Sawàt dii kaa!

Sawàt dii kaa! That's Thai for "hello"! :o) I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas - I certainly have. How I've been spending my time since I last wrote have been extremely varied...

I attended a meeting the day after I arrived with those team members who'll be involved in teaching the conversational English program that's starting next week. These courses run every 2-3 months and there are 8 sessions over a period of two and a half weeks - two of the sessions using Bible stories. I'll be helping teach the advanced class (apparently having been engaging in conversational English for roughly 30 years automatically qualifies me to teach it at an advanced level!).

A highlight so far has been a trip to a Karen hilltribe village about 2 hours south of Chiang Mai with the Tilley's. One of the ladies who works at the team's bakery invited us to the Christmas celebrations at her husband's village. The scenery was stunning, the people were wonderfully warm and hospitable, and it was well off the tourist trail - some of these villages have tour groups coming through almost every day, but we were told that this particular village has only 3-4 groups of Farangs (foreigners) visit per year! In the afternoon, were invited into the home of an old couple who were the first ones to move to that place. They had grown up in a village higher up in the hills, but when they became Christians early in their marriage they were rejected by their families and had to leave. There are now around 80 adults living in the village, plus a whole lot of kids, and all of them are Christians.

The Sunday before Christmas I went to church with the Tilley's, and it was a wonderful feeling to be able to sing worship songs with a whole lot of believers again. It had only been a few weeks, but having just come from such a spiritual desert it made me feel quite emotional! On Christmas Day most of the team plus a few random friends went to the team leader's house for lunch. We had all been asked to cook something we would normally have for Christmas at home, so we had quite a feast!

Yesterday I was taken on a trip to the team's farm about 40 minutes' drive away. It's quite small at the moment, but as with the coffee shop and the bakery, it's a project that's intended to turn a profit in a few years' time and enable local Thai pastors and church planters to be independent of financial support from overseas. Our main task while we were at the farm was building a haystack, which was actually quite fun but when it was finished we had to admit it quite obviously looked like it was built by a bunch of Farangs!

This morning was another special outing - accompanying the team on one of their wheelchair distribution days, which had been scheduled to coincide with an annual celebration at the local hospital in support/recognition of disabled people. It was quite a production, with speeches and performances and a marching band of kids dressed in traditional hilltribe costumes... but we had to get into the wheelchair work before all of that had finished. The wheelchairs are second hand ones donated in affluent countries, reconditioned, and sent over here by the container load. A shipment had come in recently so there were heaps of them at the hospital - a couple of hundred, I think. But the difficulty is finding one that's the right size and specifications to meet each patient's needs. Sometimes a fair bit of tinkering has to be done to try and make them just right!

In between all of that there have been a couple of trips to the Night Bazaar, which is nothing short of a shopper's paradise. I should warn you all not to expect any presents for the next year or so that aren't labelled "Made in Thailand"!!

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster...

Actually, to be precise, it was one day I spent in Bangkok, but I've had that song on the brain for days!

The last few days have been extremely positive and uplifting. I really enjoyed spending the last couple of days in Tashbaan at home with the family, and on my last day we talked a lot about possibilities for the future - and for the first time it felt like we were talking about really serious possibilities, which was very exciting and encouraging. I also had some more encouraging interactions with locals within the last couple of days there, which left me feeling much more comfortable with the idea of living there.

Some of the ideas we brain- stormed for me working there are:-

• Teaching at a language school that Ash (my host) is hoping to set up
• Setting up a budget-travel company
• Working as a freelance Australian client liaison for some of the travel businesses already set up by workers there
• Setting up a cafe that's aimed at female patrons (because there are a lot of eateries/coffee houses that are male dominated, where local women aren't really free to go)
• Working on a liveaboard dive boat that one of the other workers is planning to set up, either as a divemaster/deckhand or doing the catering

I could potentially do a combination of a few of these things. And I could get all of you excellent rates for holidays there!! :o) As far as a work permit goes, there would be no problem. Both Ash and the team leader already have businesses set up which are entitled to issue work permits to 2 more foreigners each.

