Walking up the stairs to my room tonight, post-dinner coffee in hand, I was happy. I am happy.
Today burned beautiful images into my mind. Some images invoked dreams wanting to be fulfilled, some pure thankfulness to the Father for witnessing them, others laughter and giddiness at the ridiculous goodness of my God. Waking up this morning, I thought today was going to be average, maybe even sub-par. God had a different day planned for me, and I liked to think I walked right into it.
Thank you to all who prayed for the conversation I was having with the former Director of the Board of Trustees for the Juniper Tree. He was the first person I was put in contact with at the Juniper Tree, and he was ultimately the one who invited me into this large family. After e-mailing back and forth for five months prior to flying to Thailand, it was nice to put a face and a full personality to the e-mails. Come to find out, this man and his wife are huge pillars of the faith, in Thailand and around the world. They have been missionaries in rural Thailand for over 50 years, now currently back home in England. They are in their 80s with more stories than time to tell them and humor to boot. I fell quickly, especially when I saw them sitting outside their cottage this afternoon, holding hands, while watching the kids playing in the pool and the sea in the distance. Yes, please.
I spent some time speaking with them this afternoon about my time commitment at the Juniper Tree. I told them I was really having a wonderful time and they said there was nothing but good reports of me at the JT. Ultimately, he said the offer was open-ended to stay here and would need about 3-month's notice if I wanted to leave. I told him I'd be here for a year. So, folks, there you have it. I will be Thailand, at least, until August. As soon as I walked back to the office after they prayed over me and joked about finding me a husband soon so I would stay for 15 years (I said "Where do I sign?" haha), I felt so much peace and joy. I felt like something was lifted in my heart; a distance faded between me and my surroundings. I can now make this place home and not be worried about when I'm leaving, but really dig in here. I can decorate my room more and meet the staff's families. I can expect visitors (seriously, come on over!) and be more emotionally available to the community of Dolphin Bay. I can also stop putting so much pressure on myself to learn Thai, but just let it come.
God has plans for me in Thailand. I've known this. Here's to resting in them!
Onto other beauty of the day--
We have this family who has been with us for the past five days, enjoying their rest but ultimately waiting for their cousins to meet them in Thailand. Today, they came. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL TO SEE THEM REUNITED. I seriously almost cried (surprise). These families work in two very different places in Asia--one in one of the most populated cities in the world and the other in an almost unreachable land in the middle of the Pacific. They had not seen each other for six years, until today. I was introduced to the parents of the newly-arrived family just as I came up to my room and they were loudly joking and hugging and, clearly, family. My heart was so full from that image of their arrival! Moments like that make my being here more than worth it!
Hearing stories from the former Board Director and his wife at meal time has been a ridiculous testament to God's plan for his Kingdom and his care for his workers. Giving the morning devotion on Friday, he compared himself to the apostle Paul, mainly because of 1 Corinthians 1:16. No, no, not for Paul's greatness as an apostle, but because of his clear lack of memory in that passage. The other reason he believes himself to be like the apostle was communicated tonight at the dinner table. Once when preaching to a Thai Presbyterian church in Hollywood many years ago, he was greeted by a man after the service. The man said, "You look tired. Are you tired?" He said, "Well, yes, actually I am," to which the man replied, "Come and take a rest in Las Vegas. I'll take care of everything." (Many things about that sentence would have produced some serious doubt in me, but I guess given the times and who was speaking, the former Board Director had no scruples.) The man gave him his car to drive to Vegas, while the man took his own jet (clue #1 something big is gonna happen). Former Board Director drove to the meeting point--MGM Grand Hotel--and walked into the lobby with his oldest son in tow. The man greeted him immediately and introduced the manager of the MGM Hotel to him, who escorted him up to the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE! The man said that this was all his for five days, all expenses paid. (There was a pure gold jacuzzi tub.) The next morning, they were having breakfast with the man in their suite with a French string quartet serenading them, when the man asked why his wife wasn't with him. Former Board Director replied that she was in England with the rest of their children. The man immediately picked up the phone, called Board Director's house in England, and got them all plane tickets to come and join them. After spending the rest of the week in the suite with his entire family, they went off to their next speaking engagement in Korea and then on to Thailand, feeling quite refreshed. (It was that gold tub!! haha). Come to find out, the mysterious and giving man was a Thai surgeon who had come to America with pennies and ended up owning his own medical hospital in L.A. A few years prior to this story, the surgeon was brought to the Penthouse at the MGM to meet the owner of the property who was unable to walk and was confined to a wheelchair. The surgeon ended up doing extensive surgery and physical therapy with the owner, and instead of payment for getting him walking again, the owner of the MGM said, "As long as you live, your family and friends will always have a place here at the MGM, all expenses paid."
