Happy New Year!

Happy 2015 from Chiang Mai!  Last night hundreds, probably thousands of lanterns filled the sky and firework explosions filled the air as everyone welcomed in the new year. We wish you a fabulous new year and are excited to see what 2015 has in store for us!

Rajapruek, The Royal Park

There is a royal garden located within a couple of miles from our house that we had the chance to explore over the weekend.  The garden was constructed in 2006 to honor the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej (ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช).  It opened in honor of his 80th birthday and 60th anniversary of ascension as king.  The king has been very instrumental in improving life for the people of Thailand through agriculture, so this is a fitting way to honor his work. In the middle of the park is a commemorative temple/museum for the king. The upstairs has artistic depictions of his travels through each region of Thailand working with the people. The basement level is a museum of his life, which shows him as a true renaissance man, composing jazz music, building and racing a sailboat, translating books into Thai, painting a variety of styles of artwork, etc...

The park did not have many visitors, so we had huge sections of the park all to ourselves. We must have walked a few miles all in all, because we kept discovering new sections of the park that we just had to check out... These ivy clad music men were worth a moment of reflection. 

There was a pond with giant lilies that were pretty incredible!

We weren't quite sure what to make of these statue groupings in a couple of different places along a lakewere just lifelike enough to be slightly disconcerting, and intriguing at the same time.

One of our favorite parts was the bonsai section. These trees look a little bigger than they actually were, but there were a lot of different shapes and types of bonsai!

It may not feel much like the Christmas that we are used to, but there sure were a lot of poinsettias... So with that, Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Candlelight Carols... A Live Nativity

I clearly remember being a part of several live nativities growing up in Alaska in which we bundled up in all of our winter gear, and then wrapped a king sized bed sheet over top of everything to appear as a frosty angel or shivering shepherd.  This year we had a slightly different experience participating in Candlelight Carols with a local church in Thailand.  Their intended Joseph bowed out of the role when he realized how many lines he was going to have to say, and somehow Mike ended up taking over the role.  He says he was "voluntold" and that may be true, but it was a fun experience regardless. 

This nativity was played out by candlelight under a huge raintree at a local golf course. Here's a glimpse of the tree in daylight. You can imagine how magical it looked at night with candles just shining here and there to illuminate the branches. The tree is about 150 years old, which is definitely old, but makes me feel bad for those Alaskan black spruce who have persevered in growing for the same length of time, and just don't get the same sense of respect and magnificence from their life's growth. 

The bonus of the play was getting to hang out with a super cute "baby Jesus" before and during the play. 

My job was to make sure to make sure he was well fed and happy before he was smuggled into the manger where his key role was to live up to the song lyrics "no crying he makes..." He did a great job! Both Jesus and Joseph, that is...

One thing that's hard to do is to take pictures at a very dimly lit event, so you'll just have to imagine the ambiance as the nativity story was played out with many young children having the thrill of twirling through the lawn as singing angels and adoring shepherds. After awhile there were many young children on the move with lit candles, so it was a small miracle that no fires were lit. "Joseph" did witness a wise man help to stamp out one out of control candle held by a young shepherd before it burst the tinder dry stable into flames.

All in all, it was a delightful event, and "Joseph" is already missing his 1st century attire. 

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

We had the opportunity to visit the Doi Suthep Buddhist temple this past week near Chiang Mai. The Doi Suthep mountain sits on the edge of the city, with the temple being at the peak, about 4,500 feet above the city. If the air is clear, you can look up from most places in the city and see the temple glittering in the distance. Being up there affords great views of the city on a clear day. 

        

       

The temple was originally built somewhere around 1383. Legend has it that there was a monk who came to possess a shoulder bone of Buddha. Long story short, the relic was gifted to a king. The bone split a part and a piece was put on the back of a white elephant who was released into the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed this mountain, trumpeted three times and then died. A temple was then ordered to be constructed. 

To get to the temple, first you drive up the steep, switchbacking road to a small village near the top. You then have to climb 309 stairs to reach the actual temple. 

                                  

The temple itself is comprised of many different buildings, shrines, and courts. Everyone must take off their shoes to enter. 

                                   

People were everywhere, buying flowers, incense, and candles to put in the shrines. The center of the temple had a square where people would walk around and around, holding flower offerings and reading prayers. There was one monk who would chant over children and tie a bracelet on their wrist. 

       

       

        

       

This is a Buddhist temple, but there are many Hindu influences, with Hindu gods and idols being intermingled. Gold, intricate carving, and bright colors were everywhere. 

        

                                           

                                            

                                           

                                            

The afternoon excursion offered many things to observe, ponder, and consider as a westerner. Our lives have been shaped so differently from the children who grow up here, where it would be routine to buy flowers as offerings for the shrine, or be taken to receive an amulet from the monk on a Saturday afternoon. 

