Learning Thai

Our family and Anita had a very interesting day in Ayutthaya, Thailand's former capital today. We started off with a two hour train ride with nice views out the open windows of rice fields, banana trees, and lotus flowers. We rented some bikes (Anita and Candice) and a motorcycle (Tom and girls- since they were a little small to hold on to the back of a bike) and toured several very beautiful ruins of the old city. Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand for 400 years until it was sacked by the Burmese in the 1760s. Many of the ruins we looked at were built in the 1400's so it was amazing to take in all the ancient pagodas, temples, statues, etc. The grounds were beautifully green and peaceful too, so it was a nice day out of the city.
Of course it wouldn't be a true "Thai adventure" (as our family calls exploring days). without a few "issues." :) Namely, Anita and I struggling on and off the ferry boat with our seemingly gigantic and heavy bicycles and up steep, wet wooden steps (even harder when you're laughing the whole time). Oh and who could forget the sudden downpour as we were exploring Wat Phra Si San Phet forcing us to run for cover under the nearest trees (and leaving us soggy for the rest of the day. By the way, this was after we got sprayed by the little girl with the hose). And of course the rented motorcycle that broke down midday and had the tourist police coming to the rescue. And lastly, Eliza getting freaked out by every dog we saw, including one the size of a rat. The girls were troopers after waking at 5:30 and getting no afternoon naps- they really enjoyed the sights too and even got to see a few elephants (which Eliza has finally learned to say today after calling them "Ents" for a long time).
Here are a few pictures to give you a better idea of what we saw....it's hard to show the extent of the beauty.....

Eliza having a snooze on the train.

A Buddha head in the roots of a banyan tree.

Red brick ruins at Wat Mahatat.

Family pic, courtesy of Anita.

Anita and I modeling the lovely frangipani flower.

Claire was thinking hard about Buddha and Jesus today. She asked me if Buddha was a real man and what his real name was. She stood by this statue and sang, Jesus Loves Me. I am glad that she is interested in learning more about Buddha and is secure in her faith in Jesus too.

During the rain shower.

In the tuk tuk after a yummy lunch, headed back to our malfunctioning motorcycle. Thanks to our friendly tourist police, it was up and running and got us back to the train station.

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Congratulations Del, Gail, and Allison! We are excited about our new nephew born today, Owen Joel. We love you!

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are excited to report that we have made progress on the English-teaching front, but are still waiting with a mixture of faith and fear for the work permit!

In the past week we've had several phone calls from people who saw my sign - and I've had my first two paid English teaching sessions, with another one scheduled for this evening. It's been very encouraging to see how this has worked out. At this point, I'm working with a man who is studying to take an English test that may allow him to move to the States to work as a nurse. He wants to meet every day to practice speaking. Tonight I'll be meeting with a couple of young kids who's mother wants them to study several times a week. I also have received a thesis paper about "Biodiesel Production from Crude Palm Oil" written (in English) by a graduate student in our neighborhood. She wants me to proofread it for her. There are a couple of other potential students that I'm waiting to meet or hear back from as well. So, we are thankful for God's provision in this area.

As for the work permit/visa...we are still waiting, but the lawyer remains optimistic, so I'm trying to do the same. We should know more tomorrow afternoon, but it looks like the worst case scenario will be that we need to temporarily extend our visas. We can do this in Bangkok, so the main downside to that is the cost. Hopefully by early next week we will have a work permit and renewed visas and we'll be able to breathe a big sigh of relief. It has been frustrating waiting so long without knowing what is happening and without being able to do anything about it. Thanks for your prayers for us during this time of added stress - and please continue to pray for the visas to come through and for wisdom in working out an English teaching schedule. I will also plan to begin next week volunteering as an English teacher three mornings a week at a private Thai school in exchange for Claire attending kindergarten during that same time.

Tomorrow we are planning to take off with Anita and spend the day in Ayutthaya (the old capital of Thailand, about 2 hours north of Bangkok by train).We're ready for a day out of the city and hopefully we'll be able to forget about the visas for a little while!
-Tom

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We have some little friends that have been coming quite often to visit. They are a brother and sister, Ouo and Gaew, neighbors from a few doors down and they've been often showing up in the afternoons to play. When they come, they sometimes stand at the gate and yell, "Farang, farang!!" (foreigner), until we come. :) They love to play with our toys and Claire and Eliza and today stripped down and jumped in our pool (actually, they are still in there after dark, and don't want to go home!). They had some pb and j and popcorn tonight with the girls and seemed to enjoy it.

