culture

So, some life below the surface...lately I've really been reflecting on culture...specifically the one I'm living in. It would be good for someone to know where I'm coming from...

1. It is NOT rude to ask someone how much they paid for something, tea, peanut butter, a car...whatever. In fact, it shows that you're interested and appreciate the object.

2. Just today my friend and I were talking to a Christian Thai lady about her daughter who is 15. My friend said the daughter is "suay" which means beautiful. The mother immediately replied "no, may suay" - no, she's not beautiful. The woman said that she tells her that she's not, but the daughter thinks she is. I have NO idea how a mother can say her daughter is not beautiful to anyone, especially people she's known for less than an hour, but that's culture.

3. The only people that really touch in public are those of the same sex. Perfectly heterosexual girls hold hands, men don't hold hands, but it's normal to see a man grab another man's knee or shoulder, but it's VERY rare to see couples being affectionate in public. I have older thai women come up and rub my stomach as they're talking to me, it's different, but sweet.

4. Quiet, subtle and displaying as little emotion as possible are the character traits that are most highly valued. The trait that is heavily frowned upon is having a "hot heart" which means you are quick to show that you are upset.

5. I haven't been able to read 95% of what I see in public. I am learning Thai phonetics, which basically means that I'm "functionally illiterate"...and I'm driving...haha.

6. It is rude to wear your shoes inside. This picture is of our worship time, and all the teachers' and kids' shoes outside the meeting room.

7. There is a strong value for the elder. The other day I saw a young man driving his grandmother and then making sure she got on the bus safe. It was sweet. The roots of this are in Buddhism, but I like it.

8. To be polite, when you're walking by someone, you lower your head. Not all the time though, but for example, if I'm walking down a narrow stall in a market and I kind of have to slip by someone, I would duck down a little bit to show kindness. There's a specific word for being considerate - Gren Jai - and that basically means that you bend backward to be hospitable, polite, kind and generous to people. Sounds like what community should be like, eh?

He restores.

Like I said in my blog a couple days ago...at first glance Cambodia may seem like a dirty and poor nation with stunted development, but if you look close, you can see glimpses of God trying to redeem this thirsty nation.

Let me tell you the story of the past few decades in Cambodia - in case you missed it (as I had).

In the early 70's Cambodia was doing alright for itself in the ways of the world, life was pretty peaceful and good for most folks. Then, this guy named Pol Pot came along with his Khmer Rouge, a militaristic, Communist regime. He defeated the American's weak attempt at democracy and converted the peaceful nation into one that would turn neighbors and families against themselves.

When Pol Pot took over, he forced all of the people out of the major cities, and into the countryside. The people who lived in the cities (called "new people" by farmers) were the majority of the well-educated and the people who lived in the country were mostly farmers (referred to as "old people"). You did hard farming labor and were fed 2 bowls of rice soup a day. If you didn't die of starvation, but showed any kind of infidelity to the Khmer Rouge, you were killed. The estimate is about 2 million people died during the 4 years. For a population of 7.5 million, that number is critical, especially when it was mostly those with higher education who were killed. There was scarcely a family untouched.

The brutality is staggering. The Khmer Rouge would use hoes and picks to kill people, so they wouldnt waste bullets, and they told the "New Members" (those forced from the cities) that "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss."

While in Cambodia, we were able to visit a Genocide Museum, outside Phnom Penh, and they had dug up skulls and clothes from the mass graves. I saw a similiar mentality as the Thais about the tsunami, when visiting the south. The Cambodian people want people to remember what happened regardless of how horrific it was. Standing in that same place 30 years ago, I know the scene was much different, I imagine grassless, dusty ground, stench and a dark spirit surrounding the place. Today, walking around and seeing a place where over a thousand lives were lost, you couldn't help but notice the green grass growing, the birds singing, flowers blooming and beautiful sunshine.

The only hope is that life overcomes death. Flowers bloom where many lives ended, God overcomes man's death and destruction and redeems the land with beauty. and bigger, Jesus overcame death on a cross and redeemed you.

huaro = laugh.

These pictures made me laugh. I hope they put a little smile on your face too. :)

English is a difficult language to learn and blunders like this are commonplace, but this one was pretty cute. Please, don't call if you're boring!

