The Wats.

The purpose of my blog is to be descriptive, not prescriptive.  I am a guest in this country and in any country that I visit.  I am not really trying to criticize or even critique what I see.  I am interested in how people see the world, how that affects their lives, families and cultures.  Most people who read this blog either know me and thus know my religious viewpoint and if you don't know me, might be able to pick it up.  So when I talk about other religious things that we see, my purpose is primarily descriptive and I don't add a lot of commentary.

So with that disclaimer- the Wats.

Thailand is almost 95% Buddhist with a 4.5 % Muslim population and .5% Christian.  Buddhism seems to infiltrate every part of their lives.  As I posted before, there are shrines in every home, store, market, hotel, and even parking lots.  People stop and pour water over the Buddha and bow at most shrines.

The flowers markets are full of flower offerings that are taken to shrines or wats (temples).

You also see balls of string for sale.  We saw quite a bit of string hanging in the temples and I am a little unclear as to the meaning.  I think it has to do with blessing.

Huge, huge flower markets.  By the way, that red truck is a taxi.

At the airport, we saw this sign.   Yes, we did peek in the rooms. Nothing special.

So now, on to the wats.  I think we went to about six or seven, including a Chinese one.  Each was very different and fascinating.

Modesty seemed to be a hallmark all over Chiang Mai...except for the foreign tourists and the professional "daters."

This is a new mosque being built in Chiang Mai.

Many languages at the entrance.

The string and flags hanging down.

Many visitors worshiped.

There was a school at the wat, and the temple was full of wiggly boys.  Really wiggly.

We found the Chinese temple that has a very different look and feel than the Thai temples.  This is much more what we see in temples in China.

Going to these places gave our family lots to talk about.  At one place we saw a man dressed in a  tiger outfit, swaying and chanting.  People were bowing before him and he was blessing them.  It was dark outside and there was chanting coming from the temple and it really was a scary moment for me.  It really bothered me to see people worshiping a man.  He seemed very off and odd to me, with unfocused eyes and just a scary feel to him.

We also discussed the role of religion versus non-religion.  How has the officially non-religious stance in China affected their culture and how has the deeply religious stance in Thailand affected their culture.

We are so glad for these opportunities to learn and grow.

I just want my winter slippers back.

So while we were in Thailand, our helper came and really cleaned our apartment.  Lest you think we are living the life of luxury over here, let me assure you that we are not.  Our helper comes twice a week to help with some child care, some cleaning and some cooking.  She is a sister, speaks clear Chinese and is generally a great help to me in particular.  Our little guy likes her and she likes him.  In the West we have helpers too- we just call them things like cars, dryers, washing machines that use hot water and dishwashers.  We have none of those.  So using a helper a few days a week frees us up to do the things we need to do, including frequent hospitality.
Anway, our helper came over and cleaned.  It's late April and our government controlled heat has been off since the first day of the month.  The temperature is in the 40's and 50's and yes, it's chilly.
Apparently though, it is Spring.  How do we know this?  Well, our helper took all of our warm slippers and replaced them with Spring slippers.  Apparently, you don't wear warm slippers past a certain date.  I have looked all over our apartment for the warm slippers and can't find them.  So I am wearing warm socks with Spring slippers.  I probably agreed to this before we left.  I often understand about 2/3 of a conversation and find myself agreeing to things I didn't understand.  Tomorrow, when she comes, I am going to ask her where the warm slippers are!
We also know it's Spring because she took the mattress heater off of our bed (ironically we don't use it in winter because our apartment is warm) and all of our winter clothes were folded and put away.  I've had to dig for sweaters and flannel nightgowns.  It's pretty funny.  This is culture learning at it's best!
Our little guy came back to us with a cold.  I decided he needed to go to the doctor since he has compromised lungs and can get pretty sick pretty fast.  I didn't want to go on Monday since it was cold and rainy.  I was explaining to our helper that I would take him on Tuesday when the weather was better.  "Oh", she said.  " He probably needs an injection."  "Maybe, but probably not."  "Well, he needs IV antibiotics" (Yes, they give IV antibiotics for colds here).  "Maybe, but probably not."
So Tuesday, I headed off in the taxi for the clinic.  We love this place as it is a combo of Chinese and foreign doctors working together.  The foreign doctors are training the Chinese medical residents in family practice medicine (fairly new concept in China) and the care is really good.  Plus, because our little guy is an orphan, exams are free!  So we get there and see some of the people we know. They have known our little guy since he came out of the orphanage and they are always really interested in his growth.
 There was a new resident and she starts the exam.  We do the exam in Chinese and English and she is really nice and pretty good.  We discuss his cold and she listens to his lungs and says she thinks it's probably just upper respiratory.  She says he will probably need antibiotics and albuterol.  I say okay, because I know what is coming.
The American doctor comes in (actually Taiwanese American) and they exam him together.  Then they discuss.  I hear discussion of medicine and then the words for "salt water" and then am told no medicine, that salt water flushes are the best.
Again, culture learning.  How a culture thinks about the body and sickness is really telling.  I knew we would walk out with no medicine if it was just a cold and thankfully it was.  Our little guy fell asleep in the taxi and slept for 3.5 hours.  He woke up much better and continues to improve.
One more thing.  Being cold here is a big no.  There is a strong belief that cold makes people sick and that all people, especially babies should be kept warm at all times.  I sometimes find it exhausting to have people constantly tell me that it is too cold to have the baby out or that he isn't properly dressed.
But yesterday was a little warmer and the hospital was quite warm.  When I walked out, two ladies sweetly told me that the baby was too hot!  His cheeks were flushed.  I just started laughing and told them Chinese people always told me he was too cold and that I was afraid.  They laughed and walked away.  Again- more culture learning.  Take all things with a grain of salt!
Not to make this blog a travelogue of our Thailand trip, but here are a few pictures of the incredible beauty that we saw.

