Trip to Bangkok

We hadn't had a family vacation just by ourselves in quite a long time, so we decided to take a trip to Bangkok with some of our Christmas money. We were able to travel and find accomodations quite cheaply, so we still had most of our money to spend on things to do in Bangkok. Fortunately, we found that when we showed Eric's drivers license and spoke a little Thai, we were able to get the Thai price at most of the places we went to. In case you don't know, most attractions have a Thai price and a farang price, the farang price being much higher. All in all, every time we go to Bangkok we find that we're able to spend less money. It never seems that way in American cities:) The first picture is Gabe at the childrens musem. The second is Gabe at the water park. It was on top of a six story mall. The third picture is Gabe with the staff of our all-night bus back to Chiangmai. Here in Thailand buses have staff similar to an airplane.

Christmas

We had a somewhat busy Christmas this year, but it was a lot of fun. On Christmas morning, we of course woke up to open presents and afterwards went to church. Our church service was mellow, small & casual with people sharing stories and songs. It was just the thing for Christmas. After church we shared a meal with one of the teachers from Grace. We just had leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner, but it was just as delicious, if not more.

We spent part of the afternoon preparing the gifts for the Baan Burt Faa Lahu orphanage. As usual, we bought each child some food and school supplies. We also purchased a Bible for each child. The orphanage father, Pradip, was concerned because none of the children had Bibles. I was able to find some Lahu children's Bibles with illustrations. Every Lahu person I asked to look at the children's Bibles thought they were wonderful, and Pradip was thrilled with them. He said that having pictures would make a big difference to the kids. We couldn't purchase enough of the children's Bibles so we bought Thai Bibles for some and will purchase more of the children's Bibles when they become available. The children all read Thai and Lahu, so hopefully having two versions will be of some help. Pradip says the children have really enjoyed the picture Bibles. In addition to the stocking stuffers and Bibles we also purchased a bunch of sports equipment and art equipment for the kids. We were able to get more for our money by buying stuff to share than by purchasing an individual gift for each child. So far, they seem to be enjoying the presents very much. The picture of all the bags and boxes by our cabinet is the pile of gifts for the children. You can also see the picture of Gabe handing out a stocking stuffer bag. The boy is not paying homage to Gabe, but merely saying thank you. The picture I include of the boys from the orphanage is one of the reasons why we decided on buying a bunch of sports equipment to share. Though you can't see it, the boys in the black are sharing a pair of roller skates. Each was wearing one. It was a lot of fun to continue this 2-year tradition of handing out gifts to the kids at the orphanage. Last year, we brought blankets and clothes because that was what they needed. This year it seems like they're a little better provided for and we could buy some things just for fun.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a busy day starting early in the morning. Eric went to a party for the kids of the GamPeangNgaam Slum. This was the place that Eric went to teach English this past summer. Though he’s been unable to teach regularly he has substituted for other teachers on occasion and stayed somewhat involved in that program.
We spent the evening having Christmas dinner with friends who live in our neighborhood. One of their daughters is Laura who has been pictured on our blog before. We had the traditional Christmas dinner then the kids put on a program for us. We were very impressed with how organized the older kids were, but Gabe & Laura were rather indifferent as Mary & Joseph. As soon as the shepherds came to see baby Jesus they tried to trade their baby for the sheep since the sheep made real baa-ing noises. None of the kids ate enough turkey. While the adults were all yawning after an OD of tryptophan the kids were doing a lot of yelling and screaming. However, after dessert they all settled down to read. Gabe was very cute as he tried to read to Laura and teach her all sorts of things from their books. He seems to have the teaching disposition. Fortunately, Laura adores everything Gabe does and put up admirably with his pedantic speeches.
Winter truly feels like it finally here. We are wearing sweatshirts and sweaters almost the whole day. Apparently, it gets into the mid-80’s every day, but it doesn’t really feel like it to me. We must be used to it being hotter and more humid. I think it’s only in the 80’s for a couple of hours every day.