Claire and Eliza watching Curious George and having a picnic supper with Gaew.

We also got four other new little friends.....Chinese goldfish we named Isabella, Rosemary, Henry and Jack. In sad news, Dorothy passed on yesterday after exhibiting some weird symptoms like upside down floating and cloudy eyes. Fortunately the girls weren't too traumatized since we got the new fish the same day.

Last night Sharon and I spend the night with Trish and then went to the airport this morning bright and early- she's done with her one-year internship and headed back to America.
Good-bye Trishie! God used you to touch and bless a lot of people in Thailand, including us.... you've been a great friend to us and to Claire and Eliza. We will all miss you!!

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This probably didn't make the headlines in the States, but the big news from Thailand is that the new constitution was approved in a referendum vote this past Sunday (by a margin of 57% - 41%). (That's our local polling station in the picture.) Now the country will be preparing to elect a new government sometime in December. The ban on political party activity that was in place after last year's coup has just recently been lifted, so now new parties are being formed and coalitions are being created. It makes the American process seem rather unimaginative!

As for us...Candice and Anita are heading into Bangkok today to explore the Grand Palace. I'm here with the girls - working on teaching materials, registration forms, etc. I hope to get my business cards and brochures printed today or tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out how much to charge, when to offer classes, etc. I'm also trying to work out a deal to volunteer at a school (the private school that couldn't afford to hire me) in exchange for Claire going to kindergarten there part-time. We'll keep you updated.

-Tom

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First for the hot date.....Tom and I have enjoyed a couple of nights out thanks to Anita!
On Saturday we enjoyed a date to the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was an American military officer who lived in Thailand after World War II and made Thai silk internationally famous. He had an amazing house consisting of six traditional Thai teak houses which he brought into the city, connected and decorated with European marble and a crystal chandelier as well as many antiques including Ming dynasty china and ancient Buddha statues. He also had a jungle-like garden in the middle of the city- the birds of paradise flowers hanging from the trees were amazing- some maybe 8 feet long! Interestingly, he disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. Hmmmmm.
We also enjoyed dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

The girls had fun with Aunt Anita playing games, doing chalk drawings, and watching Cinderella. They love it when we leave! We've also been having other fun times with Aunt Anita over the past few days including....ice cream and a movie with Claire, lots of shopping at the weekend market, going out for Pad Thai with our landlord, haircuts with my friend Chaweewan, buying vegetables at the market, and feeding an elephant on our street.
Fun with Aunt Anita....

Tom was able to hang his new sign this weekend. It says: "Receive English teaching from an American- every level. Teacher Mast. Phone numbers." Cool huh? Hopefully we'll soon start getting some phone calls. He does have a few leads for people who are interested in studying. He also be distributing leaflets in our neighborhood this week.

Ben brought his new crazy looking dog, Buddy to team church at our house this morning. Claire was in love! Both she and Eliza are sick with fevers right now, so this brightened their day!

In other exciting news, our landlord Seri unexpectedly attended our worship time this morning. He arrived with fruit just as we were beginning and stayed for singing, scripture study and prayer. It was neat to have him there and to see him reading the Thai Bible study and observing our worship. It was also a blessing to have Raul, our new Costa Rican teammate at our meeting for the first time. Praise God for his amazing answers to prayer!

- Candice

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The other day I went with a Thai family (our former English students) to watch boat races. There were teams of 20-30 men rowing traditional Thai longboats, racing on the Chao Phraya River. It was part of a festival that took place around the Mothers Day weekend. While we were walking back to their car we stopped at various stands selling snacks. One of them was selling a variety of fried insects. Our friends bought a bag of worms and, after eating some of them, sent the rest home with me. As soon as I showed them to the girls Eliza immediately volunteered to eat one - and she enjoyed them!

The insect vendor - the crispy worms were definitely among the more edible-looking options.

The worms were very crispy and almost hollow.

