Posts (page 2)
this is the first of a weekly post teaching the thai language (or passa thai). as well as learning to speak some essential phrases hopefully you will learn a bit of the culture as well.
so i figure the first thing you need to learn when taking on a new language is how to greet someone. salutations in thai are both more complicated and simpler in thailand. what do i mean by that? well, greeting someone involves more than just spoken words. there is the social custom of wai-ing and the ever so important smile. however, once you learn all of this things it's a lot easier because the same greeting covers "good morning", "good evening", "good afternoon", "good night", "hello", and "good-bye".
first, let me explain the wai (pronounced just like "y"). the way you wai is by holding your hands together, palms joined, in front of your body. sounds easy right? well, that's not the whole of it. who wais who first and how high you raise you hands is also defined by custom. normally a person of lower status wais first. most of the time this means younger people. as far as how high to raise your hands there aren't clear "rules" but here's what i would say as a two week observer. if it's a younger person gently touch the tips of your index finger to your chin; someone of the same age or a good friend gently touch your index fingers somewhere in the nose to brow region; an older or important person somewhere in the forehead area. for the king you should probably have the backs of your thumbs touching the top of your forehead. also the lower you bow your head the more respect is shown. if all else fails i always go with "monkey see, monkey do". all of this said the thai people are very friendly and probably won't mind if a foreigner doesn't fully get the whole wai-ing thing perfectly.
next, lets cover the spoken part. i don't know the best way to spell it in english but basically "sawatdee" or "sawaddi" are two good approximations. then to be polite you add the male or female polite particle, krap or ka respectively. so men would say "sawatdee krap" and women would say "sawatdee ka" (note: krap isn't pronounced exactly how it looks. it's more of a klup/klap with a soft "l" that sometime isn't even heard)
finally, don't forget the smile. It's the last key ingredient to a proper thai greeting. thai is also a tonal language but i won't even begin to go there right now. well, i hope you learned something interesting and check back for more lessons on passa thai.
so i wanted to wait a week after arriving before i wrote my next update to all of you (you know to get a feeling for what life here was like) and wow what a week it was. in one week i think i've tasted, smelt, seen, and done more new things one person could expect to experience had they fallen into another dimension and in some ways thailand really is somewhat of an alternate reality.
culture shock?
no.
more like culture amazement. i'm beginning to understand why they call it "amazing thailand", i'm struggling to find the words to describe it all. i think you should know something about me. i find it very hard to tell people things if i can't fully and accurately communicate what i want to say. maybe it has something to do with a limited vocabulary and a non-fondness for the english or maybe something deeper, but never the less it's something i struggle with. so i can tell you about the things we've done so far but it makes me squirm a little bit because there really isn't a way for you to get this any more than hearing a nice story and looking at some pictures. and man it is so much more than that. let me just say right now to any who may be thinking about it "go on a mission trip" and the longer you can stay the better i think. i'll leave it at that... for now.
let the uncomfortableness commence. so we arrived in chiang mai a little over a week ago now. the first people we met was our mentor, robert reagan, and three short-term interns from singapore and malaysia (mit, adelina, and han). after a nice breakfast at a nice little place called bake and bite we headed to the christian zone (the name of the place we are staying), met a few more people, and began to unpack our things. the christian zone is a three story building close to payap university. the first floor is a hangout area for the students (equipped with ping-pong table), an office, a library, and a few other small rooms. the second floor has a small kitchen area with a balcony, robert's office, a computer area, and a few dormotory type rooms for interns such as us. finally, the third floor is a large open area with windows lining both sides and is used for church services and large meetings (there is also a baptismal with a lovely mural in one corner). drew and i are currently sharing a bunkbed in one of the rooms on the second floor (nothing foreign about that as we have already shared a room last semester in college station). that night we had a amazing meal and small impromptu devotional at robert's house with his family, some former interns and some of the thai christians.