So, former Board Director compared himself to Paul in that he had learned to be abased and how to abound. Abound, indeed.
Now, beside the utter coolness of the luxury and splendor of staying in a presidential suite, this story warmed my heart at the generosity of His people and the utter care the Father has for His children. So much giving was seen in this story. I felt so thankful that the LORD has given me the opportunity to greet workers who are working so hard for Him and are SO tired and in need of rest. I get to greet them in their exhaustion and welcome them to a space for rest. I get to be in the front row to see the LORD meet them and send them off once again, refreshed and reminded of His call. Very cool.
I also got to be encouraged by a former JT manager on Skype today. It was, indeed, a beautiful day. Thanks, God, for showing me you are the ultimate provider for your children.
In committing to more time here, I will be contacting some of you in the next months to prayerfully consider giving more to my journey here. If you would like to give to my time in Thailand, please contact me at summerlynnholeman@gmail.com to find out more details! I have faith that God will provide. How could I not after the stories of reunion and renewal today?!?
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
To Be Known
To be known by another human is a good thing. To be known by God is great thing. One is a conquest, the other a promise.
While getting to meet so many humans over the past three months, yet really knowing no one, a great desire to be known once more has been planted in my soul. Twenty-six guests arrived at JT yesterday, some were neighbors and already knew each other and some were strangers. Last night as I got up from the dinner table to head back to my room and watch TV, I was shocked that no one else was getting up. Even when the mosquitoes came out in full force, families stayed. Strangers began to become friends. It was awesome.
Today was my day off, and per usual on my day off, I woke up super early. There is something about not having to be anywhere on my day off that shoots my body out of bed. It wants to get started doing nothing. Ha! Awkwardly coming to breakfast in my casual clothes, I sat down next to an American family living in India. They were so interested in getting to know me, and if you know me at all, I love getting to know people and talking about my life and how God has brought me to certain seasons in it. I talked and I talked and I talked. The kids were asking me all sorts of questions and sharing about their life in India. I talked so much, I hadn't taken more than four bites of my breakfast by the time the staff started clearing tables. It was awesome.
Shortly after, everyone was gathering at the pool, and I decided to join. Kids were screaming and sliding down the water slide. Dads were competing in some type of water resistance training. Moms were gabbing. I was in the middle of it all. Literally, I was standing in the middle of the shallow end, holding someone's daughter, and talking to the moms while laughing at the dads proving themselves with each dive. We had water relays, complete with cheering each other by name and squealing and lots of water swallowed. There was conversations about the beginning of romances that turned into marriages that turned into overseas missions. About birth control and God's sense of humor. About maturity and prayer and listening to God's voice. Again, people were sharing their lives, rubbing souls together, and becoming more than acquaintances. It was a pool party, and it was awesome.
My afternoon was spent with the usual bakery, book, and buying peanut butter. On the way home, as soon as I got out of the city, traffic got terrible. Usually on the main road from JT to the city, there will be very little traffic hiccups. Your occasional semi turning off the road that backs things up for half a minute or so, given that the road is one lane each way, but other than that, it flows quickly. Everyone usually passes the slow moving food carts and cars. But this was different, and I knew it after about a minute of idling. People coming the opposite direction were covering their mouths and looking back in the direction they had come. Something was wrong. I had seen an ambulance right when I was leaving the city, headed in, and now I knew why. I crept past the scene. All I saw was a police car parked in the middle of the road, a skinny woman in regular clothes directing traffic, by-standers staring, and a cop with a household broom sweeping red water into a ditch off the road. The entire road was covered in watered-down blood. My heart skipped a beat as I was waved through by this citizen-turned-police woman. I was playing Justin Bieber in the car as I left the city, and now somehow listening to a pubescent boy wail about his relationship conquests just didn't seem appropriate anymore. I turned on Needtobreathe's "Slumber" and kept rolling the scene over in my mind. Was that person gonna make it? Who was it? Were they known by other humans?
