After an emotional sendoff at the airport Saturday night, we took the 17-hour flight into Bangkok, and then had 2 hours to make our 1-hour flight into Chiangmai. Thanks to all our family and church family for making it out so late to the airport...babies, children, and unborn children, and all. I was thinking that Sunday morning nurseries and classes might be rough. When we were going through the final checkpoint, the guy asked us if all that noise was for us. We love you all and are going to miss everyone one of you very much.
The last week before we left was cuh-ray-zy! It was a difficult endeavor to pack our entire lives into bags and boxes, deciding what to take, what to store, and what to bring later. We packed until the last minute. Most of the missionaries out here have their belongings stored in their homes that have been rented out. So we just got rid of as much as we could. We ended up taking an extra few bags and paying the fees.
The flight itself went better than expected. Eli fell asleep within 40 minutes of the flight around midnight.
Every couple hours, he'd wake up crying from a stuffy nose, but for most of the flight, he was okay. Right at the end, he started to meltdown and cried the entire way down as we landed. Then he was just plain exhausted and inconsolable as we tried to make our next flight. Everyone stared at us as we stood there waiting for 30 minutes trying to get through customs with a loud, crying, screaming baby. Ian, on the other hand, was the perfect traveler and was excited the whole time and was without complaint. God is gracious. As we waited for our 12 bags at the baggage claim, we saw all the travelers get their bags and exit, while we ended up being the very last people to leave, as we waited for our car seat that we checked in at the gate.
We're 14 hours ahead here, so we arrived Monday morning and were warmly greeted by a crowd of ZOE missionary families. Right away, we were hit with the heat and humidity. That will take some getting used to. The Tang Family, whom we met during our visit last November, took all our bags into their car and drove us to our new temporary home, which also happened to be their home last year, and the only home we visited in November. We were pleasantly surprised with 3 gift baskets of food, snacks, cleaning supplies, and other items we'd need right away, provided by ZOE. The Tangs showed us around the home and got us settled in.
The ZOE family has been amazing. They promptly gave us a schedule of different people assigned to drive us around each day and provide us dinner at night. We're so impressed with the quality of people who work at ZOE, just the best of the best. We're humbled and excited to work alongside such generous, kind, Christ-loving people. We love hearing everyone's life stories and what brought them to work at ZOE. Apart from the founders, David is the only one coming from a full-time ministry background. All the other missionaries come from professional backgrounds...business, accounting, finance, government, engineering, education, law, etc.
Tuesday and Wednesday have been full of errands...shopping for more supplies, getting cell phones, setting up the internet, setting up a bank account, looking for a car, etc. We tried to pack 2 bags that we could work out of for the first month so we wouldn't have to open up all the bags, but before we left, we had to keep redistributing the weights so everything got mixed up. We ended up opening up all the luggage and repacking. The boys are happy to see their toys and have been happily playing and watching DVDs. Eli picked up some bad habits (whining and hitting) in the weeks before we left, in the chaos of the move and not being able to be consistent with training and discipline. He's not happy about us bearing down on him now. The boys are doing extremely well with the jetlag. We all try to stay up until at least 9pm, but have been waking up anywhere from 3am-5am. All to say, we're tired. But we are overwhelmed with thankfulness for making it here; for the support of our family, church, and friends; the love of the ZOE family; and simply God's goodness.
We'll be looking for a home and buying a car in the next week or so. Here are some things we learned so far about life in Thailand:
- Airport: The Bangkok airport is crazy big. Poor David had to trek from our first flight to our second flight carrying a car seat on his back, his backpack on his front, 2 laptops on his side, and a rolling carryon bag. I think we walked half a mile. We barely made our flight 2 hours later.
- Food: Food will be an adjustment for the boys as we'll have to find textures and tastes that they're willing to eat. So far, they seem to be good with chicken/rice dishes. It's been hard finding fiber sources for them, as we're used to eating avocados every day. We've been relying on grapes and apples. Milk tastes a little different here, and our hypersensitive Ian quickly noticed this. Thankfully, they're used to it now and drinking away. We are doing our best to avoid foods sources that may get us sick, eating lots of yogurt, and drinking lots of what would be called yakult in the States. So far, no bacterial sickness, but Eli complained of a tummy ache yesterday and had a looser stool, so we'll have to keep an eye on that. David and Ester have meds ready in case our tummies are not adjusting.
- Driving: If you thought driving in LA was hairy, Thailand is no joke. Ester is wondering if she'll ever be able to drive here, as she'll be doing most of the driving because David can take a ZOE shuttle to work. Thus, we're looking for a home within 5 minutes of walking distance from Ian's school so she can avoid driving. And her record of not being at fault for 3 of her accidents in LA is no advantage here, as we were told that being a "farang" (foreigner), you will likely pay something regardless of who's at fault. And pedestrians don't have the right of way here. If you try to take it, they will mow you down.
- Critters: Thailand is full of all kinds of critters. We were told that we'll see geckos from time to time crawling along the walls in our homes, but we're to leave them be, as they eat up the other unwanted critters. However, we should pick up the droppings they leave around the house. Ian's job is to find the droppings before Eli does. One advantage is that we don't have to have artificial white noise for the boys because there is the natural white noise of frogs croaking, birds chirping, and other animals and bugs chiming together. We were also told to do the dishes right after meals, so as not to attract ants. David's happy about this one, as it's a pet peeve of his to leave dishes in the sink.
- Weather: The first day seemed the warmest and most humid. Every night, it's been raining hard, and then overcast or clears up during the day. Today, it rained during the day. This home has a fan and A/C in every room, so we try to stay in the same areas so we only have to run one A/C. In the evenings, we have the fans running all night.
- Conversions: Everything is in kg, celsius, 220 volts, and baht (instead of dollars) here. We're having to recalculate constantly to make sure we know what we're doing.
- Electronics: Most Thai homes don't have dryers (just washing machines) and a lot of the electronics that we Americans use. If you use too many at once, the power may go out. Being in this temporary home, we're not purchasing appliances just yet (toaster oven, microwave, dryer, etc.), so Ester's making the most of a simpler life. =) Without the internet, tv, and phones the first few days, it was nice to just enjoy one another rather than being distracted by everything else. And if we try to plug in something that is not designated as 110V-240V, then we can fry our electronic.
Here are some pics...happy on the airplane:
Carseats aren't required in Thailand:
This is a mom and her 2 kids covered in a tarp driving in the rain on a motorcyle:
Embracing Thai culture...sitting in the back of a truck:
These 2 guys are just hanging on the back of this songtheaow (taxi-type of truck):
All for now...thanks for your prayers!
