Party Animals!

Wow! It seems like this Christmas season is just zinging by. My schedule is packed through next Friday already. Last weekend we celebrated Christmas at the Bang Na Daycare .

Yesterday was my language school's Christmas party. You could tell that morning that everyone had an extra skip in their step. Even though we were all testing that morning, no one seemed to be thinking about it rather they were getting ready for our big party! The kitchen was packed with people and food. Even our principle had donned an apron over her pretty red and green outfit and was helping prepare some meat. One dish we had been told about all week was Werner's spaghttie! We were released early and Ping came home with us. After eating lunch we went up to Sarah's apartment to watch part of the original Pride and Predjudice movie while we decorated Christmas cookies. We got to back to the train station near our school earlier than we thought so we decided to stop for some coffee, and man was I surprised! I had almost forgotten what real coffee tasted like. It was amazing and of course we got to eat a Christmas cookie on the side! By the time we got to school most of the teachers were in a full frenzy! Some had already done their makeup. Some were walking around with cowboy hats on. Some were in traditional Thai dancing outfits. The principle was still in an apron cooking. The husbands who had to come early because their wives were Thai dancing were helping carry food downstairs, and bringing clothing, hairdryers, shoes, makeup, etc. It was just crazy! My teacher Phimjai went straight to work caking my face in make-up. All the while Ping was running around taking pictures of everything, Robert was playing Sudoku, Hak and Kelly's kids were having a great time playing with each other, Sarah and Hak were practicing their lines while Cuthatip corrected them and instructed them how to be more emphatic. When Phimjai donned orchids in my hair, I was finished and she declared that I had taken off the American look and now looked Asian! All I had to do was don my Thai sarong and I was ready to go. The party started with an introduction to the evenings activities, as well as Christmas songs, a reading from Isaiah in many different languages and a devotion by a Finnish Lutheran pastor who is a current student.

After that we moved to the other side of the patio and got our food!!!!! We all sat on the ground-Thai style and ate everything from Salsa to Phad-thai. While we ate were entertained or entertained each other with various performances, karaoke, and gift drawings. "Team Asia" sang Amazing Grace in Thai, Japanese, and Chinese. "Team USA" sang The Twelve Days of Thai Class. The American Girls did a Thai Dance. 2 different groups of teachers did different dances, and some other students did magic shows or sang and played songs traditional of their country. It was soo fun! I think everyone had a great time, and got a chance to just let our hair down and celebrate the evening. All in all, a great success! For all the pictures from the evening click here.

Ok, so that brings me to today. It didn't seem like there was anything major going on, but it turned out to be quite interesting and adventurous today (at least it felt that way). Sarah and I went to the post office so she could mail a package and so I could buy a box to mail a package. The internet and the front door said that the office was opened until 1pm so when we got there at 12:10 we were surprised that there were only like 8 employees there who were in a real hurry to close the shop. Some guy whisked Sarah's package away while someone else was running around locking doors and turning the lights out. Before that I went to the counter to buy a box and the lady said something I didn't understand in Thai until she turned a sign around saying that they closed at noon. (that is the second time I've struck out trying to buy a box already, grrr is how I started feeling). When Sarah finished, we discovered that we couldn't leave because the doors were locked, instead we had to walk around the counter, through the doors that said employees only and then out through the loading docks and down the right alley that didn't already have the gates closed. We hailed a cab from there and the driver kept laughing at himself or talking under his breath which was a little awkward. I assumed that some of it was just making fun of us for trying to give directions to him in Thai like we do all the time. We discovered on the ride there that Bangkok decided to day was just going to be a traffic jam in the middle of the day=weird. When we got near church we told the driver to "Liaw sai tea soi sip-gow", which means turn left at street nine-teen, but instead he nearly drove past it then scolded us saying we shouldn't speak Thai and just speak English because we were saying 99 or 95 or something. I know he was wrong of course because sip-gow is not the same as gow-sip-gow or gow-sip-ha. Oh well, so then when I said in English 3 times to stop at the church and he didn't, Sarah finally said "jot" and he got that. By that time I was feeling a little bit irritated for no good reason. We waited outside with the tent guys for 20 minutes while we waited for someone with a key to arrive and then the afternoon turned to normal. We wrapped and packaged presents for all the children that are coming to the church tomorrow for our Chrismas party, and then we decorated all over the place, inside and out. One good thing about Thailand is that the weather is pretty predictable. This time of year they know that they can put up decorations outside the night before because it won't rain. So, this year I had my first experience wrapping garland around a coconut tree! It was also nice that we had so much time to spend with the church members outside of the more formal church morning. We interacted so much and I felt like we all had a chance to just relax and enjoy our time with each other. No one was dressed up and everyone was helping each other. Pastor Taweep and Wan even played tug-of-war with each other, and we got to explain to them what this banner that said "Jesus Loves Ewe" meant because apparently it had never made any sense to them. I also got to speak Thai in a more normal setting, and saw everyone from a different perspective. It was like an adopted family in a way since we were all going through the motions of preparing for Christmas and even had snacks and listened to Christmas music. I will forever have the Thai version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas stuck in my head! Cau hai me kwam suk wan Chris-mat, Cau hai me kwam suk wan Chris-mat, le sawat-dii phii-may!!