The Christmas parties continue this year. Most are smaller now that many people have gone for the holidays. Eric had a party for his 7th grade class and we had a party at Gabe's little preschool co-op. One of the other mothers organized a Christmas pageant for the party. Gabe, of course, played the angel Gabriel. I think he may be typecast in that role for the rest of his childhood.
Last night we and two other families sponsored a sort of block party. It was more of an intersection party as we invited the families around our intersection. On our block there is a mix of Thai, farang and Koreans. Even though all of us came from very different backgrounds and have different Christmas traditions (or none at all), we really had a great time. Toward the end of the party one of our neighbors, a Korean-American sixth-grader suggested that we Christmas carol around the neighborhood. I brought my guitar and we started making a round of the neighborhood. While we were walking on of my Korean neighbors told me that Koreans love to carol at Christmas time. She told me that in Korea when someone comes to your door to sing, you must provide them with a gift, usually food.
We made an interesting group. We were singing in three different languages, so it sometimes sounded a little strange. However it was really a lot of fun. We sang at any house that had lights on, but most of the time, Thai people wouldn't come out when we sang. Farangs usually came out to thank us for singing or to join us in singing. Koreans were definitely the most enthuiastic. They made their whole families come out to hear us and always gave us some gifts. One brought out a bunch of fruit, including whole pineapples and gave us each one. One gave me 300B for playing the guitar. Some joined us in our rounds around the neighborhood.
I was very thankful for the way the party brought us together with our neighbors. So often, people here tend to make friends from the same ethnic background, but I felt that at our party we truly enjoyed each others company in spite of the differences. I now know some neighbors that I'd never spoken with before.

Our cute boy

Here's a photo we had taken of Gabey the other day. It's not one we chose to get prints of, but still cute. This represents one thing I love about Thailand. Not only was the photo sitting extremely cheap, but they aren't at all concerned about photo copyrights and burned me a CD of the whole sitting so that I'm now free to share the bad pics along with the good (not that this is a bad pic).

In other Wolthuis family news, there's not much to report. We are sweating through a week-end of Christmas parties. This is a 3-day week-end and the most popular one for Christmas parties. School is out this week, so people usually feel they need to squeeze the parties all in before people go off for Christmas holidays. All in all, we have 5 parties this week-end, so we'd be eating ourselves silly except that I got food poisoning this week-end. Oh well, it's probably for the best.

The temperature still hasn't dropped much and the humidity is still high so it looks like we're in for a short winter. Maybe 10 days or 2 weeks. It wouldn't bother me so much except that with such weather the mosquitoes won't go away. Last year we had one heavenly month where I could confidently sit in the living room with bare feet knowing that I wouldn't be bitten all over my toes. As I sit here, I'm swatting them with our electrocution tennis racket and unbelievably, one has managed to bite me on the toughest part of my foot. But I guess I still prefer it to the cold, though I wouldn't mind a little cold to spend some time with all of you.

Christmas in the Tropics #4

This is our fourth Christmas in Thailand (Gabe's third). I still find it a little bit difficult to get into the Christmas spirit here. Probably the main reason for this is that I miss our families the most at this time. The part I enjoy most about Christmas is the family togetherness. But I think another part of the problem is that something within me still rebels against the idea of a hot Christmas. Ever December 1st that we've lived here I suddenly realize: Christmas is coming! Then I think "It can't be! It still feels like summer. I'm NOT putting up Christmas decorations yet." But then a couple of days later, I get a little excited and pull out the fake tree made in Vietnam. It's funny how living away from your home country can affect you. Here, I much more frequently want to revisit my childhood. In America, I always like a neat tree with red balls and white lights. Here, I like to buy the twinkly multi-colored lights that I loved as a kid and load the tree up with as many home-made, shoddy-looking ornaments as possible.

Loy Kratong

This is an eventful month for us. All three of us celebrate birthdays in November and two major holidays fall in November. Of course, American Thanksgiving falls at the end of the month. In the middle of the month all of Thailand celebrates Loy Kratong. Loy Kratong marks the end of the rainy season and is a major holiday in Thailand (sort of like Easter or Thanksgiving in America). Loy Kratong is celebrated by floating lotus shaped boats down the river, releasing giant lanterns into the sky and letting off lots of fireworks. Here is a picture of a kratong and of some boys from our school with bags full of fireworks at the river (the center of the celebration).

My family...

...minus us and my brother-in-law Carl

I guess I'm weirder than I thought...

You Are 35% Normal (Occasionally Normal)

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?

Happy Birthday!