In contrast, we are preparing for a Christmas celebration tonight in which Mike will be taking on the role of Joseph in Candelight Carols. It will be an outdoor, candlelit live nativity, acted out under one large tree that holds about the same amount of wood in one tree that would make an entire forrest of black spruce in Alaska. We will tell about that experience in the next post...

Wheels!

Simple things like buying food or getting to work become a challenge when you are living in a place where you have limited ability to communicate or transport yourself from one place to another.  We are working to increase our Thai vocabulary, but language acquisition will only be so great in the span of 10 weeks. So since we can't effectively communicate, we decided to work on mobility!  Chiang Mai is big enough that walking everywhere is not possible, and we aren't here long enough to really make having a car and learning to drive safely a worthwhile solution. That leaves three more options- motorbike, bicycle, or public transport. A motorbike would be fun, but we were strongly discouraged on this option due to safety concerns with not knowing the area, and the fact that traffic rules are more guidelines to be followed, and motorbikes kind of do their own thing. Public transport plays a key role in our transportation, but that deserves its own post. In the end, we have opted for bicycles to be a mode of transport and exercise.  Mike went to the bike shop, and purchased two brand new bikes, more than we have ever done fore ourselves in Fairbanks. :) 

Mike's is a mountain bike, and mine is mountainesque, plus a basket on front for hauling things. I also have a space on mine to add a seat in case anyone would like to come over here and ride double with me.  So far I have been biking to women's houses to do nursing home visits. It's not quite Call The Midwife, but maybe at least on the spectrum of excitement....

Our first real biking adventure was late last week. We set off on a ride to the Chiang Mai Night Safari and Royal Gardens. But as we kept following the road, it became more of an alley, then a dirt track, and finally a small path. Not to be daunted by the road less traveled and a little elevation, we carried on. We figured we were now behind the night safari based on the large fence to our left, and kept looking for a glimpse of a tiger or elephant, but all we saw were deer.  Now we were really back in the hills, only seeing the occasional hut, pond, and lots of bamboo. What started out as fun became hot, but at that point it seemed like maybe it would be shorter to keep going forward instead of turning back.  We wound higher and higher, until we were actually overlooking some sort of temple.  Higher still we came upon some white huts that looked potentially religious and then some sort of watchtower. A woman sort of emerged from the woods and we tried to figure out if we were allowed to climb. Not getting a clear signal of no, we headed up for a quick look around, and then decided to get out of the area before we were potentially kicked out of the area. 

Descending the hill, we came to an open gate and paved road. We debated if it was okay to enter the gate, and finally decided it was a good idea. We made it about two yards through the gate before we noticed the guard who made it clear that it was not a good idea to bike through, and we quickly did an about face and continued down our dirt track. Thankfully we were gifted with pavement just around the corner and successfully made it all around the park! On the way back, we happened by the Chiang Mai Apiary. They raise bees somewhat differently here, but we don't know the details, as it was all in Thai. The man there didn't really speak English, but we showed him a few pictures of our bees on my phone and purchased some honey. All in all, it was a successful bike ride, and hopefully the first of many adventures!

It's Christmas Time in Thailand!

There are many, many things to share with you all, but to keep from being overwhelming, I'll stick to one topic per post.  Today, the topic that rises to the top of the list is the Christmas season! With no snow, and as an introduced holiday to Thailand, there is no limit to the ways you can celebrate the holiday!  I have been part of two Christmas parties so far, and it sounds like that will just be the beginning...
On Monday, Mike and I went with the staff of Cornerstone to help sponsor a Christmas party at a local hospital that runs a program for children with autism.  That definition seemed to be pretty broad, and there were children of a variety of ages.  Some enjoyed the program more than others due to the stimulation and loud sound system, but everyone enjoyed the gifts.  One of the Cornerstone directors has a husband that makes a great santa, so he braved the heat, wore the suit, and was a big hit with the kids.  We all sang songs both in Thai and English and finished off with a delicious meal with the staff, children, and we believe some of their parents.