Food

Here it is finally! I think I've finally got an expansive enough set of pictures of some of the food I eat here. Before coming to Thailand I had never had Thai food and had no idea there could be so many ways to make rice. It's like potatoes for us. The first thing you learn when eating Thai food is how to eat it. Almost all the dishes are eaten with a fork and spoon. the fork is used to push the food onto a spoon. Even a lot of noodle dishes are eaten that way. Occasionally they will use chopsticks to eat soup or noodle dishes. It just depends. When I first got here I bought a lot of my food at the grocery store, but now nearly all of it comes from the local market or street vendors I pass on the way home or on the way to school. The fruit here is just wonderful. I eat fresh pineapple nearly everyday! Also eating at the garage kitchens around here is really inexpensive so nearly every day that's where I eat my lunch with Sarah 3 of my teachers as well as several other students.

This first dish is called Kai Jee-oww Muu saap which is a Thai-style omelette with minced porked meat cooked in it (or plain or with vegetables) served on a bed of rice and with thai chili sauce over it! It's a must try if you ever eat Thai food. When Dang teaches me how to make it, I will even cook it for you!

The next is called satay and it's often found at street vendors. Basically meat on a stick served with sticky rice that you eat with your hands. Following that we have types of food that are called kap-khaw which means "with rice". So they are plates of food that are supposed to be eaten over rice and range from fried minnows to stir-fried veggies.These are a couple examples of kap-khaw: egg and squash and bitter-root with eggAnd ginger chicken with black fungus.

The next one some people are familiar with. It's Phad Thai. Since it's often served with shrimp I don't always order it but it is still pretty good, and what most foreigners are familiar with. This brings me to the next plate which is one of my all-time-Asian-food-favorites; fried rice. This isn't the kind I usually get. This is a pineapple fried rice that I got at a hotel.

The next on our plate is my latest favorite called Phat-see-eww. It is rice noodles that are stir-fried with egg, veggies or meat and then covered in soy sauce! Mmm...so good!

Next on our plate are desserts. If you ever see bundles of banana leaves, you are almost sure to find some sort of desert sticky rice, that either has banana, taro or some other sort of sweet mixture on top of it. Don't pass it up though and even enjoy it with a cup of coffee or thai tea.Another desert, are these little things; fried banana! They are coated in -I don't know what- but they are really good. All the visitors we've shown around here we've had them eat these.

Thai food can be very spicy, especially dishes like Phat-phak boong, and Som-tom. More than once I've cleared my sinuses and burned my lips eating hot food, but not all of it is like that, and you can always ask for it to not be spicy. This is only a very small portion of all the different food I've had here. Some foods like this: I avoid. I'm not a fan of having my food watch me eat it, and I stay away from things like frogs, crickets, snails, and organs too!

I think that's about all for now on the food. We'll see what the next topic will be. For now though there are a lot of things coming up very quickly in the next two weeks, so I'll try hard to keep up with them! Cheers!

Bangkok Art Center

Two more days til Christmas break!!!!! I'm so excited! Today was also exciting at school. My class went on a field trip to the Bangkok Art Center. It just opened recently so there wasn't alot there but it was still exciting. My class this term consists of 5 other students and my teacher named Phimjai. She is really sweet and friendly. She is also part of the group of us that goes to lunch everyday after school. Anyway, I am the only girl in my class. The rest of the students are from America, The Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Singapore. At the center we saw two exhibits. One was Bangkok and what it looked like before the introduction of wester influence and the other was Bangkok after the introduction of western influence. It was pretty neat, and I was glad for a break from reading Thai. We still had some time to kill so we went downstairs to their art library and a few of us took advantage of the free internet. I even got to talk to Sarah Steiner on IM!! Here's a few pictures of the trip.

