In past years, I've summarized my years by having a "Top 12", with a favorite photo from each month. This year, I've decided to do a "Top 24" with two photos from each month: one photo with people and one without. It's always a challenge, and this year perhaps moreso than others because we have seen so many new places in Thailand this year.
January - Birthday Pie
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Birthday Blueberry Pie
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For the significance of this first photo, one has to go back about 28 years. At that point we were fairly new in California, having been there less than a year, and took our first trip out of the Bay area. It was a time of tumultuous transition for us. In the middle of this, we attended a conference at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship flagship church in Anaheim.
I had just applied for a job, and one of the possible locations was Bakersfield / Kern County. The trip would give us an opportunity to see that area along the way. It would also give us opportunity to visit with a cousin I had not seen since my high school days and who was then living in Kern County. More about that
here.
The conference was an amazing time of spiritual refreshment for us. While there, we stayed at a hotel near the church that was adjacent to a Marie Callendar's restaurant; being new to California, we had not heard of it before. We went there for dinner one night and decided to take back to our room with us a Blueberry Sour Cream pie—which we ate over the course of the conference. We had never had such a thing before and we really liked it. Perhaps the flavor was enhanced by all the good stuff happening while we were there.
Now to 2021. We were less than two weeks out from returning to Thailand, and we were trying to empty out the fridge and freezer. One of the things in there was frozen blueberries that Ingrid had picked during the summer. For my birthday, Ingrid asked what I wanted, so I suggested something like the pie we would get a Marie Callendar's. I think her pie was better than Marie's.
January - Rooftop of Quarantine Hotel
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Rooftop of Lohas Residences
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The process for our return to Thailand was a bit different than in the past. We were picked up from the airport in a special van which had a full shield between the driver and passenger section. Upon our arrival at Lohas Residences, which was our quarantine hotel, we met with hospital nurses who administered a COVID test. Then we were led to our room which we were not allowed to leave for six days. On that sixth day, our COVID test from the previous day was negative, and so we were allowed onto the rooftop for 45 minutes a day. It wasn't big, but there were lots of plants and views of the city. I found I could walk about 2 km in if I worked at it.
February - Homecoming
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House in Phon Phisai
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On February 1st, we were released from our internment. It was required that we travel directly to our next destination. So hopped on a van to the airport where we caught at plane to Udon Thani. From there we had contracted with a taxi service to take us straight home. It was great to see our place again, even though we knew it would take a lot to get it ready to live in since it had not been used for a year. But the first order of business was to get my bicycle in order and then go check in with the public health department.
February - Outreach in Phon Phisai
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Outreach in Ban Tua Yang
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It was great to see that the church had a regular program of making visits to homes on Saturdays to share the gospel and pray for the sick. What was especially nice was to see the students that we had sent to Bible School were now taking the initiative to share scripture with people without depending on missionaries, as in the photo above. I just had to watch, listen and enjoy what was happening before me.
March - Rice Paddies and Dirt Roads
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Field Road in the Rice Paddies
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A new location meant having new roads to explore. Our last home did not have a lot in the way of hills, Kamalasai has even less so. But what we do have everywhere across the flat landscape is rice paddies. So I get to enjoy hopping on my bike and exploring new pathways, paved and unpaved.
March - Making Tortillas
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Making Tortillas
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When we arrived in Kamalasai, there was already an intern working there named Goong. She was engaged to be married to a fellow in Arizona and was hoping to move there in a few months (this has happened already since then). We figured she needed to learn to appreciate Mexican food. Ingrid invited Goong and one of the local ladies, Ngok, to help make a Mexican meal. They really enjoyed rolling out the tortillas.
April - Asian Golden Weaver
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Asian Golden Weaver
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On one of my bicycle rides, I discovered this small lake with a paved road all around it. The lake was shallow and was filled with water lilies and lotus plants. There were lots of different kinds of birds swimming or wading in the lake. I made it a point to come back with Ingrid to enjoy the wildlife.
On that next trip back, I decided to walk the 3.5 km road around the lake. While I was expecting to mostly study the birds
in the lake, I was surprised by a small tree full of the pendulous nests of the Asian Golden Weaver birds—and it happened to be nesting season, so there were lots of birds there.
April - Big Jar and Rototiller Trailer
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Towing the Big Jar
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The street we we live on can be quite noisy. It's not that it has to be noisy, but it happens that many of the vehicles here have worn out or insufficient muffler systems. My office is back from the road slightly, but one day I was sitting at my desk when I was disturbed by a rather loud motor churning at a fairly low engine speed. I got up to investigate just in time to watch as this rototiller passing by stopped to buy something from a vendor across the street; it was pulling a trailer with a large, concrete water jar on it.
