Going to the Chapel...

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Bangkok and attend the wedding of Bum and Marcus. Bum was my first roommate in Thailand 3 years ago. She has been down in Southern Thailand doing tsunami relief for the past couple years. Marcus is an American and they met when he came to Thailand to help with tsunami relief. Bum has been a Christian for several years now and it was a blessing to see God provide a godly man for her :)

Dr. Kim ?

There are days here in Thailand when I say to myself, "How did I get here?" This past Tuesday was one of those days : ) When you aren't fluent in the language (and even when you are) sometimes you don't always know what you are signing up for. I heard there was a group of foreign doctors who were visiting Ubon and some of the villages. I was asked to come along and sort of just be an English presense for a couple hours (or so I thought)...maybe do some informal simple translating. When I arrived in the village, I found out that these doctors were conducting a medical clinic and were expecting me to translate for them the whole day. I had some brief moments of panic and was trying to tell the host Thai pastor that I really am not at a strong level of Thai, especially with medical terminology. If I didn't say the right thing, that might put someone's health, or even life, at risk. But as much as I tried, I could not get out of it. I was in a group with an Asian English speaking doctor, an Isaan teenager, and myself. The teenager translated Isaan/Thai and I tried to translate Thai/ English. We were also given masks to wear. I really didn't want to wear it because it is already so hot. Also I really listen and speak better when sound is not muffled with a mask. The first patient that came to us, an elderly man, had tuberculosis. It was then that I decided maybe the mask wasn't such a bad idea. The second patient was a man who was suspected of using opium. I learned the word for opium in one lesson, so I was trying to rack my brains and remember all these words. Thankfully, I had my dictionary, so that helped with some of the words I needed as well. When the patients were done with us they would wait for their medicine. While they were waiting, a couple Thai Christians would share the gospel with them. For some of them, that was their very first time ever hearing about Jesus. I don't know how helpful I was (hopefully not harmful!) but it was a good experience and good for language practice. After doing that for 7 hours I went to bed very early that night!

A Daily Sight

Kind of strange when an elephant becomes a "common" animal. Every evening several elephants walk the streets of Ubon. They are easy to spot out (except of course when you are trying to find one...then they don't seem to be around). They wear little red reflectors on their tails. Their owners try to sell little bags of sugar cane for people to feed them. This one here is a pretty young one...3 years old. The adult ones are quite big in person :)

Candle Festival and Parade

This past weekend marked the beginning of the three month Buddhist Lenten season. The monks must remain at their home temples at night and it is often a time of heightened meditation, chanting, etc. Buddhists can make merit by going to the temples and presenting the monks with items for daily use such as incense, soap, and candles. It is this practice that is the basis for the Candle Festival. Ubon Ratchathani has the largest candle celebration in the country and many Thais, as well as foreign tourists, come to the city to watch.

Every major temple in the city and the surrounding districts creates a candle float. Some are smaller candles decorated with flowers, fruit, or ribbons. The larger floats are quite elaborate and ususally depict something from Thai mythology or history. Sometimes the floats are pure wax and take a few months to design and create and sometimes the floats are made when wax is poured and carved over a shape made from wood or plaster. The floats are entered into a contest and prizes given in various categories.

On Sunday evening I went with my teammate Joelle and Ning & her mom down to the the main park in Ubon. All of the temples brought their floats to put on display. The surrounding streets were closed and A LOT of people come to look and take pictures! Then on Monday, which was the actual Buddhist Lent Day, all the floats were paraded through the streets. The parade also included traditional Thai music and dancers. I went down to watch some of the parade. I heard that it lasted 5 hours!! Alsp since this is the one time of year where there are more foreigners in Ubon, a lot of the school children had assignments to practice their English by interviewing the visiting foreigners. I think I did about 5 interviews myself, along with a few photographs too.