Bangkok Reflections III — initial / final thoughts & retelling the tales of my checklist

My trip to Thailand has now officially come to a close. I landed back in Canada 3 days ago without any luggage because the baggage handlers for the Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong forgot to transfer all of the passengers’ belongings to their connecting flights &those of us who were flying on to Vancouver were none the wiser until passing through Canadian customs, waiting at the baggage carousel in vain for our things to appear on the conveyor. Thankfully Air Canada (who code-shared the flights with Thai Airways) found my luggage & had the tardy bags delivered to my house early this afternoon.

It’s funny—I must be a creature of habit in some ways: I’m sitting in a Calgary McDonald’s at a booth, listening to random non-English conversations come & go around me. At first, a group of Russians were sitting behind me, who were replaced by some older Korean women that were themselves exchanged for a handful of Pilipino ladies shortly thereafter. This, of course, is the exception to the rule of English being the lingua franca in my city, and it was very odd to step off my second flight in Vancouver only to hear (and recognise) English conversations all around me. Eighteen days away from Canada & already I had accustomed myself to living in Thailand such that overhearing my native language seemed foreign to my ears. The tickle of familiar words and phrases overwhelmed me much like the cold, dry weather that met me at the Calgary airport; only, unlike the weather, the language reminded me that I could again integrate fully into this society—and that such integration was expected of me, having escaped the Western rat race for only 2 short weeks.

My time in Bangkok was filled with fond memories & wonderful interactions with excellent individuals. Food was shared, as were future dreams; great conversations & experiences; late night adventures and the general, inescapable camaraderie intrinsic to working (and living) at GES. For those of you who know the lifestyle first-hand, I trust you can feel with me the truth of these things; for those of you who haven’t, just know that living together & working closely with a small group of Christian people has a certain je ne sais quoi which points toward the joy that no doubt will exist in a shared, eternal community with the One and Only God—a future that I eagerly anticipate.

 

My Checklist

This excursion of mine to Thailand came with its own mental checklist—a small collection of must-dos during my stay in order for the trip to be considered a success. Among this list were several places that I wanted to re-visit, people I wanted to reconnect with and things I wanted to experience. Of the complete list, only one item wasn’t fully realised, that being a visit with the Jitgomnongmate family and their church. The rest of the experiences, I’ll relay in the following paragraphs & a few future posts.

 

A Taste of India & Tailored Suits

Among the random gallivanting after the teachers’ school work was completed for the day were trips down to Khao San Road to dine at the Taste of India, a wonderful restaurant whose most well-known server (to us) always responds to your order with “Yes please.” I was fortunate enough to grab a small group of teachers (all of whom were new this year) who were interested in visiting the restaurant. More than enough food was ordered & our conversations were as delightful as the meal we enjoyed together.

My primary motivation for going to the Taste of India that night was to rendezvous for a fitting, one floor down, with the tailors who were building a few suits & shirts I had ordered the night before (I brought no formal wear for graduation this year). The tailor work brought me down to the backpacker’s epicentre a handful more times throughout the remainder of my stay. They do pretty good work, but you really need to know what you want, or they’ll either give you just the barebones or suggestions that may not be 100% to your liking, as I had learned from my previous purchases through them. I guess that’s par for the course whenever you’re shopping for custom clothes, so I’m glad that I had a good idea in my head of what I wanted this time around.

The shop closed for the night and the newfound friends I had eaten dinner with all tumbled out of the restaurant, into the now-bustling street market of evening Khao San. We meandered through the several stalls & the congested international mob that swamped the street, eventually making our way back to the end of the road (with some freshly purchased merchandise in-hand) to flag down a taxi & wind our way back through the twisting arteries of Bangkok’s roadways to rest our heads for the evening for a few hours before the school-day began the next morning.

 

Item #1 in my checklist: Done.

The other items? Stay tuned... they’ll come up here soon!

Bangkok Reflections, 2011 - part II

I’m sitting outside this morning at the Khao Sarn Starbucks which is tucked away off a side street from the main drag, where the tourists & travellers already browse the vendors’ various wares in a haphazard, groggy fashion. It would be nearly impossible to find this Starbucks if you didn’t already know where it was; and that makes it a wonderful location to get away & think... while you’re waiting for your suits to finish being tailored. To my left, sitting by the front door to the coffee shop is a white Siamese cat who is staring at me with its pale blue eyes. A few of its kittens gathered together, and as a group, they’ve now just strolled off around the corner.

