Think I forgot to mention this last time: you can look at all my albums on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann
For some reason, this blog web-site finds it amusing to keep switching everything into Thai (except for what I write). I keep switching it back to English, but it reverts to Thai. So now I've put it in German; maybe that will stick. I want to thank everyone who's praying for me back home. The past weekend, though filled with excitement, was so frustrating with culture shock and language barriers that for most parts of it (minus the biking), I felt like I could just burst into tears at any moment.
Today I seem to have had a small breakthrough with the language! We did some interesting and different stuff today. There is a ministry team here from Malaysia- which consists of an American guy, an Indonesian guy, and two Philipinos who are living here. The American and Indonesian came to scout out the area for possible short-term mission trips around this area, and they asked Paul to go along and help translate. So I joined them for fun. We visited a people group called the Moken, a fishing community- sea gypsies (that's what they're actually called; I'm not making that up). First, we visited an elderly couple who were looking after their 2 or 3-year-old granddaughter, who, upon seeing me, immediately attached herself to me for the remainder of our time there. She was adorable! She sat happily in my lap the whole time and frowned when we left. Then we walked around the village (?)- I guess it's more like a settlement of houses w/in Bang Niang- with a 17-year-old boy who explained to us some about their culture. It was really neat! They have a community center with pictures and descriptions of the history of their people, a school, and a little soccer field.
Today, for some reason, Thai started clicking with me! While Paul was conversing with people, I really started understanding bits and pieces from the context and from just recognizing words that are often repeated. I think I have also figured out what kinds of situations overwhelm me and what kinds don't. I feel fine hearing a lot of Thai if it's 1-on-1 or in smaller groups, like 5 people or so. But when I go to events with lots of people, like church or church meetings, and I'm the only one (or almost the only one) who doesn't speak Thai, I feel pretty uncomfortable. Part of that is also just because I feel shy around large groups of people I don't know!
This evening, the weather was nice, so Paul and I went swimming at the beach- caught some nice waves! It was sunny and hot today and yesterday. Maybe the rainy season is ending soon (which is kind of a bummer, b/c that means it'll just be hot!).
Ok, signing off now to try to get some better sleep tonight. Sleep has not been all that plentiful for me so far.
For some reason, this blog web-site finds it amusing to keep switching everything into Thai (except for what I write). I keep switching it back to English, but it reverts to Thai. So now I've put it in German; maybe that will stick. I want to thank everyone who's praying for me back home. The past weekend, though filled with excitement, was so frustrating with culture shock and language barriers that for most parts of it (minus the biking), I felt like I could just burst into tears at any moment.
Today I seem to have had a small breakthrough with the language! We did some interesting and different stuff today. There is a ministry team here from Malaysia- which consists of an American guy, an Indonesian guy, and two Philipinos who are living here. The American and Indonesian came to scout out the area for possible short-term mission trips around this area, and they asked Paul to go along and help translate. So I joined them for fun. We visited a people group called the Moken, a fishing community- sea gypsies (that's what they're actually called; I'm not making that up). First, we visited an elderly couple who were looking after their 2 or 3-year-old granddaughter, who, upon seeing me, immediately attached herself to me for the remainder of our time there. She was adorable! She sat happily in my lap the whole time and frowned when we left. Then we walked around the village (?)- I guess it's more like a settlement of houses w/in Bang Niang- with a 17-year-old boy who explained to us some about their culture. It was really neat! They have a community center with pictures and descriptions of the history of their people, a school, and a little soccer field.
Today, for some reason, Thai started clicking with me! While Paul was conversing with people, I really started understanding bits and pieces from the context and from just recognizing words that are often repeated. I think I have also figured out what kinds of situations overwhelm me and what kinds don't. I feel fine hearing a lot of Thai if it's 1-on-1 or in smaller groups, like 5 people or so. But when I go to events with lots of people, like church or church meetings, and I'm the only one (or almost the only one) who doesn't speak Thai, I feel pretty uncomfortable. Part of that is also just because I feel shy around large groups of people I don't know!
This evening, the weather was nice, so Paul and I went swimming at the beach- caught some nice waves! It was sunny and hot today and yesterday. Maybe the rainy season is ending soon (which is kind of a bummer, b/c that means it'll just be hot!).
Ok, signing off now to try to get some better sleep tonight. Sleep has not been all that plentiful for me so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment