Flooding in Lopburi

We returned in from Lampang (where we were looking for a house to rent) just in time. It starting raining heavily an hour or two later and when I looked out the window our car port was starting to flood. This is where our car was stationed before I moved it. Forunately, the water stopped rising enough so that it didn't come into the house. Our neighbours were not as fortunately and were mopping up the water from their living room. If we arrived several hours later, I'm not sure whether we would have been able to get to our house with the flooding.

Our house owner's motorcycle deep in water.

Songkran Fun

This year I had the opportunity to experience Songkran (the Thai New Year Water Festival) Thai style on a back of pickup loaded with water fighting equipment. Going around the block took us nearly 2 hours. The following video will show you why.

Songkran Water festival

It is our second Song Kran (Thai New Year Water Festival). This is our Thai neighbours in a ceremony honouring their elders. They pour water over the elder's hands and the elder speaks a blessing to them.

Children's Camp

We ended up only going to the children’s camp for 1 day instead of the whole camp as the children and Lisa have been sick recently. There were more than 200 children at the camp and Lisa organised several craft activities for that day. We were only there for one day but we were thoroughly exhausted afterwards and thought we probably would not have lasted more than a day or two. We pray that the camp brought many Thai children to know Jesus.

Wishful thinking

This is our son at the Children's Mueseum in Bangkok. We wish it was this cold in Thailand. In Lopburi it is getting so HOT! It must be getting close to 40 degrees right now. Even with the aircon on in our bedroom, during the day you still feel hot and sweaty (the airconditioner is a bit small unfortunately). I'm trying a new method of wearing a singlet underneath my shirt. A bit counterintuiative I know, but some people swear by it that it keeps them cooler. It does save the embarrassment of having large sweat patches showing all over your shirt though. I'm not yet convinced that I feel cooler because of it though.

There was a slight delay in this week's posting as we'd been in Bangkok for the last 10 days and have just returned. The ALMA Marriage Encounter Weekend was very hard at times but our marriage is much stronger as a result of the weekend. We thought our youngest son would struggle with Rich's parent's looking after him for the weekend but it was our eldest who really had a hard time and was very despondent. Coming back to Lopburi, we were hit by the heat. It is getting so HOT here. It is good to be back home.

Build It Up

All those hours of Play School has left its mark on our eldest.

Earning his Keep

We thought that it was about time our 1 y.o earn his keep in our family.

Lopburi Post Office Spirit House

This is a photo of the front of our local post office. Many of the packages sent to this postoffice have 'disappear' more often than not (so please send packages to Bangkok and not here!). There is a large phot of the king of Thailand on the right which is typical of most public buildings in Thailand.
Also at the front of nearly every building in Thailand is the spirit house. It is believed that you must offer food and prayers to this spirit house so that the spirits do not get angered and bring bad luck to the property.

Medical Care in Thailand

The boys were sick again last week and this meant another trip to the local medical clinic. Medical care in Thailand is a bit different to that in Australia. First, they don't have appointments so it is first in first served at the clinic. Most clinics in Lopburi open only after 5:30pm because during the day the doctors work at the local hospital and then open their clinics to make more money. So we went with the boys to the clinic at 5:20pm and generally there are at least 3 other people waiting near the entrance. This clinic is popular because the lady doctor is a paeditrician. By the time the clinic opens (around 5:30pm) there are usually around 5 children waiting and their parents. When the door opens it is a rush to the pad of paper where you put your child's name and wieght on and this determines the order the children are seen. You don't pay for seeing the doctor but only the medicines she prescribes. So our youngest came out with 4 bottles of medicines for his bronchitis. An antibotic, a mucolytic, ventolin and panadol. This was about 160 baht or just over $5! At least the medical care is very cheap. Also, all the pharmacies sell all types of medicine without a prescription. So when we spilled a bit of the antibotic and needed some more the chemist was happy to just give us another bottle.