To be faced with the beauty of relationships beginning and the horror of sudden tragedy in the span of a few hours brought me to God with a lot of chatter. He said, "You're known." He knows me, oh so intimately. He knows that person in the wreck on the road. He knows the children I held in the pool. He knows the moms and dads serving Him in far away lands. He knows you, like really knows you. I gotta keep talking to him. I gotta know him more. He is awesome.
While getting to meet so many humans over the past three months, yet really knowing no one, a great desire to be known once more has been planted in my soul. Twenty-six guests arrived at JT yesterday, some were neighbors and already knew each other and some were strangers. Last night as I got up from the dinner table to head back to my room and watch TV, I was shocked that no one else was getting up. Even when the mosquitoes came out in full force, families stayed. Strangers began to become friends. It was awesome.
Today was my day off, and per usual on my day off, I woke up super early. There is something about not having to be anywhere on my day off that shoots my body out of bed. It wants to get started doing nothing. Ha! Awkwardly coming to breakfast in my casual clothes, I sat down next to an American family living in India. They were so interested in getting to know me, and if you know me at all, I love getting to know people and talking about my life and how God has brought me to certain seasons in it. I talked and I talked and I talked. The kids were asking me all sorts of questions and sharing about their life in India. I talked so much, I hadn't taken more than four bites of my breakfast by the time the staff started clearing tables. It was awesome.
Shortly after, everyone was gathering at the pool, and I decided to join. Kids were screaming and sliding down the water slide. Dads were competing in some type of water resistance training. Moms were gabbing. I was in the middle of it all. Literally, I was standing in the middle of the shallow end, holding someone's daughter, and talking to the moms while laughing at the dads proving themselves with each dive. We had water relays, complete with cheering each other by name and squealing and lots of water swallowed. There was conversations about the beginning of romances that turned into marriages that turned into overseas missions. About birth control and God's sense of humor. About maturity and prayer and listening to God's voice. Again, people were sharing their lives, rubbing souls together, and becoming more than acquaintances. It was a pool party, and it was awesome.
My afternoon was spent with the usual bakery, book, and buying peanut butter. On the way home, as soon as I got out of the city, traffic got terrible. Usually on the main road from JT to the city, there will be very little traffic hiccups. Your occasional semi turning off the road that backs things up for half a minute or so, given that the road is one lane each way, but other than that, it flows quickly. Everyone usually passes the slow moving food carts and cars. But this was different, and I knew it after about a minute of idling. People coming the opposite direction were covering their mouths and looking back in the direction they had come. Something was wrong. I had seen an ambulance right when I was leaving the city, headed in, and now I knew why. I crept past the scene. All I saw was a police car parked in the middle of the road, a skinny woman in regular clothes directing traffic, by-standers staring, and a cop with a household broom sweeping red water into a ditch off the road. The entire road was covered in watered-down blood. My heart skipped a beat as I was waved through by this citizen-turned-police woman. I was playing Justin Bieber in the car as I left the city, and now somehow listening to a pubescent boy wail about his relationship conquests just didn't seem appropriate anymore. I turned on Needtobreathe's "Slumber" and kept rolling the scene over in my mind. Was that person gonna make it? Who was it? Were they known by other humans?
To be faced with the beauty of relationships beginning and the horror of sudden tragedy in the span of a few hours brought me to God with a lot of chatter. He said, "You're known." He knows me, oh so intimately. He knows that person in the wreck on the road. He knows the children I held in the pool. He knows the moms and dads serving Him in far away lands. He knows you, like really knows you. I gotta keep talking to him. I gotta know him more. He is awesome.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Friends & Future
Chan Puan Sawadee Ka! (Hello My Friends!)
