Start of another new school

Our Second Son’s first day at school

We’ve had to move house 9 times in the last 7 years. With that has come changing school. For our oldest son, he has gone to 5 different schools and he is only in year 3! Our oldest son adapts pretty well so we didn’t expect much trouble. He has a gift of making new friends quickly too. We had concerns about our middle son most. And he didn’t want to go to school for a couple of days, but was soon enjoying and there were no complaints of going to school. His frequent awards from school helped a lot. He’s received about 8 rewards in the first 4 weeks of school with his brother only getting one. So overall this school transition was pretty smooth. Some of them have not and even after months and months our son still didn’t want to school and that’s always hard.

There were tears today as mum was trying to help our middle son with his spelling. He said he didn’t get any words right in his spelling test this week.

On home assignment we have to move around between different Churches and that can be difficult for the kids too. They get used to one Sunday school program and then they have to try to fit in to another one. So our middle son didn’t cope last Sunday at another new Church (though our eldest loved it as they played great games).

So we are thankful that all 3 of our kids have settled into school. They cannot have the stability of being in place for long but we hope our family and God provides enough support for them not only to cope but thrive.

Losing my cool

Yes, it’s not the best photo, but we were on the run trying to make our plane back to Australia and we didn’t have time to take a nice photo.

But before we get to that, in Thai culture it is not cool to lose your cool. Rarely do Thai people show their anger, especially in public. It is a sign that the person is so angry that he or she has lost their self-control and this happen rarely and when it does watch out. So we’ve tried to not get angry, at least in public.

There have only been two times that I’ve been angry to the point of shouting in Thailand and this day was the second time. The first time was when our old neighbour’s pitbull got out (again) and nearly bit our children (but that is another story).

Back to nearly missing our flight home. It was going to be a long day. In the morning we frantically finished packing up the house and the van came at 11am to take us to Chiang Mai airport for a 2:15pm flight to Bangkok with Bangkok Air. We would then have 6 hours of transit before taking a Qantas flight back to Australia at 9:30pm (we had booked an earlier Bangkok Air flight which would have meant only 3 hours of transit but then Bangkok Air cancelled that flight). When we landed at Bangkok airport we stayed in the Bangkok Air lounge near the gate where we landed as they had nice lounges, free food and a kids play area. About 3 hours before the Qantas flight was due to leave we started to find our way to the Qantas transit desk and we made it to the closet transit area which was Transit Area A. However the Qantas transit area was Transit D, which was about 1km walk with no travellators. My wife was 28 weeks pregnant and was fine with walking short distances but walking 1km was a long way and would be quite painful so we went to the Bangkok Airways Transit desk and asked for a wheelchair to take us to Qantas transit area. They asked us whether we had booked the wheelchair in advance and I said no, because we had no idea that we would have to walk over 1km to get to next transit area.

They said that the wheelchair attendants were busy and it might take some time to get a wheelchair but we said we’d wait. We still had 3 hours before our flight was due to leave so I thought there would surely be enough time. After waiting 1 and half hours I was starting to get a little worried. I went to the Bangkok Air transit desk and asked them how much longer we would have to wait and they contacted the wheelchair attendants again and we were told they still had no one available yet. I was now worried enough to ask at the information desk what we could do. They told us to try Thai Airways. Thai airways said they couldn’t help. After waiting for nearly 2 hours and only 55 minutes before our flight was due to leave, the Bankgok Air staff came and told us that they would not be able to get us a wheelchair. There was no one available.

It was then I started to lose my cool. I explained again that tt was over 1 km to get to boarding gate and my wife was walking painfully and slowly and there was no way we would make it to the boarding gate in time as we still had to check in at the Qantas transit desk. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier”, I demanded angrily, “Now what are we going to do. How can we catch our flight in time” (in Thai mind you). Then the Bangkok Air staff member said in an annoyed tone, “You had 6 hours since you landed” (implying that it was our fault). “Well, how were we to know that we had over 1km to walk to the next transit area” I retorted.

Anyway, I walked away from the counter in disgust wondering what we would do now. Our family started walking towards Transit Area D knowing that we couldn’t possibly get get there in time. We had walked about 50metres when a Bangkok Air wheelchair attendant came toward us with a wheelchair. I couldn’t believe that this wheelchair was for us as the Bangkok Air staff had told us only 5 minutes ago that they had no wheelchair available to take us to our flight in time. I still don’t know how this person became available but there was no time to ask questions. My wife got in the chair and we raced to the Transit Area D. We were one of the last passengers on board but we got there in time. Without that wheelchair we definitely would not have made it. The wheelchair attendant received the biggest tip I’ve ever given in Thailand. We were so relieved.

We were thankful to God that he provided the wheelchair for us when we had lost all hope. Of course we can’t prove that God was the one who provided the wheelchair for us. But over the last couple of years we’ve seen God meet our needs even before we new about it (like us moving 3 days before our old house flooded, or short-termers coming just when we needed them). So we are looking to trust God in the midst of our unexpected early home assignment and the plans he has for us in the year ahead.

Kid's settling into Life in Thailand

Our daughter with one her good friends. They are in the same class at school and we used to live quite close to each other.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a missionary is that we move around a lot and that can be quite unsettling for young children (and adds to the stress of the parents). They are called “Third Culture Kids” because although they may be born into one culture and live in another, they feel home in neither. They are stuck in a “third” culture never truly fitting into their parent’s home culture or the one they are living in now.

