Elephants

I apologize that I haven’t written in a little while. It’s been such a crazy week, and we haven’t always had Internet, so let me bring you up to date…

Our TESOL course ended last Thursday afternoon, and we had the most amazing last weekend in Chiang Mai. As some of you know, the national symbol of Thailand is the elephant. You’ll find elephants on everything from jewelry to bed spreads to key chains. The national beer is even called “Chang,” the Thai word for elephants. What some of you don’t know, perhaps, is that there are only 2 kinds of elephants in the world: African elephants, and Asian elephants. The Asian breed is smaller than their African counterparts, and has small ears and big heads, relatively small ears, that is. Our guide liked to tell us that’s why Asian elephants are smarter, but then maybe he was a little bias. Anyways, it is not uncommon to see working elephants in the streets, and elephant shows are very common.

John and I had the awesome opportunity of seeing some of these amazing creatures up close and personal last Friday. We went to a place called the Thai Elephant Home, where the mahouts rescue abused animals from the streets or from other farms where they are mistreated, and bring them to this shelter to teach people how to treat elephants in kind way, and allow them to roam in the jungle. We went with our friends Charlie and Natalie from England. It was an amazing day!

They picked us up from our hotel in the morning and took us about an hour outside of the city. We changed into the typical outfit of a mahout, and were taught some useful elephant commands. Then we learned how to mount and dismount, and some of the different ways of riding elephants bareback. I didn’t know that you are supposed to ride an elephant on the back of its neck, instead of on its back like a horse, but it’s actually much more comfortable, and you can place your hands on its head for balance.

Once we were all familiar with the basics, we each received our own elephants, and started off on a 5 hr trek through the jungle.

The elephants were very hungry on the way, so it was slow going up the mountain. Every few steps, they had to stop and have a few bites to eat. By “a few bites” I mean an entire banana tree, a huge branch off of a tall tree, that sort of thing.

If you pushed them to keep going when they wanted to stop and eat, they would turn their trunks toward you, and blow a huge string of saliva and mud in your face (that’s why they gave us clothes to wear). The best part was going through a large mud field. The elephants had to slurp and spray at every step. You can see by the pictures how dirty we were!! Especially John!

We got to walk with them through a mud pit, eat some delicious phad thai on top of the mountain, and come back down to take a wonderful bath in the river. My legs are just now recovering, but it was totally worth it!!

Surprises

Chiang Mai never ceases to surprise me. Yesterday, we went to the Sunday walking street with our British friends. The Sunday walking street is a huge market that invades a couple of the major streets in Chiang Mai every Sunday afternoon and evening. It stretches on for blocks and blocks and goes off on most side streets as well. They have crafts, jewelry, clothing, and every kind of food imaginable. There are small concerts and big dance shows. I think it would be possible to come every Sunday for a year and still not see everything there is to see.

One of the best surprises of the night was finding this French bread stand. The lady who bakes the bread lived in Paris for a while, and we were able to speak French with her! Who would have thought?!! We had to buy a small loaf of bread to eat for breakfast today, and it was wonderful! You don't realize how much bread we eat at home until you go somewhere you can't get it.

Another fun thing was this potato on a stick. It don't know where they found the potato, because those don't exist here either, but it satisfied another craving. They somehow unraveled the potato so it was one long curlicue, and covered in paprika and (of course) lots of sugar. Have I mentioned that they are addicted to sugar here? Seriously addicted? Those that know us know that we have sweet teeth (??), but some of the stuff here, we can't even swallow.

One of our favorite things about the markets here is the selection of hilarious T-Shirts. They take any English word they can think of, put it on a shirt, and people love it. We could make a fortune if we opened up a T-Shirt shop! One of the first shirts we saw when we landed simple said "Dentistry." Another thing they love is matching his and her t-shirts. One set said "I am Tarzan" and "Jane am I." Here are a few more we liked.

And finally, as we were walking along at the end of the evening, it started to pour, monsoon-style. We ran into the first cafe/restaurant we could find, just to escape the rain. As it turns out, we had found a chocolate cafe, completely by chance. Everything on the menu was chocolate, chocolate drinks, chocolate cakes, a chocolate lover's dream. We looked over at the family next to us: they were having chocolate fondue!!! We pointed to them and told the waitress, "We'll have one of those!" It was amazing!! Mom, we've got to add mango to our list of fruit for this Christmas' fondue. It was so good.

And you'll all be happy to know that John is feeling much better. Thanks for the prayers.

