June 2011
Outlander. lol
June 29, 2011
We're watching Outlander and I managed to get hold of the computer so I'm updating. This will probably be the last update before I head home on Monday. It's been a good month, I'm so ready to get back to work, really. Bought a lot of awesome stuff, going to have a sweet classroom this year. Can't wait for that.
Bunch of work this coming month. Missions conference, VBS, various other ministries I'll be picking up here and there. Looking forward to it for sure. Seriously ready to work. Almost to the point of being stir crazy.
Anyways, I'll be seeing you Maryland people next week. I've got a dentist appointment the day after I get back. Gyuh. Of all things. lol
Ciao!
Missionary and The Church
June 21, 2011
Sorry about falling off the face of the planet there after that last, really really short post. Got moved off while I was in the middle of typing it. What I had intended to say was that Romans is an amazing book to study through and way, way bigger than I ever imagined. Fantastic stuff. Anyways, today I bring you the rough draft of something I was inspired to write last night and started working on this afternoon. It obviously isn't finished but it's a fun story. Think 'Pilgrim's Progress' while you're reading it.
The members of First Baptist Church were getting together for their weekly meal. They always looked forward to the meal and dressed up special for it. Occasionally they would invite friends to the meal and a couple times of year they would have special meals. The Pastor of FBC was a good cook and always fed the members quite well. Today would be no different.
They, the members, were all seated around their nice oak table with knives and forks at the ready, waiting eagerly for their food when the back door swung open and a dirty, gaunt female walked in. A few people at the table cringed at her grunginess while a few others looked shocked at how skinny she looked. "Hello, everyone." She said. "Mind if I join you?
The members were kind enough and there was sure to be more than enough food. They set up a space for her and invited her to sit down. They had to move quite a bit because the members of FBC were rather fat given their habit of eating so much every week and never working it off.
The lady, Missionary was her name, sat down and looked around. "How are you all doing these days? I haven't seen you in a long while." She really hadn't. Missionary had gone to work in a far away place and had been there a very long time. The people of FBC sent money to Missionary to help her feed people in the other land. Partly because it made them feel good but also because they had been told to by the King, the man who had started FBC and whose food they enjoyed.
The food was soon served and the people began eating. The first course was a delicious salad with crisp lettuce and cucumbers, orange carrots and shiny, red tomatoes. Then they had their choice of dressings to go on top.
"Wow." Said Missionary as she munched on lettuc, "We hardly ever get to eat good salad where I am."
The next course was small shrimp with a spicy sauce. It was a little bit harder to eat than the salad but the members of FBC were used to eating things like the shrimp and munched their way through in no time.
The third course was a hearty soup with potatoes and cabbage. "This is delicious!" Exclaimed Missionary. "I have never eaten something that tasted like this! I must get the recipe!" The members of FBC looked at each other in surprise. They ate this sort of soup all the time and were actually a little bit tired of it.
Between the third and fourth courses and kindly woman tried to start up a conversation with Missionary.
"What sort of food do the people eat where you are?" She asked.
Missionary shook her head sadly. "For a long time now some people have been feeding them poison and the people have decided that they really like it. I keep trying to give them good, wholesome food but they refuse to take it."
"Why would they do that?" Asked the woman whose name was Naive, "That's the only way they can live!"
"Because they like the poison." Said Missionary.
The fourth course was a dish of sauteed vegetables with a side of meat. Onions, squash, tomatoes and green beans were in the dish. Obvious effort had been made to make the wholesome vegetables taste better than they normally would but there were several complaints from th epeople at the table when it was served.
"I told the Pastor that I didn't like it when he served this dish!" Proclaimed one overly large lady who looked sickly. Her name was Prideful. "But he insists on serving it!"
"I have a hard time swallowing it." Said another man. His name was Unwilling.
"It is way too salty!" Said a chubby young lady named Selfish. She pushed the dish away and refused to eat.
"Sometimes it tastes good and other times I don't like it but I always eat it." Said a young man at the far end of the table. "It is a very healthy dish." He didn't come out and say it but it was clear that he was frustrated at the people who were complaining about the vegetables.
Missionary ate hers with gusto and asked for seconds. "If I had the resources to give these vegetables to the people I'm working with then they would be much healthier." She commented.
The fifth course was running a bit late so the people at the table began to interview Missionary.
"what sort of food do you offer the people over there?" Asked a man named Well Intentioned.
"It all depends on where I am." Responded Missionary. "Some places have absolutely no good food whatsoever and I have to work very hard to get food that they can digest. In that case I usually just get to offer them milk for the first few years. In other places they have lots of good food but they're preparing it wrong or they are ignoring it. So I teach them how to cook it correctly and start them off with rice and beans. Usually they grow from there. Sometimes though, someone realizes that the way they are eating is actually killing them and they, of their own resources, start preparing good food for themselves after I teach them about it. Eventually they are the people who start telling others about the bad food they are eating and teach them how to eat better food. In the end I leave them there to continue the work I started. By that time they are eating steak and lab and all sorts of wonderful things."
"What do you need to make your job easier or more efficient?"
"Well, if there were more people out there willing to tell people about the poison they are eating it would make my job easier because I can't do everything. And if I had more money I could buy more and better food to give to more people. I know plenty of places to get it cheaply but not free."
"What sort of people can go?" Asked the young man and the far end of the table. His name was Eager.
"Just about anyone." Said Missionary. "So long as they are willing to work hard and suffer a little bit. My job is not easy."
"But I don't know everything yet. I don't know if I could explain to people in a far away place about the food they need."
"Well, believe it or not there are people right outside the doors here that are eating all sorts of poison. In fact, I passed them on my way in here."
"I can go to people around here?" Asked Eager, incredulous.
