OCF team in 2 local Lampang Newspapers

The recent OCF team ran programs in 3 Universities in Lampang as well as one college. The team had photos in two local Lampang Newspapers as well as the website of the college (see here: http://www.lcct.ac.th/office/english/photo_10_11/lighthouseactivities/index.htm).  The website photos include those of me trying to teach cricket.

Translation of the photos captions:  Bottom photo: English activities ... On 19th January 54 (Buddhist calender) which just past, the Rajaphat Suan Dusit University, Lampang joined with a university of Australia for activities practicing English conversation with 1st year students.  There were many different kinds of activities, to create fun amongst the students.  There were two periods of learning 10:30 - 12:00. 

Facebook helps the Student Night

 Facebook invitation for the Student Night at The Lighthouse

The OCF Australian Team at the Yonok Idol Final Event

Last night we had our Student Night with the help of the OCF Australia Team. We had a great time with lots of eating, talking, playing board games, Nitendo Wii, playing music and dancing! (I’m sure photos will be up on Facebook soon!) Normally we have no idea how many people will come to an event such as this. Sometimes we buy lots of food and not many people turn up. But this time we advertised the event on Facebook and we had 27 say that they were attending. In the end we had closer to 40 but we weren’t complaining. It was a great night and I think most people enjoyed themselves.

We were all sad to see the OCF team leave this afternoon. They made lots of friends in Lampang in their two weeks here and worked very hard. They are all certainly welcome to come back.

OCF Australia Team in Lampang

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 Yonok University, Lampang with the OCF Australian Team

 Tomoko our Japanese Teammates demonstrates making Sushi (what else!)

Teaching guitar

We are into the first week of the OCF Australia Short-term mission in Lampang. Here are some photos from this afternoon where we are running a Yonok Idol (a.k.a American Idol) competition and cooking classes. So far things are going well but as with all short-term teams in Thailand a lot of last minute planning.

Broken nose photo

Well, Lisa wanted a photo taken for posterity reasons, so I guess she wouldn’t mind posting this photo which was taken last night. The cast came off this morning so you won’t be seeing her with it today. We had a bit of a scare last night when she had taken the cast off before going to the shopping centre. When we returned to the car we couldn’t find the cast and her followup appointment was early next morning! We had already got in trouble with the doctor while in the hospital for accidentally removing the gauze in her nose (and not telling the nurses until the next day!) and we thought “oh, no”, he is going to think that she is even worse a patient. Fortunately we found it and it wasn’t broken. Lisa feels a bit wary around the children right now. The Dr has stressed that her nose can be easily broken if hit again and to take care the children don’t hit her nose. In the last couple of days the children have accidentally hit or bumped into her nose twice!

We were a little hesitant about going into the public hospital here in Lampang (we normally go to the private hospital) but generally it has been a good experience and Lisa’s nose looks normal so she’s happy. I don’t think we’ll be forgotten to quickly as they rarely have foreigners as patients.

Christmas Day 2010

It wasn’t a typical Christmas for us this year. Normally in Australia we’d be at least one of our family’s houses with lots of relatives celebrating Christmas together for much of the day. This year we got up early (6:20am) not to open presents but to get ready for the boys school’s sports day. It was quite an event with all the children dressed up and then with a big band they marched through the streets of Lampang until they reached their school.

Our eldest son had been chosen to give a short welcome speech in English. The other two children in his year gave a welcome speech in Thai and Chinese. I was reflecting today that in Australia our son would be just a face among the crowd in his school. He wouldn’t stand out one bit. Here, being the only native English speaker in his year, he will always stand out and be chosen for tasks such as these. At the moment, I think he enjoys the attention, but there may come a time that he doesn’t.

I remember when I was a little older than he is now, I went back to Korea for a few months and had to go to a local Korean primary school. I can still picture in my mind the time when the WHOLE class got out of their seats when I wrote in my exercise book for the first time to see if I could write Korean (having lived in Australia - at that time very few Koreans lived abroad). Even though I looked like every other child, I was yet so different. I can still remember how embarrassed and afraid I was when one day my brother wasn’t there to read the daily English lesson over the school’s speaker system and I had to read in his place. It was so embarrassing trying to hide my tears.