It's been a busy month here at JT! We have had massive ebbs and flows in guests, and I got to travel to Cambodia to see my best friend. In the words of my favorite band, "The days turn into to months the months into years, so just for a moment, let's be still." Being here is a constant flux between running and stillness. One week the place will be full of life, babies wailing and their little feet pattering all over the grounds, transports coming and going, loading and unloading. Even when my body is still, my mind is always churning, thinking about the next arriving guests or scheduling some getaway for a family. Always thinking about my next steps in life and who I will spend my time with. "Let's be still."
I am beginning to understand how quickly life flies by when you have put a time limit on its seasons. I committed to six months at the JT, and it's half over. I literally cannot believe it. I also can't imagine leaving in three months. So, in the next week, I will be having conversations with our resident director about my future here. If you think about it, pray for my heart and emotions in this decision. I'm not really worried about it at all, but it can't hurt to pray for the right commitment. I'm not sure if they will need a hard date for my leaving or if I can just jet off whenever, either way, pray!
Like I mentioned earlier, I got to see my best friend from university this past week in her residence in Cambodia. All I could do to describe the trip upon return was to say, "It was good for my soul." It was truly a soul trip. Everything about it was water to my soul. Thanks, God!
The next four months here are crazy! We have five conferences here in November, and December until February are completely booked! I am taking these next few days to breathe and prepare myself for the excitement and busyness of this next season.
"Let's Be Still."
Friday, September 27, 2013
You Weigh HOW Much?!??
Another cultural extravaganza unfolded this morning and, boy, was it a doozy!
Last night, while searching the kitchen for extra towels to clean up a water spill in one of the conference rooms, I stumbled across a scale--not for vegetables, but for humans. I made the mistake(?!) of stepping on it, after having not weighed myself since arriving in Thailand. It read out in kilograms, and having no idea how to convert to pounds, I locked the kitchen and headed to the office to finish working. Sitting down at my computer, I googled "xx kg to lbs." Y'ALL. I got the biggest "OMG Summer Face" possible and immediately squealed to my coworker Mark, who was in the office, "MARK!!!!! I have gained sooo much weight in this country!!!!" Mark laughed hysterically and continued to tell me that, in fact, the scale is usually 5 KG off--lighter, not heavier. I told him that it was not physically possible that I gained THAT much weight in two months. He gave me a snarky grin and I immediately put my head in my hands and squealed again. I decided that it wasn't a mistake. I needed to know at some point, that yes, Summer, eating a double serving of dessert every night, sitting in an office all day, and plowing through Nutella, will indeed put some L-B-S on the Y-O-U. Awesome.
Now, before you start going through my Facebook pictures to compare the Summer from two months ago to the Summer now or think "What a ethnocentric post!" or think I'm looking for a sympathic "Summer, you're gorgeous" comment below this link, I am coming to a point and it is none of the above. I am an American girl in her 20s. I think about weight. However, being in Thailand, changes my thinking. Weight has different cultural capital over here. Not that Thai people don't care about image, that's far from the truth, but MY thinking about beauty and image in better/worse value judgments really diminishes when I'm over here. I tend to let my American walls of beauty and image and size and cultural pressure to wear xx size of pants crumble. I have touched a mascara tube twice since being in Thailand. That is beautiful. Now, I'm not trying to make generalizations, or place a right/wrong value on caring about image or not. At the end of the day, I believe that Adam and Eve ended up caring a lot about their nakedness and without combating this fear every morning I wake up with the Truth that God is ridiculously smitten by me, so will I.
This morning, I decided that the scale was obviously mistaken and it is better to weigh oneself in the morning anyways, so while the kitchen staff was busy serving 91 people for breakfast, I snuck in and jumped on the scale. While I was waiting for the numbers to settle, I felt one of the staff grab my arm and squeal "oooohooooooo XX KG!!!!!!!!!" to the entire kitchen. I was mortified and most likely a deep shade of red. One of the girls came over and grabbed my arm while I shouted at girl number one in Thai "Get over here and you weigh yourself!" (Gosh! I'm a terrible person.) She came over and being 5-foot nothing and tiny, she has no scruples about jumping on the scale. Then, girl number two jumped on and it began a game?!? A terrible, sick non-American game. Their attitudes went from surprised, playful, accepting (as in, that is what she is, not deeming it socially acceptable), and back to work in the matter of a minute. Why do I feel like my attitude will take a little more prayer and processing then theirs?