Eliza, the worm connoisseur

-Tom

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Yesterday was Thai mother's day. How lucky and spoiled am I to have two mother's days every year? Thailand celebrates mother's day on the Queen's birthday (she's 75 this year). The Queen's picture has been everywhere and there were many tributes to her. She has been the reigning queen for 57 years and is very beloved. One new fun fact I learned about Her Majesty Queen Sirikit is that she met the future King in Paris (as a teenager) where they became friends. Then he was in a car accident and she visited him often in the hospital and they fell in love. They were married and then a week later was his coronation as king. A romantic little story I thought. :)

Claire gave me the traditional gift- a jasmine plant.

At church the moms sat up front and our children came forward to give us flower garlands. The children knelt down and and waied with their faces in their mother's laps. Claire did it great! We also got a box of milk to represent what we give to our children.

We ate green curry after church and then joined a group heading to Yo Yo land- a small indoor amusement park. The girls had a great time- Eliza in the romper room and Claire (in the pic) on a small roller coaster, merry go round and bumper boats. The adults got headaches from the noise and chaos!

A few more pics, Claire in princess mode with her new gloves from Aunt Anita and Eliza being Eliza....

Still having fun with Anita- today is a Thai holiday and Tom went to some boat races with Thai friends. Anita and I are hanging out with the girls today and plan to head into Bangkok tomorrow to see some temples.

On the work permit front, Tom has a meeting with Max, the lawyer, on Wednesday to see where we stand. Hopefully the paperwork for the work permit will come through soon and we'll take a quick trip out of the county to apply for our new visa.

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So, for all you are wondering (especially you Bek and Carmen :) )....Anita is here and we're having a great time. The girls went along to pick her up from the airport at 12:30 a.m. Thursday....of course I cried when I saw her, and we were all home in bed by 2:00. The girls behaved amazingly well for being awake in the middle of the night, 4 or 5 hours past their bedtime! They were excited to see Anita- we've been marking the days off on the calendar and looking forward to it for quite awhile. Eliza was cautious for a few minutes checking her out but as usual warmed up fast and now loves giving her hugs and saying "I love you Aunt Nita" 5 times a day or so. Claire and Eliza are both enjoying learning new songs and having books read to them. We loved getting some gifts from home and Morocco (thanks family!) and have already had lots of time for long sister talks. Today we went out for a massage so that was fun and helped with all Anita's moving and airplane sore muscles! We're really looking forward to the rest of her time here!
Tom is busy working on business cards and fliers advertising his English tutoring and having a sign made for our front gate...so pray for students!
Here's a picture - more later.....

- Candice

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Late Wednesday night we met Dan at the airport. He was there to pick up Raul - a young man from Costa Rica who is joining our team here. We were there to pick up Anita (Candice's younger sister). I'm sure that Candice will be posting more about that - along with pictures - now that her camera batteries are recharged.

Raul will be living in Bang Phli (near Dan) and will start language school next week. We met him yesterday and I had the hardest time coming up with anything to say in Spanish. My brain only wants to translate into Thai (which on one hand, is a good sign!) Raul only speaks a little English, so it will be interesting to find ways of communicating in a mixture of English, Spanish and Thai. I'm sure that he would appreciate your prayers during these first days (and week and months) of difficult transition. We are very excited about working with a multi-cultural team and are looking forward to the arrival of more workers from Nicaragua and Ecuador - hopefully in early 2008.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This week, while we're still in our unstructured time waiting for my work permit to come through, Candice and I have each taken some to time to get out of the house. Yesterday I decided to visit two of the more famous Bangkok wats that we hadn't seen yet - Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple) and Wat Saket.

Wat Benchamabophit has a large collection of Buddha images - and it was very interesting to see the variety. Some of them are originals that were found in various ancient temples and others are reproductions of famous images from around Asia. Each culture has its own version of the Buddha and he is sculpted in a variety of postures. I'm still learning about this, but I think that there are 7 primary postures - one for each day of the week. Every Thai person would know what day of the week they were born on and would then have a special affinity for that particular Buddha posture.

I enjoy visiting wats - they are peaceful and quiet and the sculptures, paintings, and architecture are beautiful. They often contrast drastically with their surroundings in those respects. I'm also intrigued by them because of the tremendous spiritual importance they have for the Thai people. Of course I don't share in that belief system or cultural heritage, but I have respect for many of the ideals that the wat represents.

A Pakistani Buddha - during his ascetic phase.

In this posture he is imploring his relatives to live peacefully.

Two very different Japanese Buddhas

This was my favorite - a Burmese Buddha

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)