Outrageous!

This past week was a busy week as both Andrea and I tried to get a lot of work done. Andrea continues to attend classes two full days a week, but most of her time is spent researching, writing and making contact with people for her thesis/master's project. This week she also finally met with individuals from the organization where she will be doing some volunteer work. On Friday she travelled three hours south of Bangkok to Huahin, one of our favorite places here in Thailand for an assigned class project. On Saturday morning her group met with the corporate social responsibility manager at Chiva Som, one of the more exclusive spa's in the world, before returning Saturday evening.

I spent a good portion of the week doing much of the global research and recruitment for my employer back in the US.

All of that is not so important but we wanted to tell you about an outrageous (in the best sense of the word) highlight from the week which brings us back to the "small world" theme in a previous post.

About ten days ago we noticed a comment on the blog from an old friend in Tacoma. Bradd said he would be coming to Bangkok briefly and asked could we get together. Bradd was a significant supporter of Sound Youth Counseling in a variety of ways and was often an encouragement to me back when we were living in Tacoma.

What we didn't know was that the connection might never have happened had the Seattle/Tacoma area not received the massive amount of snow that it did ten days ago. This resulted in Bradd having a snow day with family and friends including Elliot (another friend and my former boss in Tacoma), who when hearing that Bradd was headed to Thailand and Vietnam said, "You know Duncan and Andrea are in Bangkok..." So had it not snowed in Seattle/Tacoma we might not have had the great evening that we did this past Tuesday here in Bangkok.

Bradd finally did make it here (after a cancelled flight) along with a couple friends. After briefly catching up in his hotel we thought the best way to share this city with them in just a few hours was to take a quick taxi ride, followed by another short ride on the khlong boat (photo - Andrea, Bradd and friend Chad on the khlong boat. Chad contrary to how it looks did not have a black eye, it's just the shadow of the hanging rope) to end up having dinner at the Baiyoke Tower, Thailand's tallest building. Andrea and I had been to the Baiyoke before when we led a group here and had the experience of eating at the buffet on the 81st floor of the 92 story building peering down and out over Bangkok throught the floor to ceiling glass windows.

This time as we checked in, I briefly heard the words "very nice, open air" and wondered, hmmm, this will be interesting. When we arrived at our floor we were ushered out onto a small patio(?) attached somehow (?) to the side of the building. Open air it was, with a small, chest-high concrete and glass wall separating us from all of Bangkok. I'm not sure the photos do it justice but the word that we kept using was simply outrageous!

(photo: Andrea and Bradd looking out over part of the city.)

(photo: Bradd, Chad and Andrea enjoying dinner and the sunset from the 81st floor.)

And then there was the buffet that snaked its way around the entire inner part of the indoor seating area.

The view, the setting and the food were all fantastic but what really made it great was just having a good time and conversation with Bradd and Chad. As we said goodbye to them that evening and walked away, Andrea said, "That was so much fun and just what I needed." I concurred. Fun, outrageous and much to be thankful for - especially in this case when it all came together as a result of a random snow day back in the northwest!

Duncan
PS - For a couple videos of the khlong boat in action go here.

It's a Dog's World (Part 2 of Meat, Dogs and Skin)

Around the section of Chula’s campus that we live, as is true throughout the entire country, there are many dogs that live and hang out. Sometimes referred to as soi (side street) dogs, they don’t necessarily belong to anyone – but they might – but they aren't strays either. They aren’t pets (serving more of a security purpose) but they also don't live inside people's homes or compounds. They have their territory and don’t venture too far away into other dog’s territories. The dogs here in our area are mostly thriving because of the abundance of cafeteria and restaurant options which have lots of leftover food at the end of the day. Other dogs will be fed by a friendly security guard. However it happens, these dogs scrap and survive and unfortunately also reproduce in massive numbers. (That is an entirely different conversation though.) (Photo to the left - two napping members of "The Pride")

At this point we know and recognize certain dogs - for instance there are two that think they are working on their MBA’s and hang out in front of the Business School, the two mentioned in the previous post (including the scrawny little black pup that I feed) are a little further down the street and actually have quite a large territorial range (photo above is the little black pup and her friend napping on a gravel game court), there is a pack of 15 or so that actually live under the building next to us, squeezing through a hole in the ground when they need to disappear, (photo below - 7 of the 15 hanging out at night) and while 15 is quite the impressive number, they don’t compare to what I call "The Pride" that lives next to the Student Assistance Building a couple blocks from us. Though not as many as 15, the dogs in this group are all clearly related – same color and build and they own the plaza and lawn in front of the building. They are well fed and spend their time sleeping, exploring and marking their territory (Photos below: members of "The Pride" doing what they do!)

