If I get to sleep in a wat again…

by Jean

The next time (if any) that I am told I will be sleeping in a wat, I will have some idea of what to bring with me.  Experiences are great things to learn from. Sometimes it takes more than one of the same kind to really figure things out, though.

First, I would try to bring something with more of a cushion to it than a regular blanket.  Even a fluffier one would be better.  I really need something with some foamy stuff in it.  If I can’t bring a full length one, maybe I could just take some to wrap around my hips, where the sore points happen.  Then I could use the blanket I took as a blanket.  The sheet I had wasn’t warm enough, even at 60+ degrees.

Our mosquito net would be good too.  The girls were smart enough to bring theirs.  The insect repellant I brought worked pretty well where I remembered to put it.  Thankfully the bite on my chin faded before morning.  Kru Muey was good to let me share her net with her, but if I had ours it might not come down part way and tangle me in its edges during the night.

I would bring a better pillow too.  Everyone else had one.  The clothes and jacket I have here aren’t fluffy like the ones I’ve used in the States as pillows.  These clothes made a rather hard pillow, about like the ones the others were sleeping on.   

Another thing would be my bathroom sandals.  The other teachers were kind enough to let me use theirs to walk over the rickety boardwalk out the back to the bathrooms.  A personal water heater would be next on the list.  What? There isn’t such a thing?  Well I guess not, at least not for bathrooms with no electric outlets and not to make enough warm water for a shower.  The showers there consisted of scooping water out of a barrel and throwing it over yourself.  The Thai girls insisted that the water wasn’t cold though, so I guess that is one more thing I have to get used to. 

Now I don’t know whether earplugs should be on my list or not.  Usually, once I’ve heard a certain noise, it doesn’t wake me up anymore.  The sounds of the roosters and the fighting cats outside weren’t much of a problem.  The bell jingling was different.  It came along with the door gate rattling at one o’clock in the morning.  I thought maybe a priest had come in to do some praying to the Buddha that was stored at the other end of the building, and the bell ringing was part of it.  I didn’t want to open my eyes and find out.  The bell rang for awhile the first time and then in short bursts occasionally after that.  The next morning, when I met a dog on my way to the bathroom, I realized I was wrong.  The dog had a bell tied around its neck.  It had rattled the gate trying to get inside the door.  Maybe it was chasing one of the cats that kept sneaking in.  Then it must have had a major itch to scratch which got its bell ringing so much.  If I get this opportunity again, I will keep my eyes open for dogs with bells on so the sound won’t wake me up so easily.

The tent that Pong and Daniel brought to sleep in looked like a great idea.  They had plenty of room to set it up in the places we slept in.  It also kept out light, mosquitos, cats, bird droppings, and some noise.  Daniel said he didn’t even hear the bell ringing.  That could also have been because he couldn’t hear it over Pong’s snoring.  I’m not sure the possibility of sleeping in a wat again is worth the investment in a tent.  Besides, the swallow type birds that were roosting in the ceiling over our sleeping area began clearing out when we got there.  They didn’t come around again while we were there, so a tent for protection from their mess wouldn’t be worth it.

The Thai people with me seemed well prepared and not surprised at the accommodations, except maybe for the bell ringing.  This tells me that it could likely happen again, especially if I want to go to another one of these contests.  The displays I saw the next day were amazing and it was great to be a part of the accomplishments of the students.  So, we’ll see what happens next year.

:J       

Halloween, Loy Kratong, and Easter Eggs

by Jean

Our Christian school celebrated Loy Krathong on November 11. They made little decorated rafts from banana tree parts (krathongs)

and went to float (loy) them on a nearby pond. Before they did that, they had a kind of beauty contest with one girl from each class.  The 6th grade girl sang the Loi Krathong song, which the school had been playing most of the week.   They also played some dancing and singing games. Earlier in the week they drew pictures of the usual Loy Krathong events. Although no mention of spirits were made at our school (that I could tell), Loy Krathong has a history of being an event to satisfy the water spirits or repay them for polluting the waters the rest of the year.  The official Loy Krathong song, though, does talk about praying to see a better day when they float the krathongs.  The connection to spirit worship is the reason some Thai Christians refuse to participate in it. Many Thais say that the festival is just for fun, but is it? The question then for me is what I should do as a Christian in my school.