Weather Forecast

This is for my family who will be coming next week:

Sunny

High during the day: 90 F

Low at night: 69 F

Air Quality: Very clean

Birthday pics

I had a great birthday this year. It was really wonderful to have a friend come celebrate with me. Christina and I went to high school together. This was her first time to come to Asia and to come visit us. We were able to show her around for most of the week, but on Saturday we really did the Chiangmai circuit. We started out at the elephant camp and enjoyed the morning there. For lunch we went to my favorite dessert restaurant. After lunch we went to the big market in town and I introduced her to the best of Thai goods. The day was cool enough to enjoy shopping in what is normally an oven-like atmosphere. After shopping we went to have Thai massages. For dinner we went to my favorite salad restaurant and enjoyed the best fruit shakes in CM. After dinner we came home and I opened the presents from Gabe, Eric & Christina. Eric let Gabe choose a gift for me (within reason). Gabe's first choices were cars and trucks, but Eric steered him away from that and I eventually ended up with a Pingu desk set (Pingu is a Swiss cartoon Penguin who is very popular in Asia). Gabe loves Pingu and immediately after I opened his gift asked if he could borrow it for five minutes (which has extended into several days). The best card of the day came from Eric. I will quote it here.

Outside: With Love and Concern on this Special Day, Happy Birthday

Inside: Can you guess what a special thing is on this day?
Come to near me...
Just whisper you that...
It's you and your special birthday!

I don't really think I needed concern. I felt very spoiled by a day so cram -packed with good things. Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday greetings.

The Elephant Camp

Gabe enjoyed another trip to the elephant camp. He's been there at least four times, but it's always exciting to him. This time we got to see a tiny (80kg) one-month old elephant. Gabey thought he was very cute, but would only pet him very cautiously on the behind. The baby was still taller than Gabe.

Japanese Smileys

You Are "Dizzy and Giddy"

What Japanese Smiley Are You?

White Sox Win

Congratulations to the White Sox for winning the World Series. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the World Series games because we don't have cable, but I was able to see the end of today's game at one of the student dorms. Though I've been to numerous WS games, I can't really claim to be a Sox fan, but I'm glad for them just the same. Both my brothers are die-hard Sox fans, so I'm happiest for them.

Camp

This week-end (up through today) we have been at Hume Lake Camp. Hume Lake is actually the name of the California Camp that brings a camp to the kids of our community. The camp comes every two years and is a major event for the kids. Not only kids from CM participate in this camp. It also draws kids from other areas of Thailand as well as other countries. Eric had been planning to go as a counselor, but at the last minute, they asked to trade him for me as they had no nurse for the camp. So, it ended up that while I took care of a steady stream of wounds and sore throats (from constant yelling) Eric got to spend days of quality time with Gabe. Gabe seemed to enjoy the camp very much. Up in the mountains the weather was a bit cooler and the mosquitoes were fewer so he could play outside nearly all the time. They had playgrounds and a pool as well as lovely grounds. He also had plenty of playmates. In the picture above, Gabe was revelling in being splashed by the big kids. In addition to all these sources of happiness, we also had a most unusual bathroom. We were assigned to a Thai style house as it was closest to most of the injury-producing activities. We had only a bedroom inside, but there was a huge amount of porch area, which was really lovely. Also outside was our bathroom. You can see a picture below. It was really like using a bathroom in a garden. It was beautifully decorated with lots of foliage and even a swing. It was really cool some of the time, but it overlooked a field. Sometimes, you'd be going out to have a shower and you'd see a bunch of farmers out in the field where it was obvious they could see you. Gabe, who has no shame, didn't mind at all. He really loved the idea of a swing in the bathroom and spent at least an hour a day playing in the bathroom, if not more.

With Feeling...

I never realized before how much I rely on facial expression to understand the meaning of words. Today, I was buying a cup of corn at the Cup of Corn stand and the girl serving me seemed very nervous to be talking to a foreigner. She smiled and laughed nervously throughout our conversation, and though I caught most of her words, it was much more of a strain than usual to understand. I kept wondering why the words I was hearing didn't match her expression and doubting that I had heard her correctly.

On the same topic, that talking loudly and slowly thing actually works. I've noticed that when I'm with a group of Thais, they always enunciate and speak louder and slower when they want me to understand. When they do this, my understanding goes way up.

Gabe & Laura

This is what Gabe is doing right at this moment. His friend Laura loves him so much that she usually wants to put on a pretty dress for him. In this case, she settled for Gabe's swimming trunks.

