From Taiwan

Here we are in Taiwan. We have spent many boring hours in the airport here in years past waiting for connecting flights to Los Angeles. Now they have free internet though! So we'll spend some time checking e-mail, looking in duty-free shops, riding the people movers with Gabe, running up and down the halls in the dead of night and taking drinks from water fountains (a novelty for Gabe). We can't wait to see our friends and family in America, but first 12 hours of flying, Los Angeles, a few more hours of flying then recovery. I actually find it kind of fun in a very tiring way.

This is the son of a collegue from Hong Kong. I was amazed at how dextrous he appears to be with chopsticks. Unfortunately, it's all a show. He can't really pick up anything, but he sure looks like he could.

Temporarily Dutch

Some friends of our used to teach at GIS but now teach at Northwestern (in Iowa). They brought this shirt for Pii La and told her to wear it to our house to show Eric. She was very disappointed he wasn't there, but I promised to show him the picture I took of her.

Kindergarten Graduation

We had a little kindergarten graduation ceremony on Monday. It's scary how quickly this year has gone by. It's been a good year for Gabe and he's learned a lot. The kids performed a little play and a couple of their favorite songs from the year. The teacher gave an award to each child and presented them with a portfolio of their best work. Gabe won the Science award for the class and needless to say, I was very proud. A lot of the parents looked at me when he won. Many of them know from preschool co-op know that I was pretty hopeless at teaching any subject but my favorite-science. I think they were more congratulating me than Gabe:)

Taekwondo

Gabe has been taking Taekwondo lessons for about a month. He'd been wanting us to let him learn to fight in some way (karate, kick-boxing, taekwondo, kung fu, etc.), so when a friend of ours recommended the taekwondo gym in our neighborhood, we decided to let him try it out. It's actually a pretty good class for him. The teachers are local Christians and it's been a good way for Gabe to understand what strength is for.

The other day I was sitting around at the Taekwondo gym during Gabe's lesson. I was feeling hot and lethargic and wishing I could be somewhere else. The TKD gym is on the top floor of a three story building so it can get pretty hot and this was a humid day. I went over to the balcony to get a breath of air and was refreshed by the view. To my left a water buffalo and its calf meandered through the newly green rice fields and to my right was the lovely view of the mountain that dominates Chiang Mai. Just the green of the landscape made me feel cool and peaceful. A moment later a cool wind announced the coming of rain. Within a minute a soft, breezy rain was falling on our neighborhood and I was feeling so grateful for mist on my skin, the fresh smell of rain on rice fields, the rhythm of the rain on the roof and the cool air blowing through the gym.

Since moving to a hot tropical country we have gained a deeper understanding of rain as a great blessing, but it's not just a physical blessing; it's also a blessing for the soul. We're in the middle of a season of hard physical work (moving, finishing the school year) and emotional good-byes, but my spirit felt revived just by a beautiful view and a cool rain. I'm so thankful to God that he has provided so many ways for our soul to be comforted and renewed.

Happy Anniversary to Eric!

I'm sorry this picture isn't better. Eric celebrated his sixth anniversary at GIS at the annual staff appreciation dinner. Only two others were in their sixth year and there were also only a handful of others (out of a staff of more than a hundred) who had been at GIS longer than six years. The staff appreciation dinner was yet another event that reminded us about how much we'll miss our community here. We sat at a table with good friends and had such a good time that we decided to continue the evening at a local restaurant.

Mmmm, sounds good!

New at 7-11!

The Houseboat

The houseboat is a popular destination for expats in our community whenever you want to go away for a day or two very cheaply. There is a reservoir about an hour from CM where many locals run houseboat motels. These houseboats are probably not up to code by American standards (thank goodness it's made all of wood-it won't sink), there is only electricity for a few hours a day, and the bathrooms are somewhat hard to use, but it's quite peaceful. Kids usually spend all day swimming or boating and at night adults usually play games and enjoy the beautiful starlight. The meals cooked right on the houseboat are made of the freshest fish caught raised right in the reservoir and it only costs about $30 for our family (food and boat ride to the houseboat included). We've gone twice in the last month-once with some teachers at the school and again for the party of Stanley's twin brothers.We'll miss these easy getaways. We've gone twice in the last month-once with some teachers at the school and again for the party of Stanley's twin brothers.