Cats in Thailand are scarce, which to the uninitiated may seem strange. Dogs, on the other hand, are practically everywhere. It’s been an interesting observation that during this trip, the number of soi dogs (and their associated “kee ma,” or “dog crap” in English) both in Nonthaburi & in greater Bangkok altogether has been much lower than while I was living here—or even when I visited last year.  The two dogs on GES campus, Daeng (Thai for ‘red’)—who was affectionately called “Nipples” by the foreign staff, owing to her many pregnancies & the ensuing udder-like underbelly from feeding many pups—and her mate no longer exist. They apparently started biting people last year & needed to be shipped out. Rumour has it that the male found his way back to GES once, which required another relocation. I, for one, do not miss the mangy mutts: the campus seems much cleaner & more professional without them.

General Observations

The visit has been different for many reasons already this year. Rain in March is rare, however, we’ve had some pretty good downpours over the past few days—the type of rain you’d expect to get in June or July where waterfalls appear off of roves & arid streets look more like canals than places for cars. This hasn’t really happened in my experience before Songkran, the Thai Water Festival that marks the traditional lunar calendar’s New Year. Why is it a water festival? Well, usually, the second week in April marks the hottest, driest time of the year. Water & mud made from talcum powder are used to cool everyone down, and it’s generally a mark of friendship & goodwill to drench other people during the national celebration. 2011’s weather  is shaping up to be a definite exception to this rule of dry hotness.

Another quite noticeable difference is the way that this year’s foreign staff interact with each other and their demographics. There’s a surprising amount of family members comprising the faculty, either through marriage or through blood, which makes the single population very scarce. Also, it appears to be that the teachers don’t go out for supper together—either to Sombat’s or Rose’s—like we used to in a big group. People eat at home & generally do their own thing unless it involves a get together for playing board games or watching a movie over at the McLatchers’ place. The staff room this year tends to be only used for work & not as the GES “town square” where people gather to communicate & collaborate. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; just a difference from years gone by. I suspect that much of this is due to all of the pre-existing connections which trump any need to connect en masse with the greater group ...or maybe I’m just coming at a busy time of the year when finals are being marked & report cards being compiled. Y’never know ; )

Reconnections

I’ve been quite fortunate to have met up with several of my friends scattered throughout S.E. Asia in such a short amount of time. It’s been really great to catch up with old friends & swap new stories about life, learnings, struggles & hopes to come. As we all know so well, life’s pace knows nothing of respite: our stories grow and change from day to day and minute to minute without any need for us to push it along. The simple truth is that, through sharing stories, we remain interconnected; without this communication, the inevitable life-drift captures each of us with its tidal force and fractures our trajectories as we make our way toward the common ultimate end.

My first day back, I had an opportunity to sit down with a friend who’s living in Chiang Mai, serving and working with Compassion International. She’s recently had a change in roles within the office, working more as a copy editor these days than going out in the field with sponsors to visit the operating projects. Life for her is changing, and the future flux that she sees/feels makes her unsettled—you can see it in her face when she speaks. There is a struggle deep inside her soul, but one which she’s thoroughly equipped to overcome—you see that in her face as well. The foundation on which she stands is firm; she knows where her strength lies and the peace, the stalwart endurance, the faithful hope and the resolute passion produced from her faith in Jesus blossom forth with unmistakeable radiance amidst the shadowy struggle and the uncertainty of her current spot in life’s adventure. And as adventures go, she journeyed onward, back up to Chiang Mai the next day, ready to brave the next phase of her life, her work, her calling.

The following day, I spent the afternoon with another friend, Matt, who’s operating an orphanage in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He was in Bangkok for a short visit, part of which was motivated by gathering supplies for the orphans back in Cambodia. We met up with one of our mutual friends downtown who had recently moved back to Bangkok from living in Australia. Since her return, she’s opened up a clothing store in one of the malls with her sister & has plans on pursuing a Master’s Degree with her cut of the profit. Her face & her heart were filled with joy as we chatted over lunch, despite some difficult circumstances through which she’s weathered in the past few months. The life, the vigour & zest that she exuded was unmistakeable and even somewhat contagious! It was a vigorous joy that I have often missed in many of my daily interactions at work; a vigorous joy that is derived solely from the spiritual wholeness she’s received from the One who redeems all things. It was wonderful to watch her carry on as she did, and as we got up from the table to begin the next phase of our afternoon, she showed no signs of slowing down in the freedom with which she walked.