May - Fried Frogs
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Fried Frogs
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In May we made a trip to visit the church in Phon Phisai. As is typical, they serve a meal after worship service on Sunday. One never knows what will be served, because it partially depends on what is being hunted, gathered, or harvested at the time. This must have been the season to gather small frogs, because someone had deep fried a bunch of the crispy treats.
May - Loom
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Weaving a Mat
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On the Saturday while we were in Phon Phisai, we went out with some church members for the visits to people's homes. In one village, one of the members of the church has a loom with which she makes thin floor mats. These mats, called
suea, are typically what people sit on. Traditionally, they are made with a type of sedge called
phue (Cyperus sp.) In the fancier mats, some of the sedges are dyed different colors and woven into patterns, such as the one here. It is also possible to find mats made without dyed sedges, and these are usually cheaper. These days, they also make the mats with plastic which, unfortunately, is much cheaper, as they are made with machines.
June - Sunset Over Lake in Kamalasai
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Sunset in Kamalasai
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One evening, we looked out from one of our windows and noticed that the clouds were shaping up to form a colorful sunset. So we took a quick drive to a pond about 1/2 km away from here to get a better view. When we noticed how nice it was, we decided to try to make it to another lake across town for even a better view of the evening skies.
June - Fried Crickets
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Snacking on Crickets
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In June, our team leader, Ajan Nat, came up to visit from Chachoengsao Province. While she was here, we took a drive, along with Goong, to visit some friends of ours in the next district to the west. These friends have a coffee shop. As Yai, the husband, was preparing our coffee, Rung, his wife, brought out some snacks to go with it. Now, I don't know what you usually eat with your coffee, but we had fried crickets. They actually go well with cold coffee.
July - Storm Clouds Over Rice Paddy
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Storm Clouds Building Over the Rice Paddies
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The flat landscapes in the southern part of Kalasin province are great for watching the cloudscapes. In the wet season, the billowing mountains of moisture can be quite impressive. As the cumulus clouds build to cumulonimbus, we wonder if the they will pass our way and bring us some rain. The clouds can be especially pretty when they are reflected in lakes, rivers or rice paddies. On this day, we took a quick drive about 5 km west to see the rice emerging from the clouds in the water.
July - Well Drilling
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Well Drilling
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Since the public water supply is unreliable at Ajan Nat's house, and since we wanted to plant some fruit trees and other crops in her yard, we decided it would be a good idea to put in a well. Before doing so, we needed to consult with some people to find out about probabilities of finding water and at what depth. So who better to ask than the well driller. We found him in the process of putting in a well about 1/4 km from Ajan Nat's house. They used a combination of machine power and man power. In some layers, the driller would put all his weight and muscle to try to push the drill down by leaning into the long pole-handle.
August - Huai Lao Waterfall
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Huai Lao Waterfall
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The end of rainy season is a great time to check out some waterfalls, and this is sometimes what we will do on our day off. We will comb Google maps, looking for possible waterfalls to visit. On one trip, we had already been to two waterfalls—though one was barely a trickle—and we were driving down the road when we saw a sign for another. So we followed a dirt road for about 1/2 km to a parking area, but there were no signs anywhere as to where to go. We followed the most beaten trail and eventually saw a sign on a side trail. This trail led to some rapids and we were a bit disappointed. But then we noticed a track going downstream and following that we got to a place where we could scramble over some rocks to see the waterfall. More about that trip and the other waterfalls
here.
August - Making Muffins
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Making Muffins
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It is not unusual for Ingrid to invite some of the folks from our church when she does some baking. But this time was different, one of the ladies also invited some of her friends. So we were able to meet some new people as well as make muffins.
September - Shelf Clouds
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Shelf Clouds
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An eerie darkness had descended on the town. We stepped outside to check out what was happening and saw a cloud formation like we've never seen before. We grabbed our cameras and drove down to the lake for a better view. This unusual cloud reminded me of lenticular clouds that I've seen over the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Swiss Alps. But this was different. For one thing, this area is really flat and there are no mountains anywhere nearby. Secondly, these clouds were set in a very dark, foreboding cloudscape, whereas the lenticular clouds I have seen tend to stand out from the blue sky around them.
September - Making Khao Tom
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Making Khao Tom
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Often we will post pictures of when Ingrid invites people to make cookies, cake or muffins. This time around, Ingrid was invited to make some Thai goodies. On the menu was
khao tom. Khao tom means "boiled rice" and is used to describe soup made with boiled rice or, as in this case, treats made with rice, wrapped in leaves and steamed over boiling water. There are many variations of khao tom both in the ingredients used to make them and the shapes that they are wrapped into.