So, all in all, Tashbaan is looking like a very real long-term possibility. I did have some quite down times while I was there, which you may have picked up in my emails, but at my lowest points I had a couple of moments of clarity that were comforting... there was one day I was sitting on the beach near home, feeling quite frustrated and negative about the local people and the prospects for forming relationships with them, and I read some Psalms and prayed a while, and out of the blue the words of a song we sing at church came to me - "In His image we have been made, though we see shattered remains...", which swept away my critical thoughts and left only compassion for these people. And there was another moment sitting on the beach on the village island feeling quite alone and like I was in a spiritual wasteland... and then I noticed a big column of cloud lit up by the setting sun and was reminded of God's presence with His people even as the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.

I left Tashbaan the night before last and flew to Bangkok, arriving at 6:30am having not slept a wink. I had booked myself on a cycling tour for the day, as I felt I should have a bit of a look at Bangkok but actually wasn't that interested in the main tourist sites or the city centre - the cycle tour was just what I was after, we were well off the tourist trail, visiting a very local produce market, a shanty town beneath a motorway flyover, and cycling miles along raised concrete pathways among canals and swamps (which was a bit hair-raising!). After the tour, I headed for the main railway station and got the overnight train to Chiang Mai. Sleeper trains in Thailand are quite good and I had a much better night's sleep than I had on the plane!

In Chiang Mai I'm staying with the Tilley's, an Australian family who are with Pioneers and have been here about 14 months. The family consist of Tom, Ann, Emily (12) and Thomas (11). I was picked up at the station by Tom and Thomas, and taken to their house near the university, where I have the luxury of having a bedroom and a bathroom all to myself! I feel quite spoilt! Nearby there is a bakery and a coffeeshop, both run by Pioneers team members.

After lunch (they mostly eat takeaway from one of the restaurants or foodstalls that line the road, as it's cheaper than cooking at home), the team leader Russell, who's my supervisor for my college fieldwork, came to meet me and talk me through the plans for the next 4 weeks. I wasn't too sure what to expect, beyond helping out with some English classes, but they're quite accustomed to having short-termers here so they've put together a very good schedule for me, just the right combination of structure and flexibility, and lots of variation, meeting with different people to discuss different topics. I'm really looking forward to getting into it!

Village life...

My trip to the village island was well worth it, even though it turned out to be a bit of a trial. It was quite different to anywhere else I had been, and a good insight into the way many locals live. The boat trip took about 1 hour 45 minutes and the island was tiny, you could walk from one side to the other in about 3 minutes, and the length of it in about 10 minutes. There were little sandy laneways lined by buildings and courtyards, and some of the scenery was very beautiful - although unfortunately much of it was marred by rubbish, which is a problem on all of the islands. The snorkelling was also marred by rubbish, which was very disappointing!

I had been planning to spend 2 nights there which would have meant returning on Friday, but just before we got on the boat my host (Nassim) told me the boat doesn't run on Friday. So I had to stay 3 nights, because 1 night wouldn't have been enough time.

My accommodation was in a building that seemed somewhat cobbled together, with half of it (in which I was housed) looking a lot newer than the rest. There was a little courtyard that had a floor of sand, with a small kitchen and dining room leading off it, where I was given my meals (which mostly consisted of fish in various forms and lots of roshi - the local flat bread). I usually ate either alone, or with my host's father-in-law who spoke barely any English but would point helpfully at bowls and say, "Fish!", and then give me the thumbs-up and say "Good?", with a big smile.

I found the women and children to be a bit more open than in other places I'd been. The men, just like everywhere else, were constantly saying hello to me when they saw me in the street or on the beach, but I was still reluctant to acknowledge them too often as this tends to elicit a stream of questions and I didn't want to give any of them the wrong idea. What was alarming on the village island though is that they all knew my host and he told me on day 3 that the village boys had told him I don't talk to them when they say hello! He then assured me with a knowing smile that it was OK to bring boys back to my room, which left me feeling decidedly uncomfortable, especially after he had enquired as we were leaving the capital whether I wanted a local boyfriend. So I didn't go out for a walk that night!! In fact, I found myself feeling quite lonely at many points, particularly at times like when I was sitting on the beach watching a beautiful sunset, and had nobody to turn to and say, "Isn't that beautiful!". Many of the adults on the island didn't speak much English so it was hard to chat to people.