After this little ordeal, now that most of the staff heard the squealing, knows my weight, and thus, I am accountable come time for dessert, I must choose not to believe the lies that I am less ______ than I could/should be and choose the Truth. Jesus is infatuated with who He is and so am I. He is everything. So here's to a little more movement in my life, a little less Nutella (fo' real only a little less...that stuff is the bomb!), and lots of loving the women around me more than I did yesterday. Insecurity doesn't just stop when you reach a number on the scale. It stops when He says "You're ridiculously good looking. Insecurity, say what?!?" Or something to that end...
Last night, while searching the kitchen for extra towels to clean up a water spill in one of the conference rooms, I stumbled across a scale--not for vegetables, but for humans. I made the mistake(?!) of stepping on it, after having not weighed myself since arriving in Thailand. It read out in kilograms, and having no idea how to convert to pounds, I locked the kitchen and headed to the office to finish working. Sitting down at my computer, I googled "xx kg to lbs." Y'ALL. I got the biggest "OMG Summer Face" possible and immediately squealed to my coworker Mark, who was in the office, "MARK!!!!! I have gained sooo much weight in this country!!!!" Mark laughed hysterically and continued to tell me that, in fact, the scale is usually 5 KG off--lighter, not heavier. I told him that it was not physically possible that I gained THAT much weight in two months. He gave me a snarky grin and I immediately put my head in my hands and squealed again. I decided that it wasn't a mistake. I needed to know at some point, that yes, Summer, eating a double serving of dessert every night, sitting in an office all day, and plowing through Nutella, will indeed put some L-B-S on the Y-O-U. Awesome.
Now, before you start going through my Facebook pictures to compare the Summer from two months ago to the Summer now or think "What a ethnocentric post!" or think I'm looking for a sympathic "Summer, you're gorgeous" comment below this link, I am coming to a point and it is none of the above. I am an American girl in her 20s. I think about weight. However, being in Thailand, changes my thinking. Weight has different cultural capital over here. Not that Thai people don't care about image, that's far from the truth, but MY thinking about beauty and image in better/worse value judgments really diminishes when I'm over here. I tend to let my American walls of beauty and image and size and cultural pressure to wear xx size of pants crumble. I have touched a mascara tube twice since being in Thailand. That is beautiful. Now, I'm not trying to make generalizations, or place a right/wrong value on caring about image or not. At the end of the day, I believe that Adam and Eve ended up caring a lot about their nakedness and without combating this fear every morning I wake up with the Truth that God is ridiculously smitten by me, so will I.
This morning, I decided that the scale was obviously mistaken and it is better to weigh oneself in the morning anyways, so while the kitchen staff was busy serving 91 people for breakfast, I snuck in and jumped on the scale. While I was waiting for the numbers to settle, I felt one of the staff grab my arm and squeal "oooohooooooo XX KG!!!!!!!!!" to the entire kitchen. I was mortified and most likely a deep shade of red. One of the girls came over and grabbed my arm while I shouted at girl number one in Thai "Get over here and you weigh yourself!" (Gosh! I'm a terrible person.) She came over and being 5-foot nothing and tiny, she has no scruples about jumping on the scale. Then, girl number two jumped on and it began a game?!? A terrible, sick non-American game. Their attitudes went from surprised, playful, accepting (as in, that is what she is, not deeming it socially acceptable), and back to work in the matter of a minute. Why do I feel like my attitude will take a little more prayer and processing then theirs?
After this little ordeal, now that most of the staff heard the squealing, knows my weight, and thus, I am accountable come time for dessert, I must choose not to believe the lies that I am less ______ than I could/should be and choose the Truth. Jesus is infatuated with who He is and so am I. He is everything. So here's to a little more movement in my life, a little less Nutella (fo' real only a little less...that stuff is the bomb!), and lots of loving the women around me more than I did yesterday. Insecurity doesn't just stop when you reach a number on the scale. It stops when He says "You're ridiculously good looking. Insecurity, say what?!?" Or something to that end...
