Thailand with Phil 2024

Phil and I are lucky enough to live within ten minute’s walk of “The Mall”—a sprawling, five-story complex that could put the Mall of America to shame. And it’s not even the largest shopping mall in Bangkok. Our Thai students are continually writing sentences about going to the mall, meeting friends there, eating at the mall restaurants, and using it as their chief entertainment center. And why not? It’s a huge public space that’s air conditioned, full of glitz and glamour, and chock full of good places to eat. There are few public parks in the area—and it’s too hot to be in the sun anyway. So the mall has replaced parks as the main venue of public recreation. And here are a few reasons why: This is taken from the main floor, looking up four stories at a floating dragon (to celebrate the Chinese new year, the Year of the Dragon). Looking down on the same dragon from the fourth floor. (This is only a small portion of the mall.) One of many places to sit and relax, with fantastical decor

It’s odd how happy and sad can collide and kind of meld together. That’s how it felt on Jina’s last day with us. Jina is a young woman of singular sweetness of disposition, and a member of our early afternoon Level I class. She is now, as I write this, flying over the Pacific on her way to Boston, Massachusetts. Jina is going to be an au pair for a young family there, and we all feel anxious and hopeful for her in equal measure. Will she know enough English to navigate her first month or so there? Will the children take advantage of her kindness and start a reign of tyranny? Is this a loving and patient family, or might they treat her unfairly? Well, we don’t know. But we do know she has brightened our lives considerably. The two older couples in the class seem to have adopted Jina as a daughter. Jhim makes soup and special dishes for her, and cooked an entire feast for the class last week as a way of honoring Jina. Nid and Ton give her hugs, pat her hand, and hover over her like mothe

 Today (Saturday) was an all-school outing to the Ancient City—a 300-acre outdoor museum built by a Thai of Chinese descent named Lek Viriyaphan. Born at the start of WWII, Lek made it big in business and was able to indulge his passion for travel, history, and culture. Distressed at seeing deterioration of ancient Siamese sites and a lack of appreciation in Thailand for its heritage, he bought 300 acres of Bangkok land and began building replicas of historic buildings from all the provinces. His dream was to help the people of Thailand come to know and love what their ancestors had achieved. The result is phenomenal. The place is huge. We took trams along the winding roads that lead from replicas of early temples, burial sites, royal palaces, floating markets, fortified walls, gardens, shrines, halls, pavilions, replicas of traditional villages, and statuary. There are currently 122 such sites in the Ancient City, with more planned.  At the end of the day, I feel as though I’ve been d

 At Santisuk we are encouraged to spend time outside of class with our students. There is an evangelistic purpose to this, as we expected. However, we are also finding it to be pure pleasure. We have already had several significant conversations outside of class. And our early afternoon students are enthusiastically planning all the trips they can think of. This past Saturday, Jina wanted to take us by bus to the famous JJ Market in Bangkok. However, when she consulted with an older couple in our class, they suggested that instead we all go to the countryside to see famous temples and markets. So at 9 a.m. Jina picked us (Jhim, Aun, Phil, and myself) up in her uncle’s car, and off we went.  Phil and I had no idea what we were in for. It was a 2 1/2-hour drive to the first temple, Wat Don Khanak, at Mueang Nakhon Pathom. It took us two hours just to get out of Bangkok, then another half hour through small, twisting country roads, past banana plantations, mango farms, coconut groves, and