A spoonerism and a nail in Paul's foot

Paul said a couple of funny spoonerisms today, but the only one I can remember is "it's not that the sin was fruitful, but..." (he meant: it's not that the fruit was sinful...). 

 A conversation between me and Ton the other day went like this (in Thai, which is why it turned out so funny):

Ton: Where did you go eat with Kim?

Me: the Viking

Ton: Nice. Has Kim left yet?

Me: I ate pizza for dinner.

Ton: ???

Me: Wait, what did you ask me?

  This is what happens when you try to learn a foreign language.

 On a not-so- funny note, Paul stepped on a rusty nail at the beach yesterday while playing volleyball. It apparently went into his foot pretty far, but he continued to serve the ball after that! Then Megan drove him home on the motorbike, and he went to the clinic to have it cleaned and get a shot. He has a really good attitude though, and I'm amazed that he's still doing all his usual things while hobbling around a bit. 

 

 

 

A big meal, a great family, new classes, and some time with Jeab

Dinner with a few friends on Sunday night after soccer :)- and the Honeyman family with their two kids, from Bangkok

At Jeab's house

Rong (Jeab's husband), Ton, Liz! (she's visiting us for a few days)

the boys cleaning up after dinner on Sunday night

For the past three weeks, there was a lovely family from Bangkok staying here at Step Ahead-the Honeymans, with their two children and their nanny. The husband is American and the wife is Thai.  Paul and Yeewa Honeyman helped us out with several things around Step Ahead: Yeewa helped Megan translate her surveys, visited the preschools, and she taught the kids in Lam Kaen in my and Pia's place while I was in Phuket. They were so kind and generous, always encouraging us and genuinely concerned about our well-being. Sunday was their last night here, and Paul and his oldest son joined us for soccer at the beach, and then they treated all of us (almost 20 people!) to dinner at Step Ahead. We were sad to see them go on Monday morning!

 Our friend Liz, one of the British girls who taught here for two months but is now working in Bangkok, is visiting us for a few days this week! It's been so great to catch up with her. Unfortunately El couldn't come, because she's with her brother and sister at Koh Samet. 

New classes started this week, and my English classes are too small, but my German class has 8 people! I had so much fun with those students today. My evening English class is quite unique because I have two ladies who each bring their kid to class! So it's 3 adults and two kids, and one of the kids, who is half Danish, can already speak English so well. He was in my Step Ahead kids' class over the school break! And the little girl is half German. She's adorable. 

Tonight Jeab, our housekeeper, invited us from Step Ahead, plus Ton and Momay, to her house for dinner. God has been working in great ways in her life, and I learned from Benz tonight that Jeab has put her faith in Christ! God is also bringing healing and reconciliation in her marriage, and it was wonderful to see a genuine love and happiness between her and her husband. He's not a believer yet. After dinner, we talked and laughed for a long time (Momay and Ton were being very silly- as usual), and then we prayed together for God to bless Jeab's family. 

A chat with Dinay. A changed life.

Megan and I made the rounds in our neighborhood tonight on our way to the beach, stopping off for a while at Gan's to share some of our pictures of Koh Yao Noi with her, since she's adding Koh Yao to the list of tours she offers at the Green Biking Company, then saying "sawat dee ka" to the ladies at the massage shops and the guys who work at the yellow Italian restaurant, and after a few minutes at the beach (it was already late- like 9:15), stopping to chat with Dinay at his tailor shop. It's been so exciting to see him grow in his new faith in Jesus. It's so much fun to meet with Dinay whenever I have time to stop for a while. His face beams radiantly every time I see him, and he's so joyful. He's been reading the Nepalese Bible, which I had asked the Honeymans (a family helping out at Step Ahead right now) to bring down from Bangkok, every day. Last week I asked him if he had ever read the Bible before, and he said "no, this is the first time!" He is amazed by the story of Creation and the stories of Jesus in the gospels (he read John first). This week he said he went to Krabi for a few days for his cousin's wedding and that while he was there, he read his Bible aloud to some of his relatives. One of them was really interested and has kept asking Dinay if he's still reading the Bible. 

Dinay likes percentages. Tonight he said several things that made me and Megan crack up. It went something like this:

Bri: "Is it as clean in Nepal as it is in Thailand?"

Dinay: "Oh no, it's about 20% as clean as Thailand."

Bri: "Really?"

. . . .

Dinay: "I'm too dark. I wish my skin were whiter."

Megan: "I wish I were dark like you! Does my skin look darker than when I came here?"

Dinay: "Oh yes, I think you're about 20% as dark as me."

(this makes perfect sense in his mind)

. . . .

Megan: "How many languages do you speak?"

Dinay: "About 5: Nepalese, Burmese, Thai, English, and a little bit of Italian. Thai about 60-70%. English about 60-70%. Italian only about 20%."