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Love Thy Neighbor
At the JT, you have lots of neighbors. Guest neighbors. Puppy neighbors. Food cart neighbors. Gecko neighbors. Mommy and baby neighbors.
My immediate neighbors are always changing, and I'm learning to embrace this change. Sitting on my balcony this afternoon reading "Praying in Color," I noticed my next door neighbor also reading on her balcony while her family watched TV. We didn't say anything to the other, but it was nice knowing that I had company. After being in the community industry for a while now (Resident Assistant, Ice Cream Server, Hostel Volunteer), it is quite noticeable when there is no community. September has been a pretty slow month for the JT, but things are picking up once again, and I am getting new neighbors, new community. My joy is increasing.
One neighbor in particular has increased my joy tremendously. When she first arrived here, I was overwhelmed by her personality. She comes from a culture I am not familiar with and a story unlike my own. She is a community junkie. Since my neighborhood had been pretty lean on community lately, I really had a slow time adjusting to this push for community. I prayed for my heart to be opened to her and for God's love to be manifested in our time together. Since then, I have heard how she met her husband, what dishes her daughter likes to cook, the compliments her dad gives her, how God healed her of breast cancer, and how she converted to Christianity from Hinduism. She also is "a strong daughter of the living God," as she would say. "Praise God," "my sister," and "my God is alive!" are some of the phrases constantly surrounding this woman. She believes in Jesus Christ and is not afraid to let people know. While on "vacation" here, she has witnessed to a local massage hut owner and connected her with a Thai church. I repeat, she does not live here and is on "vacation." She is a force to be reckoned with, one that makes me ask myself "What the heck kind of faith do I have?!" She leaves tomorrow, and I am genuinely going to miss her smile around my neighborhood.
Thanks be to God for showing himself to us through the differences in others. Thanks be to God for the community he puts around us at any given time, constantly changing, inviting us to join in.
[Y'all. I posted this the first time and as I hit publish, the lady came into the office saying the massage worker she witnessed to accepted Christ. She has been invited to share Jesus at a dinner full of Thai people tonight on our beach. I am going with. WHAT?!??]
My immediate neighbors are always changing, and I'm learning to embrace this change. Sitting on my balcony this afternoon reading "Praying in Color," I noticed my next door neighbor also reading on her balcony while her family watched TV. We didn't say anything to the other, but it was nice knowing that I had company. After being in the community industry for a while now (Resident Assistant, Ice Cream Server, Hostel Volunteer), it is quite noticeable when there is no community. September has been a pretty slow month for the JT, but things are picking up once again, and I am getting new neighbors, new community. My joy is increasing.
One neighbor in particular has increased my joy tremendously. When she first arrived here, I was overwhelmed by her personality. She comes from a culture I am not familiar with and a story unlike my own. She is a community junkie. Since my neighborhood had been pretty lean on community lately, I really had a slow time adjusting to this push for community. I prayed for my heart to be opened to her and for God's love to be manifested in our time together. Since then, I have heard how she met her husband, what dishes her daughter likes to cook, the compliments her dad gives her, how God healed her of breast cancer, and how she converted to Christianity from Hinduism. She also is "a strong daughter of the living God," as she would say. "Praise God," "my sister," and "my God is alive!" are some of the phrases constantly surrounding this woman. She believes in Jesus Christ and is not afraid to let people know. While on "vacation" here, she has witnessed to a local massage hut owner and connected her with a Thai church. I repeat, she does not live here and is on "vacation." She is a force to be reckoned with, one that makes me ask myself "What the heck kind of faith do I have?!" She leaves tomorrow, and I am genuinely going to miss her smile around my neighborhood.
Thanks be to God for showing himself to us through the differences in others. Thanks be to God for the community he puts around us at any given time, constantly changing, inviting us to join in.
[Y'all. I posted this the first time and as I hit publish, the lady came into the office saying the massage worker she witnessed to accepted Christ. She has been invited to share Jesus at a dinner full of Thai people tonight on our beach. I am going with. WHAT?!??]