Yes, you too can come visit the animal park located on Chula’s campus! I’ll be happy to be your tour guide.

Duncan

Sticky Rice and Chicken (Part 1 of Meat, Dogs and Skin)

Order has been restored! Yesterday we happened to be close to Sukhumvit Soi 12 where we stayed for a while our last time here. We both knew that we had to see if our favorite (and the best) sticky rice and gai yang (grilled chicken) seller was still there…and she was! We had built a bit of a relationship last time in conversation and ordering copious amounts of chicken, rice and nam jim (dipping sauce) from her. She has been coming to this same spot with her cart for the past 30 years. It was good to see that her cart has been upgraded and business is going well for her. We have found other sticky rice and grilled meat sellers near where we are staying right now – but either they sell grilled chicken gizzards and pork intestines which we just aren’t into or we weren’t convinced of the cleanliness of their operations. Needless to say, we loaded up for lunch, confident that we are having the best nam jim in Bangkok!

Sticky rice and chicken presents a bit of a dilemma though.

Many of you will know that since moving to NC, I have become a flexitarian…meaning… I really don’t eat meat any more. (Ironic that this happened when I moved to one of the BBQ centers of the world – or at least the southern US.) If I am a guest or it will cause offense I’ll still eat what is presented or if it’s raised (and killed) humanely, but I realized I couldn’t support corporate agriculture/farming as it is done in the US at this point in time. So it’s mainly tofu and veggie products for me at this time.

I knew this would present a dilemma when it came to the sticky rice and gai yang department here in Thailand. What I didn’t realize is how little a taste I have for any kind of meat now which means that gai yang is a lot better in my head than it is in reality…which is kind of disappointing given how much I used to like it. I have also realized how much meat is included in all the curries and stir fries here in Thailand. Fortunately, tofu is abundant and a ready option most of the time.

I’m also aware that I am a rich westerner with the options of many choices – which so many people do not have. The chicken bones left over from the gai yang or any other meat that I was served but did not eat, I take and give to an emaciated little black dog and her friend that live down the street. I’m sure she was probably hit by a car at some point, she has a gimpy leg but she is friendly and cute (perhaps only in my eyes) and seems grateful for the food.
Duncan
PS – For those wanting to, comments can now be posted without having a google or open id account. Also, we just wanted to let you know that there have been no issues or noticeable changes with regard to the recent terrorist threat and arrest here.

It really is a small world after all...

This past week has been all about friends and marveling at what a small world we live in. It began two Sundays ago when I met Iven and Kashmira at ECB on Soi 10 for church in the morning. (Andrea was still feeling a bit under the weather and met up with us later in the day.) We first met Iven and Kashmira through a mutual friend back in Seattle/Tacoma who told us that next time we were in Thailand we should look them up. When we were here in 2007 we did just that, peppering them with questions in a small coffee shop about how they ended up here and why and how they were doing what they were doing - and we have stayed in touch since. Iven and Kashmira came to Thailand initially to work with male sex workers in bars and on the street. Initially they were the only missionaries hanging out with and reaching out to male sex workers in Bangkok. They moved into a tiny room above a restaurant in a neighborhood close to a main loop where men work the street and have been there since. As a result a team has coalesced around them who have also moved into the neighborhood to love it and the people who live there. Their life together is really amazing with many stories that you can read on their blog. We hold them in very high regard and love spending time with them. If anyone would ask us what would Jesus do or what should followers of Jesus look like or how to live incarnationally, I think we would quickly point them in Iven and Kashmira’s direction. They love everyone they encounter, wrestle with hard situations, ask us good questions, listen well and always encourage and challenge us at the same time.