Teaching Practice

For the past three days, our group has been traveling about an hour outside of Chiang Mai to a monk's school for our teaching practice. They are obviously all boys, from ages 10 to 18, that board at this school and study 5 days a week. Although they are better behaved than a lot of public school students, they are still teenage boys, and the setting presented some unique challenges.

For one thing, there are a lot of cultural differences to keep in mind. We teach barefoot, as in a lot of Asia. The foot is considered unclean in Thailand, so we have to be careful not to move anything with our feet, touch anything with our feet, or rest our feet on anything. Also, we can't touch any of the monks' heads, or even pass papers to another student over someone's head. A really hard thing to remember is that in order to call someone up to the front, we have to wave at them with our palm down. The typical "come over here" motion that we use in the Western world is the way they call dogs. We both keep messing up on that one... But the hardest thing is that monks are not allowed to touch women, so the women teachers have to be super careful, especially in small classrooms. We have to drop the chalk into their hands instead of handing it to them, and use very clear instructions. But it has been a really fun experience.

We've both been able to teach three lessons. The first was a young learner's lesson to 13 yr old boys with a pretty low level of English. The next day, we were supposed to have older, more advanced students, but they all decided they didn't want to come to school that day, so we ended up teaching the exact same students a much more difficult lesson. However, I guess that word got around to the older ones that class was fun, because when we showed up on Saturday, all the older kids were in class, so that lesson was much smoother. We have two more lessons next week before our course ends.

John has been feeling sick for the last couple days, so please pray that he will get better soon and that I won't catch what he has.

Adventures in Chiang Mai

We had a very wonderful first weekend in Chiang Mai. On Friday night, we were able to get together with a friend of the family, LeaAnn Hoppe. She and her husband have been missionaries in Chiang Mai for seven years now. Although we'd never met her before, I was wonderful to meet another Christian, and we had a great time. She took us to Carrefour, yes, to my astounded French friends, a Carrefour in Thailand, except that they pronounce it Ka-Foo. For those of you who have never heard of Carrefour, it's actually a large French supermarket chain, and apparently it's made it all the way to Asia. She treated us to some good, familiar food: Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen, and helped us maneuver through the sea of people to get some school supplies and shaving cream (a very difficult thing to find here, and only in men's scents. I guess I (Dana) will get to smell like a man for the next 5 months.)

On Saturday, we got in another song thaew with our British friends and set out to explore downtown Chiang Mai. I had a very cultural experience in the Warorot Market.

I was trying to find a Thai skirt that would fit me, but the longest one available was still three awkward inches above my ankle. So, somehow, with a combination of my broken Thai and the salespersons few words of English, I was able to buy material and have a tailor sew it for me. In 45 minutes, I had a beautiful, custom-made skirt, that even fit my Western hips! It was amazing! Here's a picture, please forgive the clashing shirt.

Sunday morning, we went up the mountain on the edge of town to visit Doi Suthep, one of the most famous temples in Northern Thailand.

The architecture was so intricate, and the view was beautiful!! Oh, and did I mention, there were a lot of steps!

That afternoon, John and I found our way to the International Church, where we worshiped with people from almost all the continents. We met some people from world venture who had been in Chiang Mai for a long time, as well as people visiting the church for the first time. It was amazing to realize that no matter how far we go, we will be able to find other believers if we look hard enough.

However, the adventure was really on the way home from church. We jumped in another song thaew, but it must have been this driver's first day on the job, because he had no idea where our hotel was... or our street... or the bigger street near our street... or any of the landmarks we were familiar with!! In fact, even when we pointed out where we wanted to go on a map, he still had no idea how to get us there! But since this is a "saving-face" culture, he kept nodding and repeating what we said with a very confused look on his face. The result: we drove around for a very long time and saw many unfamiliar parts of the city. Fortunately for us and the poor driver, we finally hit a road that we recognized, had him drop us off, and walked from there! The moral of the story is: if the driver looks confused, wait for the next song thaew. Yikes!!

TESOL Classes Begin

First off, for those of you who aren't familiar with TESOL, it stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. We are taking an intensive 3 week course in order to earn our TESOL certificates that allow us to teach English anywhere in the world. We are in a classroom with 14 other students; most are from the US, but there is another young couple from England, and a woman from Russia, as well.

We just finished our third day of class. It's been super fun, but also mentally exhausting. Our brains got out of shape in the past year and a half since we graduated, I guess. In addition to lesson planning, teaching techniques, and exercises, we have had Thai sessions every day. Before leaving for Asia, we started working on learning the Korean alphabet, but now that we know we will be staying in Thailand, we have to switch gears and learn the much-more-complicated Thai language. So here's a quick lesson for all you fellow beginners:

Sa-wat-dee-kah! (for the ladies) and

Sa-wat-dee-krap! (for the men)

Hello!

