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

Bookends

 
Yesterday, it occurred to me that one way to look back at a year is to look at the first and last photos I took during the year. 

Last year was full of so many changes, January seems but a distant memory.  So how did my last year begin, photographically?



There it is—the place in my old truck where the catalytic converter used to be—before it was stolen.  I found out that Toyotas have a good reputation for quality catalytic converters—which must be the case since this one was 11 years old.  I also found out how loud a vehicle can be without noise suppression devices attached to the engines.

Skip forward a year.

We’re living in a new country and in an urban environment that is more foreign to us than the country of Thailand itself. We have no vehicles.  We haven’t even driven a car since March, we drove a rental car to Los Angeles airport on the way to Thailand.  While we sometimes lament not having a vehicle as it would be nice to have a vehicle to get away from the city, we really have no desire to drive in Bangkok itself.  And so we are like many millions of others in this city who manage to survive without one.

(I have driven a motorcycle a couple of times in the past year—first time doing that since the first year we lived in Haiti (30 years ago).  I used it to get around Chonburi a little—I’m not brave enough to try driving one in the big city.  I found out that big feet are not terribly compatible with small motorcycles.  It is a bit of a trick to downshift.)

So how do we get around now?  Here are the options we have used since moving to Thailand:

• City bus (with and without air conditioning)
• Sky Train
• Subway
• River ferry
• Canal ferry
• Tour bus
• Public van
• Motorcycle taxi
• Three wheel taxi
• Four-wheel taxi
• Airplane
• Walking (not so easy in Bangkok)
• Elevator (I throw this in because in Fresno it would be easy to go a year without using one, now we use them every day)

As  for my photographic year-end, I would have thought that it might have been some photos of end-of the year fireworks as the Thai people celebrate New Year’s eve.  But that would be my second-to-the-last photo.

Instead, I photographed this beautiful (?) moth that Ingrid spotted in the house where we spent New Year’s eve.



If this moth was on an old tree trunk or if it was sitting amongst a bunch of dried up leaves, it would be almost impossible to see.  However it’s camouflage is not terribly effective on an orange tablecloth.

Reminds me of how God has designed each of us in a unique way so that we can fit in with the environment He has created us for.  And God gives us spiritual gifts that enable us to be effective members of the Body of Christ as we work together with the other parts of the body.  When we work in an area where we get to use these gifts and where the way we are created is compatible with our environment, there is much joy and peace.  And when we do otherwise we are like this brown moth on the orange tablecloth.

There have been a few instances this past year where we have been like this moth and we’ve found two different ways to deal with it.

Change Yourself
 
When we first moved to the BIG city, we were definitely out of our environment.  But God gave us grace to adapt—like some animals that can change their color to suit the changing environment.  Now we find that there are aspects of city life that we actually like!  Who would have thought?

Change Your Environment

Another way we have experienced the brown-moth-on-the-orange-tablecloth syndrome is in regard to language learning.  As Ingrid tried to study language in a classroom environment, she experienced a lot of frustration.  So, we had to find a different-colored tablecloth.  Now she is enjoying language learning as she works with a private tutor.

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” 1 Corinthians 12:18-21 (NLT)

I might add to the above verses, “If the eye tries to do the work of the hand, it won’t be pretty!”

The next set of bookends

I haven’t taken my first photo of this year yet.  I wonder what it will be?