Getting rid of junk

We are now officially in moving mode. I have already gone through many spaces to get rid of the excess. Gabe & I have been playing a game that is essentially to get him to give away a lot of his toys. So far, he's really enjoying it but I have a sneaking suspicion that all the clearing up I've done is only what you'd do for a regular move, not a continental move.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We've been married 11 years! This is exactly a month late, of course. I haven't been very good about blogging lately, but it's mostly due to the poor connection we have here. Anyway, we had a nice anniversary at a very strange hotel. We enjoyed our usual tradition of watching a the most terrible movie we could find. Our choice of movie, Glen or Glenda? by Ed Wood truly lived up to (or down to) our expecatations.

Back to Blogging

Life is finally getting back to normal after my infection. I'm sorry I didn't keep updating but in some ways the cure was worse than the disease and I didn't have a whole lot of energy to do anything. A couple of days after my last post I was still having pain in my ear and my doctor put me on steroids. Taking steroids was a strange and sleepless experience. About a week into April, just after we started our long April break for the Thai new year, a new CT scan showed that the infection was clear. The next day we went to our annual group conference for a week where Eric & I got colds. I was finally able to finish my medications last week. It's nice to be off antibiotics for the first time in four months. It's great to have so much more energy especially as we get ready to go back to America in less than two months. Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for me.

Update

Upate on my ear:
I wish i could say that I'm recovering thanks to my massive bag of antibiotics, but it doesn't appear to be doing the trick. After tow pain-free days I had some pain on Easter. I've had a little bit of pain every day since then and today it increased in intensity and frequency. So back to the doctor. This time I think they may add steroids on the advice of my Stateside ENT. It seems that it's pretty hard to get the bone infection to go away. Please pray that the infection will go away completely, but if not, that I can keep it under control until I get back to the States. If surgery is necessary I'd much rather have it there. Also, I feel like my body is taking a beating with all this medication, and I'm still pretty tired. Thanks so much for your prayers.

My 100th post

This isn't very personal for such a milestone post, but I have to say: this shocked me. Even though Gabe walks, talks and thinks like Eric, I always secretly thought that he looked a little more like me than his papa. I guess not-by a lot.

My Ear

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me. Since we get lots of e-mails asking how I am, I thought I'd take some time to write a post for you. Here's the story:
Last June I got an ear infection after swimming in a not-too-clean pool. I went to the doctor and got antibiotics and I thought I was all better. However, from that time til now, my ear didn't feel quite right. It sounded like something was dripping inside my ear. Anyway, 7 weeks ago, my ear became pretty painful. I went to the doctor and they said there was nothing wrong with it. I'll spare you the details, but I went to three different doctors at the same practice for a couple of weeks and they thought it was an abscess. They prescribed antibiotics and eventually said I was better, but I still couldn't hear very well. I knew it wasn't better, but wasn't sure what to do as doctors here tend to dislike following up vague symptoms aggressively. Anyway, I continued to take antibiotics and that seemed to help, especially when my family was here in Thailand, for which I'm very thankful. The day after they left, I was having problems again with lots of pain. This went on until last week it was unbearable and I asked for help from the only American doctor I know who is legally able to practice in Thailand. Eric had taught his son in a previous year. He referred me to a friend of his and after two days of futile treatment they put me in the hospital. They still thought it was an abscess, but after a CT-scan they found that it was just a very bad infection that was in the skin, the soft tissue, the cartilage and in the mastoid bone around the ear. Apparently, such an involved infection is quite rare. Apparently, it will take some time to get rid of the infection, so even though I was released on Saturday I have slept most of that time til now. I'm still pretty weak, but I feel much better and the pain is gone. Please pray that the infection will clear up entirely as they would have to surgically remove any cartilage or bone that does not heal.

I just want to say thanks again for your prayers for me and the encouraging e-mails. I'm sorry that I haven't been great with e-mails in the past little while. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all soon.

