Journeys, Thailand, and Me

Posted on October 21, 2011 by vanderbiltwife

{31 Days of Reading Well: Day 21}

originally posted November 18, 2008, hence the references to my newborn Libbie!

Despite having a newborn, I have had some time to read. I’ve finished three books since she’s been born. I reread Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, read Chicken Soup for the New Mom’s Soul, and just finished tonight Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman.

I liked them all in their own respect – I haven’t read a Chicken Soup book since high school, but someone gave this to me and it was sweet and a good reminder to savor every moment. Tam Lin is a little strange but a good read. But I adored the Gelman memoir.

After a bitter divorce, Gelman decides to sell everything and live as a nomad, with no permanent home. She writes of her travels around the world, including an extensive stay in Indonesia. But tonight, near the end of the book, she finally landed in Thailand, and it strummed up such good memories for me.

If you are new to my blog or don’t know me, in March 2006 I went to Thailand for two weeks with a group of Tennessee Baptists to help with tsunami relief as a part of an extended effort there. It was a phenomenal experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I made some good friends that I still keep in touch with. I met amazing and kind Thai people, painted their homes, spoke with national Thai Christians. And the food. It kills me to eat in a Thai restaurant here because the food is nowhere near as good as real Thai food. This passage in the book struck me especially:

“Lawn,” says Nark, holding a bowl of red sauce and adding some to his bowl. Then, in English, he says, “Hot. Thai like hot.”

“I do too,” I respond, spooning about the same amount into my soup along with marinated chilies and assorted leaves. I feel the heat on my lips, my throat, and all the way down. It is hotter than anything they serve in the U.S., but I’m determined to eat Thai food the Thai way. I only choke a little.

I learned quite quickly that if a Thai person says something is a little hot, I should stay FAR AWAY from it. I am extremely sensitive to spicy foods. I even packed my bags with tons of trail mix and snacks in case I couldn’t eat anything in Thailand without being sick. But the food was phenomenal. We helped cook our own breakfasts and dinners at our guesthouse, but lunch was cooked by the wife of a local squid farmer in authentic Thai-style. You haven’t tasted squid until it is fresh out of the ocean! And those chicken feet really add flavor to a soup.

I wonder sometimes if I will ever travel again like I have; I’ve been to China, Brazil, Thailand, the Dominican Republic. I love doing short-term missions and interacting with other cultures. I was a Chinese minor in college, and I know my language skills have gone down the tube. I long to be able to practice them again. But now I’ve entered this new phase as a mom. I’m excited right now to get to leave the house two days in a row.

It’s a new adventure. Where we don’t quite speak the same language, and this little one will have to adapt to my culture!

When I looked this up on Amazon in 2011, I saw there’s now a sequel – Female Nomads and Friends: Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World. Guess that’s another book for my TBR list!

See all of the 31 Days of Reading Well posts.

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A Grateful Heart and a Stack of Coats

Posted on November 12, 2009 by vanderbiltwife

Most of the time now, I feel poor.

If I sit back, it feels silly. We have enough money to pay a mortgage and a rent, drive back and forth to Chattanooga, pay a baby-sitter, all of our utilities, for groceries, and for a little fun. We eat out every Sunday after church–that’s built into our budget.

I’ve seen true poverty. In 1999, I took my very first plane trip ever at the age of 17 to the Dominic Republic for a mission trip. There, as a part of World Changers, my group helped construct the second story of a small green church with cinderblocks and cement. We walked through the neighborhood, feeling the desperation. We saw the slums, houses made of tin caked together with mud. I saw a Haitian family of 10 living in a hut with pigs and chickens.

Since then, I’ve been to Thailand, where I saw the aftermath of a terrible tsunami. I saw where five people slept on one bed and had to pee in a hole in the ground. I’ve been to rural China, where there are no lights after dark and I slept on the guest bed–made of logs and bags of rice. I’ve seen hungry children in Nashville who just want to find the safe place their home isn’t.

Considering all these things, feeling poor is almost indulgent.

One of my friends gave me a coat for Libbie yesterday. I sat there, staring at it, thinking about how she would have five coats by Christmas (I know my parents have purchased one for her)–including a boutique one, one from Mini Boden, and two from Gymboree. There are little girls out there Libbie’s age who don’t have one coat.

I am so thankful for the abundance we have been given. I am learning more and more to embrace simplicity and let God plan our lives. And I want to share what we have been given. That’s why we sponsor a child with Compassion. And that’s why I hope you’ll give me some ideas as to where I could donate a few precious little girl’s coats.

Mary is hosting a carnival each Thursday through Thanksgiving on giving thanks. I hope you’ll consider going and reading her post on Compassion today.

Thailand, Food, and a New Journey

Posted on November 19, 2008 by vanderbiltwife

Despite having a newborn, I have had some time to read. I’ve finished three books since she’s been born (mostly while taking baths to soothe my episiotomy…sorry for the TMI! But that sucker hurts!). I reread Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, read Chicken Soup for the New Mom’s Soul, and just finished tonight Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman.

I liked them all in their own respect–I haven’t read a Chicken Soup book since high school, but someone gave this to me and it was sweet and a good reminder to savor every moment. Tam Lin is a little strange but a good read. But I adored the Gelman memoir.

“Lawn,” says Nark, holding a bowl of red sauce and adding some to his bowl. Then, in English, he says, “Hot. Thai like hot.”

“I do too,” I respond, spooning about the same amount into my soup along with marinated chilies and assorted leaves. I feel the heat on my lips, my throat, and all the way down. It is hotter than anything they serve in the U.S., but I’m determined to eat Thai food the Thai way. I only choke a little.