After flagging down a taxi outside of MBK, we hopped in & ventured off to Samsen, the Chinese district of Bangkok. Our mutual friend explained, between several random pauses where breathed the scent from a Bath & Body Works lotion she’d requested I bring from North America, that China Town would be the best place to get some beads for cheap that Matt would be taking back to Cambodia for the orphans to make necklaces with. All of the proceeds from selling the necklaces would go toward creating a college fund for the orphans under his care. As we were shopping for these beads, the three of us together in a crowded side-street, one Thai woman sandwiched between two blond haired, blue eyed white guys, floating upstream in a torrent of local shoppers all seeming to walk the other direction, he spoke about the developments in the orphanage & about his vision for whole-person well-being in the kids. Matt asserted that a lower child-to-staff ratio was paramount in providing stability and emotional health for the children’s personal identities. A sponsor had approached him to double the size of the orphanage provided that they first increase the number of children in the facility’s care, which caused a struggle in Matt, as he eagerly wants to help more children but needs to maintain the staffing ratios required for his vision. He went on to mention that he was drafting a proposal to this sponsor to see what could possibly be done. Amidst our tight-packed shopping walk & talk, we stumbled upon our third and final bead store. After a short conversation (half in English, half in Thai) with the shop-keeper about why we were buying beads and what would become of them, we struck a deal.

45 minutes later, the three of us together walked away with about 40 pounds of polished stone & plastic beads. We merged back into the stream of flowing shoppers, bulging bags in hand, and rode the commerce current until we spilled out of the tight side-street, only to meet a glacial wall of iron-hot traffic as far as the eye could see. With the wave of an arm, we hopped into a nearby taxi that was idling in the gridlock. Escaping the loud, hot, bustling street air, we transitioned, each on our separate paths, one last time through the communal, quiet & cool drive toward the Sky Train stations downtown.

Bangkok Reflections, 2011 - part I

Coming back to Bangkok feels so natural, it’s almost as if I’ve never left. That old aphorism, “The more things change; the more they stay the same” couldn’t be more poignant. Although the world of Nonthaburi, Bangkok & Thailand itself is in constant flux, and although new things are popping up in places I never would have expected, it really comes as no surprise: my understanding of Thailand and my time living here has taught me that change & transition are fundamental aspects of this metropolitan centre.

The flight across the Pacific was largely uneventful. Landing in the Hong Kong International Airport blew me away, however—I had forgotten what humid air was like! The glass-and-steel construct, as sturdy & as secure as you would imagine, was nevertheless unable to keep the dense, moist ocean air from permeating through the terminal. Certain passengers would inevitably consider the dank quality of the airport’s atmosphere to be unpleasant or displeasing; I on the other hand, breathed deep the rich, heavy-laden air, treating my lungs to a sensation as satisfying as moisturising one’s skin with soothing balm. This prelude to Thailand made me all the more excited to complete my journey & land in my second home.

For the first time ever, I was able to avoid the mad taxi rush & expensive highway tolls typically required when escaping Suvarnabhumi International: the Airport Rail Link had opened sometime in the past year, which made for a pleasant surprise. I had been waiting to ride that thing for ever, watching it get pieced together, bit by bit, throughout the past four years (it’s crazy to think about it, but yes—it has been four years since I first set foot on Thai soil in 2007). The train is a wonderful bit of convenience, connecting the major public transit stations with the airport—something that’s great for everybody from tourists to Thais alike… except for the taxi drivers, whose big ticket fares accrued from shuttling people between the city and the airport have inevitably shrunk as a result.

One of the first things I noticed as I commuted via taxi from the train station to my former school, GES, was the massive progress that the city had made on expanding the BTS Skytrain system from Mo Chit station westward. Wongsawang Road was now bisected by a massive construction zone, wherein concrete piles were being poured & formed, growing like monochromatic monoliths, veritable vertebrae for the future expansion of the transit system into Nonthaburi.  I wondered to myself, as my taxi skirted alongside the development, how long it would be before the need for a taxi to connect GES and the airport would disappear.