Two birds at the zoo aviary.

Birds of Paradise.  These were everywhere.  Spectacular.

I would say monkey but I think it's something else.

Cat sleeping on Buddha's lap.

See the cat?  We were really charmed by the gentle dogs and cats in Thailand.

Beautiful weavings in a really boring museum.  These more than made up for the dullness.

Sigh- all creation reveals the creativity of the Creator.  The colors, the patterns, the variety- amazing.

Food in Thailand.

Let me first say how sweet it was to come home to this little chunk of blurry deliciousness.

Our little guy stayed with two families while we were gone.  He was loved, coddled and both entertaining and entertained.  We are very thankful that we have good friends that we can trust to care for him.

When we picked him up, he was sitting in the lap of our friend.  He saw us and instantly recognized us.  He looked at me and said "Mama."  That was one of the most poignant/wonderful/sad moments of my life.  It just makes me want a family in his future all the more and I will never give up praying for that.

On  a less serious note - Amy's frozen food in the grocery store!  You can laugh but if you don't live overseas, you have no idea how much familiar and really good food can mean.  We each got one for lunch, took it home and microwaved it.  Heaven.

A little hole in the wall restaurant near where we stayed.  Chicken, potatoes and basil.

What do you think is inside this basket?

 Cooked rice for the meal!

Mango salad.

A funky ice cream place that Elisabeth found online.  We miss this kind of artistic, creative environment.

The big dog.

Look who followed us to Thailand!

I can't say enough about the fruit smoothies.  We had one almost every day.  At this place, you basically pick the cup of fruit and they blend it for you.  I had mango- divine!

The Fish Pedicure

One of the great advantages of living and traveling in countries that are less regulated than the USA are things like over the counter antibiotics, riding your bike against traffic, jaywalking with out penalties and letting fish eat the dead skin off of your feet.  While we were in Thailand, we decided to get a fish pedicure.  All three of us wanted to do it but as it happened, just Elisabeth and I ended up doing it.  We were at a market while Paul stayed behind (he had been a good sport through two other markets and we thought it was time to give him a break). Elisabeth spotted a fish pedicure/internet cafe and we decided to check it out.  That's right- using a computer while your feet are in a big vat of water- I told you that we live and travel in less regulated places.
So we went over and haggled the price down.  We rinsed our shoes off and stuck our feet in the tanks.  Nothing really happened.  The owner noticed we were declining the water/electricity risk and told us to move to the tanks in the windows of the store where the fish were "stronger."  So we did.  It was an absolute hoot and we drew a huge crowd.  Many people took pictures and many people talked to us through the glass.  A few came in and had a pedicure, too.  I told the owner that we should get a cut of his business.
It was weird, it felt odd but you get used to the feeling after a while. Here are some of the pictures.

Front window view.

The fish are some kind of carp.  They don't have teeth but they kind of nibble at the skin.  I thought they'd go straight for my heals but they nibble all over the feet.  At first it was odd but then you get used to it.  However, I couldn't watch them.

Neighborhood kids playing on the internet.  Very few of them actually kept their feet in the water but were more into using the computer.

A man stops by and looks at Elisabeth's feet.  He was a little taken aback, I think.

One of the many large multi-national crowds that gathered to watch.  It was really fun to interact with them.

