Learning Thai

Our last few days of vacation with Grandma and Gramps have been really fun and we got in a lot more activity in the city. Over the weekend, we enjoyed an "adults only" river boat dinner, an action packed morning at the Children's Museum, some quick shopping at the (huge, hot and crowded) weekend market, team church at our house, and a big Sunday lunch at our landlord's home.......

On the river boat (a converted teak wood rice barge)- enjoying the sights of the city, lit up at night...and the huge and delicious Thai meal.

Eliza playing nurse at the children's museum. Following in the steps of both grandmas and Auntie Carmen I guess.

Playing firemen at the museum.

Our family, along with Raul and Dan, enjoying a big lunch at our landlords- the menu included fried chicken, fried fish, two kinds of rice, squid, and grilled pork and fruit.

With our landlords Seri and Ulai. Stuart and Seri were fast friends despite the obvious communication barrier.

Aside from all the fun sight seeing and relaxing, the girls favorite parts of the grandparent time, were just the "normal" play times at home....having grandparents there for nightly devotions, grandma helping with showers, taking Buddy for walks with Grandpa, playing dollhouse, many games of "Mother May I", Hide and Seek in the dark and Hide the Thimble.....and many stories, piggy back rides, lots of hugs and love. Our girls are very lucky to have grandparents like you! There was a lot of crying at our house last night! It was so special to have you here and we miss you already!

Now, we are adjusting back to normal life. Our week includes several meetings with our team mates, English teaching for both of us, and welcoming our new team mate/intern, Anita.
-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

After a nice calm day, mostly around the house on Wednesday, we headed out for another big day yesterday. We took the train to Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand to see the famous ruins of wats, mainly from 1300-1600 AD. Here are a few pictures of a very fun day together....

At beautiful Wat Mahatat, the first one we visited.
Anita- I thought of you often and our fun day in Ayutthaya- we didn't tackle the bikes this time, however. Stuck with tuk tuks.

Claire and Gramps, the hat twins. The girls were champs during this long day with help from lots of drink and ice cream stops and the occasional piggy back ride.

Had to get in at least a short elephant ride while the grandparents were here! Grandma and Eliza were on another elephant and they all enjoyed the 10 minute ride down the road.

After the elephant ride, we went to another ruins, Wat Phra Si Samphet.

Lunch at a floating restaurant. The food was delicious and it was fun getting rocked by the boats that went by. Claire made a friend who kept buying bread (at least 4 loaves!) to share with her to feed the fish.

Our last stop...Wat Yai Chai-mongkol. We enjoyed the beautiful lawns and gardens in this park-like wat and the many beautiful statues.

Ended the day with a very hot and crowded train ride home. Both girls crashed after the early morning, busy day and no nap.

It's hard to believe we only have a few days left but we are enjoying Tom's parents and our vacation so much! More pictures soon.

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday we had a very big, long, action filled day, hosted by our friends Neno and Oay. They showed up bright and early to pick us up in their pickup and we headed to the Gulf of Thailand.

Our first stop was by the water to visit a huge pool of sea turtles. They were huge with beautiful brown and green patterned shells and we had fun feeding them squid.

Next, we went on to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. Neno and Oay dropped us off there and went on to visit Oay's family home in the area. We enjoyed a lot of wild sights (some more enjoyable than others). A list of some of the more odd sights:
1)tiger cubs nursing from a pig
2)A dog, tiger, and pig in the same cage.
3) people dressed up in "caveman" style tiger patterned outfits lounging in a pen with the tigers
4)The scorpion queen- covered in scorpions
5)A "pig doing calculations"
6) piglets in a cage with a tiger
7)A huge pen filled with hundreds of crocodiles- we walked over on a bridge with a flimsy rusting fence with lots of gaping holes.
The more enjoyable activities included feeding beans to camels and bunnies and a pretty amazing old fashioned (ie: before animal rights) circus with tigers jumping through hoops of fire, etc.

We definitely saw more tigers than ever before in our lives!

Claire was actually brave enough to give a bottle to these piteously yowling tiger clubs (the volume was amazing in there).