On Friday there were some day-trippers who had come from the capital, and I got chatting to a group of kids when I went for a swim. They were quite excitable and were competing with each other for my attention, asking me all sorts of questions and trying to out-do each other by telling me how many times they'd been on a plane, what grade they're in at school, etc, etc. What I found really cute with the kids was that their way of asking where I come from is to say, "What's your island?" I giggled the first time I was asked this and realised that I could quite legitimately say, "Australia".

I only have a couple of days left before moving on to Thailand, and I'm planning to spend them close to the capital.

Island hopping

I've had a quiet few days since I last wrote, pottering around near home and making trips into the capital. I managed to gain entrance to the National Museum - on my fourth attempt (it was closed the first 3 times I tried, in defiance of the opening times listed on the gate). The most interesting things were seeing pictures of the capital from around 100 years ago, and money that looked more like hair clips!

I've had a couple of outings with L near home - we went down to the beach one day to swim and make sandcastles. On another occasion I got off the ferry on the way home to find Mickey Mouse, Barney the Dinosaur and the red Tellytubby (what's his name??) being mobbed by a crowd of children! It was a promo by a local mobile phone company, so I dashed home to get L and bring him down to meet them, which made his day! He also got his face painted with a blue dragon. I was tempted to get a hibiscus on my cheek but resisted in deference to the dozen or so children pressing in around me to get their faces (hands, arms, etc) painted. They were using stencils, which made quite a production- line of it and they looked really good - we'll have to look into that for the RPC fete next year!!

This morning I'm setting off on another journey - I've arranged to go to a village island for 2 nights. This is not the simplest thing to do as a local has to get a permit for you from the Atolls Administration to go to an "inhabited island" (as opposed to a resort island), and most of them have no commercial guesthouses, although there is generally at least one or two families who have guest rooms that they rent out. I enlisted the help of the owner of the guesthouse where I spent my first night, as he had mentioned that he sometimes arranges such trips for foreign friends. So I'm meeting up with a friend of his at the guesthouse, who will escort me to his island. I'm not even sure which island it is! I just know it's "about an hour" away by boat. The plan is to stay there for two nights to get an idea of village life, before returning to home base.

I've been having mixed feelings over the past few days. I've had several chats with my hosts about what it's like working here, what the local people are like, etc. Sometimes I feel quite positive after these discussions, and sometimes downright frightened. They told me about one fairly recent incident which was quite alarming, when a foreign worker was threatened by two guys he'd known and been surfing with for a long time - for some reason they came to suspect his real motive for being here, and threatened to kill him if they found out it was true. He has since left the country. It seems that it's not just the government that is opposed to the word here, there's a lot of grassroots opposition as well - although it seems to be on the basis of nationalistic fervour rather than spiritually motivated. I'm hoping to meet another worker on the weekend, who is a friend of my hosts and has recently set up a business here. I think getting as many different perspectives as I can would be helpful.

One encouraging thing that my hosts told me is that they've seen things like VegeTales and Hillsong videos in shops in the capital, and books by a well-known American teacher. The presence of these is a complete mystery, given how strict the scensorship laws can be - e.g. another family had their Sleeping Beauty video confiscated when they came through customs because of the scene where the prince kisses Sleeping Beauty (presumably this rendered it "pornographic material", which is banned), and apparently a couple of years ago when a newsagent displayed the front page of a newspaper in their window which had a picture of the Pope, security forces came and surrounded the shop and confiscated their entire stock of that newspaper. So the presence of VegeTales et al can only be because somebody didn't realise what they were. But I'm glad they're there and I hope they fall into the hands of someone who will understand their message and believe.

Way down south

Since my last post I've travelled to the southernmost atoll in the country, and returned. I had been planning to get a boat back, a trip which takes 3 days, but that turned out to be not as simple as I had hoped. I was under the impression that there was some sort of regular passenger services but nobody I enquired with when I got down there knew of any such thing. Mostly I just got blank looks or vague suggestions to go and ask "at the jetty" (pointing vaguely along the 16km road which stretches along the waterfront). I did find a shipping company whose staff were very helpful with giving me the details of several boats which sometimes make the trip and calling some of them for me, but they were highly amused at the idea of me making the trip by boat, and I was getting the impression that even if I did find a boat going my way within the next few days, I could well be the only passenger (with an all-male crew and no private sleeping quarters), which didn't sound like a good idea. I stayed in the atoll two nights, but on the third day after trying again to call the boats again with no success, I decided I'd have to give up on the idea, and I got the afternoon flight back to the capital.

