Sunday, February 12, 2023
We sing "Happy Birthday" at IES to our friend Dr Hanna, who is 80 today. WooHoo! What a beautiful milestone.
After the Gathering, W and I catch the shuttle to Jakarta. We are flying to a conference in Chang Mai. We have no idea what will happen there, beyond having the name of a hotel and that it's a meeting for international church pastors. We have no schedule, no numbers of attendees, no place to wait for others. That's disconcerting for W.
Monday
In the afternoon, we arrive in Chang Mai after two flights. The layover in Bangkok is orderly. Luggage carts are neatly lined up outside the "DO NOT BRING A TROLLEY IN HERE" notices. (And no one transgresses.)
Numerous robot janitors glide along the sparkling floor. It's the cleanest airport we've been in.
The royal family is venerated and wherever there's a meeting place, there are displays like the one below.
We check into Suan Bua, our hotel. The grounds are spacious, the rooms are old-fashioned, and everything is clean. On the bed is a cute woven package with snacks inside.
We stroll around, looking for someone who looks like us. We find someone from the group and find out where to meet for supper, the first event. (The food is delicious all week.)
Thailand is punctuated by Buddhist altars. We spot many on the hotel grounds.
People leave a clutter of offerings on the tables around the altars.
We didn't know there was Registration. "No worries, you can get the schedule at the 7:30 p.m. meeting," we're told at dinner.
Except that we forget to pick up a schedule after the first session. We recall only that there's breakfast at 8:30 tomorrow. More info to come.
Tuesday - Valentine's Day
After a sound sleep, we take a walk before we join the others for breakfast. It is a small group of interesting people, serving Kuwait, Norway, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The week's topic is renewal when we're weary. (And isn't everyone tired after COVID?) Tim uses Elijah the prophet as our model. Though Elijah experiences great things and is used by God to do miracles (even to raise a child from the dead!), he is easily discouraged and afraid. His story (1 Kings 17-19) describes us at times. Great highs and deep lows; with God's infusion of courage and provision around it all.
It's dry season so the paths are strewn with leaves. The flowers that are blooming often burst out of dry stems.
This denrobium is a sight to behold, hanging from a tree trunk.
Our Valentine's outing is cooking a Thai dinner. It is way more fun than we imagined. The amazing coordinator Aoy makes her job look easy. She demonstrates three menu items in each of three courses. We get to choose what we want to cook because we'll eat it later. The ingredients are simple - we chop them as the coordinator walks between groups.
We start by chopping and pounding ingredients for our choice of curry.
It's a fine paste before a few more ingredients are stirred in.
We set the curry aside while we make the first course: appetizers. W chooses young papaya salad. I make fresh spring rolls. For the fresh spring rolls, we tightly wrap basic vegetables, along with chopped fried tofu or chicken.
We soak the rice wrappers 5-10 seconds only (or they're too glue-y and tear as we wrap.)
It's amazing how simple ingredients are transformed - the garlic is soft and sweet, needing no peeling. We line up in groups according to what we're cooking. For each item (appetizer, main dish, and curry), we change to different groups. How Aoy keeps it straight is beyond us.
She is relaxed, patient, and funny, especially with a few men who have little clue of the chemistry experiments that happen in the kitchen.
The second course is a main dish: Pad Thai (W's choice), noodle soup (my choice), and a chicken dish. My soup is delicious!
The spices and flavors are basic.
I've chosen cashew chicken for my main dish.
Aoy goes from group to group, encouraging, heckling, and making sure everyone is following instructions. Even with several participants who "never cook", not one dish is burned or overcooked among the nine menu items.
The oil heats quickly in a wok over a gas flame. We add water if needed to steam the ingredients or cool them down. "Thai cooking looks healthy but is not," jokes Aoy. "Lots of oil in every dish."
Everyone is happy and lifts their spatula when we're done cooking. Then the feast begins.
The flavors burst in our mouths. I would cook with more heat (spicier) for myself. Perhaps the planner decided that "medium" best is "mostly bland" for tourists.
Our stomachs are full. We close the night with a Valentines Day video of encouragement. How can we strengthen our marriages and other relationships?
Wednesday
W and I enjoy a morning walk and take pictures of the flowers. This is a lotus.
The hotel ponds are full of frogs, tropical fish, water lilies, and other swamp plants.
The trees drip with blooms.
There are several kinds of bougainvillea I haven't seen before, including this white version.
Breakfast is delicious and the company is good at the meeting. The food at Suan Bua is excellent.
We have a few minutes after lunch before we pile into cars for a full day of activities. Everywhere you look, there's a pop of color.
The steep hills look green even in dry season (December to May). We have a slight rainfall one evening and everyone celebrates the washing-down of the world.
We drive through beautiful countryside.
Near the conference center is an elephant farm, one of few places tourists can still ride an elephant. First you have to don the traditional mahout clothing so you smell familiar. Elephants have been livestock and (enormous) pets throughout Thai history.
Elephants are integral to Thai culture. There are elephant statues everywhere. We see mahouts (elephant handlers and trainers) walking their elephants along the mountain roads.
