Missive 2 – 2018

All those evocative old terms like “putting pen to paper”, “resorting again to pen and ink” and “scratching out some feeble lines” are gone forever, but whatever it’s called in modern parlance, I’m doing it again! We’ve been a good week back from Khon Kaen after a sad departure from Whun who shared with us a couple of plans for coming to see her again, and our dear Captain with whom we were getting along famously. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to get back there but will spend some face to face time with her on the phone. The meals here have been a bit of a challenge this time. There is a high vegetable content, but rarely potato, usually “exotic”, often bland (helped by chilli) and sometimes what we might regard as weeds. Meat is usually minimal, even though a pig was killed last week. We have fish soup fairly often and it seems as though Thai fish (last week it was catfish and snake-head fish) are blessed with an incredible number of bones. There is always plenty of rice. Consequently, we sometimes go into Lomsak (25kms) to satisfy our craving for a steak, pork chop or cordon bleu chicken. In fact, we went in three nights in a row last week when we missed dinner because we were engaged in something else at that hour. The food here is sometimes less than we would hope for because most months there is a shortage of funds coming from sponsorship money. This means that by the end of the month paying for wages, electricity and supplies is a struggle. This time we were able to bring a good sum from the Glenunga Church and other donors of about $3700 that was not targeted at other projects. Pawinee was very excited to see it and this will take some of the pressure off next month’s finances. We did however have the most wonderful Thai meal at Mum Whun’s Grandma’s house in a nearby village. We go there every time we are here and the visit is highly anticipated. The arrangements were made before we came and when it looked like we may have to postpone it for a couple of weeks Whun said, “Oh no, we can’t do that, they have already caught the chicken!” Why came with us and she and Colleen sat and cut a variety of ingredients into thin strips and made cold rolls, while the chicken, a bit beyond just being “caught” by the time we got there, was portioned with a meat cleaver. A couple of baked fish turned up, beautiful sauces were made, some hot and one mild, and the inevitable sticky rice was on the table. It was a feast and in great company. We feel privileged to be regarded as friends by Mum Whun’s Grandma, her Mum and Dad and a variety of aunties who are always there, even though we can’t communicate except through Whun, and this time, Why. Colleen took Whun’s Mum a bunch of flowers and she was delighted with them and wanted them included them in the photos. She always takes a couple of boxes of soft cakes for Grandma and they are also gratefully received. Mum Whun has changed roles here and is not one of the Mums any more, but rather the farm manager, a task she has taken to with great zest. She has schooled herself in aquaculture, has dug some more aerated dams and has thousands of fish (telapea) in various stages of development, harvesting on a 4-month cycle. She has a variety of vegetables under cultivation, a growing herd(?) of ducks and geese, and several rai (sixth of a hectare) under bananas, pawpaw and guava. A small herd of cows and a piggery round out the farm. Most of this has been there for years, but Whun has managed the team of workers well and instilled a sense of pride in their endeavours. And the farm looks an absolute picture. We are very proud of our friend. Sunday saw me in the pulpit again (well, at the front of the dining room really) and this week my voice was in good shape. The theme was “What have you got to give to Jesus?”, another of Pawinee’s suggestions. I usually do something visual and this time I took a smooth stone, borrowed some stuff from the kitchen and told them the story of making stone soup. No doubt you have heard the story – if not, remind me, it’s a good tale for the telling. Elisha and the widow with the oil is a more Biblical perspective. On Saturday we had a power blackout (planned) for half the day. Being South Australian we felt very much at home! To escape the lack of air-conditioning we decided to go to Khao Kho (one of those words means “mountain”) so we arranged for Moi and Why to come with us. Mum Whun got wind of the adventure and wanted to come so the 5 of us set off. We had a lovely lunch at a themed Coffee House and Restaurant called “Route 12” – lots of pictures of American film-stars, cars etc, reminiscent of Route 66. On the way back, half-way down the mountainside, we called in to a market we frequent often to buy a few things made by the Hmong or Hill-tribe people. Those of you who know the shoulder bag I often carry will have seen their craft. It was a lovely day of interacting more closely with Moi and trying to give her some confidence with English. A couple of days ago a highlight of Colleen’s time here was spending time in Why’s classroom. The classroom is set up beautifully, a legacy of Trish, an Australian teacher who has taught here for a few years, but a wonderful precedent for Why. The kids can be quite difficult to manage because they tend to be unruly, but Why has some good practices in place. Her teaching puts a high value on participation and she is a natural in front of the class. Colleen was able to give some advice about use of her voice and a few other things and came away very proud of her. Colleen rounded out the day by working with Jean Dunk’s sister-in-law, Helen, tidying up a basket of wool and then when Moi’s house came home from school spent time with them helping them with their crochet. Colleen has introduced Moi to a beautiful coloured dictionary and time spent with her has seen fruits of better English as well as the warmth of relationship – she is such a sweet girl (both of them!). Only 6 days left. Today I completed the information for the 6-monthly report that needs to go to Global Development Group which arranges for tax deductibility for us with the Australian Government. In the next few days I hope to complete a discussion paper on an issue that requires attention by the Mercy International Board. And that’s about it. A month here seemed a long time when we started but now it seems hardly enough. Again we’ve been invited to stay a couple of years, this time to run our English school in Sisaket (near the Cambodian border), but we don’t see that in our future unless God makes it clear he thinks otherwise. As Wol wrote on a sign for Pooh and Piglet – BACSON! God bless Ron (and Colleen)