The Film

Many of you have heard that Eric & I were involved in shooting a movie about the life of J.O. Fraser. J.O. Fraser was a missionary to the Lisu in China. Another organization (not ours) is making this film and they decided to make the movie in Thailand for obvious reasons. Calls for extras were made at our church. They especially wanted women with long hair, so I volunteered.

When they called me to back to ask me to be in the movie they asked if Eric would consider taking a part. Eric hadn't volunteered, but they couldn't find anyone in the right age range with the right look. Apparently, Eric had the right look. After much negotiating of the schedule, Eric accepted the part. It was time consuming for Eric between costume fittings, actual shooting and travel, but he had a real part. What especially amazed me was the amount of time I had to spend for my 5 seconds (maybe) in the film. Here's what I had to do:

Costume fittings: I went to two fittings at a tailor shop down town. They not only made the skirt & shirt, but also underwear.
Shoes: I had to go to a second hand store to buy old-looking shoes. Thankfully, they cost almost nothing. I am sure that no one saw my shoes in the film.

Make-up: I arrived hours before filming began to have my make-up done. They had a special make-up tray for us so that they could touch up our faces during filming.

Hair: I was singled out to pass
through the foreground. Either my costume was made in warm colors because they wanted me in the front of the shot or they wanted me in the front of the shot because my costume was in warm colors. I don't know which. Whatever the reason, I had to have an elaborate hair style because I was going to be so close to the camera. The sylist modeled the hair style on a picture of a woman from Fraser's team. This style took at least 45 minutes to do. With my hair as long as it is, they still had to stick wig pieces in my hair to give it body. The style looked beautiful when she was done (the picture shows lots of hairs sticking out here and there, but you couldn't see that in real life). After we were all made up we had to gather on the set for the director to set up the shot. It seemed a little haphazard, but the crew had clearly spent a lot of time setting things up before we even got there. The scene was supposed to be a graduation party at the Chinese language school. The director wanted to create the impression that hundreds of people were at the party but in fact, we only had about a dozen extras, so we had to help make the shot look busy by walking through the shot. My job was to walk in front of Fraser with another man. Halfway through the shot I had to turn and smile at this guy. Unfortunately, he was much taller than I am (he is standing behind me in the cast shot) so they had built a raised plank for me to walk on. It was quite tricky to walk on the plank in my very high heels, but I managed. So when it was all said and done I spent hours and hours in preparation for maybe 5 seconds on screen. I actually felt pretty lucky because I was in the foreground. Some other people spent just as much time as I did to be way in the background turned away from the camera for five seconds. Anyway, we got a free lunch out of it:) I wanted to post some pics of Eric in costume but the only pictures I have aren't pictures that Eric wants posted, so you'll just have to wait for the film release this summer to see Eric as Carl Gowman, sidekick of J.O. Fraser.

One side note: I noticed that the costumes mess with your mind. When someone is wearing old-fashioned clothing it changes your perception of them. For example, I looked over at these ladies and thought "They're sewing something." Then I thought, "Of course they're not sewing something. I don't know any ladies that sit around and sew in public." They were actually working on conference badges, but their old-fashioned clothes make them look like they're sewing.

Evil Packaging

I had thought that Thailand was a safe haven from this sort of impossible-to-open packaging that has become so common in the US. I was very dismayed to find that it has infiltrated Thailand.

Lahu New Year

This was the second time I have gone to the Lahu village for New Year. So far, it was one of my more enjoyable trips to the village. I took a friend for her first village trip in Thailand and Eric & Gabe stayed at home. We (and everyone else in Gabe's class) were invited by Joshua and Somallay as their son, David, is in Gabe's class. Our home base was the house of Joshua's sister (standing next to Joshua in the picture). Half the village were related to Joshua. Joshua is the youngest of 12 or 13 children and it is only recently that a family of that size is no longer the norm in Lahu culture. That means that in every Lahu village we have visited everyone we talk to seems to be somehow related to Joshua. We had a really great time with Joshua's family and our other friends. Joshua spent time telling us his life story. It was amazing to me that 25 years ago, Joshua and Eric couldn't have been living more different lives. Joshua was a young jungle man without any sort of education and living at subsistence. Eric was a boy growing up in university town on the other side of the world. Yet 25 years later our sons are together in the same kindergarten. Amazingly, Joshua began attending school at 20, learned Thai well enough to graduate from Thai high school and then went on to learn English well enough to study at seminary in Singapore.