Santa visits Bang Na

Today was the annual Christmas celebration at the Bang Na daycare. I had never been there before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. All the LCMS staff carpooled with Dang and we drove and drove and drove. When we finally got there I was totally surprised because we turned off the freeway into an alley. I knew right away when we got to the right place because Lek was waiting at the gate with a bunch of other children, parents and daycare staff wearing santa claus hats. The way they received us made me feel like we were stepping out onto the red carpet at a movie premier. They were so happy to see us, it seemed like some of them were tripping over each other to greet us. The rest of the morning was just a blur of activity.

Mostly, just try to think of 70 children brimming and overflowing with excitement that they can't contain. They know today is special because there are so many people; guests, parents, former students, volunteers and neighbors there. They know that by the end of it at least one of the gifts donated to the center and sitting on that huge pile by the Christmas tree will be all theirs. It may be the only gift they get this Christmas. While they await the arrival of Santa, it's all fun and games. They laugh and giggle, at the adults as they run around trying to be the first team to pass a balloon over their head and run to the front of the line before the other team does. They do the same as they struggle to pass a rubberband to each other only using a straw held in their lips. Even though they can't understand some of the English speaking visitors introduce the music, they all join in on the familiar song of Jingle Bells. Waiting in the wings are all the angels dressed up for their nativity play they are getting ready to perform. They've already made it through hair and makeup and now have beautiful braids and glitter in their hair. One girl is particularly enjoying the fact that whenever she twirls around she looks like a ballerina. I'm not sure exactly but I am guessing that all the clothes they are dressed up in belong to the center as most of the children wouldn't be able to afford them. They are all so proud of themselves, performance after performance. There is everything from a traditional Thai Monkey dance, to a dramatization of the nativity.

At the center of all of this activity and excitement of course, is the message that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas! It's so amazing the kind of effect that children have on adults. They brought so much joy to me as they just radiated happiness. When they were getting their presents from Santa (one of the regular volunteers, a student from Germany) I almost felt like crying. They had so little, yet they were so happy. For the first time I was able to see firsthand what a blessing the children's ministry at Bang Na is. It's really exciting also to know that our church in Phong Phet is determined to start a church there now, and I look forward to visiting there regularly when school is finished!! Enjoy the pictures!

SHE'S HERE!!!!

Well, finally after much anticipation, waiting and praying, my niece Ariana Grace Williams has finally arrived!!!!! God be praised!

She was born on December 5th and weighed 6lbs, 8oz. My brother Jasen called me Friday night to tell me they were on the way to the hospital, so having to wait a whole day to hear the news and see pictures made the day so much longer! My sister and Ariana are doing just fine. Big brother Marshall got to camp out with Grandpa Karkan the whole night in the waiting room. This is what they were doing at 3:00am :D They apparently had a whole stock-load of video games to keep them occupied when they weren't sleeping. Grandpa also had to take him on laps of the hospital after Ariana was born, because he couldn't sit still to contain his excitement at meeting his sister. Grandma of course was very proud of the fact that she was up the entire time, but admits falling asleep before she hit the pillow when they got home that night. Grandpa of course is very proud and will have a lot to learn now that he has a grandaughter to spoil as well as Marshall.

It makes me so sad to think that I can't run right over to the hospital and hold her and touch her baby skin and hold her tiny hands and feet in the palm of my hand. She'll change so much every day, and by the time I see her she'll practically double in size. As sad as this makes me feel, the joy I feel from this new blessing God has given our family entirely outweighs the sadness. I know my parents will make sure that she is never deprived of hugs and kisses, and that I will have a full photo library to keep me updated on how she's doing.

In addition to prayers of Thanksgiving for Ariana's safe arrival, please remember Aaron's mom. She wasn't able to be there for Ariana's birth because she was hit by a car that was fleeing another accident scene going 80mph. She is in the hospital in serious condition with several broken bones and a concussion. The guy driving the car on a suspended license however got to go home. We'll keep praying for him too.

The Shed-yule!

Today was just such a great day! Aside from the fact that the government in Thailand is in a bit of shambles, there are a lot of good things to report. For one, it's December already and I can hardly believe it. The weather has cooled down quite a lot for us with chilly 68 degree mornings and comfortably warm 83 degree afternoons and evenings. For the Thai's this is practically freezing and everyone walks around with sweaters and jackets on-no joke! Last night I was fiddling around with my computer and managed to completely mess it up to the point where I didn't have internet and then did long enough to call CougarNet and have them help me.