over the next day or so we began to familiarize ourselves with our new environs. the university is less than a block away. there are a number of eating places on campus as well as several right outside the zones front door (i'll do a post later on about the different meals we come to know and enjoy). the food is amazing and it's really a big part of our ministry. in the past lunch time on campus has become a key tine for meeting people and make friends with the thai students here. the other interns took us for a walk along a small river that borders the campus which lead to a large open area that was oddly serene for a landscape found in the city. julie and i ran around the campus that first morning. it's not very large coming from the comparatively monolithic campus of tamu, but it seemed quaint and sufficient with the beauty of lots of flowers and a few small ponds and the ever so essential football fields and volleyball/basketball courts.
our first group activity was cell group which takes place every thursday night for the payap church. just a small gathering with singing and sharing (mostly in thai) that is all started with a common meal (i told you food is a big part of the ministry). afterward we got to hangout with everyone and play games and continued singing. the next day we went as a group to what we were told was a bb gun paintball-esque place [LINK-TO-COME]. fortunately the "bb guns" were only automatic air-soft rifles [LINK-TO-COME]. nothing say lets be friends like shooting small plastic pellets [LINK-TO-COME] at high velocities at each other. right after we returned from doing this we packed up for another trip to a "house-boat" for a day and night of planning/relaxing/getting to know each other. now back in the states a house boat is a small to mid-sized boat that happens to have an area to live in, kitchen, bed, bathroom, etc. well what we eventually came to was more of a small floating hotel. again that word amazing pops in. we drove a good distance up into the mountains in the back of the jao-ford [LINK-TO-COME] (the church pickup), scenery becoming even more beautiful and the air becoming cooler as we drove higher and higher. the pictures can do a better job than my words can. suffice it to say that once we got there we were blown away. being an engineer i was amazed that the entire structure including ourselves was supported by bundles of bamboo. the morning view was even more majestic than what we saw the night before. it is the kind of sight the makes your heart melt with appreciation for God's love and His power. it is that it was the kind of beauty you want to share with the person that means the most to you.
a truck-load of credit to robert for know how to motivate and energize his charges with the natural blessings thailand has to offer. we returned to the zone after a breakfast and some morning equipping time feeling rested and renewed. (equipping time is time we spend with robert every morning or sometimes afternoons learning and discussing various things related to out work. currently we are going through what is called the "red book"). church on sunday was even more fascinating. i love music as i've mentioned and singing in thai was just... well... amazing. for the lesson jan, robert's wife, translated through theses little wireless earpieces that you see diplomats and dignitaries wear during meetings at the UN. probably not as high tech but still you can be sure that drew and i felt pretty cool about ourselves. it's really very motivating to learn the language when you are surrounded by it (and i'm a computer science guy, new languages are our business). drew and i are both going to lead sunday service at least once while we are here and we both think it would pretty stinkin' awesome to close with a prayer in thai, no translation needed.
if you're still reading this you're beginning to understand my need to use a lot of words to convey the experience of being here. i thank you for your patience and i want to leave you with one last thing. the experience isn't a cakewalk despite the wonderful things i've tried to describe. no mission trip is. there are always team issues and other problems. i'll be the first to admit i'm still trying to find my groove, still trying to fit in, still learning to adapt to the culture. a fish, not out of water, but in waters of a different... feel. do you remember how when you won a goldfish at a fair or bought a guppy from the store they put it in a little bag and before you released it into you tank or bowl at home you were supposed to let the bag sit in the water for a bit so the temperature would adjust slowly for the fish. if you didn't do this i always imagined the fish felt awfully uncomfortable. it's kind of like that, an uncomfortable fish that is trying to clear it's head and understand this new home it's been placed in. but this is precisely why mission trips are so powerful. God can do amazing things with the uncomfortable, but it isn't too often that we are willing to place ourselves in situations that make us squirm like fishes.
today drew and i got on a plane (don't worry there weren't any snakes on it). we flew from texas and north carolina (respectively) and met up in chicago. i rushed to finish all of the last minute business i needed to take care of on the phone and we boarded a huge 747 to tokyo. i've flown on one of these transcontinental flying beasts a few times before last summer going to london, bucharest, and nairobi. the difference this time was that each of the times before it had been with BA. i remember being awestruck by getting to watch movies or tv shows the whole way with plenty of tasty meals and complimentary socks (which i still have several pairs of, what can i say they were blue and quite comfortable). ANA (our transpacific transporter) was even more impressive. british accents are really cool but when you are going on a serve abroad for six months it strikes you a little deeper when japanese is spoken first and then they offer a english translation second. we still had the cool movies and the meals (of which i got plenty, just one of the perks, if you can call it that, of traveling with a guy that is allergic to half the eatable things known to man), but this time we got warm face towels to clean up before the meal and along with flying with the daylight we flew (as drew put it)"into the future" as we crossed the international date line (i'm on the positive side of time once again).