A prize for guessing what the table is made of

Mum Whun at the fish farm

With Whun’s Mum and Dad

Cold Rolls in production

Missive 1 - 2018

Missive 1 – 2018 Life has been a little bit in the slow lane but there is plenty to report. Travel over was a pleasant and relaxed time with help from John Grisham and my collection of crosswords glued into a book (much derided in the family!!). Our transfer at Changi Airport was smooth although we didn’t have much time. We were in the same terminal so a brisk walk to another gate had us there in plenty of time. And the exit at Suvarabhumi Airport (BKK) was expedited by that wonderful travellers’ aid and key to many doors – Colleen’s walking stick! We were extracted from the long queue at immigration and sent to another booth with signs and icons clearly indicating the sick, blind, lame and elderly. Just about expected a ministering Jesus to be standing there! We enjoyed a good night at the Amari Watergate (upgraded again because they had no non-smoking rooms left in our payment category, but not however to the penthouse suite). We lingered over a sumptuous breakfast and then waited outside for a taxi to take us to the Morchit bus station. The first taxi pulled up under the hotel’s spectacular portico, but shook his head and drove off. This has nothing to do with not wanting to transport ferengues (foreigners) but rather, the fare would only come to about 100baht ($4) for the 20 - 30minute ride. We did get the second taxi though. We thanked him and offered a good tip. He was quite chatty and the conversation went something like this. “Where you go?” “Lomsak” “Ooh, I know Lomsak. How far?” “Oh, about 500km” “Ooh, I take you. Only 5000baht” (5000baht ($200) is actually not too bad for a 5hour taxi ride. And remember, Harry says “Spend it!” Sorry, in-joke about our financial advisor!) “Noo, thank you. We will go by bus.” “Ooh, I take you, 4500baht.” “No, no. We will go by bus.” Add little white lie. “We are meeting somebody on the bus.” Taxi driver, not believing this for a minute, and nearing the bus station makes one last effort. “4000baht!” About $160, and a very good deal really. And Harry wouldn’t have minded! “No thank you. We want to go by bus and we will give you good tip.” So, we unload our luggage, and with a bit over 100baht on the meter I tell him I’ll give him 300baht and hand over 500baht. “Ooh, I don’t have any change.” No doubt his little white lie to match our own! “Ok. You can have the 500.” So we went in and bought 2 bus tickets for a 6 hour double-decker, air-conditioned bus trip for only $580baht (under $24). Again we enjoyed the journey, this time with Michael Robotham (not the friend we were going to meet at the bus station!) and the much maligned crossword collection. We arrived at the Lomsak bus station at 6pm to the warm and excited welcome of Mum Whun and Cheewar (you will remember we were praying for her when she contracted lupus and lost a couple of gangrenous toes). We went to Tescos to grab a meal and get in some essential supplies, like Coke Zero, and then travelled the 25kms out to Ban Meata. It was mid-evening but we were able to see Moi (our new sponsored girl) before repairing to our room, our second home, for a good night’s sleep. The next day was one of welcomes and many hugs from our “other family”. We spent more time with Moi who has for a couple of years now enjoyed a stable existence after being dragged backwards and forwards over the Laos border as Mum sought work (and probably another husband) so Moi came to us with no, or at best sporadic, schooling. Although she will be 12 next Monday she is in Year 4 (Yr 5 in May), but what is remarkable is that she is top of her class in everything. Her English is not good (we have been spoiled by Whun and Why) so we want to spend some time with her on that. What we have discovered is that she understands quite a lot of what we say but is very shy and not confident in speaking. Why was soon on our doorstep in a high state of excitement about our arrival. She works at the school teaching English to Year 1 and 2 classes (over 35 kids in each class) and Maths to a Year 3 class. You would have to say her university major is being somewhat underutilised! She is finding noise and behaviour control quite a challenge but is getting on top of it – nobody messes with Why for very long. In the new academic year (May) she will go to Khon Kaen to complete her education degree. This will entail, for the next 2 years, getting on the bus every Friday night, travelling for 4 hours, studying over the weekend, and then catching the bus back on Sunday night ready to teach on Monday morning. Pray for her!! She is using some smart and up-to-date teaching methodologies at the moment. Pray that her formal qualifications will not knock that out of her – a common occurrence in Thailand. Early in the piece we sat down with Pawinee, and she asked me to preach on 3 of the 4 Sundays that we are here. She also gave me a topic – several of the staff have been experiencing the presence of Satan and evil spirits in buildings and their lives. She wanted me to speak about spiritual warfare, about invoking the power of Jesus of Satan. I’d been praying for weeks about what I would preach about – and here it was! Over the next couple of days I spent time preparing, and wouldn’t you know it, the Enemy knows when he is going to be called out, and I came down with a chest infection and by Saturday night I had no voice. I called in lots of prayer support and by Sunday morning I had a voice but with all the high notes missing. By the time the service started it was getting better and not too bad when I began to preach, and the further I went the stronger my voice became. I had a