"Absolutely." Said Missionary. "In fact, you can start tomorrow."
That's as far as I've gotten. The wording is a bit messed up in places but I'm working on it. The main goal right now is to get it all out of my head and onto paper. Then I'll rewrite it. Please comment, I'm interested in what you think. While I was typing it I realized that some things don't flow quite like they should so obviously I'm going to have to change some things around. Please let me know what is most confusing and what doesn't work right.
Things are going exceedingly well here. We're about to eat right now though so I have to let you go. I'll tell you about it later. ^^ Ciao!!
Romans
June 15, 2011
Alright, halfway through June already which in an of itself is absolutely amazing. Time has seriously flown here and I've had a really good time, learned a lot and met a lot of great people.
Tuk-Tuk = Sweet Action
June 8, 2011
Just got back home from a street market that was a whole lot like Mexico. Markets seem to have changed a bit since the days of the black and white movies where all the vendors had was totally authentic, hand-made, cultural stuff. Am I disappointed that modernization has caught up with the rest of the world? Yes. Do I wish I could live in a movie? Yes, actually.
But I digress. The market was sweet. Bought some crepes and fried bananas which, excepting the sesame seeds in them, are really, really fantastic. I could probably eat them all day except that I felt like some sort of huge, bumbling American tourist as I walked down the street eating them. It doesn't help that I'm like, a foot taller than everyone I come across. The other thing that I would have bought, given the option, was plants. They had so many super awesome flowers and bushes and cacti that I was totally in heaven. Unfortunately, Mr. Customs-Official is not so welcoming of plants as I am, nor could I think up a plausible excuse to bring the thing on the plane with me. Otherwise I'd be broke but with a whole ton of plants right now. Sweet, sweet plants. Also discovered a table full of fake MAC products which made me laugh because the packaging was the exact same as the fake MAC blush I bought a few months ago on eBay. I didn't even ask how much it cost because it was so phony looking.
Again with the digressing. On the way home from the market we hired a tuk-tuk which is basically like death on wheels. Sweet, sweet action. We managed to get a rather sedentary driver, one that didn't throw us around all over the place, and since I'm so tall I really couldn't see out of the thing to actually get the full effect of death coming at us from all sides so I felt relatively safe. There's a picture I posted on Twitter of the inside of our tuk-tuk. Pretty awesome. And it only cost 80 baht to boot. Which means we paid about $2.50 for a taxi ride home.
I know I could live here without any problems. Excepting the lack of quality clothing and the humidity, I would fit right in. Get a little apartment and a motorcycle and, BAM, I'd be legit. Learning the language would be a bit difficult at first but I'd get it. It's pretty cheap to live here. I'd pay someone to do my laundry, buy fruit for breakfast, lunch and dinner and pretty much have an awesome time.
I'm in a much better mood today because buying that tiny flatiron was the best thing I've done in a long time. My hair looks approximately 2000% better which of course makes me feel 2500% better and improves my mood 5000%. Plus I got to talk to everyone in my family last night which also helped with the mood-improving-ness.
Alright, won't take any more of your time. Have a great day (evening, those of you in MD)!! Ciao!
Mai
June 4, 2011
I'm glad I've had previous experience with a foreign language otherwise I'd be utterly and completely lost. I mean, more than I am right now really. As it stands I can pick up things here and there and with the help of a phonetic dictionary and a whole lot of Thai English speakers I can basically make myself understood. Slowly. Very, very slowly. And with a lot of bad pronunciation. I'm not even bothering with the alphabet right now because I don't have time for that. I just want to know how to say things.
As for the chicken pox everyone in the house is itching, whether or not we actually have chicken pox. lol. Funny what your subconscious can make you do, eh?
Tomorrow is church then a day off. Jet-lag still has me waking up at around 6:30 and falling asleep around 9:45. I've been getting some really good morning devos in. ;)
Chicken Pox
June 3, 2011
So I woke up late this morning and when I finally stumbled downstairs Abby informed me that all of the kids had chicken pox. Yay! Fortunately I've already had it so I'm not too worried about it and if I'm going to catch it its too late to avoid it because I've been sitting next to them for the last three days. So I'll know in about two or three weeks whether or not I'm going to get it.
On the agenda today is visitation and English class. I've got to go and start getting ready here pretty quick so not a whole lot of time to update anything. Sorry. Went shopping last night and bought some Pockys (yay!) which is about all I have to say about that. More later. The best place, really, to keep up with what's going on is Twitter because I'm able to update that randomly whenever I'm in the house without having to use the laptop which is easier on everyone. Anyways. Ciao!
Arrived!
June 1, 2011
It's weird looking at the world clock on my iPhone and seeing Washington D.C. listed as being in 'yesterday' as if I'm somehow in the future which I am but I'm not because to me it's the present. I'm jet-lagging on top of that so sometimes what I'm thinking and what I say are not the same thing.
The flights went well but being stuck in Japan for six hours was boring because there was only one store there and I didn't really feel like standing up or moving because I'd just been standing for an hour in this weird re-security line (what, exactly, do they expect us to have that we didn't have when we went through security the first time?) so I slept most of the time I was there.
But so yeah, I'm here now and it's great. Had an awesome lunch, have taken exactly one picture and that was of a sign in Tokyo that had my flight on it which was a small victory finding it because I don't read Japanese. There was a lizard in my bathroom last night (this morning) and my hair is going crazy with the humidity. Anyways, I have a half hour before we're leaving for church. I haven't really talked to anyone in the States, lol, I'll try to call my parents tonight on Skype. Tomorrow we're going shopping which is going to be awesome. I haven't spent any of my Baht yet and you know me, I'm dying to buy something, anything. XD Still haven't had any pineapple but, good news!, its in season so its super cheap! Yay!!