Both girls loved this activity. Claire is now convinced that she needs a baby bunny as a pet.

But the day wasn't over yet! We had a stop at a "Thai rest area" for a fast lunch and then headed to the Kow Kiaw (Green Mountain) Open Zoo. This turned out to be a truly amazing zoo spread out over miles with displays winding through the mountain. We took a tram ride through and saw so many animals including: giraffes, rhinos,white tigers, monkeys, flamingos, deer, etc. We enjoyed seeing the roaming monkeys and all the beautiful mountain surroundings

Our hosts for the day, Neno, Oay and kids, Putter and Grace, plus one friend. Oay's mom was also with us.

Eliza and a leopard cub.

Believe it or not, yet one more activity was ahead. We were all getting a little bedraggled at this point and did some catnapping in the truck on the way to the beach.

The beach at Bang Saen. It's very popular with Thais as it's the closest beach to Bangkok. This was a holiday so it was incredibly crowed with fully dressed people enjoying the water.

Tom and Neno

Eliza's favorite activity- burying her feet.

On the way home, Claire enjoyed a brief ride in the back of the truck.

Arrived home very tired, 13 hours after we began, ate a big supper of grilled pork and headed straight to bed. Today we're spending the day recovering at home and tomorrow plan to take a train to Ayutayya.
I'll soon be posting other random pictures of more fun activities with the grandparents this week.
-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So, I taught my first English class on Thursday (thanks so much to those of you who were praying). I had never taught adults before so I was nervous and knew it would take God's grace to get through it! Praise God it went really great and I couldn't believe how much I actually enjoyed it! I had 12 students of a variety of ages and ability. I was amazed how fast the 1 1/2 hours went by and how fun it was to teach a group of eager learners. Here are a few of my friendly students....

Pboo, Jum, and Na

Nok, Peak, and Neng

On Friday we had a day of sightseeing at Baiyoke Tower planned. However, in the taxi on our way, we got a call from our lawyer that Tom had to show up at immigration to complete some paperwork for our visa. So we split up and Tom headed to immigration and we went on to Baiyoke. (He later rejoined us for awhile at the tower). On the way, we stopped off at the Erawan Shrine to see the dancers and worshippers.

Delores and Stuart with one of the many elephants offered at the shrine.

Eliza got very close and cuddly with some of the elephants which were covered in gold leaf- the result was hands and arms covered in gold!

Taking in the view of the city from Baiyoke Tower, the tallest building in Bangkok.

Tom was happy for the hopeful progress toward receiving our visa and we should know more about that in a week or two. Tom and I also enjoyed a date in the city Friday night with Arabic food (hummus!) and a movie at the mall! Grandparent babysitters- we love it!! They seemed to have a fun night too and even braved going to the noodle shop alone where Claire did her best to order for them.
Thanks for all your comments- we are having a lovely time and enjoying every minute!!
-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We're continuing to have a great time with Mom and Dad here. The girls cannot get enough of them. Here are some pictures that show what we've been doing for the past few days...

Mom has spent hours playing dollhouse with Claire and Eliza. It's something that Claire remembers from her trips to Delaware and she was already talking about it on the way home from the airport. Eliza was too young to enjoy playing this with grandma when we were in the States - but she's making up for lost time now!

On Monday all of us except Candice (who was sick, but is feeling better now) went to the local crocodile farm. They have thousands of crocodiles as well as a small collection of other animals. It's not the cleanest or most impressive zoo, but you can get very close to the animals - and even feed them. Claire and Eliza loved feeding the turtles, bears, horses, monkeys and raccoons. Here Eliza is elated to have survived a close encounter with some raccoons that devoured the banana she fed them.

We watched a crocodile show (where men stuck their hands and heads into the crocs' mouths) and an elephant show. At the end of the elephant show we got to walk underneath one of them (it brings good luck).

Our Thai girls

Last night we invited our landlords to go with us to a restaurant along the Chao Phraya River. We wanted them to meet Mom and Dad (and we wanted them to help us order a typical variety of food). We ended up with quite a feast - shrimp cakes, fish cakes, crab fried rice, a whole fried fish, sweet-and-sour fish, cashew chicken, spicy shrimp soup, curried crab with onions and peppers, some kind of squid dish, and pomelo fruit for dessert. We were all stuffed (with the possible exception of Mom who isn't a big seafood fan) and really enjoyed the interaction with Khun Urai and Khun Seri.