Fortunately, my eldest son is more of an extrovert than me. His speech went off without a hitch in front of hundreds of on lookers. We were so proud of him.

We had a couple of hours at home when we could open the Christmas presents which had been waiting under the tree but then our eldest son had his piano lesson, then off to dance practice for our local church’s Christmas recital and finally for his Taekwondo Christmas party. We arrived home around 8pm exhausted!

Not a typical Christmas that’s for sure.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone.  Thanks for continue the journey with us on this blog.

Rajaphat University

The South African short-term team has come and gone. The photo above is at the Rajaphat university in Lampang where we ran some English classes for these accounting students and also for highschool English teachers from surrounding provinces. It was a very enjoyable team to have and we were able to do some new things which we haven’t done before. I took 4 of the young men to the sports field near our house and we played 5 a side soccer (football for the purists) with another team which happened to be there. Also I was able to join some people playing boules.

In less than a month the an OCF short term team from Australia will be coming for 2 weeks and preparations for that team have begun.

School for the Blind, Lampang

We currently have a short-term team from South Africa helping us and last week they visited The School for the Blind in Lampang which is close to where we live. They helped teach English by singing songs, telling stories and playing games. Today, the team went to the Rajaphat University in Lampang to teach accounting students English. We are back there tomorrow morning with the team.

Loy Kratong

 Loy Kratong Festival in Lampang

Kratong

Last Sunday was the Loy Kratong Festival in Thailand. “Loy” means to float and “Krathong” is a small floating wreath or basket. According to Wikipeadia, “The festival is believed to originate in an ancient practice of paying respect to the spirit of the waters. Today it is simply a time to have fun...”

The Thailand.com website states, “The Loy Kratong ritual is a simple one. One needs only to light the candles and the joss sticks, make one's wishes and let it float away with the current of a river or a canal.

On that day, thousands of people will gather beside the canals and rivers. With kratong in hands, they light the candle, put some coins in the kratong and silently make a wish, and carefully place their kratongs in the water and release them to the current.

They watch intently as the float drifts silently downstream, hoping that the candle will not go out. Its flame is said to signify longevity, fulfillment of wishes and release from sins. Altogether it is considered a romantic night for couples or lovers. Couples who make a wish together on Loy Kratong are thought to stay together in the future.”

The origins Loy Kratong are disputed and no one really knows the true origins. Thailand.com states that, “Whatever the true origin ... Today, Loy Kratong offers a unique occasion to celebrate. It's a good time for people to make wishes and look to the future as they float their floral offerings along the waterways.”

Thai Christians in general have avoided participating in Loy Kratong because of it’s origins and association with the spirits and Buddhism. This alienates Thai Christians from other Thais and relating with non-Christians.

However, is there a way for Thai Christians to be able to participate in this festival so as not to alienate themselves from their friends, yet not be syncretistic? Could Christians infuse new meaning in this festival. Could the candle represent Jesus being the light. Could Thai Christians praise God that their sins are assured of being forgiven through Jesus while they release their Kratongs?

Undoubtedly, Thai Christians and missionaries will have vastly different views on this issue.

Tomato Sauce on Garlic Bread

After our son passed his Taekwondo grading and gained his yellow belt, we went of with some of his friends at Taekwondo and their parents for ice cream and then dinner to celebrate. We had a great time and it was eye opening culturally. I thought only western children went wild at restaurants (generally Thai children are well mannered when with their parents at a restaurant) but our son and his friends proved otherwise. I’m surprised they didn’t break anything, though the waitress was very quick in removing the glasses and replacing them with plastic ones.

Also, I was very surprised when one of the parents put a large blob of tomato sauce and lots of spices on his garlic bread. I’m looking forward to my next dinner with my son’s friends families.

Birthday Girl

Our little girl turned 2 today. Happy birthday!