It was worthwhile going south to check it out, as it's quite different to the capital and the surrounding islands (and very lovely in parts). But having to give up on the boat journey plan, which I had been quite looking forward to, has left me feeling pretty disappointed and unsure how to spend the rest of my time here. The hard part is, there's absolutely nothing useful I can do while I'm here. I may try to organise a trip to a fishing island closer to where I am, but that's not easy either because very few of them have proper guesthouses.

Hopefully it will become a bit clearer in the next day or two...

Islands & ocean...

I made it here from Bangkok with no further dramas. I arrived on Wednesday morning and got a ferry from the airport island to the capital. I was determined to walk to the guesthouse because I'm a firm believer that this is the best way to get your bearings, and the place is so small anyway. My first challenge was that I couldn't figure out where my location was on the map I had, but given the location of the guesthouse I knew I couldn't go too far wrong by turning my back to the water and walking straight ahead, and this method proved effective until I actually found the street and realised buildings don't have numbers here, just names. Which might be OK for identifying them, but doesn't help much for finding them. If you're standing on a street corner with Ocean Reed and Karishmaa beside you, and Pink Lake and Gulhazaaruge across the road, which way do you turn to find Kaloma?? I took a guess, which thankfully turned out to be correct. I spent the rest of the day exploring the capital, and crashed very early due to jetlag and travel fatigue (I had spent the previous night attempting to sleep on a slab of granite in Colombo airport, which I don't recommend), only to be awoken about 4:30am by the call to prayer, after which I was unable to get back to sleep.

So I rose fairly early and decided to walk the perimeter of the island before my host came to meet me at the guesthouse. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes, which gives you an idea of the size of the place. It's very crowded and cramped and fairly dirty. There are motorbikes galore, and often it's hard to stay on the footpath because it's quite narrow and often obstructed by piles of building materials, rubbish, or workmen doing some sort of subterranean repairs. My host A came to meet me late morning, and dropped me off at the jetty where the ferries depart for the island where they live, which is a "suburb" island, and much less crowded than the capital. He had to go and meet some clients so he gave me directions to their apartment, which I found easily and quickly got acquainted with his wife D, their son L who's nearly 3, their 5-month old twins and their domestic helper T. L made me feel right at home by being all over me within 5 minutes, and constantly asking "What are you DOING?". My hosts are truly lovely and I'm enjoying their company very much.

Friday was spent exploring Vilingilli and hanging out with the family. There are 3 beaches within a 5 minute walk! Here, like the capital, people come out in droves in the late afternoon and evening to go for walks, play ball games, and hang out by the beach. It seems to be the most social time of the day.

There's a mosque two buildings away so the call to prayer is very loud. And I'm sharing a room with T and L, who has woken up repeatedly each night so far. So the sleep deprivation continues!!

On Saturday I had quite a good chat with A about the work here. There are more workers than I had expected (about a dozen, with various organisations), although not all of them are in the country at the moment. The number of local faithful is about what I expected though - A's estimate is less than 10. The work is very much in a pioneering stage. It's probably quite a unique situation, given the political climate and the geography. So far, I feel like I could be comfortable living here - but whether I could really be useful is something I'm not sure of. What does "useful" even look like when the work is so delicate and the fruit so limited thus far, anyway?? There are more people to meet and talk to yet, to help me think about that - but if you could talk to our father about it too, that would be great. You could also mention the fact that I've been sneezing a lot the past couple of days & have developed a bit of a sore throat - really hope I'm not coming down with something...

Today I went diving with a friend of A's who's visiting for a week. It was bliss to be diving in tropical waters again!!! The marine life wasn't quite as varied as I'd hoped for, but I'm not complaining - it was pretty special! And gave the best opportunity I've had yet for interacting with locals, as all the crew were locals.