Oven Mitts

We went bowling the other night and the girl dispensing the extremely clean bowling shoes was wearing oven mitts. I guess dispensing used shoes for a living is to a Thai what feeding pigs was to the prodigal son. I wonder if Thai people know they've hit bottom when they find themselves broke, far from home and handing out bowling shoes.

Blogthings

I discovered this site called blogthings. It has some pretty random things on it, among them a superhero namer. Here's my superhero profile.

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Micro Savage Your Superpower is Waking Through Walls Your Weakness is Airsickness Your Weapon is Your Stellar Sword Your Mode of Transportation is Submarine

What's" your Superhero Name?

My new vehicle-ha ha

Fall Colors

It seems a little silly, but during October I always feel the distance between us and and our friends and family in America most acutely. During the summer, I know that we are all wearing shorts, going swimming, sweating, eating ice cream and being bitten by mosquitoes. The shared experiences make me feel that we are closer together. During the fall, though, our experiences begin to diverge. While we continue to wear shorts, go swimming, sweat, eat ice cream and be bitten by mosquitoes, you in the US are wearing sweaters, going for long walks on cool evenings, turning on your heaters, making hot soups, and watching the leaves turn. When I think of you doing those things, the 8000 miles really seems like 8000 miles.

Having lived in a 4-season climate for 27 years, I feel the passage of time by the changing of the weather. Here, where the temperature changes little from month to month, I sometimes forget that time is passing at all. Sometimes it seems that we are just away for the summer and we'll see you all again soon. Then, by hearing of your fall activities, I suddenly realize that time is passing after all and your lives and our lives go on from season to season. I remember that I haven't seen you in over a year and much has happened and changed in your lives without us being there to share it.

So, as I look out on another sunny tropical day, I miss you all and wish I could be with you.

At Gabe's new playgroup

The latest Gabe story

This last week we had the daughters of our friends staying at our house while their mother was having a baby. One of their daughters, Laura, is 3 like Gabe. Though they have their moments of fighting, Gabe and Laura are always talking about how much they love each other. Laura dresses up every time she sees Gabe. Gabe finally decided to imitate her. An hour before Laura was to leave, Gabe decided to impress her with her favorite shirt. Unfortunately, he got side-tracked and forgot to put his shirt on so he spent the last hour of her visit displaying his bare torso. After Laura left, he saw his shirt and said "Oh, I forgot to put on my shirt." I said, "Oh, that's too bad Gabey. Did you want to be handsome for Laura." He said "Yes, but I wasn't handsome, I was just skinny." Poor kid, already worried about his torso.

Storm predictor

For those now interested in tracking tropical storms & hurricanes, there is an interesting website you can check out. It's called Tropical Storm Risk and it shows all active tropical storms, hurricanes & typhoons (the name for hurricanes in Asia). It shows their strength and likely path. We've been watching Typhoon Damrey because it's been predicted to give us a lot more rain in a couple of days, so everyone's preparing for another flood. The website is http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/.

The flood

Here's a pic of the flood in front of our office. Susan, the Canadian in the picture, had to climb the fence to get into our office since the sandbags were in front of the gates.

Sankhampeang Hot Springs

We went to a hot springs for the first time in our lives today. We have had continuous rain for many days now and it was cool enough to make a hot springs trip seem appealing. We first went for the mineral swimming pool. Unfortunately, the pool wasn't well maintained. The water was so full of dead algae that we could barely see a foot into the water. After about 20 minutes, we felt the need for "bathing in the basin" as you can see from the sign. This is just a large hot tub that fills with water from the springs. We all felt itchy after our mineral bath so we bought salt to scrub our skin with we felt clean but smelled like eggs the rest of the day. In spite of having breathed the rotten eggs smell for several hours, we boiled eggs in the spring and ate them for lunch as this is the Thai tradition.

Riding Bikes

Jumping Bean

Gabe at a Lego exhibition

Two guys in a Saamlor (bicycle rickshaw)

For Rent

Eric the pirate

Students at band concert

New way to post comments

In case you are wondering why you now need to type in an extra word when posting, I just want you to know that I put it on for extra security since I had a spammer.

Gabey

Girls from BBF orphanage

These girls are wearing their Lahu tribal outfit. The sewing is done by hand and is very inticate. Some of the decorations include tiny quilting sqares that are about 1/4 inch in size. These outfits cost about 1000B, a very high price for the average Thai person. However, the orphanage mom made costumes for each of the 30 children.