Itsara

This weekend we get to celebrate Thanksgiving and Loy Gratong.

You may remember our Thanksgiving from last year. This year will be similar, but I think bigger. We’re going to have a healthy mix of American and Thai food, and we’re going to have at least three other families over (one of them is as big as ours – the Hintzes, from last year’s Thanksgiving, had a year very similar to ours in taking kids in). Because school isn’t out for anybody on Thanksgiving Thursday (even the American-centric Grace International School), we’re having Thanksgiving dinner tonight. It might be a wee bit crazy, but as long as there’s enough food I don’t think anyone will mind.

This weekend also happens to be November’s full moon, which means it’s time for Loy Gratong. We didn’t touch this holiday last year, but two years ago (bonus points if you actually remember this) we went into the city and took some pictures. We didn’t take pictures or go to the city this year – in fact we weren’t going to do anything at all – but it turns out there was a big deal going on just down the street from our mubaan, so we walked over there to check it out.

They’d blocked off a side street and (like at every Thai event) had thrown up a market selling food and lights and, well, more food. There was a parade near the end, and as we got closer it decided to turn onto our street, so we got pushed suddenly to the front. People walked by in traditional Thai costumes, holding flags and lanterns, banging drums, or lighting fireworks. The occasional float would go by of an ornately decorated boat or lilypad-type thing with a pretty lady sitting on it waving to everybody.

I’ve learned a little more about the holiday this year. Apparently it’s not just about putting your sins on a boat and watching them float away (only to get beached in somebody else’s backyard). It’s mainly about thanking the river (or the river goddess, depending on how far your beliefs go) for everything. Even today, there are plenty of poorer people who count on the river for running water – for cooking, cleaning, bathing, even drinking, and obviously back in the day the river was all there was for that sort of thing. In a way, it’s a kind of Thai Thanksgiving. Even Christians will take part, though obviously thanking God rather than the river (after all, taking over pagan holidays is an ancient Christian tradition).

In the celebration last night, Isaac got to see his first fireworks. As I said last year, there aren’t any big, musically-timed productions out here. People just buy their own fireworks and set them off. So these really big ones came from behind someone’s house, which meant we were right underneath. Isaac wasn’t sure about them. He was scared of the noises, and he squinted at the bright lights, but he didn’t turn away either. He just hugged Daddy a little tighter and kept on watching.

I think that was my favorite part.

We have finally broken ground at the land. Even before we gave them the first payment they just went to town surveying, plotting and digging the foundation. Now all surveying and post digging is finished and they have pre-tied the re-bare for the footers and columns. They are now ready to lay all the re-bar in the ground and pour concrete for the footers and then begin the rest of the foundation. We will keep you posted as the work progresses. Click here to view more pictures.

Just want everyone to see how cute my little girl is.

Cindy and I had an interesting conversation last night. We were talking about how much stuff we have, and the stuff we don’t need, and how sometimes we (well, usually she) wish we could just get rid of everything and live a simple, village life.

Whenever this conversation comes up, I start to feel guilty and try to justify the stuff I have. Not all of the justifications are weak excuses. Some of them are quite legitimate. One such justification came up last night. Well, I don’t know if it was a justification, but more a realization that the privileges I have (and most of us have) cannot be gotten rid of quite so easily.

Think about it for a sec. If I gave away everything I had, sold my house, my car, and my computer, and moved to a village, it wouldn’t make me poor. For one, I’d still have money coming in from you guys every month – a lot more than villagers have. But let’s say that even that stops. I have no income and no stuff, for whatever reason. There are still things that I have, that the villagers do not, that I cannot possibly lose or give away. I can use and repair computers. I can do math. I have a certain amount of business sense (not compared to an American business person, but quite enough to handle a basic business in Chiang Mai). I can speak English. Heck, even speaking Thai is something a lot of villagers cannot do.

I told Cindy that even if I lost, or gave away, everything, I’d still be able to walk into Pantip Plaza, go to one of the repair shops and ask if they need another hand. Most shops would probably love to take on someone who could speak English since foreigners are their most lucrative business.

But what if we moved into a village (Cindy asked in response). I couldn’t do anything with computers or even write. I tried to imagine what I would do then. There’s still something in me that wants to create, and while I would spend a lot of time working alongside the villagers, I imagine I’d have time of my own to do what I want. Drawing came to mind. Maybe eventually I’d get good enough that I could sell what I drew, and at that point it would be stupid not to sell what I had down in the city, where once again my ability to speak Thai and English would allow me to sell more than the villagers might be able to. Even if I didn’t want the money for myself, it would actually be cruel of me not to help the village in this way.

So it really comes down to this. Cindy and I sometimes feel guilty about what we have, but we don’t need to. What we need to do is to realize that what we have is a gift from God and to be generous with what we have. I mean, the only reason I speak English is because of where God chose to have me be born. I had nothing to do with it, nor with the fact that English is the language of opportunity for many cultures. But if I keep my skills to myself, and don’t use them to help people (as, for example, Sean and Prang are using their gifts to help with the bags from Prang’s village), then that’s what needs to change.

My point (if I have one) is just that I never realized before that I can’t give up all my privileges even if I wanted to, which puts a whole new spin on the guilt of being rich. Although the rich ruler could have sold everything he had, he still had skills and connections just by virtue of having been rich, and those are to be used for the kingdom like anything else. The goal, like in everything else, is to love people above anything we do for ourselves and to give all that we have for God and His glory.

We have the contracts now. Sean and Prang have signed theirs, and ours is to be signed today. So the building is about to begin for real. The workers have already set up camp on the land (actually behind the land – they knocked out a section of wall so their camp wouldn’t get in the way of anything) and have begun bringing in building materials. Pi Wat, our foreman, is anxious to get going – so anxious that he doesn’t mind that we won’t have the money for the first payment for a few days while it gets wired here.

All together, the prices we were quoted came out to about 5.7 million Baht. At the current exchange, that’s $170,000. Now that price only includes the houses, it won’t include any landscaping, the driveway, the front wall/gate, or things like curtains and blinds. And that price is also still an estimate. There are decisions yet to be made like roof tiles, floor tiles, paint, sinks, toilets, lights, etc. Pi Wat chose a middle-of-the-road estimate for those things, which means the final price will be slightly different.

We do have that much. I think we have exactly that much actually, praise God. Of course, we’re going to need more than that. Not just for the driveway and the grass and everything, but also for, like, food. We’re not worried. I mean, we’re human so of course we’re worried sometimes, but we know and keep reminding ourselves that God will take care of us. The fact that we have all of the basic cost, actually, says a lot about his provision. Now that I think about it, the fact that we have almost exactly the basic cost says quite a bit more.