There are so many things planned this month that I can't wait for. At school we have a Christmas dinner planned along with a show that consists of performances by students and our teachers. We were all divided into regional teams, so we are on team America doing a Thai-school rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. Then, my teacher is teaching all the girls on our team traditional Thai dance. It's so fun! We practice during our breaks and of course our teacher makes it look so easy and graceful. A lot of the hand gestures require you to bend your wrists and fingers into nearly impossible positions, but it's still fun to learn. We don't get the cool outfits though.


Also at school, one of our teachers is getting married to one of the other students in January and a lot of us students are invited to their wedding in Hua Hin so we are starting to make plans to carpool there together. They are so excited, and we are excited for them as well. They are an older couple and neither have ever been married before. She is Thai and he is Swiss.


This Friday the 5th, we have off of school because it is the King's birthday, which is a major holiday here filled with parades and all sorts of celebrations. It will be like a sea of yellow this Friday. Next Tuesday we have another day off because it is Constitution Day that day. Hmm...I wonder if this day will be celebrated in the future.

On the 13th of December we get to go to the Bang Na daycare for the first time to meet all the children there and help out with their Christmas program.


In other news, I was able to get in touch with someone I knew from my first year at Concordia and find out that she and the people she is travelling with are fine, despite being stranded in Thailand for 2 weeks longer than they planned. I had been worried that they were stranded at the airport this whole time and found out that the Thai tourism board is taking care of them and housing them in a hotel in town. So that's good news!


On the 21st we are having a Christmas celebration at Concordia Lutheran Church Phongphet, and we have a whole agenda planned, including dressing Pastor Bob up as Rudolf and having all the other "missionary group" people sing Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer. That's our addition of American humour!


The next day on the 22nd the LCMS and CWEFT people are going to the north near Burma I think, to a refugee camp to share Christmas with the people there. That will be very exciting I'm sure! I think we wither come back Christmas Eve or Day.

I feel like I am missing something else, but I'm sure I will bring it up eventually. Now it's time for homework!

In The News

Tuesday night I got back to Bangkok, only to discover that the protesters had become more than just a nuisance. Instead they decided to get the world's attention by closing down one of the largest airports in Asia causing thousands of travellers to be stranded there. We weren't sure what exactly was going on when we got there, only that there was a mass of people trying to get out of the airport and taxi's refused to take people out for less than 800 baat. We turned them down at first because we though they were just scammers. Then I noticed that I got a message from Dang who was worried about us. She called me and told us to get out because the protesters were building blockades and eventually no one could get in there. We were blessed to get a taxi that only charged 700baat for the trip home. Nonetheless we made it and are safe. Mostly everyone here is frustrated because of what they are doing to the economy and for inciting alot of unnecessary fear. A lot of people here depend on tourism for their livelihood, and this is the high tourism season. Already several hotels have announced that they will have to lay people off next month because everyone has cancelled their reservations. We just pray that this will end soon and that no one else will be hurt. For now it's life as usually for most people here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this was definitely the most unusual Thanksgiving I've ever celebrated. It started like every other day, meaning I went to school. The temperature outside was a cool 77ish degrees that morning. I had Thanksgiving lunch in a Thai garage kitchen which consisted of rice and spicy crispy pork with stir-fryed vegetables. Then things got a little more normal. We went to Pastor Bob and Diana's house for dinner. They invited everyone from church and the office, but only about 14 people were there at various times. Pastor Bob's brother wasn't feeling well so he and his wife had to miss out on Turkey ;( Here's Diana getting the Turkey ready to eat. We had lots of Thai fruit, and desserts as well as the American standard mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams and pumpkin pie! Mmmmm-mmm good! After dinner we all sat down for a Thanksgiving devotion led by Pastor Bob, and then we just visited with each other. It was a great evening. When I got home that night I called my family and got to be the computer in the room. It wasn't the same as sitting around the family table but at least I got to say hi to everyone and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.

