Gifts for Merit

Here is a street of different little shops....

This shop has all different things you can give to the Monks for merit.

There are pre-packaged gifts of food, etc for the Monks. The Monks go around the neighborhoods every morning collecting their alms. I am told that when they go around the neighborhoods they usually receive rice, etc for them to eat that day.

When I was at one Wat it looked like a bunch of Easter baskets were stacked up in the corner. I learned later that they are just the gifts that people bring the Monks.

I am so grateful that I know the Savior who has already paid the price for my salvation!
 I don't deserve the free gift of salvation and I never could earn it, yet because of God's great love for me I only need to accept the gift.

Food....a very important part of the Thai culture...2

Here is where I get a lot of my meals, especially when I lived with Gina and family. This "food court" is in the market area and we would eat there at least once a week. When your meal costs 1 US dollar you might as well eat out as it is cheaper than cooking your own food.

One of my favorite meals- Cashew Chicken. They eat their food with a fork and spoon. You use the fork to help get the food on the spoon and then you actually eat with the spoon. I now eat this way as well except when I am trying to eat salad...the lettuce just won't stay on the spoon!

Here we all are for Lucas' birthday lunch. Some of the people didn't really want their pictures taken, oh well!

This was my first "real" meal in Thailand, but we forgot to take a picture so we took one another time we went  out to eat there. It is called Khao Soy and since it has noodles they do use chopsticks. It is more of a northern Thai dish.

This is a lamyai (longan) tree in the school yard. This "fall" they would pick them off of the trees for lunch and they also sold them at the snack shop. I really enjoyed their unique taste.

Here is one open...you just the clear part and there is a seed in the middle that you have to spit out.

This is me showing off the whole bunch of lamyai that I got from school. I am also reminding all you Packer fans that I am still cheering for the Vikes even though they aren't doing so good and I can't watch any of the games because they start at midnight my time.
GO VIKINGS!

Food...a very important part of Thai culture...

I thought that you would all be interested in seeing what kind of food and drinks I am having here in Chiang Mai. We all love to eat, right? This will be a two-part blog as I don't want to give you too many pictures all in one. I am actually enjoying the food here even though my mouth has been on fire for a couple of hours after eating a few dishes. The school serves lunch for the staff and students every day. Three days it is Thai food with a salad bar and the other two days we have some "American" food along with a Thai option and a salad bar. 

These first four pictures are taken at the market that is 5-10 minutes away from my house.

 They use fans to keep the flies, etc off of the meat.

 You could buy your supper here at the market- they sell a lot of food in bags. It kind of reminds me of how you take home your gold fish from the pet store.

 Fish anyone???

Now believe it or not these next two pictures are not from the market.....

 As much as I really wanted to buy this pig head I decided it wouldn't fit in my freezer at home.
  There are a number of big grocery stores that when you are in them you can almost forget that you are not at your local grocery store in the US. That is what I was feeling until I got to the meat section and saw the heads and then the legs (picture below). While I tried to take these photos without anyone noticing, Gina proceeded to put on a glove and pick out pieces of chicken from a big tray and put them in a bag. I forgot to take a picture of that, but it made me smile as she picked out boneless chicken pieces for me to eat.

 When my roommate and I were at the market I was told that I HAD to try this tea. It is called chaa yen and is made up of orange tea and milk. It is cold and as you can see the bag is full of ice. Oh and yes it comes in a nice little bag with handles and a straw! In case you were wondering she was driving and taking a picture of me...perfectly safe! 

Old Pictures...from a birthday party at a Wat

One of my roommate's birthday was at the end of August and I was able to attend a small party for her. Yes, these pictures are from August, I told you that they were old! We had picnic on the patio right by a Wat (a Buddhist Temple).

 The view from where we were sitting! We can see this "mountain" from the school and you can actually also see some of the Wat on a clear day.

 You can go on a little road...or up these stairs to get to the Wat.

 Here we are with some dogs around us. There are a lot of stray dogs around.

 The view before we left.

I actually walked up to this Wat on Saturday with some people from school. A group of people (one of them is my roommate) walk up to this place every Saturday. It is about 7k round trip. There are some really steep parts as you climb the "mountain." It is a good work out.

My New Home

Many of you know that I was living with some friends until I could move into my new place where I will be living for 6 months. One of the girls that rents this place is on home assignment, so I get her room for the time she is gone. I have two wonderful roommates (but no pictures of them in this post). 

Hope you like this picture walk through my home:

The front door- the red bike is mine but it is a little small so we are trying to figure out how I can fix that (and yes I did try raising the seat)

 The little garden that we have- it is to the right of where my bike is...

 You must always remove your shoes before you enter a home. The elementary students don't wear their shoes in their classrooms.

 The view from the kitchen...you can see the front window and door.

The view from the front door (see they are all out of order but I just can't figure out how to get this one to move)

 The dining room

 The kitchen and back door to our washer and stove which are both outside in a covered porch. There is also a bathroom across from the fridge.

 Upstairs

 Down the hallway...the door straight ahead is the bathroom. The door that is open is my room.

 The view the other way...and the other two bedrooms.

 I have a very little porch off of my room but this is the view so I probably won't be using it much:)

 From the doorway of my room...

 The bed....

 The door and the bookshelf...no these are not my books...but I can read them.

 Another angle of my room- the fan is very important! Oh and that orange thing...I can't remember what it is called but I made it in one of the Thai modules all the new teachers have to take.

 My wardrobe and the door to the little porch that I will not be using :)

Ok so I realize that I have no pictures of the bathrooms or the back porch thingy...those might come at some point...but they were not that exciting. 

Road or River?

Sometimes the roads turn into rivers during the rainy season. This is the road and gate outside the elementary school. I waded through the water and made it in:)  I don't know if you had heard, but parts of Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas had very bad flooding the last week or two. It had been raining a lot and they had to release water from the dams before they broke. It took a few of our cooks 3 hours to get into work one day last week. This all happened closer to the center of the town, so most of the school staff was not affected. Some families did have to stay with people closer to the school so that they would be able to get it in to school. I am told that traffic was terrible! People were using boats, etc. The flood waters are down now and hopefully we won't have any more large storms.

Video

Just thought people might be interested in learning more about the ministry of the school. The video gives a good look at what some of the families do and how the kids serve the area as well.

Link to the video on youtube...or watch it from here

We interrupt our regular post to bring you this...

I got a package today! It was SO exciting!

It came all the way from Bemidji, MN! It took a short 2 weeks!

 Who knew that a shirt and oatmeal could make someone's day.

Look at this wonderful stuff! I would have taken a happy picture of me...but I didn't look the best today...so maybe another day:)

 Can you guess who it was from? That is right...I want to be able to sing the National Anthem as good as this girl can! I want to save trees like her, too!

 Look at how great she is at making a smoothie with a huge knife...I guess our spoons were packed or dirty.

 She can walk across the mighty Mississippi River!

 Here we are with friends...We are that crazy amazing!

THANK YOU KRISTEL!