Today we went to the Grand Palace. The weather was perfect - breezy and cloudy, but no rain. We've been there several times now, but it's always amazing to see the architecture and incredible artistic detail. That trip is also a good introduction to the city since it involves the skytrain and a boat ride.

Boat ride down the Chao Phraya River.

Claire gets friendly with one of the giants.

Eliza gets friendly with a guard.

After lunch in the food court of one of Bangkok's fancy malls we headed home by skytrain, bus, and motorcycle taxi. Here's Mom after her ride.

Tomorrow we plan to have a low-key day around the house. I'll probably do some English teaching and then Candice's English class starts in the evening.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The much anticipated day finally arrived.......

The Big Moment!

Catching up with Grandpa. Claire kept staring at him like, is he really real???

After a few shy moments, Eliza warmed up and now seems to feel it's perfectly normal to have grandparents around!

Look at all these cheesy grins! After a year and two months apart, we are all VERY happy to see each other!
When we got home from the airport it was already dark, so we gave a tour of the house, had a quick Thai take-out supper and then devotions and early bed for everyone.

Fortunately mom and dad were able to get a good first night's sleep (after not much sleep on the plane) and Sunday was a pretty day, so we headed out to Rama IX park. For Claire and Eliza, the highlight of the swan boat ride was spying a huge dead fish.

At the park, the girls splashing in a llitle waterfall.

Claire getting a ride on Grandpa and staying out of the sun.

Feeding the fish. Since it was Sunday, we also enjoyed a short church "service" c/o Claire. She lead us in singing from pretend "hymnals" , preached about Jonah, told us when to pray, and collected our leaf offerings.

And the girls have also enjoyed a lot of time like this, just reading, cuddling, and chatting at home.......

This time is so precious and it makes us realize how much we've missed it! After the park yesterday, we were all pretty tired, so relaxed and had naps. In the evening, we had a living room picnic and enjoyed lots of snacks from the States (thanks for the caramel popcorn Gail! We devoured it!) Today our landlords came by with some breakfast (muslim food they said- chicken and rice curry) so we added that with our own baked oatmeal breakfast! Now the family is off to see the crocodile farm while I stay home and recuperate (fever, sore throat, achy). Tomorrow we hope to go visit Claire's school and to eat by the river with our landlords. More pictures soon!

By the way, Bernie and Elda- this entry is for you, ladies!
-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Occasionally we have representatives from various charities come down our street soliciting donations. Usually they are working with orphans in the rural parts of Thailand, and we've occasionally made small donations to them. Today, however, we had a more unusual request. Members of a corpse collection charity came to make their pitch. From what I could gather, they collect and (I assume) cremate the bodies that no one else claims or can afford to cremate. In his attempt to explain their purpose the man I talked to pulled out a notebook that had a number of pictures illustrating their work. There were pictures of dead bodies, pictures of people carrying the dead bodies away, and pictures of the coffins that they use to transport them. He explained that by donating money to help them I would be "tam boon" (making merit). What they are doing is very commendable from a Buddhist perspective because the rituals associated with death (especially cremation) are important to the future condition of the soul/karma of the deceased. After listening to his explanation (and seeing the startling pictures) I made a small donation and received the document shown above. To finalize my merit-making, the charity representative told me I should burn the paper. I think I'll just keep it as a souvenir.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been having fun dog-sitting for our friend Ben during his three week visit to the States. Claire absolutely loves Buddy and wishes we could keep her already. She likes taking her on walks down our soi in the evening and it's funny to see this tiny dog practically dragging Claire on the leash. Buddy is such a puppy- very active, jumps a lot, and has an incredible amount of energy. She's already found a favorite plant to chew and loves to chase a yellow ball. Eliza is a mixture of terrified and fascinated by her. She theoretically "likes" Buddy, but mainly if Buddy is tied up far away from her. :) She especially doesn't enjoy being jumped on, but we're hoping this will help with her dog phobia.

