Breaking Tradition

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to break tradition in a couple of ways.

The first way we broke tradition was in our menu choice. Rather than turkey or duck, we opted for roasted chicken. It's not often that we've had turkey for Thanksgiving here in Thailand, as imported frozen turkeys are expensive (about US$100 for a cheap one). While there are some turkeys grown locally, they are not that common—though I have seen some wandering around Kamalasai. The meat from these turkey's is likely not so tender, either. Another nice thing about the chicken is that it was a good size for the two of us.

We also had string bean casserole, without the fried onions and cooked on a stove-top. We were going to have mashed potatoes, but opted for mashed sweet potatoes since we had them. These ended up with a unique color because we mixed brown and orange varieties. The stuffing was more-or-less normal.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We always like to have sweet potato pie with our Thanksgiving. This ia a tradition we picked up when we lived in Alabama. Through the years, the nature of the sweet potato pie, though, has been a bit variable, depending on the type of sweet potatoes that we can find depending on where we have lived. In our slight variance from normal this time around, we used purple Japanese sweet potatoes. Taste is similar to the orange variety, but the color adds quite a different character to the final product.

Purple Sweet Potato Pie

Another way we broke with tradition is that we celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday twice. While we wanted to invite some Thai friends over for a traditional holiday meal, we have found in the past that our North American foods are not always appreciated by our Isaan friends. We have sometimes prepared lots of food only to have little of it eaten. So we decided to have a separate celebration and let our friends help decide the menu. The word hamburgers came up in the conversation.

Ingrid made some dough for the buns ahead of time using a zwieback recipe. Ngok and View helped roll out the buns. (Sorry, Mennonite friends, these zwieback did not have the cap on top.)

Buns, Ready to Cook

Finished Hamburger Buns

I was in charge of the meat. The charcoal cooker we borrowed was a bit small, so it took a while to cook all the burgers that I had made.

Grilling the Burgers

Ngok and View cooked the french fries.

Making the French Fries

We only had three people join us at the actual meal. Several people couldn't make it, but Ngok and View put together some plates for them.

Decorating the Burgers

In the end, we had a good time at both celebrations. After all, Thanksgiving is not about what we put in our mouths, it is about the God who provides good things for us to eat.

For every creation of God is good and no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.
1 Timothy 4:4 (NET)

What's in a Name?

A popular thing to do for exercise in Kamalasai is to go for a walk. The government encourages this by putting in walkways around some lakes and even putting some fitness equipment along the way.

Fitness Equipment at the Pond East Side of Kamalasai

There are three lakes of various sizes around Kamalasai with walkways and fitness equipment. The largest is on the west side of town. It's 3.6 km (just over 2 miles) to go all around it.

Lake on the West Side of Kamalasai

The lake closest to us is on the east side of town. The walkway there is still under development as they reconfigured the pond this past year.

Sunset Over the Lake on the East Side of Kamalasai

The lake that seems to be the oldest, based on the nature of the trees growing around it, is on the south side of town. The name of this one is Sa Bua, which translates "Lotus Pond." Sa Bua is the smallest of the three lakes.

Sa Bua or "Lotus Pond" on the South Side of Kamalasai

One thing you may notice in the picture is the dearth of lotus plants growing in the lake. As far as I know, there aren't any. Maybe at one time there were some of the pink blossoms dotting the lake, but there aren't any more. The only pink blossoms to be found are those of the water morning glory. A type of morning glory that not only grows in land, but in water where it will develop swollen, air filled stems that enable them to float.

Water Morning Glory Plants in Sa Bua

It's not like lotus plants don't grow in this part of the world. The Sacred Lotus is commonly planted. In fact the sacred lotus is a good source of food. The inflated stems and seeds are eaten.

Lotus Blossoms in the Lake East of Kamalasai

A few hours drive from here is a water body called Red Lotus Lake. At least that place lives up to its name.

Red Lotus Lake in Udon Thani Province

It's interesting how names often seem to be based on some fantasy dream rather than reality. We used to live on River Mist Avenue in Bakersfield. The house was in a subdivision called "Silver Creek". Good luck finding that glimmering stream of water. There was no river there. We were three miles south of the often dry riverbed of the Kern River. And that was Bakersfield, California—a place that qualifies as a desert with an average annual rainfall of less than six inches. No river. No creek. No mist.

At least Lotus Pond may have once had lotus plants in it.

In the Bible, names often have significant meaning. God gave Abram a new name—Abraham—which means "Father of a Multitude," because he would have many descendants (Genesis 17:5) When the nation of Israel came to a place where the water in the springs was bitter, it was named Marah, which means "bitter". (Exodus 15:23) In Hosea's prophecy there is a place mentioned called Beth Aven (Hosea 4:15; 5:8; 10:5). Beth Aven means "House of Wickedness" and some think this is a sarcastic reference to Bethel (which means "House of God") because of the idol worship that was happening there. Even Hosea's children were given significant names. For example, God told him to name is second child, a daughter, Loruhamah which means "No Mercy," because God was not going to show mercy to Israel (Hosea 1:6). Imagine having to go through life with a name like that!

Soon it will be Christmas. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The child is given the name Jesus, which means, "God saves," because He would save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21) Jesus is given the title Christ, which means "anointed one" because Christians recognize this Jesus as the anointed one or Messiah predicted to come in the Old Testament.

When Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah who was to come, he listed the following names for Him (Isaiah 9:6):
Wonderful Counselor
Almighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace

-Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor—He has the best advice as to how I should live my life.
-Jesus is Almighty God—He is no ordinary person and He has extraordinary power with which to do miracles.
-Jesus is the Everlasting Father—even though He is called the Son of God, He existed from the beginning with God and will live for all eternity.
-Jesus is the Prince of Peace—He makes it possible for us to be reconciled to (at peace with) God, even though in the past our sins made us enemies of God. (Colossians 1:21). And through the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in all believers, we are able to love even our enemies and be peacemakers in the world. (Matthew 5:9)

God, thank You for sending us a Savior, Jesus, who is a Wonderful Counselor, the Almighty God, an Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.