Anyway, one interesting aspect of this village visit was that while we were there, a short-term team from Australia came to set up a clinic. The whole town was dressed in their traditional holiday outfits (as you can see from the photo). These costumes seemed to make the team assume that they were talking to uneducated yokels. I was sitting by Somollay and a woman came up and started talking to her saying "I don't speak Lahu, but I have this book about the four spiritual laws and I'll speak very slowly." Wow, I was really annoyed. Somollay is studying for her master's degree in linguistics and speaks quite a few languages, including English, very well. She is far more intelligent than I could ever hope to be. I don't know how Somollay was feeling, but I eventually managed to tell this woman about Somollay's education and she was amazed and much more respectful after that. I have to be careful about my attitude toward short-termers.

Just one thing to point out in the photo: The woman second from right is wearing Somollay's wedding dress. It's hard to see from the picture, but it was a beautiful dress made all by hand. Somollay, who is pregnant (on the far left) was quite annoyed at have to wear an "old woman's dress" instead this year.

The Inventor

Christmas

I'm really behind in my blogging, but I here's a beginning of catch-up. This was Christmas number 6 in Thailand and the 4th in a row. Our first Christmas in Thailand we were just excited to be in Thailand and to be so warm on Christmas day. Our second Christmas in Thailand we were preoccupied with being new parents. Our third Christmas nice because my cousin was here, but these last three I have missed home in spite of having very nice times with our friends. This year, in spite of the effort I knew it would cost, I really wanted to have Christmas at home with all the Christmas food and typical Christmas day activities. We started out with monkey bread in the Wolthuis tradition. I made the dough myself and though the dough was very nice to work with it did rise a LOT and the individual bits that were stuck together were more like whole pieces of monkey bread. I'm sure next time I can fix that problem. For Christmas lunch we invited two families. One family is American with four boys. The other family was David's family(David lived with us earlier in the year). We and the other Americans made traditional American Christmas dishes. Our Kiwi friends made Christmas salads. Since Christmas is at the height of summer in New Zealand salads are much more the norm for them than all of the heavy food we Americans eat. None of us being confident to make a turkey we ordered one from a restaurant that caters turkeys at the holidays. It didn't really cost much more and we thought we'd have the confidence of knowing it was done right. When we cut into the turkey the meat was pink and we weren't quite sure what to do. We went and asked a neighbor to come and check it out for us. Julie came over and pronounced our turkey perfectly done but we still weren't confident. We ended up microwaving some of the turkey. We did a survey among our friends later and found out it was fine to have pinkish meat on turkey and none of us got sick. Oh well. Our second problem was that we didn't know how to cut the turkey. I wish I had a better pic of this, but you can see me holding up a piece I had cut. Larin (who was my turkey cutting assistant) is in the background with an expression of total bafflement. We ended up picking the meat off with our hands. It didn't look very nice but no one cared. We had a lovely dinner and the kids all enjoyed playing together. We had three teenagers so we were able to play some big group games. In spite of not having family there, I would say that this Christmas felt the most homelike of any Christmas we've ever had here. Just the enjoyment of being together at home the whole day made it feel Christmas-y.
However, the best part of the day was talking to our families on Skype. I really wish we'd been able to do it before this year because it was wonderful.

Last, we continued in our Christmas tradition of celebrating with the kids of BBF. We weren't able to do it on Christmas day as this year Christmas was on a school day, but we did have a party on the week-end and were able to bring lots of friends with us. We're sorry that we'll have to break this tradition next year. Here's a pic of them singing in front of a stage they made for the occasion out of bamboo. A celebration isn't fun without being able to sing on a stage:)