Hong Kong

I don't even know where to start! My visa expired on the 24th, so that meant it was time for my first visa run. According to the other missionaries in Hong Kong, it was the perfect month to do it, and I can't say I disagree! Hong Kong is such an entirely different city from Bangkok, so I spent most of the time there in a daze. For one thing Hong Kong is hilly and mountainous and everything is dense and compact. There are hundreds of skyscrapers there and incredible views of the city everywhere you go. Even from our guest house we had a pretty good night view. Transportation was really convienient and had us going all over the city in a relatively short period of time. The Thai Embassy didn't open until Monday morning so Sunday we did other things to keep us busy. First went to the LCMS-WM office and met up with everyone taking the shuttle van to church on Hong Kong island. That's where I met Carl Hanson and his family, as well as Hank Rowland, a good friend of my former Pastor. We concluded as good Lutherans always do, that the Lutheran world is ever small.

Church was so nice. The people there were very friendly. Carl led a great bible study and we got to sing hymns with an organ (for some that's not a big deal, but believe me it was great.) Afterwards we took pictures and chatted with people. We took the shuttle bus back to the office and went to lunch at the guest house restaurant. They gave us the wrong food, but at least it had rice, so we got something to eat. I also had almond milk, which was interesting and reminded me of Christmas cookies that are baked with almond extract.

That afternoon was spent exploring with Emily who lives in Hong Kong and is friends with Sarah. She took us to the Peak via the Peak tram. I would definitely recommend it for anyone visiting. Even though the weather was a little hazy we still had incredible views of the city from the Peak. We had American food at Bubba Gumps with a window view of the city. I hadn't eaten a burger since I left the States, so it tasted really good. I could only eat half of it though because the portions in Hong Kong are huge compared with Bangkok. By the time we made it back we were pretty tired.

On Monday we made our way to the Thai Embassy by 9:15. Once we got all the paper work in order, it only took 10 minutes. We left around 11am and met Josh from the LCMS-WM office. He was our tour guide for part of the afternoon and evening. He took us to this great noodle shop, where we got beef brisket noodles that tasted just like beef stew! I had no idea where we were going as we wound in and around these hilly streets. I know we walked past the world's longest escalator, and then found ourselves at a buddhist temple, surprisingly the first one I had seen in all of Hong Kong. It was interesting to notice the difference from Thai Wats and the Chinese temple. For one thing, I was able to take pictures to show them to people and give them more of an idea of what I'm talking about. Imagine trying to describe this room filled with burning incense spirals that are supposed to take these prayers written on the cards to spirits or whatever they believe it's good for?

After a break at the guest house we went to a market, and then met Josh for dinner for the "best burger in town". Then, we went to a night market and bartered for some cool Christmas presents. By the time we got back to the guest house, I wanted to do nothing but sleep.

Tuesday came and we already had to pack to go home. We picked up our passports from the embassy and spent our free time taking a cable-car ride up a mountain and to see the "Big Buddha"- a glorified tourist destination and great calve workout. For me I was glad to make it all the way up without stopping. We took our pictures and then checked out the monastary nearby. That was pretty cool looking, and also nice that we were allowed to just take pictures anywhere.

After our picture taking was over we headed back to the office to pick up our stuff and catch a flight back to Thailand. That proved to be interesting itself. More about that later. For more pictures of the trip click here.

Friends in ALL places

So, I get a message from Bryn this week, "we have a PLI team from TX and WI visiting Bangkok this week and they would like to meet up with you and Sarah or anyone else there if you have time, let me know if it will work."

....I still don't know what a PLI team is, BUT we met some of them today and had a great time! Pastor Wayne Braun and his wife Linda from Texas along with Pastor John ? and his wife Stephanie from Milwaukee treated us to lunch at their hotel, and man was it a treat. They stayed at the Bangkok Marriot on the Chao Praya River. Sarah and I got off the train just in time to catch the river taxi over there. On the way there we got fresh, cold towelettes that smelled like lemons to refresh ourselves. The weather was absolutely beautiful today probably because it was cloudy making it not so hot.