This picture gives me the heebies-jeebies.  It reminds me of the movie "The Birds" except in fish form.

Good advertising for their business!

And speaking of weird things in our lives..flying back from Chiang Mai to our city is a two day affair.  We left on the 7:30 flight from Chiang Mai to KunMing, China.  We found a fun hotel on e-long.  The Saga Inn. http://www.wego.com/hotels/china/kunming/saga-inn-jinbi--605674/photos  However, we arrived in KunMing late and it took our taxi driver forever to find the hotel.  When we got to the hotel, they didn't have an extra bed for Elisabeth.  So she slept on the too short fold out sofa.  She was a great sport about it.

This was our bed- "Love American Style" flash back, anyone? It was less than comfortable.  But the hotel was cheap!

Shrines

In this land that is 95% Buddhist, shrines are simply everywhere. It would be more unusual not to have a shrine than to have a shrine. They are in the airport, malls, stores and homes. We even saw one in a parking lot. This one is outside of a home.

This is outside of a coffee shop that should be familiar to most people- Starbucks! On the shrine are even small cups of Starbucks coffee.

This one is outside of a Tesco market. It has people and flowers on it. Little girls walk around selling the flowers. 

Did you know that monks could buy DVDs? Neither did we.

Some of the offerings are very practical. This is in front of an idol but will probably be used for the monks. We assume the statues don't need coffee or TP.

Did Oceanic 815 fly out of Beijing?

Because this was on the wall in the waiting are for our flight to Kunming.

Is it just me, or is the picture of the plane falling out of the sky just not comforting? Doesn't this remind you of the plane from Lost? Did the people from Oceanic 815 have Aviation Insurance?  Would it have made any difference?

Either way, we had tremendously bumpy flight from Beijing. Like get out the barf bags bumpy. Fortunately, we didn't need any aviation insurance and flew smoothly from Kunming to Chiang Mai. It's beautiful, lush and warm and we're happy to be here.

In which I totally cave to the lady selling clothes.

Our little guy is growing like a weed.  He is in extra-large diapers and is bursting through his clothes.  A few people have even told us he was "tai pang" or too/very fat.  We just laugh and tell them he is "hao pang" or "good fat."

Anyway the season is changing from Winter to Spring.  We know that because the government has turned off our heat.  Last year was one of the coldest Spring's on record.  This Spring has been lovely so far.  Apparently it is not the approved time to wear sandals though.  I've worn my Keene's with socks a few times and gotten lectures from strangers about how it's too cold to be wearing sandals.

Anyway, today our helper came so I could go out.  We have a lovely woman who comes in twice a week to help with some household stuff and give me some freedom to come out.  She is a sister and a hard worker and we are thankful to have her.

So this morning I took off to buy our little guy some new clothes.  If you think this means going to a Wal-Mart or department type store, well, you'd be wrong.  We shop at a huge .....mall/building/market that has stall after stall of varying things to buy.  It's a place to bargain and look around and if you are in the right mood, it's pretty fun.  There are actually a few places like this in our city- I went to the closest one which is the one where the vendor's are least likely to want to bargain.  However, their wares are pretty good and it's still pretty cheap.

When I got there, I discovered that the whole parking lot and surrounding area were being torn up.  I wove my bike around the construction and went inside.  I could not find the children's clothing anywhere. I went to the place where I usually go (passed the shoes and through the yarn) and the stall weren't there.  I walked all around the second and third floors and just couldn't find them.  I think I just was totally confused or that the stalls have moved.  I did find one small stall where I have bought clothing from before so I stopped there.  I described the age and size of our little guy and told her he was Chinese, not American-yes, this makes a difference.  I took down one little shorts outfit and said that looked like about the right size.  I found something similar but smaller and said that would also be good.  No, she said.  That's too small-you have to take this size.  The role of the shopkeeper in China is different than in America.  She is the authority.  You bend to her will.  I  thought the clothes looked a little big but he could grow into them.  So I choose four outfits and asked her how much- there are no prices on the clothing.  She named the price and I thought that my Chinese friends would pass out if they found out I paid that much.  So I opened my mouth to ask if she could make it a little cheaper...你可不可以便宜一点？Before I spoke, she told me she had already given me a discount. So I caved and paid.  The thing about bargaining is that you have to be willing to walk away...and I wasn't.

So I paid $25.00 for four nice outfits and walked away.  Then I bought some pajama's at a different place for a pretty reasonable price.

He was pretty excited to get his new clothes. I guessed pretty correctly on the size.

This says "Don't be fooled by my size"

The new pajamas had to be rolled up....

As they were a little long!