We have been learning a lot about Thai culture as well. First off, no one cooks here. Everyone goes out for every single meal, including breakfast. You can get a good sized meal for less than a dollar, so it's just easier for everyone to go out. Perhaps the hardest thing for us is that Thai people eat exactly the same thing for breakfast as for any other meal. One of these days, we're going to have to have someone ship us some bread and Nutella! :)

We have enjoyed getting to know our fellow TESOL students, and explore Chiangmai with them.

Everyone gets around in these red trucks called song thaew:

On Monday, our instructors took us to the Northern Thailand Cultural Center, where we ate a traditional Northern meal (on the floor), and watched several traditional folk dances:

It was a family style meal with everyone sitting on the floor and sharing from these dishes. No, John and I didn't actually eat all that food by ourselves. We learned from Sangeeta, one of our teachers, that the reason people in ancient societies always eat sitting on the floor is that when you have to bend over for every bite, you never overeat. It hurts too bad!! A good lesson learned...

Then, they even made me (Dana) dance on stage:

We also had our first experience with a Buddhist temple. Thailand is about 97% Buddhist, and since the Buddhist lent has just begin, we saw many, many monks at the temple during their worship service.

Tonight, we explored a different part of the city with the British couple. We took a trolley through Chiangmai University. We found a great Korean-style restaurant, and were very proud of ourselves for figuring out how to order and what to do with the food. Basically, they pour broth into a fondue pot and you order side dishes of meat, veggies, rice, noodles, etc and drop it all it there. You can also barbecue the meat on the grill. It was absolutely delicious!!

Prayer Requests:

-Several of our classmates have gotten very sick from mosquito bites or the water. Please pray that we will continue to have good health.

-Please pray that we will not be afraid to share our faith in a culturally-appropriate way, and that we would form good relationships and have good conversations with our fellow students.

Love you!!

John and Dana

Arrival in Chiang Mai

Isn't travel an amazing thing? You sit down in a chair, wait a while, and two days later you on on the other side of the globe!

Well, we made it. After 4 flights, many hours in the airport, and a neck ache from carrying our heavy luggage, we are finally in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We both feel much better after a good night's sleep in a real bed, and are ready to settle in and get ready for training (it starts tomorrow).

Chiang Mai is situated in Northern Thailand. It is really beautiful here, tropical and green. We landed yesterday, stepped off the plane, and immediately started sweating, although the lady that picked us up said that it was cool and comfortable compared to normal! We settled into the hotel room that will be our home for the next 3 weeks, and spent the afternoon exploring the area around here. The main street is littered with food carts and tiny restaurants, and although we don't speak Thai (or read the alphabet), through a combination of pointing and grunting, we were able to order or first Thai meal. Here are some pictures:

More street food. Yum!
Our first Thai meal. We were so proud of ourselves for ordering food for the first time, especially since we don't speak any Thai, the vendor doesn't speak English, and the menu was all in the Thai alphabet.
Our first breakfast in Bangkok
Exhaustion in Shanghai.
My best friend Nikki has been teaching in South Korea for a year. We got to see her in the LA airport for about 10 minutes. She was going back to Denver, and we were coming from Denver. Nice God moment.
John and all our heavy luggage...

The Pre-Show

Well, the adventure began even before we left the US. We had been waiting for several months to hear back from Henry, our contact in Korea, about a teaching position. Since he stopped responding to our emails, we decided to write our American TESOL Institute (ATI) contact in Thailand and ask her what was going on. We finally received an email from her 6 days before we were supposed to leave. It said that since they could not find us a job in Korea, we should postpone the trip to Thailand until September, and then re-apply for jobs in Korea next March! This came as quite a shock, obviously.

We decided that we still really wanted to go to Asia this year, so we asked her to try finding us a job any where she could, and prayed that God would lead. Finally, about 32 hours before our plane was scheduled to leave Denver, she responded and told us to come to Thailand.

So here is the new plan (at least until it changes again): We are going to Chiangmai, Thailand to receive our TESOL certificates. Then, we will hopefully teach somewhere in Thailand for 4-5 months, and maybe re-apply for a job in South Korea after that.

What have we learned through all this? We know that God knows what he is doing, and that we can trust him no matter what. Also, we have no idea what this year will hold, so it will be as much a surprise to us as we write this blog as to you that read it.

Love you all!

John and Dana