Buddy in bed on our patio during a thunderstorm.

Buddy walking Claire.

Today we saw this friendly furniture seller with his cart near our house. We've been looking for something to sit on our front veranda/porch/patio and settled on this bench (very Thai looking in style). Delivery was pretty handy.

And just because I think she's so cute....my girl before church on Sunday, doing her very pretty wai......

We are having a busy week trying to get all our work done planning and teaching before Tom's parents come to visit. ONLY 4 MORE DAYS!!!

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Okay, okay, it's been a slow blogging week. I think we've just settled in the kind of routine where we're thinking our life is pretty smooth and dull and we don't want to bore you! Here are a few highlights of our last week. Due to the annoyingly short life of our camera batteries, we have few pictures to illustrate.

Highlights.....

10)A new English student for Tom with the charming name of "Ice." Tom also enjoyed his good students, "Cherry" and "Pang" and his rowdy kids, "Mild" "Film" and "Ake."
(As you can see, English nicknames are quite popular).

9) Having a skirt, capris and pants all hemmed for 90 B. ($3) by the tailor who sits at his sewing machine right on the sidewalk near our house. How many of you would be willing to hem my pants for a dollar?

8) Major league baseball playoffs live on TV at 5:00 and 7:00 a.m.

7) Claire practicing writing the following Thai letters daily for homework: ก ข ฃ ค ฅ ฆ ง

6)Going to English church with Raul this morning and practicing our peculiar brand of "EspanThaiLish."

5) Candice's friend Chaweewan and her daughter Hope coming over for lunch and kiddie pool time lot and lots of chatting/catching up.

4) Our new fish Lucinda joining the family on Wednesday- our new tank finally has an occupant again! She has a bright gold/orange body and lovely long flowing white fins and tail. Thanks to Chaweewan -who has a fish farm (I don't think we mentioned that all our other fish perished- hopefully we'll be better with this one).

3) Long skype chats with sisters- miss you! Love you!

2) Spending part of our Saturday with Raul and Sharon at LeoLand- enjoying swimming and waterslides.

1) Looking forward to Grandpa and Grandma/Mom and Dad Mast's visit...ONLY 6 MORE DAYS!!!

-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last night we brought the train home from our team retreat held in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We really enjoyed the few days spending time with our team and breathing the fresh mountain air!

Ready to head out in the overnight train. This nifty little room converts into bunks and the girls got a great night's sleep on the way.

After the first day of bible study and resting at the Juniper Tree (a camp-like retreat), on the second day, we visited Doi Suthep, a temple on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. According to legend, an elephant carrying relics of the Buddha stopped and died at this spot after trumpeting three times (14th C). It is now a holy site in Chiang Mai which draws many tourists and worshippers.
(Candice and Eliza hung out at the Juniper Tree due to a morning of vomiting by Eliza- fortunately she recovered by afternoon).

Claire loved ringing the many bells in the temple compound

Claire fell in the love with this friendly looking golden turtle.

In front of our traditional Thai style house/cabin modeling t-shirts from Bangladesh from our friend Pijush. Thanks Pijush!

And here we all are!
Raul, our newest team member from Costa Rica. He is busy language learning and making lots of new friends.
Dan, just home from Bangladesh and heading to the states this week for meetings at RMM. Thanks for all the input and encouragment, Dan!
Us
Sharon, just home from a trip to the US and getting back to work in various volunteer organizations and catching up with all her Thai friends.

We had really good team times together studying the Bible (looking at Jesus' example of relating to people), making practical plans for the future of our team, and sharing, encouraging and praying for each other.

Raul explaining his passion for sharing Jesus with his new Thai friends. He is doing a great job of adjusting and adapting to two new languages! Dan helped out with some translation.

Both girls loved the daily pool time as well as the grass, trees, cats, and playground!

We are really grateful to God for this time away- it was really refreshing and encouraging for us in moving forward in our work here....
Candice

Sign at the temple in Chiang Mai. Please join us in praying for peace in Myanmar.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)