My Name's Timothy, But You Can Call Me 'Chirp Chirp'

Well, things have been much the same. I'll walk you through, though, since it's been a while.

After getting lost Tuesday (again, only kind of), I took the rest of the day pretty easy. I worked some on the computer that afternoon and then hung out the rest of the evening.

Wednesday I had English class at Prathunam Center in the morning, worked in the afternoon, and then went to the English Corner that evening. The monk was there again, so I helped him with the book he was reading. Meeting a monk was always one of those I-hope-I'll-get-to-do-that type of things, and I'm finding that more and more of these are coming true! This works well for me. Here we are:

Thursday I went to a women's prison where I'm now helping with a vocational English class. It was pretty fun. Mark went, but the lady that teaches it, Nelda, is from the Philippines. That means she's teaching a second language of her own. I assume she speaks at least three languages (Tagalog, English, and Thai). She does a great job, and it was a good time. That evening I went to the English Corner for a while before going to the last Alpha Class of the term. Be praying for those taking Alpha Classes. Some of them are new Christians, but many of them are just seekers, or want to know more about Christianity. Pray that they would find what they need.

Friday morning I went to the English class again, then to Friday Night Life, the English program at the BSC. There is a group of college students here from AR for two months who were there and I think will be helping frequently. Pray for their ministry here. They're helping with a new church and with university students mostly.

Today, I went to the English class again. I rode the boat there with David, but I think I'm done riding it back, at least by myself! Several of the students and I went out for lunch afterward. Mom Ote was there again and she gave me a nickname: "Gook Gook." That's the sound that a little chick makes. (Yes, animals don't make the same sound in every language!) I don't know why she picked that, but I guess I'll take it. Every Thai takes a nickname. Usually one syllable, they are sometimes Thai words (Lek means 'little'), sometimes English names or words.

I took the afternoon to catch up on my journal, then went out to eat with some friends, the same group from Sunday afternoons. We went to a Korean Bar-B-Que. It works like this: First, you get your raw meat, vegetables, and noodles:

Then you cook them in these bowls things over hot coals: (This is Lek, Joe, Ole, and Pae (whom I once thought was pronounced 'Bet'...oops...in my defense, 'p' and 'b' sound a lot alike in Thai!))

Then you take it out when it's done. Thai meals are very communal. It's very common for them just to put food on your plate so you can try it. There aren't often serving spoons, so you just use your own. Even for sauces. The most common silverware is a large spoon and a fork. You hold the spoon in the right hand and use the fork to push food onto the spoon. You don't usually put the fork in your mouth. But sometimes--for noodles (or nooden as it sounds, because no Thai word ends in 'l' so they often substitute an 'n') or in this case, Korean food--you use chopsticks. I'm not very good at this. But I'm learning quickly out of necessity! They do laugh at me though! This is octopus, which is better than jellyfish, but not as good as squid; take my word for it:

This is Jack and Meow (animal sounds must be common nicknames actually...):

And this is me and Sommart (also once thought to be Mon...Mart, Mon, they sound similar...right?):

I'm really having a great time getting to know all of them. They're so nice and so helpful and they're helping me learn Thai! I'm finally not so overwhelmed by the adjustment that I'm able to remember a little of what I hear. Pae even asked, "How long have you been here?" "Four weeks," I said. "Your Thai is very good." Now that is some good encouragement! Thai is a tonal language (like Chinese), so you must not only remember the letters or sounds, but the tone of the word too. If you get it wrong, they either don't understand, or you've said something other than what you meant to say (for instance 'dog' instead of 'doctor'). Good to know that I'm actually learning some!

Things are still going really well. I can't believe it's almost been a month! That doesn't seem possible. Thanks for reading, and more, thanks for your prayers.