Last time we saw Iven and Kashmira was right before we returned to the US two and a half years ago. Long time readers of this blog will remember that Andrea became really sick and we were not even sure she would be able to get on the plane as most airports were screening for H1N1 at the time. Kashmira also became sick at the same time so we weren’t sure if we had passed it on to her or vice versa. Turns out it was neither as soon after we were back in the US we received an email from them saying she was…pregnant with child number one. In the two and a half years since we have seen them they have produced two adorable kids – Izayla (pictured above with Iven - winning some university students over!) and Elian – and have rented another room above them for their growing family! Anyway, we had a great afternoon with them. At one point in our conversation, Kashmira said “Hey, we know someone who you went to school with…”

Turns out it was Anne (or Nini as we all knew her at the time) whose family was also in OMF (my parents mission organization.) I went to school at Chefoo School in Malaysia and Faith Academy in the Philippines with Anne and her sister Fiona who was in my grade and who now works in Cambodia with her husband Dave. We were really excited to meet Fiona and Dave two and a half years ago when we visited them in Phnom Penh as it had been 20 years since I had seen Fiona. I knew that Anne and her husband Andy (and their four kids) moved to Thailand just over a year ago to explore their options here and was excited they had met Iven and Kashmira. A few facebook messages later and we had arranged to meet at Lumpini Park this past Sunday for the Concert in the Park that the Bangkok Symphony presents eight Sunday evenings in a row during the “cool” season. Andrea and I were already planning to go to the concert to meet up with Fern and Fink who we became friends with last time we were here. Fern just happens to be the pianist for the Bangkok Symphony.
So we arrived at the park this past Sunday and met up with everyone and then we were surprised when Anne introduced us to Kyle and Lisa who live above them and teach English in Bangkok. (photo above - Andrea and new friends listening to the Bangkok Symphony.) Kyle and Lisa had been introduced to us via email a few weeks ago by mutual friend Mindy back in Seattle who had hoped we would have a chance to meet up. Such a small world! We had hoped to meet but didn’t anticipate everyone’s lives intersecting! (This was the second time in a week that we had met someone who we were hoping to meet in such a random and unexpected way!)Anyway a grand time was had by all as we talked and talked, introduced ourselves and Nini and I began to catch up on the past 20 years. After the concert Fern, Fink, Andrea and shared a hotpot meal together (photos below). It was so good to hear about their lives and what is going on for them.


These two Sundays served as bookends to our “friend” week which also included two other "friend" moments. This past Tuesday morning we made sure we were up early in order to skype with our book group/small group that meets once a month back in Durham. Times sure have changed since the days when urgent news was shared by telegrams here in Thailand when I was growing up! (And all the younger readers now ask – what’s a telegram?!) We love being part of this group and are very grateful that technology continues to allow us to be part of it while we are here. (Pictured below - a few of our book group friends back in Durham before we left.)
Tuesday evening we had dinner with Roy and Bonita, wonderful friends who we also met last time we were here. Bonita runs a vital outreach and ministry to girls and women who want to leave the sex industry called Home of New Beginnings. They are both tireless fighters for justice and do so in a warm, wise and inviting way. Like Iven and Kashmira (though in a different age bracket) we hold them in high esteem for their efforts at bringing hope and transformation to those with little and those with much.

So this week has been an abundance of riches when it comes to friends and we are encouraged and grateful. We have a couple other Thai friends here in Bangkok that we want to connect with but that will be for another post. AND, although we spent a lot of time with friends this week, Andrea also started school which has gone well and that might also be a future post!
Duncan

Week One – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly - but mainly just the good!

After leaving North Carolina and a packed ten days with family and friends in Seattle we have had our first week in Bangkok. At 7AM it’s a cool 78 degrees (25C) and a gentle breeze is blowing in the doors to our little balcony off our room. In a couple months the temperature will be closer to 100 so we are grateful for the cool morning air now. We have much to be grateful for and so this post will focus more on the good that we have experienced in the past days. (photo below taken on the campus of Chulalongkorn University.)