Thursday, September 12, 2013
10 Thai Words You Should Know and Why
With all of these Thai lessons, I felt the need to share some of the goodness with y'all. Maybe if I know that other people are learning the language, it will motivate me a little more. Ha!
1. Bai! [pronounced: bye] (Go!)
This lesson was brought on by me waving my hands around in the air, shouting, and loudly running down our driveway to get our neighbor's dog off our property an hour ago. So thank the dog, and you're welcome for the linguistic knowledge you have gained and can impress that special someone with at your next mutual international function.
Sawadee Kaa! (also used for "goodbye")
1. Bai! [pronounced: bye] (Go!)
- Essential to scare away stray dogs off your property. Used best when powerfully shouting while clapping your hands in front of you and running wildly at the dog.
- Said to me by the Thai staff every time I dress up for church on Sunday. Said casually in passing. I like this culture.
- the juiciest of fruit that practically dissolves in my mouth, to which I get super excited when it is brought out at lunch and all the staff joke about there not being enough for me and I must go without. never. I am also told by our Indian/Bangla guests that theirs is much better. i'll need to investigate first-hand.
- the perfect partner to the above "mamwan suk" Seriously, I just about cry when they are separate. Can put a smile on my face just about anytime of day.
- To be used almost every time you visit a public beach in a tourist city as Thai vendors approach you every five seconds to by a T-shirt that reads "Starbuks" (yes, misspelled) or American flag pajama pants.
- Accompanied most often with the word "mai" (meaning no or not) when spoken by Westerners. It is crucial in ordering food in Thailand, especially being white.
- probably the word I hear most often while in Thailand, especially when travelling in non-tourist villages/cities. Not derogatory.
- I use this phrase the most on a daily basis. I am learning Thai, but Thai speakers still talk way too quickly for me to understand, so I use this little helper and they repeat what they said.
- The staff usually asks me if I like things 100 times a day: their country, their cooking, their dress, etc. and this is my answer most of the time! unless it's fried wasp larvae, then I reply "mai chop" with a disgusted face meaning "I don't like it!"
- MUST be said we the biggest smile ever and a slight bowing, really a nod, of the head. Girls, go ahead and add a "Kaa [pronounced: kah]" onto the end of this one to make it polite. Boys, tack on a "Khrap [pronounced: crop, with a slight tongue roll on the R]" Girls and boys, go ahead and tack these on to pretty much anything you say in Thai to make it come off super polite.
This lesson was brought on by me waving my hands around in the air, shouting, and loudly running down our driveway to get our neighbor's dog off our property an hour ago. So thank the dog, and you're welcome for the linguistic knowledge you have gained and can impress that special someone with at your next mutual international function.
Sawadee Kaa! (also used for "goodbye")
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Stuck on Hospitality
Yesterday I took the car into the city and had a full day of just walking around. I wound through the alleys and the streets and the side streets. I passed the street vendors waiting for customers, women chatting on street steps, foreigners with their huge backpacks and large maps unfolded in their faces, and the rows and rows of motorbikes lining the curbs. I felt home.
The beaches in Hua Hin during September are rather bare. Everyone is tucked away in their own resort pools or cabanas. So, when I tried to sneak into the Hilton to use their pool, I was convicted, mainly by the large stares I received by the employees. Before I even could reach for my sunscreen, I was high tailing it to the public beach, past the security guards and Hilton workers. For the first time, I felt really on the outside of the hospitality "inner circle." The circle seems smaller when you don't have access to it. It seems grander and overflowing with privilege and delight.
Then the funniest thing happened, I got really bitter at the Hilton. I was laying on a large rock in a cove under the side shadows of this large hotel monstrosity and I felt bitterness and disgust rise up in me. It was really strong and I can still taste it in my mouth. I found myself trying to prove why I was better than these people staying in this hotel who were not really tasting true Thai culture. I visited the international supermarket later the day and found disgust again at all the ex-pat families buying lunch meat and Goldfish in bulk. I glared at them, like they were in the wrong. The hilarity of the whole day was that I walked away with bread products, Nutella, jam, and peanut butter. I was hypocrisy in all its false glory.