  I might have gotten some of the details incorrect. I have a bad memory. But it was funny. 

Phuket

Amber, Pia, and Amanda

We found a Swiss restaurant!

me and Bua at her favorite coffee shop
) 

at Rajabhat (sp. ? University in Phuket)

Chinese steamed buns and hazelnut steamed milk- yum!

I'm sitting at Amber's house in Phuket, listening to the rain while Pia relaxes on the couch next to me. This week has been such a great time to truly wind down after a busy class term and some unnecessary visa excitement last week- which worked out absolutely WAY better than I could have expected. To make a long story short, while talking to Kim, my director's wife, on the phone, she asked me what was the exact date that my visa expires, and.... when I looked at my passport, it was that very day! Exactly one month after my last visa run in June. It had been stamped wrong, which somehow escaped my attention. But Benz called around and talked to people for me, and I found out that I wouldn't be deported or have to pay a big fine, but I'd just have to go to Ranong and get it re-stamped the next day. Praise the Lord! Amber had planned to rent a car anyway to pick up some of Pia's stuff, because she is in transition and will probably be moving up north to do some different work, so she ended up driving me (with Pia) all the way to Ranong, and then back to Phuket! Ten hours in the car.  The great thing is that in Ranong, I didn't even have to go on the boat! I simply walked up to the counter, explained as best I could in Thai what had happened, got my passport re-stamped and left! It was the fastest trip to Ranong ever. 

So for the past week (which ended up being a longer stay in Phuket than I'd planned), I've been able to spend some great time with Pia and Amber and her family. We've done very little; honestly I've been content to sleep in, pray and read a lot, play guitar, and help Pia think through some issues. She will most likely be going up north near Hua Hin to do some new work. I'll miss her so much. She's been one of my closest friends the whole time I've been here. Another cool thing I got to do was get to know Bua, the only Campus Crusade staff in Phuket, and visit her university and talk to her about her ministry. Bua lives with the Griffeons (Amber's family) and goes to their church. Cru recently moved all of their staff to the bigger cities, so all of the staff in south Thailand, except for Bua, are now in Hat Yai. She really has a heart for Phuket, so she asked to stay and do her master's program in Phuket.  

Island Adventures

Pics:  http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann

  On the 4th of July weekend,  Paul, Carter, Megan and I went to Koh Yao Noi, an island close to Phuket. I have to say that it was pretty much the most fun trip I've been on the whole time I've been in Thailand! It was an adventure from start to finish. We took the bus to Phuket, got off at the roundabout, and then tried to find a song thaew (taxi) to the pier, but we couldn't find one, so we hitchhiked. (Not as dangerous as it sounds- Paul assures me that he does it all the time, and he grew up in Asia). We sat in the back of a pickup truck and got there in no time. We caught a speedboat to the island, just about 30 minutes away. While on the boat, Paul made friends w/ a girl who let us get on her truck that was waiting for her at the pier, and they took us around to find a bungalow. We settled on a cute one with hammocks in front and a lot of privacy. The tide was way out, so the beach didn't look too nice, but that didn't matter b/c we could drive to another beach. We rented two motorbikes, and I got my most extensive driving experience since I've been in Thailand- before that I had only driven to the beach and on the small roads near the beach. What I didn't expect was that I'd be driving off-road, through the mud, and up and down very steep hills. That was on the 2nd day, when we went in search of the elusive "Paradise Resort." But I discovered that this type of driving was beyond my capability as a new motorbike driver with a passenger on the back (bless Megan's heart, she was brave), and on a very steep downhill part, we landed in a hole! Nobody was hurt, but I broke my flip-flop and Megan and I had a good laugh about it. 

  Another funny instance was when we went to the beach at night to collect firewood and made a fire, but we underestimated how far the tide would come back in. We were lying there, enjoying the stars and the fire when we heard water coming nearer and nearer... so we ended up wading back to our bungalow in water that was higher than my waist! Megan and I were kind of freaked out about it, which resulted in nervous but constant laughter the whole way back! 

  On Saturday afternoon we found a beautiful beach with no one on it except the four of us, and on Sunday morning we went sea kayaking out to a little sandbar with gorgeous white sand. The island itself is just a small local village, and it's not touristy at all, especially compared with Koh Phi Phi and Koh Similan. That's probably why I liked it so much. 

  On the way back, the adventures weren't over yet. As we were walking out of the pier road to hitchhike back to the roundabout, I had to sacrifice my freshly-cut mango to a band of vicious monkeys that surrounded me and would have attacked me! They were small, but I wasn't about to tangle with about 10 monkeys with sharp teeth! And then we returned home in a bus- made for maybe 40 people- but filled with 100 or so! It was the fullest bus I've ever been on in my life. I sat on Megan's lap, and people were sitting 3 to a seat and standing up from front to back, with about 13 people in the front area gathered around the driver.