The Good

It’s so good to be back in Thailand. In some ways it doesn’t seem that long since we left Thailand two and a half years ago – although in between we drove across the country from Washington to North Carolina, settled into Durham, found employment and some fabulous friends and coworkers, Andrea has almost completed a dual MBA and MPP and lived in Geneva and Boston completing two internships – but it IS evident in how rusty my Thai is! But it was so good to walk off the plane and smell…Thailand, the warmth and humidity, the ever lurking fragrance of flowers in the night air. In the midst of the chaos and commercialization of Bangkok and the sometimes confusing and frustrating cultural differences that allow for abuse and use of people – especially women - there is a calmness and contentedness that rises up in me when I am here. Some of this is due to adjusted expectations knowing that life operates just a little differently here, some of it is just loving this country that continues to be home for me in many ways. And the joy (or more relaxed state) I feel is also a direct reflection of not working a full time job, plus a part time job and volunteering multiple hours in a week, while also helping Andrea persevere through a demanding academic load. Life is great at the moment (;-) I have time to think, pray, ponder. Although Bangkok hums at a pretty frantic pace 24 hours a day (just like any other city of 10 million plus) in some ways our life is slower here as it can take longer to accomplish certain things and also because we choose to live a little slower.

Anyway…we’re grateful to be here, grateful that my work has allowed me to take a leave of absence until April, grateful for time with family and friends in Seattle, grateful for smooth flights and great accommodations for the first 5 weeks that we are here.

We are staying at Sasa International House, a small hotel that is often used for visiting students and professors at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand’s oldest and highest ranked university (photo on the right taken from Wikipedia) where Andrea will be studying at SASIN, Chula’s Business school. For those of you who know Bangkok, we are living right on the edge of Chula’s campus, five minutes walk from MBK and the National Stadium BTS stop. Chula’s campus is expansive and stately with large lush trees. From our fourth floor window we look out on trees and some fun scampering squirrels. The birds wake us early in the morning and we can look down into some ponds where there lurk some massive koi and another 2 ½ foot fish that looks like a cross between an albino catfish and a hammerhead shark. We haven’t seen him clearly as the water is a little murky. Being on campus we have found a campus cafeteria that serves all manner of yummy thai food and drinks for even cheaper than you normally find it on the street. We’ve been able to figure out where to get things, where the real people live (as opposed to tourists and those with tons of money), set up internet and find a laundry – because hand washing clothes for two months would be a bummer but so would paying what the hotel wants to charge!

And I get to swim every day and enjoy my beloved rice cakes for breakfast! When we were here last time I posted a list of my favorite things in Bangkok. You can read them here, here and here.

The Bad

Really not much to report for us personally but you could count a little 'Bangkok Belly' which is par for the course at times. And then there was the moment that we were setting out to explore the campus and a tiny, almost invisible gnat didn’t just fly into my eye as we have all experienced at times but somehow this one stung my eyeball, unloading what felt like a nuclear bomb in my eye. I'm very thankful that it quickly subsided.

The Ugly…and ongoing questions

If you have read previous posts from our time here you know of some of the darker things that haunt us here. One day last week we walked up to MBK (advertised as the most visited mall in Bangkok), across the street and through several more huge, exclusive malls, (Siam Paragon – the 2nd largest mall in SE Asia, Central World etc) taking advantage of their air conditioning to get to a store we were going. It’s hard to describe sometimes the magnitude of these mammon/money worship centers of commercialization – hundreds and hundreds of boutiques, luxurious brands, dining experiences – one of the malls contains the biggest aquarium in Asia (in its basement!) - to me, it’s just a little overwhelming and maddening and then you step outside as we did and were confronted on an overpass bridge with a woman and her child begging, another woman with horribly disfigured hands holding them out for a few baht. After walking through the wealth represented in the malls which are still playing “God rest ye merry gentlemen” and then to encounter those so on the margins of society who will make less in a year than what one person might spend on a handbag…it almost undid me. I wrote about this before in Tell me what to do??? and am still wrestling with some of the same questions. It’s hard not to. (photo on the right - graffiti on a bridge in Bangkok.)

I have more questions which I’ll post in the future – but this is enough for now! Thanks for wandering with us, for your support and prayers for health, protection and good connections with people. We don’t take them for granted!

Duncan
PS. Another great post that Andrea wrote on our last trip describing Bankok can be found here.