My New Iranian Friend

This is Marianne. She just arrived here from Iran. She will be studying English at the IGo English Center. She is Muslim. Please keep me in your prayers as I strive to lift up the name of Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all.

First Impressions

It’s hot and sticky!

It smells like another country.

The food is good.

The people are friendly.

But if anything is a little overwhelming, it’s not being able to understand or communicate. There’s something about it that makes your feel so small when you feel like you know zilch about the culture and language and basics of life.

Our first full day here, we went shopping at Big C. Everything looks super expensive, since the exchange is about 30 to 1. So you pick up a head of cabbage and see 45 b on it and if feels like you should put it back down instead of in you cart. I blundered and felt foolish as we tried to figure out what to do when we tried to buy lunch and were handed a tray with extra little bowls. The front of the buffet counter had some condiments and sauces. I thought the bowl must be for that, and put some in it. By the funny looks exchanged and the controlled smirks, I knew I had been mistaken. Oops! But it was for what? Still not sure. We watched others before going for our silverware and noted that the hot water beside it was for rinsing your utensils before use.

I wanted some anti itch cream for John because of his nasty bug bites. He has so many that he declares they are driving him crazy, and I’m afraid they would me too! He looks like he has chickenpox some places! We think they are from fire ants. Here’s a picture of some of the mean little buggers!

And here’s another “friend” who shares our quarters.

But, back to what I was saying before, I couldn’t find the cream because I couldn’t read anything. Yesterday, Darren was able to talk to a pharmacist that knew English and get something.  One his way home he was watching out for his feet instead of his head...This is what happened!
He hit his head on some overhanging tin and made a BIG gash!

Here’s a view from the of the inside of our gate.

And our garbage can. They are ingenious contraptions made from old tires. Almost every house in this area has one.

I’ll try to get some of our house one of these times so you can get acquainted with are quarters.

The flowers here are gorgeous. Darren likes to take pictures of them.

Please continue to pray for us, as we look forward to busy weeks of study ahead, and learning what God has in store for us.

We're Here!

Travel to Thailand was fairly uneventful. One thing that happened to change our plans was having to check our stroller through to Bangkok. Without it we weren't sure that touring London was very feasible, so we spent a VERY long day in Heathrow. The children actually did amazingly well. 

 

I did make multiple trips to the restrooms, possibly due partly to boredom on John's part. They slept alot on the flights, which definitely made things easier.  

Here's our plane to Thailand

And a few pictures from the flight and landing

When we arrived, Val Yoder was there to meat us. They showed us to our place and explained some things that we needed to know, and then handed us around 300 B to buy supper. We went out and found a little store and bought some instant noodle soup,  and then went home and ate and turned in. Christy  and John both decided to be awake in the middle of the night. John was sure he was starving hungry, so we got him something to eat. I don't know if he had sticky face and hands after Darren fed him, or what, but he got lots of bites all over them before morning. He's so itchy today.

This morning we went shopping at the Big C, which is the local equivalent to Walmart. It was tough to find what we wanted because everything was in Thai, and packaged so differently, and arranged totally different to what I would expect. Our bill was around 1150 Bot. I'm not sure that cooking will actually turn out to be cheaper. You can get a meal for 30-40 Bot.  We ate at a Thai resturant and made some mistakes. We didn't know we were to buy a card first and then get our food. We gave them some amusement I think, as we fumbled things and tried to figure out what we were doing.

We have some little aligators on our bedroom wall, according to John(lizards) and this morning one of them jumped out of my suitcase at me when I opened it. I squeaked in surprise because it was so totally unexpected.

Our little apartment is below the rooms that the missionary children have school in. It's actually very nice, but I keep almost falling of the edge of the kitchen floor. The Thai make a lot of little steps from room to room. They think that it will discourage the evil spirits from moving throughout the rooms of the house. I don't believe that, but it does discourage me! Well, not really, but it is new and I have to watch out.

 More later...

Packing Up

Last week was very, very busy with all those last minute things. Besides getting our things packed, we also were working to leave our house in guest shape, so that CLP can use it to host people while we are gone. That meant some spring cleaning. Mom and Grace stayed with us for the Writer's and Artist's Conferance, and helped with so much of that. It was an unbelievable blessing! When they left Saturday afternoon, I finished up the last few things, and then realized we were going to have trouble maintaining it until Sunday night when we had planned to leave, because my little munchkin seemed intent on making it a more comfortable dirty! He was flying around like a rubber ball, bouncing off the wall, bringing in sticks and dirt! Darren looked around and looked at him, and then decided we would head for Pa yet that night! TTL! We are spending this last week with family in Pa.  There's still plenty to do. Yesterday I spent doing some sewing and mending. Today I want to get a few more things packed that aren't together yet.
Pray that we will be effective mirrors of Christ's light.