A holiday in the U.S. that obviously celebrates other spirits is Halloween. I have refused to celebrate that holiday because of its background in the celebration of Satanic creatures and the continued emphasis on that theme. One difference between that holiday and Loy Krathong is that Halloween decorations still focus on the Satanic creatures and I saw no representations of any spirits anywhere in relation to Loy Krathong.  The words in the song are a bit troubling, though.

Many Christians in the U.S. who refuse to celebrate Halloween still carve Jack-o-Lanterns. Jack-o-lanterns were once made to scare evil spirits away. I’m pretty sure that no one in the US who makes them believes that anymore, so does that make it ok? Is the Loy Krathong participation worse because many people in Thailand, and maybe some Christians, still believe in the satisfaction of the spirits?

There is also the practice of decorating and hunting Easter eggs among many Christians of the world. The practice of offering eggs to different gods as a celebration of the new life of spring started long before there were Christians. Christians redeemed it by making it a symbol of the new life we can have through the resurrected Christ. Is it possible for the Thai Christians to redeem Loi Krathong?

They have to be careful, though, not to bring in the animistic methods of satisfying God like they satisfy the other spirits. Cindy Bratton sent me a good article on this called Animism, Syncretism, and Christianity in Thailand by Karl Dahlfred, a western pastor who has been in Thailand a long time. (I will try to get that on our web site somewhere.) Thai Christians have a tendency to try to manipulate God, through obedience and offerings, to do things for them the way they manipulated the other spirits. Becoming a Christian then means having the most powerful spirit on your side, rather than realizing you can’t be good on your own and letting Him change your life. Even that article, though, only brings up the controversy among Thai Christians about Loy Krathong. The article does say that western Christians need to work lovingly with Thai Christians through all these issues. It seems like some westerners are “Christians” so they can be “right” and tell everyone else they are “wrong”. That power trip sounds very close to the one the Thais are falling into.

I believe I should try to gently ask the principle and office manager why they feel the Christian school can participate in this festival. Then, I will have to pray about what my involvement should be in it next year.  I would appreciate any comments or suggestions you have in response to what I’ve said.

Thanks, :J

In Search of a visa part 2

Plane tickets for Kuala Lumpur (KL) were a good price so we bought some to fly out Monday morning and return Wednesday morning. Gary read on the Internet that the Thai embassy opened at 9, but you needed to be there before that to get in line. We figured we could go do that Tuesday. Gary also found a recommended low priced hotel in the KL China town area and reserved a room for two nights.

The flight and entrance in to Malaysia went easily. Then we had to get Ringits (RM) instead of Bhat and get used to a new exchange rate. (3 RM to a $) The airport lunch I had turned out to be more expensive than I thought!

This boy waved as we waited to leave on our bus from the airport to KL Chinatown

When we got off, taxi drivers pointed the way when we asked where the Hotel China Town was.

“A block down and two blocks up.”

Walking distance. Besides, the last two blocks were along an evening walking/shopping street and people were setting up already at 4pm when we passed through The DVD sellers were many and persistent.

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The clerks at the front desk weren’t able to get Gary's debit card to work. They gave us a key anyway so I could wait in the room and look out the window at the market while Gary went to find an ATM. Gary was concerned at first because

he didn’t remember the code for his debit card and he hadn’t brought his Palm Pilot with the number in it , but then his Bank of Bangkok card worked ok.

After settling in, we went to find some dinner and check out the shops and the neighborhood. Gary started on a quest for ice. At one end of the walking street Gary asked someone about a grocery store. He pointed out a UO store just up the street that also had a McDonald’s in it. Gary found a coke in there, but no ice. Going back, we passed a boy scooping clean ice into a bag. He gladly sold a bag to Gary.