This morning, I attended another Christmas party put on at a place called House of Blessing and House of Love.  House of Blessing is a "day care" that we would call preschool, and is for minority children that live in the slums of Chiang Mai.  The goal is for them to learn Thai well enough that they are allowed entry into a Thai school come first grade.  It also provides them with benefits such as food on a regular basis and a uniform to wear.  The same site hosts a home called House of Love for children who do not have living parents or relatives.  Several of them were deaf, and most had HIV which is well controlled with anti-viral medication.  All of them were delightful! The program was lengthy, with many songs and dances, a message, and then more songs and dances.  The pre-schoolers were so well organized, happy, and performed their songs and motions with great enthusiasm.  My favorite part was when a little group of girls were doing a dance which involved them dancing in a big circle while holding special little dishes filled with flower petals which they were tossing into the air in a very rhythmic way.  It was so fun to watch it looked like it would be even more fun to be a part of it, which is exactly what a young sibling decided to do.  Looking about two, he/she charged right up front, leaped onto the stage, and joined right into the dance for a couple of rounds, and then jumped back of to the stage and returned to the crowd.  I didn't know exactly what I was getting into, so I failed to bring my camera.  But you can learn more about this fabulous establishment here: http://www.internationalministries.org/teams/52-brown.  I had a chance to meet their director, who was a precious woman with such an evident love for all of the children, and their love was evident towards her as well.  This site tells more about her work, and has lots of pictures of the children I was with today.  Again, we finished off the program with a fabulous lunch.  I don't know what the soup was called, but essentially it was blood soup.  Noodles, yummy broth, and cubes of congealed blood.  They were very kind to hold back the blood in my portion since I am farang (foreigner), but I told Mike I would have at least liked to have tried it.  He told me it was better that I didn't, and I'm totally okay with that.
I'll leave you with one final image... Our Christmas decorations at our house will be shared with you another day, but can't wait to share with you my new favorite Christmas tree which is located just down the street from our neighborhood.  Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Who knew that Mike was actually wearing Christmas colors?!

Hello from Chiang Mai!

We have made it to Chiang Mai!  Our travel went as well as could be possible. We thought you might appreciate a few numbers to give you perspective on our last couple of days of travels:

-  9, 716 miles flown from Alaska to Thailand
     1,521 miles from Fairbanks to Seattle
      6, 072 miles from Seattle to Seoul, South Korea
      2, 123 miles from Seoul to Chiang Mai, Thailand
-  31 hours of travel time, with 20 hours of that being actual fly time
-  16 hour time change along the way, but we did successfully sleep through the night last night!
- 3 checked bags that all made it here intact and everything with customs went smoothly.
-91 degree difference right now from 82F degrees currently in Chiang Mai, to -9F in Fairbanks.
-1 great God who loves us and has great work for us whether it's in fairbanks or Chiang Mai.  We are grateful for the traveling mercies and such an incredible opportunity!  Thanks to those of you who have been praying and remembering us in our travels. We look forward to sharing how things unfold....

What's this all about?

So yes... we are headed off to Thailand. And while we are excited to eat authentic Thai food and experience some warmer weather in the middle of our winter, that's really not why we're going. For those of you that know Mike, you know that he loves international travel and connecting with people from around the world. Experiencing life overseas together has been something that we have talked about doing for almost as long as we've known each other, but life here gets busy and it just hasn't happened. One of Mike's reasons for pursuing a master's degree in counseling was to have skills to work with people who may have experienced trauma or life stressors that can be accentuated about living and working in an international context. So at some point he started looking into counseling agencies that specialized in this type of work. There aren't many out there, although we have learned that there is a great need for this type of counseling. Mike sent out feelers to the agencies that he discovered, and one of them was Cornerstone Counseling in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Long story short, things have moved forward and his final counseling practicum will be with Cornerstone, offering counseling to missionaries and humanitarian aid workers from all over Asia. During Mike's Skype interview with Cornerstone, he asked what I might be able to do with my skill set if we were to come over. The counselors passed on my information to a nursing friend who is involved with prenatal education and postpartum support in Chiang Mai. It just so happens that they are in need of someone with lactation experience, so I am very excited to use my experience as a public health nurse and lactation consultant in this context. Many women come into Chiang Mai to have their babies from other more remote areas of Asia, so I will be helping with prenatal and postpartum support. So far in December there are 10 women delivering from about that many countries that I will have the privilege of getting to know. As time has developed, we have discovered many connections between Fairbanks and Chiang Mai. We have been involved in supporting an organization called Partners Relief and Development for as long as I've lived in Fairbanks. They do a lot of work inside Burma and with Burmese refugees in Thailand, and were founded by a man who grew up in Fairbanks. We are excited to be able to see and meet people on the forefront of this organization. We are also interested in meeting people that work with the Free Burma Rangers as they are also based in Chiang Mai. So know you know a little bit more about the reason for our travels, and we look forward to keeping you updated as it unfolds!
Cornerstone Counseling: http://www.ccfthailand.org/ 
Partners Relief and Development: http://www.partnersworld.org/ 
Free Burma Rangers: http://www.freeburmarangers.org/

Becoming a Reality

We have been making plans to head to Thailand since August now, but it is only in the past few days that the reality of impending travel has begun to set in. The suitcases have emerged from storage, travel essentials have been purchased, our passports have been sent to the Thai Consolate, the to do lists are being actively worked on, and we have received pictures of where we will live in Thailand... So ready or not, this is really happening! We are excited to give you updates of our journey, and are excited for what is in store for us over the next few weeks!