Okay, so I’m going to briefly interrupt Saturdays adventures, and fill you in on Sunday. I think I can keep this a little briefer. I know this is like my 4th post today… but whatever. Okay, so we went to church this morning at Bangkok City Church. The church had about 20-30 people, the Pastor is Pi Bai, and his wife Pi Wan. I probably spelled that wrong, but I don’t know Thai script. Pi Wan will be our Thai teacher, and she speaks really amazing English, which makes me really excited to get to work. The Pastor and his wife live above the church, and I’m not really sure if they were there first, or if the church was. Anyway. The room the church was in was probably the size of the upstairs dining room part of my house, including the stage and all of that. So it was pretty tiny. But they had plastic chairs set up, and it was a lot of fun. Pi Wan translated for us in the back, and we recognized quite a few of the songs, which was nice. The pastor talked in the beginning about forgiveness, and then gave the group a chance to pray, and seek out people they had wronged, and been wronged by. After that, we took communion, and then he talked about sharing Christ with others, and how the Bible holds a truth for everyone, and that we can’t be ashamed or embarrassed about it, because of its value. It was pretty cool when you thought about it in an Asian culture, where you are trying to save others and your own face. People won’t tell you that you’re wrong, even if you are asking a question, in order to save your face; its a huge deal here. So to ask people to go introduce a foreign, unaccepted idea to their fellow Thai’s, is kind of a risky thing for their “egos” or “face”.
After church they had a community meal which was so much fun. They had a huge rice cooker, and they spooned out a big dish into bowls. Then there were about 10 bowls of different flavored chicken, pork, fish, and other food I don’t feel like I need to identify. The curry was amazing. So delicious. Other stuff…. I tasted it, but probably wouldn’t voluntary eat it again. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to talk to the people at the church, and hear some of their stories. Quite a few of them spoke very good English, and the rest were very willing to teach and help us practice Thai.
This evening we walked over to Bangkapi Mall, which was enormous! There were so many people, it was crazy. Okay, two quick side notes. The population of Bangkok alone is over 14 million people. So our tiny little section of the city, known as Bangkapi, probably has a population about the size of Seattle. Just guessing here. Second sidenote: Parking cracks me up. There are spaces, like at home, and people back into them, regardless of how impossible it seems. But then, after the spots are full. People park in front of them, in a row, about 4 inches from the first cars bumper. The rule though is, if you park in front of a car when the spaces are full, you leave your car in neutral. So if you’re blocked in, you simply push all the cars in front of you forward, until you can get out. Crazy, right! So anyway, we wandered around the mall, and went to Pizza Company for dinner, which was really good pizza. The crust was perfect, and the sauce was kind of spicy, which I liked.
And now we’re at home. I think the three of us are going to watch a movie or something. It’s getting easier to stay up past nine, which is nice, cause it’s kind of a pain in the butt to be going to bed at 9, and feeling like its 2 in the morning.
Good night/morning!
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