We were back to speaking English to communicate with people. We don’t understand any Malay, although they do write with English letters, so we can kind of sound out their words.

The next morning around 7:15 we took a 15 minute taxi ride down to the Thai embassy. The sign in front said it didn’t open for visas until 9:30. So we had a while to wait.

The sign also said Visa collection (picking up our Visas?) happened the next working day. Would we have to stay an extra day? We checked out the neighborhood a little, then Gary remembered that his money belt with the Thai Baht to pay for the visas was still at the hotel. He looked a little harder for some kind of ATM.

By the time the gate opened, a small crowd had gathered and lined up quickly. We would have been behind many of them, but a young woman let us go in front of her, considering that she had seen us there before everyone else. The official gave us a form when we signed in so we sat down to fill it out. Then we saw that other people were going straight to line up at the door to the inner building. We joined them and filled out our papers while standing in line. We ended up with numbers 8 and 9 instead of 1 and 2, but the numbers went by fast. After a little mix up at the windows, they took our paperwork and asked for money. They wouldn’t take a bank card, so Gary had to go look for a cash machine. I stayed and took another number. He made it back just before that next number came up. The lady took the money and said to come back tomorrow. OK, now we had to look for an Air Asia ticket counter to change our flight.

We walked down to the big hotel next to the ATM Gary had found. The concierge there told us where to find an Air Asia office, (at the central train station) and how to get there on the subway we had passed to get to his hotel.

It was a nice, modern subway and similar to the others we had ridden in Paris and Singapore. Soon Gary was taking a number in the Air Asia office. The price to change our tickets, though, was more than we had left in our account that day, so we left for our hotel.

A couple of information booths later we learned which subway stop was in Chinatown, only one stop away. We got off and looked for something familiar to help us find our hotel. Finally we saw the UO grocery store sign with a McDonalds what we visited the night before.

We went to lunch and then Gary tried to find a better return flight price on the Internet at the hotel. It was so slow he gave up. We went back to the

central train station, this time for train tickets. Gary took another number to wait and then buy tickets to Bangkok. We would take a bus from there to Chiang Mai. That was cheaper than plane tickets, but added about 30 hours to our travel time.

We picked up an outlet converter so we could plug in our computer and picked up sandwiches at a new Subway on the way home. (Any bread you like if it’s Parmesan). McDonalds was good for breakfast, and then Pizza Hut for lunch. Where were we anyway? America?

They handed out the visas quickly at the Embassy and then we had several hours to wait for our train. A nice mall was nearby, so we checked it out. Lots of long dresses, even for children, and head veils for sale.

The train left at 10 pm and arrived in Butterworth, Malaysia at 6 am. We knew about the ferry to Georgetown, so we went there right away.

< Not this one.

This one>

It was early and we met a Sampan driver hanging

around the ferry terminal, so we had him take us to the big mall instead of dragging our suitcases there. It didn’t open until 10, though. Other Sampan drivers were sleeping. We wandered some streets until we saw a bus stop and a bus stopping there that said “Free Cat”. A lady who spoke English well helped me figure out it had nothing to do with felines, but with free bus lines around the Central Area. We got on for a free downtown tour of Georgetown and Penang.

Either the town has two names or they are right next to each other.

After buying an early lunch at a bakery, and something for dinner, we took the ferry back to Butterworth (see the cool harp bridge?) to finish our wait in the train station. This young man

was playing with the cups on a string outside the air conditioned waiting room.

Finally the train arrived.

Where was car 10? Oh, they turned the car 2 sign around and it became car 10, with reversed directions. We got on at 3 pm for the ride until 10 am. We wrote, played Battleship (I won) and

watched the scenery. At the border stop to check passports we met Bill Cook, a long time missionary.

He started out in Japan and was now in Chiang Mai. The rest of the trip he told us about his life and his adventures. We shared a taxi ride to the bus station (after Gary flagged a taxi) and we bought tickets on the same

bus. It was KFC for lunch before the 8 hour bus ride.

After getting back to the airport to get our motor scooter, we made it home by 1 am Saturday.

Our still bed felt great.

:J