Category: Thailand
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A Child of the Northeast
I just finished a novel set right in the province of Ubon. It was written by Kampoon Boontawee, a native of the Isaan region of Thailand. The book won some awards back in 1976 when it was written. I read a translation by Susan Fulop Kepner with a copywrite date of 1994. The novel takes…
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How to Learn English
Today I sat in on a lesson on learning English delivered primarily in Thai. I sat there both to practice listening to Thai and to get some ideas for language learning. Both goals were achieved. In the midst of it the speaker unintentionally reminded me of how meaningless life is without the life of Christ.…
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Time
Time in Thailand is different than time in the U.S. Saturday night I had worship practice “around 5:00.” Apparently, “around 5:00” roughly translates to 7:13. The pace of the practice also reflected a difference in temporal attitude. We didn’t leave until 9:40. We then met again the next morning “at 7:00” (people other than myself showed…
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Motorcycles and Aerobic Dance
Last night Pi Silk took me to a Thai fair. There, for 75 cents I watched a seventeen year old ride a motorcycle around the vertical walls of a cylindrical tank. As he was riding around (necessarily quite fast), he swung his one leg over the bike, so that he was sitting side saddle. He…
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Three Guitars on the Roof
Yesterday was a good day. The week had been admittedly a little rough. The sudden addition of 60 people to the building made sleep a little difficult for the first two nights. Additionally I was having a hard time feeling like I belonged. There were lots of groups of people, but none of them seemed…