OceanicThai

It was "Charlotte's web" out of control this morning for Kennedy. He found a little fuzzy thing, touched it, and out exploded zillions of baby spiders. He looked frantically around for the bug spray (sorry Wilbur) but I had left it upstairs on my quest to kill a giant tropical cockroach in the kid's room last night. He eventually found it but was pretty freaked out by the whole thing. I guess while he was running around the baby spiders were running all over the place trying to get away. Poppy tried, to no avail, to keep them swept in a pile. These will grow up to be the CD-sized spiders that really pack an evil punch if they bite you. We killed their mom later in the morning. We just can't share our house with giant spiders. Why do so many weird things happen to us? I guess some of it is because what seems normal to most Thais is pretty weird to us. Although I know for a fact they scream at giant spiders and cockroaches, too! Especially Bangkok-ians. They are al...

Not at the same time. I think he must have smelled the cat urine underneath somehow and decided to add a little of his own. Yuck! We stripped the bed, again. Last night Kennedy caught him with a really big frog and tried to take it away so he wouldn't kill it or choke on it. Our puppy wanted it pretty bad, I guess, and gulped it down whole so no one could take it away from him. Today he gulped down an entire chewy and started choking on it. Dumb dog. It's a good thing he's so cute! His name is "Buk Luk" a Thai name that means cute & fat. He was a gift from our last househelper. I never thought I'd like a tiny white poodle, but he sure has personality galore & is excessively cute. He thinks he's a rambo dog, but he's just a runty little thing. We gave him an English name too, "Froot Loop" like the cereal. He likes cat food, broccoli, raw potatoes, pasta, chocolate, apples...but not dog food.

I answered the phone and an older Thai man told me, in Thai of course, that he was the internet satellite representative and he had arrived at the falang's house (the white person's house.) I said I'd come right out and he called me "Nong" or younger, a familiar term only appropriate if I had been the Thai housekeeper. I was giggling to myself all the way out the door. When he saw me he put on his polite look and expected me to say something in English. When I started talking to him in Thai and he realized I was the same person on the phone he looked a little mortified. Then Gee came out, my Thai friend, and I told her what happened. We both laughed hysterically. It was a big faux pas on his part in this culture, and of course he lost face. All in all he took it pretty well and we all had a good laugh.

I killed it. Or rather, I plugged it in the wall and a surge of developing-world irregular electricity destroyed it. We've been e-mailing Dell in 3 different countries and it looks as though we will be covered under the warantee. I think we are getting the new motherboard from the U.S. and a technician will be sent (?) to come help us since we are in a remote area. We are still trying to figure out what the 3 people in Bangkok, Malasia, & the U.S. have decided on doing with us. We are impressed they are willing to help us like this, though. This laptop was the gracious gift of the Mission Board of Shadow Mountain Community Church. So for now we'll use this desktop, no problem.

We've been in our new rental house 3 months now. The owner comes in the evening and works on the garden. She comes with her husband, niece, & a hired man. I enjoy talking with her. She is Chinese in background, so is her husband. They have been so good to us, we appreciate them. When we first rented the house it was under construction, very simple, with no garden and no roof over the steps to the second floor, which, oddly enough, were built outside. When we came back from our 4 month trip to the U.S. we were astonished how beautiful it was, and were sure they were going to change the rent, but they didn't. It is still $300 a month and we love it. I need to post a picture of it.

This morning Gee brought me 3 little bags of chili candy to keep me awake today. She said I looked pathetic. I fell asleep on the couch while the kids took their mid-morning break & slept through memory verse. Poppy was mad she had to go straight to math without doing memory verse first. I've been eating chili candy and its finally getting to me. What I really need is another good cup of coffee.

I can't sleep. Across the street from us is a shabby little Karoke bar that blasts its horrible cacophony right into our bedroom window. Most days of the week both of us are dragging around sleep-deprived because of this place. When we were looking at the house at first several months ago, we were worried about the Karoke bar across the street and asked the owners about it. "Oh, don't worry, they will keep you company. You won't be lonely!" At first we were having dreams and fantasies of what we were going to do to make it go away. Blow it up, for example. Unfortunately, we can't do anything, not even complain about it. They are within the law, as long as they shut off at midnight or 1a.m. or something like that. Things are not the same here as America. The other Karoke bar in this area is owned by a policeman. You get the picture. So we just kind of lay in bed in resigned misery. It is miserable. Tonight I went to bed late because they were loud and I knew I ...

That is the used price of one that sold on e-bay today, the same exact one my friend Gee is asking me to sell for her. She told me she's never held $250 in her possession before, let alone $500. But here she is with this bag that retails new for an astonishing $800. She can hardly believe it herself. Here's the story: She and her boyfriend were working at a resort when the tsunami happened. She saw people running for the hills and screaming, so she ran too, 6 months pregnant. She made it, and her baby is now 18 months, his name is Pooh Bear (nickname.) Her boyfriend was a guard at the resort before and after the tsunami, and a while after the whole thing had happened he found this bag in the mud and brought it home for her. She found a big can of olive oil and a bottle of wine in it. She used the olive oil to cook with, because she's dirt poor. Her boyfriend probably drank the wine. She cleaned the mud off the bag and started using it. She noticed, though, that people kept ...

We have 2 female cats, Euphrates and Tigris, Siamese and Siamese/Balinese. Several weeks ago we discovered a feral cat skulking around our house here, probably looking for food. Several nights since we've been awoken in the middle of the night by our domesticated, docile cats fighting off this beastly critter. Kennedy says it gives him the creeps. Anyway, it started eating the catfood off the porch so we moved the food to our bathroom inside. A few nights ago we woke up to cats fighting in the house , and then on our bed, on top of us. I woke up from the screeching to feel a very warm, heavy sensation on me. It came through and got my nightgown wet, and I realized, to my horror and disgust, the cat peed on me! Euphrates, (our female cat) had been so frightened she just let out what must have been a full bladder right on top of me in bed. Yuck. I told Kennedy and we both got up to inspect the damage. Not only was the cover on my side soaked, and all our sheets (& my nightgown)we...

The ants are going to drive me nuts. Every time I go out to weed I am bitten all over my hands and feet by these horrid tiny red ants that make me itch and itch for days. I ran into piles and piles of them outside. I was hopping around trying to pull weeds and not let the ants bite me too bad. My face was all red from hopping around and pulling tropical-size weeds and vines out of the ground, my hair was all wild-looking, I was covered with red mud. I'm sure I was quite an amusing sight to all the Thais driving by. The little white lady with ants in her pants!

A friend introduced us to a mutual friend, a Thai man and his wife who run an orphanage just 35 minutes away from us in Nam Chem. We've known them for about 3 months now, and Kennedy visited the orphange. He is Southern Thai and has been a Christian for over 10 years now. It is always so encouraging to meet a Southern Thai Christian who has been a believer for a long time. Anyway, I made a blog for him. I can't upload the pictures for some reason, I'll keep trying. I am happy that we know someone who is legitimate and has a real heart for ministering to others. His name is Samruam Promkiri and his wife's name is Somkit. They have 3 children. The foundation they are with, Covenant Foundation, is Thai run and going through some really rough times financially. They were being supported $750 a month for their personal expenses and $1,250 for running the orphanage, which is pretty good. Their foundation has told them they will only be able to give them $750 a month...

There are still some standing buildings on the beaches where the tsunami hit. This is one of them on the Khao Lak beach. The cloth tied on the posts is in rememberance of those who died. Incense and candles are put near them, too.