**To be read in a dramatic movie announcer voice**
“Get ready for the 2-D Thai experience of a lifetime as you read about 4-D Thai experiences of a lifetime in: The 5 Senses of Thailand. Coming to a blog near you.”
Sights:
Motos, mopeds, pink taxis, flowers for King’s funeral, traffic, highways, toll booths (ahhh, feels like home! Nothing says good ole’ Midwest like a toll booth), street vendors, cockroaches, markets, fish, marigolds, no colors, all black for King’s funeral anniversary, students, coffee, classrooms, lesson plans, tuk tuks, bougie tuk tuks I may add, red trucks, Robinson’s mall, 7-11 on every single corner, and sometimes more in between, squatty potties, Cafe Amazon, surgical face masks, Starbucks, straws, Family Mart, brown water, offerings to the gods, Buddhist temples, monks, drink offerings, altars to the gods, Sweet Loft Hotel (our home for the month), A Mane English Center (our ministry for the month), table grill, portraits of the late king, Red Light District, neon lights, plastic stools, modern day slavery, Madams and pimps, menu of women like a dessert menu, hope for future generations through education and English school and mostly Jesus, of course, sun umbrellas, fish roasting on a spit, open air markets, raw meat, live fish, traffic (it deserved a second mention because…yeah), crosswalks not synchronized with traffic lights (run!), clothes lines draped throughout our whole hotel room, bright signs, bowing (with hands up in prayer position for respect – kinda makes it difficult to mime ‘Can I pray for you?’ when they think you’re just saying hello. Makes for a few funny moments of bobble head interpretations…), the Thai Baht currency, steering wheels on the right side of the car… or should I say, the wrong side, people driving on the left side of the road, or should I say, the wro.… I mean, you got it the first time, clean – Thailand is so clean, piles of shoes outside every doorway because you don’t wear shoes inside (hence how it stays so clean), kids doing art and sewing projects at A Mane English school, group sessions at LDW at the Bangkok hostel, our squad worshiping as people walked past the hostel windows and watched, our squad doing expressive worship in a Bangkok park, many trans people (common and widely honored in Thailand), bearded dragon eating a large fish, a 4ft in diameter stingray, 6ft large and in charge fish of some kind, and large turtles (where did I see these big exotic creatures you may ask? None other than the hipster coffee shop a walk away from our hotel. Sometimes WiFi runs turn into mother nature adventures!), work out park and nice lady in black that waved to us every morning on our runs, include nice food stand man who shouted ‘good morning’ each day as we ran by, and the salute of the army guy guarding some official looking building we ran past on the way to the park, JJ Market, tricked out mirrored-lighted-graffitied-soundsystemed-WiFied-A/Ced-doubledecker-overnight bus to bring us to Malaysia (we know how to ride in style, holla at yo’ Logistics!), crepe guy, Pad Thai Gai guy, pizza lady, steamed chicken and rice lady, Foresta coffee, Beth Moore bible study videos, Kate’s dress shop, the back of a Chinese volunteer ambulance (No problem. All good.), endless street food vendors (except at lunch time, then they’re not so endless and you make your second, likely not final, 7-11 run for the day), bottled water
Sounds:
Thai, English, motos, ambulance sirens, spatulas against woks, rain, thunder, laughter, kids screaming, Despacito and Shape of You (heard here along with every single other country we’ve been to and surprisingly, I’m not yet sick of them. They’ve turned into the odd but fun background soundtrack of the race. Just don’t pay too close attention to the lyrics…), Thai music, American music, students trying to learn American pronunciation, and then whispering in Thai when they don’t understand, children repeating bible verses, “Sawasdee kah”, “Kap khun kah,” “Mai,” “Mai Tofu,” 52 people worshiping in the hostel lounge, friends learning guitar and me assisting, Bam helping translate for the kids at the school, Theo and Asher yelling and laughing, Kamp laughing, Bam rocking out to Just Dance, busy streets, awesome late night chats with roomies, laughing until you cry, praying together, funny little robot vacuum swerving around the floors at A Mane, hearing friends teaching the gospel in class after class of kids and being overjoyed, conference calls and TL calls, keyboard typing as I finally return to blogging
Tastes:
Mango and sticky rice, Pad Thai Gai, coconut ice cream, curry, chicken, fish, rice, SO. MUCH. RICE., fried rice, chicken fried rice, pork fried rice, beef fried rice, sticky rice, sweet rice, white rice, brown rice, purple rice, plain rice, steamed rice, spicy rice, chicken broth rice, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, fried vegetable patties, cucumbers, potato spirals, amazing salad from Muslim-lady-at-market, Starbucks coffee, Foresta coffee, Snickers, yogurt, raisins, bananas, apples, spicy, duck, fried meats, meat on a stick, fish sauce, som tum, peanut sauce, NesCafe coffee, rice noodles, egg noodles, Thai dessert, mango ice cream, corn, beans, sweet potato and water chestnuts in ice cream, corn and bean yogurt, (corn and beans make an appearance in a number of interesting articles and it’s surprisingly good) purple sweet potato in coconut sauce, such yummy food and sweets!, dried mango, loaded baked potato for our last Thai family dinner (not Thai food, surprisingly), popcorn, bean sprouts, edamame, tofu, shrimp, hard boiled eggs, dried bananas, omelets, basil chicken, bone broth, chocolate corn puffs, liver, sushi, garlic, dragon fruit
Smells:
Rain, shrimp, fish, always fish, bone broth, sewer, often that too, chicken, seasoning, ginger, whiteboard markers, whiteboard cleaning spray, Starbucks, clean, exhaust fumes, incense, tea tree oil, coffee, shoes, roasting our own meat over table grill at restaurant, humidity, heat, food frying at every street food vendor lining the streets, flowers for the King’s funeral anniversary, freshly washed laundry (Praise!!), momentary choking gas at an open air restaurant, because making your guest hack up a lung before dinner really works up an appetite (We were fine. Nobody panic.), fresh paint from our American flag mural at A Mane, every type of food smell at the open air market, freshly baked cookies at ministry host home, chocolate ice cream, sweet fruit and sweet rice
Feelings:
Home, comfort, grace, care, family, joy, A/C!, a comfy bed (for the first time since Africa), welcoming, gratitude, love, spiritual growth, emotional growth, belonging, encouraged, challenged, cared for, brokenness, stretching, mourning, lost people, hurt and pain for the people, spiritual oppression, needed, wanted, useful, spiritual heaviness, atmosphere of willingness and hard workers, respect, intergenerational value and respect, particularly respect for elders, value for teachers, Americans, English, sweat, all the sweat, ALWAYS all the sweat, sun, running!, preoccupation, freedom, a cold, soggy wet from the rain (monsoon season in Thailand), stairs, not understanding cultural norms, accidentally breaking cultural norms, friendship, wrestle with the Lord, challenge, refilling, peace, rest, refreshment, blessed, lavished with grace, awakened, appreciated, sad, joy as the kids snuggled and cuddled, loss at the thought of leaving such a wonderful place, excitement for my own home, amazed, deepening love for the Lord and his word, delight at sitting in his presence every morning in my comfy Sweet Loft bed, working out again, uneven street tiles, fear of slipping on said uneven street tiles and busting nearly healed ankle, thankfulness for having avoided slipping on said uneven street tiles and not busting said nearly healed ankle, excitement for market nights, greater depth of friendships with the girls on the team I joined for the month, immense generosity, love, faithfulness, pursuit of the Lord