We have been thankful to God that our children have settled in to life in Thailand really well. They have friends, they can speak Thai (and English) and in general don’t have any serious problems with living here. They are pretty happy being here. Yesterday I couldn’t stop smiling as my middle son was taking turns having bites from his friend’s ice block at school and eventually taking it from him and giving a bite to his little sister.

Sadly some kids never get to this level of integration into the culture they are living in and it’s so hard for the kids and their parents.

Lunch with Boy

Lunch at Kawano's Korean Buffet resturant

For the last couple of months Boy and I have been having lunch together after our bi-weekly Biblestudies. We’ve visited almost all the noodle restaurants within the city (we prefer noodles to other types of restaurants). It is good that Boy is a chef because he knows which places are good and which places to avoid. You can see on facebook the many different types of noodles there are on offer in Lampang.

Wonderful Wife Drawings

Some weeks at kidsclub at The Lighthouse its a last minute what are we going to do to illustrate the Bible story.  Many weeks we use the Betty Lukins lovely felt set, other times we act the story out, but this week shown, my lovely wife comes to the rescue with her artistic skills (something which I completely lack).

Kids Club craft photo

It has become a weekly ritual that Gae our wonderful Thai Teacher who helps us at Kidsclub each week, to take a photo of what the kids make for their craft.  Look out for that scary looking woman at the back!

Motorbike Finance

Our house helper’s old motorbike was breaking down and the costs of repairs was becoming prohibitive. She mentioned that she was thinking about buying a new bike in passing. By God’s grace one of the short-termers who had come to Lampang had recently been in contact asking whether they could send a financial gift over to our house helper and her husband who pastors a church in a neighbouring town which is relatively poor. So with this gift she was able to put a deposit down for just under half the cost of the bike. The rest she entered into a finance agreement to pay off the bike over the next 24 months. She showed me schedule of monthly payments. It was more than a third of her monthly salary. Although she has put a deposit for almost half the cost of the bike, her repayments over the next 24 months means that she will pay the finance company more than the total cost of the bike. The interest rate she is being charged is almost 50%! Wow. One of the things we want to do is setup is a workshop dealing with debt and money issues (which can be huge issues for families in Thailand). We hope it will be helpful considering my financial planning background.

Summer School Time

"Don't run away"

"follow the leader ... back to the classroom" 

(our daughter 4th from the left with her friend Preme in front of her)

The long summer holidays have ended in Thailand and two of our children have started school with our daughter for the first time. She is coping pretty well. She doesn’t want to go to school some days but when she’s there she’s happy. She’s got the Thai “Wai” (respectful greeting) down pat (much faster than the boys) and tries to do follow what the teachers are doing when they do their morning sing and dance (it is a sight to watch. I can’t imagine Australia teachers doing it which is a pity.) It is summer school for her right now to help her adjust to school. When the actual school term starts she’ll be in her school uniform and joined by her brother. It’s a good school and with good teachers. We’re so glad that it opened up not long after we arrived in Lampang. It suits our two younger children as it’s less academic than many of the other schools and more focused on all round development. However, it only goes up to kindergarden 3 and when students from this school go up to year 1 in other schools, the schools don’t like it as they are not as good as other Thai students at their written work. We’ll only have our children at the school for another full school year (until end of Mar 2013) and then we’ll homeschool them to get them ready for Australian schools in 2014.

Holiday Fun in Australia

Normally a term in Thailand is 4 years after which we have 1 year back in Australia. 4 years is a long time for grandparents to see their grandkids who are growing so quickly (they are 7, 5 and 3 years old). So we had a short trip back to Australia as part of our holidays, with the main aim of the grandparents getting time with their grandkids. I didn’t except the jet lag to be such a problem being a time difference of only 4 hours, but it took me a good 2-3 days to get my energy back and ready to tackle things. One of the things the boys loved doing last home assignment was fishing (probably due to their dad) and they were keen for more. Fortunately the fishing in Nelson Bay was terrific and there were plenty of small fish to catch to keep the boys interested. They still have a long way to go though in not succumbing to the urge to reel the line in at the first bite. One of the highlights was our son catching a puffer fish which blew up to the size of soccer/football. (For the fishermen: 1 very nice trevally in the harbour at Nelson’s Bay, a bag full of bream at Little Beach off the wharf 26-31cm)

Cousins who've had enough of photos

Apologies for not blogging for ages.  Hard to keep up with all the different forms of social media.  Will make a renewed effort to blog once a week if possible.

We are at the end of our short-holiday in Australia.  Tomorrow we are back in Thailand.  The main goal of this holiday was for grandparents to spend time with their grandkids.  4 years is a long time for them not to see thier grandkids especially when they are so young.  We had time with my family in Kiama and with my wife's family in Nelsons Bay.  Both holidays I had a chance to get into some fishing.  In Kiama I went on a charter which was rougher than I would have liked.  I couldn't find a chemist open on Sunday evening in Kiama to get sea sickness mecidine and I didn't want to drive 15minutes to Albion Park just for that.  I should have made the trip.  Not nice throwing up and feeling sea sick for 6 hours.  I did better than a mother and her 2 kids.  They spent all of 15minutes fishing and after that they were lying on their backs for the rest of trip.

It's good to be back in Australia but I'm looking forward to being back home (in Thailand).  We do get sick of packing and unpacking and living out of suitcases.

Hopefully the flight back will be better than the flight here.  Infront of us was a toddler who was very loud with parents who did little to keep him quiet so that we could sleep.  A couple of hours you can bear, but almost 8 hours later ...

Back to packing and seeing if we can pack everything into 4 suitcases.