few examples of Jesus demonstrating his sovereign power of Satan – that was one of them! So, what of Whun and Aun and Captain? They now live in Khon Kaen where Whun is a cook, child carer and cleaner, and Aun is the groundsman of the Ban Meata Children’s Village. Aun has recently got his licence and added to his duties is bus driving in a songtauer – a ute with a canopy and seats – and he takes the kids to a variety of schools and kindergartens where they are enrolled. We set out last Monday for the three-hour journey to KK in the SUV of friends here who are back in Australia for a couple of years. The trip was a slow one through the mountains but quicker on the other side. Too quick in fact. The speed limit for cars on Thai roads is sign-posted at 90kph. Advice over the last 14 years has been that you shouldn’t go over 110, and many BM volunteers, and Thais, have been caught doing that. Well, I was caught doing 103, as were so many people that there was a queue at the booking desk. It cost me 500baht. The police were unusually amiable and were quite chatty as they took my contribution to the Thai GNP. Things were not so light-hearted back in the car – Colleen had noticed the radar and said I was going too fast. There is no wriggle room in answering the question, “Was I right, or was I right?” And it was her birthday that day. Whun was so glad to see us and Captain was not as overwhelmed as he was the last time we visited. We didn’t arrive till after 7pm and Whun had prepared a special meal in the kitchen for Colleen’s birthday. She had a roast with all the trimmings, including gravy. We inadvertently spoiled another surprise she had prepared. KK has seen its older teenage boys move on to work and training facilities, so the upstairs of the 2-storey building has been turned into a visitors’ centre. There are 2 flights of external stairs to get up there and when we heard that this accommodation was planned for us, Colleen was concerned that her knee would not be able to manage the stairs, particularly the coming down part. Angela, the ferengue manager at KK, kindly gave us her room and she went up there. Whun had spent the day beautifully decorating the room around the words “Happy Birthday Mum”. She so much wanted Colleen to be surprised that she cried her disappointment into her shoulder. Colleen said she would go up in the morning and all was redeemed. We are so proud of Whun and Aun. They were sent to work at KK (for several good reasons) and sadly this coincided with Why completing her studies and moving back to Phetchabun. The long-awaited reunion of the sisters was thwarted! Whun has settled to her work wonderfully. When she was first rostered on as the cook she said she stood in middle of the kitchen, turned around several times and thought to herself, “I don’t know where anything is, and I don’t know what to do. Help me God!” She now cooks like a veteran for the 25 or so at Ban Meata. Her skills as a Mum continue to amaze us and she transfers that to the caring role with the youngsters, aged from 1 to 5. Whun has been weaning Captain and was talked into leaving Captain for a week with her mother-in-law who has dearly wanted to take him over until he starts school (common in Thailand). She packed milk formula, toothbrush etc, and left strict instructions for his care. He was fed fried rice and canned sweetened milk, and the milk formula was untouched as was the tooth brush. Grandma believes that he is not fat enough, so it seems she was doing something to remedy that, and for a while would not speak to Whun when he came back. Whun was livid and it might be a while before she gets another chance! Captain, not as emaciated as his grandma thinks, is a happy, active, inquisitive and smart little bloke. We have had some good times with him, sharing his books and teaching him some English words. He can recite the numbers one to ten with Whun and enjoys the songs that she sings with him (eg, “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”). Colleen has been passing on to Whun some sage advice about parenting, weaning, discipline and many other things, and Whun is very happy to put these into practice – in many cases she is doing it already. Aun has taken well to his job of groundsman/handyman. He has been encouraged to show initiative and the other day needed to trim a group of trees, shaped conically but getting a bit too high. His idea for a trim was somewhat akin to changing a mullet into a number two. This major truncation earned a quick lesson in mixing wisdom with initiative and he has yet to face Pawinee! As I write we are nearing the end of our few days at KK. Tonight we will take Whun, Aun and Captain out for dinner to Central Plaza, a huge multi-storey shopping mall. This afternoon Whun is at the local hospital taking a shift to look after Ben, an 11month old baby who seems to have a chest infection and is struggling to breathe. Colleen went with one of the carers to the doctor the other day and the poor little chap was said to have “allergic asthma”. He has had a tough start to life with his mother, HIV+, dying not long after he was born. The first thing the doctor asked was his HIV status because if he was positive it would be pneumonia and life threatening. He has been tested and so far is clear of HIV, but he has been put into hospital for regular time on a nebuliser. Anyone going to hospital has to have someone go with them to look after them – not the nurses job in Thailand! This missive has reached mammoth proportions and will probably need to be read in instalments. Shorter next time perhaps. God bless Ron Whun's big surprise Captain and Grandpa in the sandpit at KK Colleen and Moi at the Feb birthday celebration at Family Night