Unexpected Reminders of the Past

Last week, I had unexpected reminders of my past that came in the form of a television series and from a sign beside the road.

D'Angelo

Recently, we finished watching a Thai series on Netflix. Full House was a nice series because it is from the old days of television (2014), back when it was possible for people to fall in love without having sex. The show was based on a Korean TV series and was filmed partly in Thailand and partly in Korea. The lead male character was named Mike. As I was looking through the credits, I noticed that the actor who played Mike was Mike D'Angelo. I thought, "with a name like that, he could be from my home town, Wolcott, CT, where D'Angelo is a common name." There is currently even a D'Angelo on the town council there.

Mike seemed to be Thai, however, so I did some research and found out his real name is Pirat Nitipaisalkul (พิรัชต์ นิธิไพศาลกุล) and that he is from Bangkok. So much for Thai stars from my hometown. Mike has since dropped the "D" and now goes by simply Mike Angelo. He has gone on to make shows in China and Hollywood (he speaks Thai, Chinese and English).

Om Aem (Sushar Manaying) and Mike (Mike D. Angelo) in Full House
Sushar is from the Isaan region of Thailand.

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Waterbury

We were driving along a highway in Kalasin Province and as we crossed a bridge, I noticed the sign for the waterway we were crossing. It was an irrigation canal and the word for irrigation in Thai is Chonlaprathan. The first syllable of the word, Chon, is a fancy way of saying water.

An irrigation canal (khlong chonlaprathan) in Kalasin

As I was reflecting on that word, I was reminded of a province where we lived ten years ago, Chonburi, which uses the same first syllable. The "-buri" of Chonburi is an epithet of place names in Thailand with the same meaning as the English "-bury". So, if I translate Chonburi into English I get Chon+buri = water+bury. Waterbury. The name of the city where I was born.

My hometown was a bedroom community for people that worked primarily in Bristol or Waterbury. Even though we lived about 1/2 mile from Bristol, we were Waterbury people, which was about 6 miles away. My father worked in Waterbury, we went to church there and did most of our shopping there. Interestingly, my aunt and uncle and my cousins lived just around the corner, but they were Bristol people. My uncle worked in Bristol and they went to church there and seemed to have more connections there.

There are a lot of D'Angelos in Waterbury, too.

Funny how many years later I end up living in "Waterbury" (Chonburi), Thailand.

Sunset in Chonburi. A city (-buri) with lots of water (Chon-).

Though it has been many years since I have lived in Connecticut, it was fun to get these two reminders of these significant places of my past.

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all;

Ecclesiastes 11:8a ESV

You’re never too young

For the past couple of weeks, we have had new helpers in the children’s program we are helping to run at Sila Church.  Some of those who were helping before we’re too tired from working long hours at their job to commit to the 2 hour a day, 4 day per week program that had been going on since before we came to Chonburi.

But then we got a new volunteer.  Upa is the only person in church who is older than us.  She faithfully comes to the twice-a-week program—driving up on her little motorcycle with sidecar.  She helps gather children to come and to walk them home.  She helps communicate some things that I still struggle to communicate with my rudimentary Thai.

And even though she is not completely literate in Thai, she is right there with the children in trying to learn English and learning new songs in both English and Thai.

Upa helping to lead new songs

All this from a very humble woman of little means who struggles with many health issues.

As we continue in our challenge to learn Thai, we sometimes think, “this would have been a lot easier 30 years ago when our brains were a bit fresher.”  Yet Upa is an inspiration to us—she does not let her age keep her from trying to learn new things.  If Upa can do it, so can we.

God, I thank you for the wonderful people like Upa that you have placed in our lives.  Thank you for the inspiration they bring to us.  I pray that you give Upa strength and wisdom so that she can continue to be a bright light for you in Ang Sila.  I pray that you will use her faith to bring many others into your kingdom as she faithfully serves you.

Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."--1 Peter 5:5 (NKJV)

The Rise

Front view of The Rise

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. Psalm 20:7-8 (ESV)



We have been in our new place just over a week now and I think we finally have things unpacked—at least as much as we need for these 4 months.  Our new place is called The Rise and it is located behind one of the main shopping malls in Chonburi.  The tenants are primarily Thai but there are a few foreigners as well.  There must be enough foreigners here that some of the local restaurants have the main menu in English.

Our new place is less than a 5 minute walk from the office which makes it really convenient for when we need to go there.  And the mall, which is slightly further, has two grocery stores to choose from!

