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.