October - Ba Luang Waterfall Park
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Ba Luang Waterfall
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For this day off, we headed for a waterfall in Khon Kaen Province, just across the line from Kalasin. We had not lad a lot of rain, so our expectations were low. But we were surprised at the amount of water flowing down the creek at Ba Luang Waterfall. We were also impressed that this park also had a nice forest trail, which led to a small, ephemeral waterfall weeping off a little cliff. You can read more about that trip
here.
October - Baptism
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| Baptism |
We made another trip to Phon Phisai, this time taking a couple men from our church to see how the church in Phon Phisai does their outreach on Saturdays. One of the people we visited was getting baptized that Sunday. The leaders of the church convinced Oeng, who was one of our group, to get baptized also. I had been unable to convince him prior to this.
November - Wat Khao Chong Kracok
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The Stairway
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In November, we finally got away for our first vacation in 1-1/2 years. We went to Sam Roi Yod, which is a favorite hangout of ours. Even though we have been here many times before, we are always discovering new things. One day, we drove south to the town of Prachuap Kiri Khan to see some of the sights there. While driving back, we noticed a prominent hill on the north side of the city that appeared to have stairs going up to a shrine on top. Never one to turn down an opportunity to climb a hill with a good view, we snaked through town until we found the bottom of the stair case. We rented some bamboo sticks to ward off the monkeys (there were lots of them) and made good time climbing the 396 steps to the top (at least that's what the sign said, it seemed like more). One could actually climb some more steps to go to the back of the hill, which I did.
I was impressed with Ingrid persevering to the top—and also back to the bottom, as it was not easy going down all the stairs either.
November - Cave at the Golden Pavilion
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Cave at the Golden Pavillion
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One day while we we in Sam Roi Yod, we decided to go around to the back of the mountains to visit the largest freshwater marsh in Thailand called
Thung Sam Roi Yod (
Pictures here). Part of the national park there includes some of the marsh, and they had put in some meandering boardwalks so that one could appreciate the flora and fauna up close. We had been there before, and had enjoyed it. But this time, we were disappointed, because it had not been maintained. Very little of the board walk was usable and the stairs to the viewing tower were completely rotted out, so we did not spend a lot of time there. Instead, we took an alternate route back to our hotel, looking for other sightseeing opportunities along the way.
Google maps showed a pin for something called "Cave at the Golden Pavilion" and by judiciously ignoring some of Google Maps directions, we finally found the place. There was no sign anywhere along the way saying there was a cave. The only sign was indicating the presence of a cave was at the bottom of a stone stairway saying that the cave was closed. However, some people there told us that there were three levels to the cave, and that the first one was open. Because of COVID, it had been closed completely, but they were gradually reopening. They told us that in just a few days, the upper two levels would reopen, so we went back later to see more of the cave. However, before that second visit, a storm had shorted out the lights in the cave and we only had one headlight with us, so we only made it to the second level. One of the features of the cave is a green "waterfall," pictured above, which is actually rock formation that is green with algae.
December - Giant Fishing nets on the Pao River
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Fishing Nets in the Pao River
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Our home in Kamalasai is located on the banks of the Pao River. It is a sluggish, serpentine river, and there are lots of old, abandoned channels that are now sloughs. One day, we went for a walk about 2 km from our home to one of these sloughs. It is very pretty because they have left a lot of ancient dipterocarp trees along the waterway. When we got to where the slough met up with the present river channel, we spotted a small trail leading through a bamboo thicket. Following that, we ended up on the riverbank adjacent to some fishing contraptions. Using mostly bamboo for construction, they build these structures to lower and raise fishing nets into the river. The lighting and the reflections played tricks with our eyes. In the photo above, the net on the left is about 50 meters behind the one on the right.
December - Christmas Day Cookie Making
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Decorating Cookies
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We finish off this set of photos with one from Christmas day. Ingrid had been doing lots of cookie baking to get ready for some Christmas gatherings we were having. Some cookies we made at home, and some at Ajan Nat's house where we could invite others to come help. Our biggest day for baking and decorating ended up being Christmas day. We had several people come to help out, but I was most surprised how Oeng got into the cookie decorating. (He had help, but in this photo, the others are still baking and cutting cookies.) When we were done, we put them in little plastic boxes, about six to a box—and we had close to 100 boxes (and that's not counting all the cookies we had given away already!
We began the year with pie for me and ended with cookies for all. It was a year full of massive changes in our lives and lots of adventures and new places to explore. It was a year of opportunities to tell people about the love of God through Jesus Christ and see the start of two small worshiping communities in Kamalasai. There could be so many more stories. I sifted through over 10,000 photos to find 24 to display here.
Here's to another year of new adventures and opportunities.
Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith. - Galatians 6:10 (MSG)