View of Central Plaza from the roof (behind the pink building)

Our place in The Rise is a bit of a let-down from the old place in Bangkok—16 floors to be exact.  We’ve moved from a 22nd floor to a 6th floor.  But there is a nice rooftop which we can get to which offers views in all directions—from the Gulf of Thailand to the west to the hills to the east.  It’s nice to have a view of some green space, which is a bit different than Bangkok.

Even though Chonburi is a much smaller city than Bangkok, there is still lots of traffic, on weekends especially.  This is because there are two popular attractions—the mall is popular with the locals and the ocean is popular with the people from outside of town.  I have just started driving this week so I am trying to get used to some of the unwritten driving rules (which are often contrary to the written ones).  It’s amazing how long one has to wait to make a right turn in some places (since we drive on the left side, this is similar to making a left turn across traffic in North America.) 

On the roof with the ocean in the background

Our apartment is a bit larger than the one we had in Bangkok and is designed much more nicely.  There are three rooms plus a bathroom—living/dining room, kitchen and bedroom.  The big plus is the kitchen—while it is not terribly large, it actually has cupboard space.  It has no window screens—though we hope to change the situation soon—but it does have air conditioning.  Lately we’ve been having lots of gusty breezes blowing, which makes it more comfortable.  (Yesterday we were enjoying the cool evening breeze after the rain and I checked and saw that the temperature was 85F/29C.)

Some of the green space visible from the roof

Even though we have only been here a really short while, we have already become quite involved in the different ministries here in Chonburi: The Abundant Life Homes Orphanage, the Sila Church and the Thailand Mennonite Brethren Foundation office.  But we ill say more about those later.  Meanwhile, here are some pictures of our new home:

Living/Dining Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bedroom

Convenience

As the time draws near for our departure from Bangkok, we realize that there are some things we will miss after we move away from Bangkok.  One thing that is very convenient for us here is the plethora of street vendors within a quarter mile of our place selling all kinds of food—both raw and prepared.

Pretty much every day we walk past a three-way intersection where the side street we live on meets the main road and where there is a pedestrian overcrossing to get over the main road.  At that corner are two of our favorite vendors.

Lek

Lek wheels his fruit cart to that intersection about 10 am each day and stays until about 1:30 pm, when he moves his cart elsewhere.  He parks his cart in front of a 7-11 that is adjacent to a massage parlor.  Lek has the most consistently sweet fruit.  We usually get pineapple, papaya and watermelon from him.  He also sells guava, green mangos and a fruit which is given the English name gooseberry, but is not even closely related to those species of Ribes that we know in North America.

It didn’t take long for Lek to realize that he did not need to put packets of sugar mixed with chili powder in the bags with our fruit.

There are other fruit vendors in our neighborhood as well, some have a slightly different selection of fruit.  Some vendors actually soak their fruit in salty sugar-water before putting it on their cart—can’t say I’m too excited about salty pineapple.  Perhaps they do this because they don’t know how to pick out the naturally sweet fruit like Lek does.  Some vendors prepackage their fruit on Styrofoam trays, which to me is just a waste of resources.  Most vendors cut their fruit up on the spot and then place it in plastic bags.

Waev and Aun

The other vendor we like to buy from is the coffee stand run by Aum and Waev.  This couple is very talkative and they help me practice Thai  by asking all kinds of questions.  Their coffee sells for 35 baht for a blended drink (just over a dollar) which is average for street vendors and about  1/3 the price one pays at Starbucks.  I never was much of a iced coffee drinker until I came to Bangkok where it is hot and humid pretty much all the time, so that I seldom drink hot coffee except early in the morning.  So perhaps once a week I will pick up a blended mocha from Aum and Waev on my way back from class.

Another thing that has been convenient for us in Bangkok is the public transportation.  One does not need a car to get around this town.  There are taxis, motorcycle taxis, three wheeled taxis, buses, the Sky Train, Subway, Canal and River Ferries, public vans and the regular train.  The one we have used the most has been the sky train. It is about the fastest way to get to places, so if the place we are going is near a stop we will take the sky train.  For the past year I have been carrying around a 30 day refillable sky train pass.  Since they are switching to a different system, this will soon be obsolete.

Sky Train Pass

The place we are moving to in Chonburi does not have many street vendors around like here in Bangkok.  It will take is a while to figure out things like where the best place is to buy fruit and cooked food. Chonburi also does not have as many public transportation options. So, while there are many things that we won’t miss when we leave the big city, there are some things that we will.

There are two very nice conveniences about the place we are moving to, though.  It is less than a quarter mile to our office and it is about 1/4 mile to a very large shopping mall (=air-conditioned refuge).  The mall has two large grocery stores in it!

As with any other move we have made, there are always adjustments to make.  But soon we will be into the swing of things in our new location.

And the good thing is that wherever we go God is already there.

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 NLT