I really liked this sign. It was in the bathroom at Angkor Wat. I could imagine a poor old Cambodian woman, looking at the western toliet trying to figure out how she could stand up there. "This ain't no squatty potty, grandma!"
This picture is of me crunching down on a fried grasshopper. I feel like that's a pretty appropriate face, but it's still classic.

kampucha 1.

Kampucha is thai for "Cambodia".There are 7 people in this short-term missions program I'm in. Aimee is one of them, and is currently working in Chiang Mai, about 100 KM from here. She and I were fortunate to be able to travel last week to visit 2 other girls, Morgan and Katie (also involved in the program) who are working in Cambodia. They work in Phnom Penh at an organization called Hagar International with women and children who have been involved in human trafficking. Morgan works doing prision research, looking for ministry opportunities, and Katie is doing great work in the office. They blessed us with the opportunity to go to a birthday party (complete with icing to face smearing), a prayer meeting and a Khmer New Year party at the shelter. The women were so welcoming, and we had a great time. I'm probably being overly sensitive, but I wish I could post all the pictures of these beautiful women and children, but I dont think it's appropriate.


The traffic was the most chaotic thing I've ever seen.


These vans were everywhere, packed with people and possessions. This one only had 1 guy on top, I saw one van with 6 or 7 people sitting on top.


The theme I saw repeated throughout the trip was just how much destruction, poverty and corruption there is, but how beautiful God is and how He alone can redeem it.

basketball.

Our school doesnt have many opportunities for the students to get involved in sports, so an event like the basketball game that happened the other night was a big deal. We dont have jerseys and we played against the team from a nearby university and got creamed (32 to 68) but the kids had fun and it was fun to see them enjoying athletics. Soccer will be starting after spring break, and I'm so excited!

Thai Phrase of the Day: Tuk wan dichan len futbon kha. I play soccer (futbol) everyday!

mae sai.

What I want to communicate with these pictures is the beauty that is everyday life here and the manifest of God's extraordinary and infinite beauty. I went with my friend Aimee to Mae Sai, the border town where we exit Thailand to go to Burma. These are a few of my favorite pics... This is a man taking his goods across the border, he's walking those boxes through immigration. These are some girls that were riding in the bus. The last picture is just a side street off of the main road through town.
Life is going well, there have been some challenges, but I feel like God's strength alone is getting me through them. Also, I know this is becoming a theme, but I was still stressing about my plans for next year, and I was saying to someone else, "but perfect love drives out fear" and suddenly it took on a deep meaning in my heart as well. The cross was perfect love and His resurrection screams our freedom.

Thai Phrase of the day: Khon thai may khehy kin khaaw khon diaw kha. Thai people never eat rice alone.

maintaining homeostasis.

So my really rad friend patrick williams (whose beautiful wife is pregnant!) kindly put a link to my blog on his, and he says interesting and intelligent things on his (http://www.pwandsw.blogspot.com/) and i imagine people actually read it, and might go to a link that he posted b/c folks spend A LOT of time on the computer these days...so i figured i'd go ahead and update mine, just in case :) My camera is on it's way here from SC right now, so I haven't been posting much b/c I think people get bored with just reading my words and want to see pictures...there's probably only 10% of you that have even read this far :) haha. So here are some pictures my friend Kyndra took... This is me helping lead worship in church - on the far left. I'm not really sure how that happened. :) So the girls on the right are Thai and they are singing the Thai lyrics, as we farang (white folk) are singing the words in English. Singing Thai and English simultaneously is great, and I love it, but 2 problems are created. 1. For most songs, the words just don't fit with the music for one language or the other. 2. Farang clap on the beat and Thai people clap of the off beat. Rhythmically challenged people like me just clap. :) This is a picture from the flower festival. That is a float and the king made from flowers and that's a really cute old Thai couple in the foreground. The man is wearing his yellow shirt. Something really interesting is that Thai people celebrate more of the day of the week you were born, not the date. They also have a corresponding color for each day, so if you were born on Sunday, red is your color. Yellow for Monday, Pink for Tuesday, Green for Wednesday, Orange for Thursday, Blue for Friday, and Purple for Saturday. The king was born on Monday, so every Monday you should wear your yellow polo shirt that has the king's crest on it.This is a pottery place called Doy Din Dang. The Thai artist who makes these is Buddist, but his son went to my school. He's pretty famous, and the pottery is so beautiful.

Thai Phrase of the Day: Khit waa khun khuan ja aapnaam pro waa sokaprok kha. I think you should take a shower because you are dirty.