Recently, meddling foreigners without any idea of the elephant's place in Thai history made an outcry on social media. The Thai government, sensitive to its image among tourists, has shut down all but one or two farms. That means a loss of jobs. The loss of strong helpers for farmers. The loss of cultural meaning. The loss of tourist attractions and income. The loss of work for artists. These losses result from a few loud-mouthed outsiders. Ugh.
I'm trying to imagine this happening elsewhere. What if, because of the cruelty of some farmers or ranchers, all horses - even those well-cared-for on well-run farms - were banned from working, racing, being ridden, or doing anything but eating and standing in the meadow. That's pretty much what has happened to the elephant farmers in Thailand. It's mind-boggling.
I guess social influencers with well-meant causes are making trouble all over. In Montana, transient Californians decry the state of ranches. They introduce predators like wolves who ruin flocks of sheep. (Wolves kill for fun and leave the lambs dead in the pastures.)
Similarly, locals tell us that an entire area of northern Thailand has been closed, the roads abandoned due to wild elephants. These enormous working beasts leave destructive swaths of uprooted trees in the forests. They have nothing to do. They roam and forage for food to survive.
"Elephants are intelligent and social creatures," the locals remind us. They like being around people and each other. And they want to work. Have some been mistreated? Yes. But have all of them? No - once again, globalization and access for foreigners is a tricky thing.
The vines grow over roofs, take over trellises, and offer a dazzling orange cloud of flowers.
On the way to the next site, we get a peek of a pilgrimage destination, a white temple on the hillside.
We reach an umbrella factory after we pass under another homage to the Thai king and queen.
From the parking lot, we spot a huge swarm of bees under the factory's upper floor. Can you spot them beside the supporting beam in the arch?
The paper umbrellas are made from natural materials. One lady peels the bamboo. The next woman splits the bamboo into the umbrella spine. We watch another make paper, dipping a screen into a vat of dyed fibers. Other women glue the brightly-colored dry paper to the bamboo slats and toss them on the ground for drying and pickup.
We exclaim over a record-setting umbrella created for Princess Diana's visit in the 90s. We make a stop in the factory store, where stunning shapes and colors await us. This hand-threaded 3-meter wide umbrella is too big for our suitcase and unfortunately beyond our price range at $200.
Our next stop is a silk factory. Trays of worms are munching on mulberry leaves. Several escape and make their way down the shelves. A second set of trays holds the spun cocoons with worms inside. They have to age for a few weeks.
After the worms leave the cocoons, the cocoons are boiled and the silk thread is spun by hand. An employee raises and lowers a wooden shuttle looped around the cocoons. She pulls 10-12 fine fibers across the spool into one thin thread. Then the thread is gathered for weaving. Thai worms produce yellow strands while Chinese worms produce white ones.
At other work stations, women color the threads with plant-based dyes. At the looms, the thread is woven into into intricate cloth patterns. (See the looms behind her?)
One local American couple is craving Western food and takes us to Beast Burgers for supper. The burgers are good but we're sorry to miss another taste of Thailand.
The final stop is the night market, acres of stalls with individual vendors. Some crafts are beautiful, like our friend's $6 pet painting (done in 1/2 hour from a photo.) I can't resist this tall bamboo vase for $3.
Some items are cute but weird, like hand-sewn "pets" for $5. Of course we buy one for each grandchild.
On the walk to the car, I snap a picture of the three-wheeled taxis filled with locals and tourists.
Thursday
We have time for one more walk, passing statues of pop figures and traditional shapes outside a cafe.
Burning is a problem in northern Thailand. Hand-set fires produce the heavy pall that pollutes the air (170 at times) and makes the hills hazy.
Trees are strung with prayer streamers.
We pray together to wrap up the meetings. W and I shuttle to the airport with two others. Our flight is delayed 2 hours but we don't miss our Bangkok to Jakarta connection. In Jakarta, a bus takes us from the plane to the gate; our luggage takes an hour to arrive. It's 1:00 a.m. by the time we fall into bed at the Jakarta airport hotel.
Friday
We gulp breakfast: we're still in bed when our driver says he's a half-hour away. He stops in an airport parking lot before picking us up instead of waiting in the lot W suggests.. While he goes around the traffic loop again, we wait a half an hour in the heat and humidity of Jakarta. He's ill so we mask for the 3.5+ hour drive. This is the most hair-raising part of any trip, riding the last 120 km on the toll road.
We get home after noon, unpack, and gather gifts and clothing for the next trip. A parade of ants has been busy in our bathroom so I spray the wood door frame. By morning, hundreds of dead ants lie on the tiles. W sweeps them away.
Saturday
The masseuse comes to the house at 7:30 a.m. My back is so sore from sitting all week that it cramps as I turn onto to my back. My calves and shoulders are looser when she's done. With the early start and a walk first, I've forgotten about breakfast. I'm ready to cook and eat homemade mushroom soup for lunch.
The lizards sing in the garden. The thunder is pounding. Welcome home.
Read more:
*Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign that will endure forever. Isaiah 55:6-13
Prayer: God, be faithful to your promises. We come to you for wisdom, direction, and pardon today. In the name of our savior Jesus, Amen.
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