it was a long flight to tokyo (made all the longer by the fact that the man in the aisle seat, blocking us from the leg stretching freedom provided by that aisle, was asleep for a good 80% of the flight), but jackie chan, chris tucker, and mr. bean made it pretty enjoyable. we made it at last and we stepped foot on to japanese soil about 13 hours after leaving the windy city. we were excited about the free internet we would get to use as we waited for our next flight to bangkok, but that turned into a disappointment we found only the standard pay-to-surf services that most american airports have (apparently julie flew threw hong kong not tokyo and so our hope we falsely raised).
we got on a much less crowded 777 to thailand at about 6 pm local time and slept most of the way to bangkok, only waking for a meal and some ice-cream. 7 or 8 hours later we awoke to instructions in japanese, english, and thai to return our seats to the upright position as we made our "final apploach". we said kop khun krup and domo ariegato to our flight attendants and began a hunt for mango and sticky rice (drew's favorite thai dish). going through customs we grabbed our bags and asked a gentleman in a light purple jacket where we could find our gate for the next morning’s flight. after eating some good thai food and talking to my mom on skype drew and i made our way to the area next to the desk we will need to check into and pulled out our thermarests. now we'll get about 3 hours of sleep and wake up to meet julie for our last leg to chiang mai. goodnight all.
as we were preparing for thailand the team was asked to create a profile about ourselves. each of us answered a series of questions about things like our history, our strengths, and our goals. one of the things we were asked to describe was what expectations we had for our time in thailand and how we thought we might respond if our expectations were not met. basically my answer was that i had no expectations, except to grow in wisdom and understanding and that this could always be met no matter where a person is (be it in texas working or overseas serving God). all that's required is a heart that is open and searching. i guess you could say that i expect my experience to be transforming and that i don’t think the nature of this transformation can be understood until i arrive on the other side of it. if you believe in the wonder of the way God works then you'll find it no suprise that last friday night after a meal with my family at p.f.chang's my fortune cookie read the following: "Sometimes traveling to a new place leads to great transformation."
a little about the name, audio credo. i recently decided to buy a domain name (link to come) and as i was deciding on a name i was searching for something that connected my faith and my love for music. (i hope to setup sort of a person online music player for my growing collection of tunes). anyway audio is pretty self obvious for the music part, but for those who aren't versed in latin audio means 'i hear' and credo means 'i believe'. i hear, i believe. there are a few concepts (or maybe memes) that i value or think of often; connection, transparency, balance, and simplicity. i like the connection of these two things that have defined a large part of my life, but audio credo also reminds me of the simplicity of our calling. to hear and to believe. these and many other thoughts weigh on my mind as i now become the messenger that is to be "heard".
let me digress (concepts and callings may be attempting to go too deep for a simple introduction). i'll cover my understanding of the roles we are to fill while we are on our serve abroad. the three of us (among others) will be interns at the payap church of christ in chiang mai. basically we are to become a part of the college ministry there and become "a magnet and a bridge". we'll do things like plan and lead activities and studies, essentially connecting the college students to the church. however, i think a larger part of it is to be a sponge, observing and learning everything we can; a new language, living in a foreign culture, and serving God in missions.
i hope to write on here often and to have interesting and thought provoking topics for you, as well as exciting and possibly uplifting updates on the work in thailand. i already have some ideas for what i'd like to do. be sure that things like 'songs of the week' and 'ted talks' will probably find their way on here. so whether it's to get to know me better or just see how i'm doing, stay tuned and please be praying for drew, julie, and myself as we go forward into this new year and this new ministry.
i'd just like to close with this thought. i realize that i go following a long line of footsteps and i hope to do my best to honor them and God as i walk this path. in the words of a wise woman "here goes nothing......"