So last night when I got back to the Juniper Tree I had a long thought about why I felt so disgusted with these people or this corporation that I thought stood for everything but cultural immersion. The anthropologist and the hotelier in me were waging war on each other and I was stuck. I was stuck on hospitality. I was stuck in my love for it. I couldn't think anything bad about it, even though my outrage flared as I laid in the shadows of the very large concrete "man." My failed past of working in a large hotel looming on the front of my brain with my guttural need to create a space for people to feel rest, delight in their surrounding culture, and feel the presence of the Lord courting them in all His intimacy and truth, trying to take its place. Even as I'm typing this, it's hard for me not to get emotional. I am ultimately confronting my pride. It's large and in charge when it comes to this topic. My calling is at stake. God has given me this dream to start a hospitality venue filled with good food (a bakery no doubt), lots of community movie watching, loud praise and worship nights, and truly personal accommodations. How can I do this if I'm judging other industries trying to give people rest, too? How can I hear God if I'm sinking in the sand of my past?
I haven't gotten really far in the thought process, but I have repented for trying to sneak into a space I was not given access to and then disliking those that make the rules. I think I'm most scared of admitting that something in this field is not giving me pleasure. I had a similar feeling when I wrote a paper debunking the "most magical place on Earth" in college. It was like drowning my pet or something.
This is probably really silly to read for most of you. There is just so much of my heart tied up in this encounter: my failure, my pride, my passion, my fear. And it's just sitting in front of me. And God is whispering "Give it to me, darling." So I will.
The beaches in Hua Hin during September are rather bare. Everyone is tucked away in their own resort pools or cabanas. So, when I tried to sneak into the Hilton to use their pool, I was convicted, mainly by the large stares I received by the employees. Before I even could reach for my sunscreen, I was high tailing it to the public beach, past the security guards and Hilton workers. For the first time, I felt really on the outside of the hospitality "inner circle." The circle seems smaller when you don't have access to it. It seems grander and overflowing with privilege and delight.
Then the funniest thing happened, I got really bitter at the Hilton. I was laying on a large rock in a cove under the side shadows of this large hotel monstrosity and I felt bitterness and disgust rise up in me. It was really strong and I can still taste it in my mouth. I found myself trying to prove why I was better than these people staying in this hotel who were not really tasting true Thai culture. I visited the international supermarket later the day and found disgust again at all the ex-pat families buying lunch meat and Goldfish in bulk. I glared at them, like they were in the wrong. The hilarity of the whole day was that I walked away with bread products, Nutella, jam, and peanut butter. I was hypocrisy in all its false glory.
So last night when I got back to the Juniper Tree I had a long thought about why I felt so disgusted with these people or this corporation that I thought stood for everything but cultural immersion. The anthropologist and the hotelier in me were waging war on each other and I was stuck. I was stuck on hospitality. I was stuck in my love for it. I couldn't think anything bad about it, even though my outrage flared as I laid in the shadows of the very large concrete "man." My failed past of working in a large hotel looming on the front of my brain with my guttural need to create a space for people to feel rest, delight in their surrounding culture, and feel the presence of the Lord courting them in all His intimacy and truth, trying to take its place. Even as I'm typing this, it's hard for me not to get emotional. I am ultimately confronting my pride. It's large and in charge when it comes to this topic. My calling is at stake. God has given me this dream to start a hospitality venue filled with good food (a bakery no doubt), lots of community movie watching, loud praise and worship nights, and truly personal accommodations. How can I do this if I'm judging other industries trying to give people rest, too? How can I hear God if I'm sinking in the sand of my past?
I haven't gotten really far in the thought process, but I have repented for trying to sneak into a space I was not given access to and then disliking those that make the rules. I think I'm most scared of admitting that something in this field is not giving me pleasure. I had a similar feeling when I wrote a paper debunking the "most magical place on Earth" in college. It was like drowning my pet or something.
This is probably really silly to read for most of you. There is just so much of my heart tied up in this encounter: my failure, my pride, my passion, my fear. And it's just sitting in front of me. And God is whispering "Give it to me, darling." So I will.
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