True to GES form, when I arrived at 10 pm, the school’s front gate was locked shut. I tossed my laptop bag over the fence & then hopped over myself, leaving the rest of my luggage stranded street-side until I could find someone with a key. Fortunately, Craig was working on some last-minute lesson plans in the staff room, so after a quick hug & greeting, we scurried back to the gate & rescued my bags from their sidewalk jeopardy.

The next morning, I left my apartment and almost immediately ran into some of my Grade 9 students (they’re in G 11 now, but that’s beside the point!). As usual, they were being diligent with pre-class studying & other scholastic work. Mild appeared around the corner, this year with her hair tinted ruby red. When she smiled, I noticed that her braces had gone the way of the dinosaur—that was fast! She just got them in Grade 10! The morning bell rang, and we made our ways toward the main field. I only made it about 15 metres before running into the Grade 10 guys (Grade 12 this year, but when you stop teaching them, they forever remain in your head as the last grade level you taught ‘em), and while we were chatting, Elf shouted my name from down the hallway & ran up to us with a big smile on her face.  Unlike Mild, she still had her braces, however she got another new pair of glasses this year.

It was great being able to catch up with the students—if only in brief hallway moments—on day one back. After running into Boom by the school’s office, who was waiting for her cousin to arrive so that she could show her around (it was going to be the first day for Boom’s cousin to be at GES. Final exams were being held the next day: “classic GES,” I thought to myself), Esso turned the corner walking with a camera bag & wearing a shirt drenched with sweat. Why he was at GES instead of being in his university classes, I myself wondered, however the mystery was soon resolved: he was taking grad photos for NCA & this term’s schedule for him had all of his classes on a Tuesday/Thursday rotation. That afternoon, Oom & Katak came to the school to visit & we began making plans for the rest of the time I was in Thailand. Katak’s now living on the other side of the city, close to the Dusit Thani Culinary School, where he’s studying, so we’re hoping to be able to hang out more while I’m here… but it might be difficult for him to make the long trip across town.

One of the more surprising things I noticed about my old neighbourhood was the fact that everything seemed so clean. It hadn’t rained for a long time I was told, so I was a little amazed that the sidewalks were devoid of dust, litter & soi dog poop. Not only this, but there was a noticeable absence of odours—both on the streets & by the khlong. You’d typically expect to smell the pleasant aroma of fermenting black water, whose bouquet ranged from rotting cheese to pre-sewage… but this year, there wasn’t really anything to be said about the smell from the canal. Either that or I’ve become so accustomed to its rancidity that my olfactory awareness has chosen to ignore the presence of anything foul whenever I crossed the bridge. It might be a possibility, but why then do I smell the delicate fragrance from the school’s potted jasmine shrubs immediately adjacent to this bridge? You can’t mask khlong smell with jasmine; you can only mix the two together & smell them in concert. It’d be like tossing an open bottle of perfume into a well-used outhouse.

For being the end of the dry season, I’m surprised at how green things are. The trees in the courtyard and even the scant grass on the playing fields are a verdant hue instead of showing themselves in the wilted, browny-yellow shades that so often typify late Feb / early March. The cicadas are out en masse though, true to form. They were wailing their rattles incessantly last night after Matt & I returned from the soi with a couple orders of street-side pad thai.  I couldn’t help but smile to myself, reminiscing in the repeated history of the moment: a small bag in one hand filled with 30 baht pad thai wrapped in waxed paper; a bottle of 7-11 water in the other; strolling down the blue awning-covered walkway toward the apartment with a friend, our ambling adventure accompanied by the cicadas’ communal cacophony and graced by gentle jasmine pockets wavering stealthily in the breezeless evening air.  Although this was 2011, it could have just as easily been 2008. The only real difference was that the both of us were returning veterans visiting from our other occupations—his in Cambodia, and mine in Canada; nevertheless, the enchanting beauty of life at GES and the inexpressible fullness produced from a life serving at the school for the students, for the staff and for the surrounding community resonates in a deeply permanent way. The struggles, the trials & the sacrifices made while enduring the momentary difficulties inherent with a school-year at GES all fade away; what has truly remained is the legacy of love and purpose poured into lives throughout every square inch of the school’s campus. That is permanent. That is steeped deeply into every corner, every crack and every textbook in the school.

My hope & prayer is that the palpable infusion at GES would stick to the lives of those who’ve graced its campus; that their lives would be changed & transformed by the source of this difference, by the Root of what makes the place unique. This is the reason for the school’s existence.