderful change.

We are looking forward to seeing what the Thai New Year will be like this weekend. Did you know it's the year 2550?? We have a short break from school for the festivities called Songkran. We have heard that it involves a lot of water throwing in the streets, so we might soon have some intersting pictures of that to post....

Candice

By the way, look what our friends/English students Neno and Oay brought us tonight. They went on a vacation to the beach and brought us back some "kaaw lam" (sweetened sticky rice and beans cooked inside bamboo stalk). Eliza loves it!....

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Happy Easter everybody! We miss you today and would love to come to your church and eat some Easter dinner with you! Poor Eliza has been sick over the last few days with a pretty high fever. We took her to a children's clinic near our house yesterday. After a $10 (!!!) visit to the doctor (doctor's fee: 70 baht or $2!!) and 6 bottles of medicine: 280 baht), we found out she has an ear infection so she's now on antibiotics and drops and pain medicine and has improved slightly. She and I are staying home this morning while Tom and Claire are celebrating Easter at our Thai church.
Here are some of the celebrations around our house this morning.....

Claire getting into dying Easter eggs the exact right shade. We only had leftover coloring from Christmas, so red and green it is!

Claire with some quail eggs. They are pretty commonly eaten here and are cheap at the grocerey store. i bought some for decorations and we girls made a quail egg nest from dried grass.

Claire starting the Easter egg hunt. Look quick, Claire, it's HOT out here!!

Eliza...this face says it all about how she's feeling today, poor baby....

She scores! Green egg in a green vine. Tricky mommy.

Eliza perks up when she discovers all the candy in her basket. Thanks Grandaddy and Grandmom Rhodes for the Peeps!! They were immediately devoured!

Claire and Eliza have been opening "resurrection eggs" (thank you Grandpa and Grandma Mast!) with little symbols of Jesus's death and resurrection every night this week at our family devotions. It's been neat to see Claire taking in more of the story and really understanding it this year. She's been praying a lot thanking Jesus for dying for her and asking lots of good questions ("Why do we all sin?").
It has been a litte lonely celebrating Easter in a neighborhood where almost no one knows about the holiday...but it's also given Easter a really personal meaning too- like Claire, we are really thankful for Jesus death for us and that he loves us that much.
Now go eat some Easter ham (or pie!) for us!
-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's a quick update on some recent happenings...

-I decided not to take the teaching job at the Thai school. Through praying, hearing from other teachers, and realistically evaluating my gifts, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the right option. It is hard to turn down the one concrete visa option available to us, but I've felt a sense of relief since making the decision (especially when I picture myself trying to keep the attention of group after group of rowdy middle-schoolers!) Thanks to those of you who have been praying for us - and please continue to pray for God's leading. Some new business possibilities have come up and I will be investigating those over the next couple of weeks.

-This past weekend we participated in the Southeast Asian Anabaptist Retreat. It was held at a hotel in a nearby city and included people working in Thailand, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. We enjoyed the childcare, great food, and interaction with other Christian workers (most of whom we had never met before).

The retreat participants

The view from our hotel room. The pool was fun but the water was very warm!

-Now we're back in Thippawan. I went back to language school this morning, Candice is at her class this afternoon, and we have our English students coming over this evening.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)