Their hotel was really nice. We met them upstairs in the lobby and then ate at the buffet lunch. I can't remember the last time I ate that much food. I really enjoyed chatting with them and getting to know them. They were so friendly. After lunch they wanted to go to shopping at Siam, so we went with them. Once again I got to be Tour-Guide-Barbie-Betsy as Sarah Steiner calls me. I love knowing a place well enough that I can make visitors enjoy their time there. I think it just makes the experience all the more meaningfull and enjoyable. Plus it was the first time I felt like this was my city; neat! So the first place we went to at Siam was in the Paragon food hall. I bought them some fried bananas which they loved and then we watched the chef's make roti (and then we ate it of course). They were looking for more Thai souvenir stuff, so then we took them to MBK. Even if you don't buy anything there, it's still an experience in itself. It's like wall to wall stores ranging from Jewelry and shoes, to cell phones and pirated movies. It's not quite a flea market or market, but it's not like an established store in the states. I mean, no one walks into Old Navy and tries to barter the price of a shirt with the sales clerk. Even though the stores are semi-questionable occasionally MBK is a very modern building and thousands of people go through it every day. Quite the difference from our version of a shopping mall. Stephanie was looking for shoe's, but struck out. By the time we made it through the souvenir area, we were all pretty tired and it was already 5pm. They had dinner reservations and we had to head back. We parted ways at the Siam interchange station, glad to have made 4 new friends. Here's me with John, Stephanie, Linda and Wayne.

Respects to the Princess

This weekend the entire Kingdom of Thailand is in mourning at the funeral of the King's sister Galayani Wattana. She died earlier this year in January of cancer at the age of 84. She was very much loved by the people of this country. Much like the King and Queen she was known for her work in helping the people of Thailand.

It may seem unusual for many reading this to think that they waited 11 months before they had her funeral, but this is apparently not unusual for the arrangements of Thai royalty to take this long. It seems to be a combination of Buddhist traditions as well as planning the event that led to this day. It is my understanding from what I've been told that when any person dies here, they are usually embalmed and the person stays with the family for awhile. Depending on how wealthy the person is they will stay at the temple and priests will pray for them even as long as 100 days. After this, the person is then cremated in a public ceremony with friends and family members present. Till this week, the princess has been lying in state at the Grand Palace.

I wasn't sure exactly when her funeral was supposed to be, but when Sarah and I were walking down the street today it was pretty evident what was going on, as 4 out of 5 people were dressed in black. Right after she died, everyone dressed in mourning clothes for 3 months. The funeral procession was quite elaborate and involved thousands of marching soldiers and a huge gilded crematorium of which, I've only seen pictures. I imagine that there would have been no way for us to go to the funeral as millions of other people were there, and we would have no clue what was going on. Still, I think it is interesting to note the extreme dedication, love and respect for the royal family that the Thai people have. Many are hoping that this time of unity will continue even after the mourning is over.

Loi Krathong

Well, that was interesting. Tonight in Thailand they are celebrating an event called Loi Krathong or the "festival of light". All night I've been listening to fireworks and the sounds of music from our apartment buildings celebration down by the pool. The celebrations here I guess are various and range from a week long celebration in Chiang Mai or big parades and fireworks, costume contests and float contests in Sukothai where it originated. I tried to look it up online to figure out just what it is, and of course I got 5 different stories. Anyway, Sarah's landlord really loves inviting Sarah to do various activities and tonight she invited us to come along to the celebrations they were having at our apartment building. We weren't so sure about what we were supposed to do when we got there and certainly didn't want them to expect us to pray to the Buddha or anything like that. Thankfully she knows we are Christian, so we were pretty confident we wouldn't have to do anything like that. Most people in Bangkok will go to a Wat or go to the Chao Praya river to celebrate with huge crowds of people, but large businesses and apartment buildings also have their own. Our apartment building made a makeshift pond outside our pool area for everyone to take part in the festival. Traditionally people buy or make these floats made of banana leaves and flowers, but they also have ones that are made out of bread. Sarah's landlord had bought floats for us and her friend that was with her. I got one that was made out of green bread. When we got there there were lots of people milling around. Some were taking pictures, some were cooking food like it was a barbeque, others had tables set up where people could make their own floats, and there were lots of little kids dressed up in cute costumes running around with sparklers.We pretty much followed the Thai's lead, once we got our floats together and lit, we cast them out onto the water. According to Sarah's landlord this is supposed to represent letting go of bad feelings and wrong doings. It made me think of how as a Christian we could use that type of imagery to present the Gospel to the Thai people. Light and water are definitely powerful images in Christian teachings, as well as Buddhist teachings. So, how can we change the meaning of these symbols to celebrate Christ being the light of the world? Or how can we use the concept of water and baptism to parallel the symbolism in Buddhism of casting their sins on the water to cleanse themselves from evil. Perhaps that is how. In this place that is so darkened by Satan and his false teachings the light of Christ still shines brightly and through baptism we are daily renewed and washed clean of our sins. Here's one last glance at my float, even though many of the other lights had gone out this one was still shining :D