I wonder sometimes if I will ever travel again like I have–I’ve been to China, Brazil, Thailand, the Dominican Republic. I love doing short-term missions and interacting with other cultures. I was a Chinese minor in college and I know my language skills have gone down the tube. I long to be able to practice them again. But now I’ve entered this new phase as a mom. I’m excited right now to get to leave the house two days in a row.

It’s a new adventure. Where we don’t quite speak the same language, and this little one will have to adapt to my culture!

Khao Lak

Posted on March 22, 2008 by vanderbiltwife

Two years ago this week, I left the good old US of A for Thailand. It was something that completely fell into my lap. I have always, always wanted to go to Thailand–since I was in fifth grade. That year, as part of GAs (Girls in Action…kids’ mission-education group they have in SBC churches) I wrote to missionaries who lived in Bangkok. I just picked them out of the Foreign Mission Board directory and wrote. Unlike most of the missionaries my fellow GAs wrote, mine wrote me back!

We ended up writing back and forth for many years. When they went on furlough, my family and theirs actually met at the Missionary Training Center in Richmond. I still have a scrapbook of all of their letters. It was a huge influence on my life, really. I still have a pretty big drive to do foreign missions.

So, back to this trip. I think they ran in the bulletin at church for one week that this trip was going to happen, and the cost was unbelievably low. It was supposed to be in November 2005. I asked about it, I applied, and although the November trip was full, I was added to a trip the next March, 2006.

The purpose of the trip was tsunami relief. I’m sure you remember the devestating tsunami in December 2004. When I applied for this trip, it was April or so after that, soon after relief starting pouring into Southeast Asia. By the time I got there in March 2006, relief had seriously trickled off. We Westerners do have rather short memories for bad things and the emotions you undergo right after they happen. The Thai people we worked with could not believe Christians were still willing to come to help them.

My team was so awesome; I got to be very good friends with two ladies, Marian and Deb, who are sisters, and a man named David. We trekked down to the market together, ate squid, played games, and worked our tails off in 100+ degree weather every day. I have never been anywhere else so sufficatingly hot. Being that close to the equator is just insane. Being out in the sun for 15 minutes is enough to make you pass out.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on this trip and to get to meet the people I met, both the Thai people and the Americans I went with and the missionaries that lived in Khao Lak.

It almost seems like a dream now, as I find most of my travels do. When I am living my everyday life, nauseated, tired, watching March Madness, it is hard to believe I am the same person who took classes in Chinese, rode an elephant in Thailand, and had lunch with a sheik in Brazil. Most days I honestly can’t believe I’ve had such amazing opportunities when I am such a boring person!

I long for that post-trip feeling, though, of appreciation for my “normal” life. Most days I find myself so wrapped up in housekeeping, making dinners, watching TV shows, and so on. Things that have no importance whatsoever. What matters is relationships, whenever and wherever they are formed, and how these relationships tie into Jesus.

Better Blogs than Mine

Posted on March 9, 2008 by vanderbiltwife

Most blogs are better and more entertaining than mine, and since I’ve been updating less frequently I am sure you are overwhelmed with the need to see into someone else’s life. May I present Euros Ate My Dollars?

Way back in high school I knew these two kids, Ben and Brittany. I was fairly good friends with both of them freshmen and sophomore years (after which I became decidedly uncool. Somehow I managed to deceive people until then, I guess). Ben liked Brittany, and I think I was the go-between as her 14-year-old self coolly rejected him.

Now, I haven’t seen these people since graduation day, but of course, we’re Facebook friends and I ran across their blog through that. Apparently they are now actually in a relationship and traveling around Europe and Asia together. They are both really good writers, and I’ve adored reading their blog entries. Of course, their recent posts on Thailand and elephant trekking are especially close to my heart since that is something I can actually relate to–I’ve never been to Europe.

So don’t be dismayed at my lack of posting; instead, hike it over to Ben and Brittany‘s and have a good laugh.

Meditations on the 23rd Psalm

Posted on January 27, 2008 by vanderbiltwife

Our Sunday School lesson this morning was on the 23rd psalm–same old, same old, right? Well, I was actually quite struck as I sat there listening to Howard’s “sermon.”

“He leads me beside quiet waters/ he renews my life.” Psalm 23:2-3, HCSB

In the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to some awesome waters. In March 2006, I sat by the Andaman Sea in Thailand. It was so calm, despite having produced such massive destruction through the 2004 tsunami. I felt so peaceful and yet so filled with pain for the people of Khao Lak. I vividly remember walking along a beach filled with giant rocks, the kind you couldn’t possibly move, that had been washed ashore by that huge wave. All of the tree were leafless and cut off at the same height. It was haunting.

This past August, I went to Foz de Iguacu, Brazil, which is home to one of the world’s largest waterfalls. The cataratas are amazing, just breathtaking and immense in a way completely indescribable.

I was filled with such reverence on this day that I have a picture of, trekking around the Argentina side of the falls (in that sweater that I miss so dearly. I was wearing it when I was in my car accident and I bled all over it. Man, I liked that sweater! Ooops, sorry!). I actually cried a little, and sang “How Great Thou Art” while walking around.

In my spiritual life, there are still waters and rushing waters. There have to be both to mature me. If we only had to walk beside the still waters, we might be bored, even a little melancholy. The rushing waters may be the valley of the shadow of death, but they are the times that cause us to rely on God, to know Him better, to cry at His greatness.

Even when I feel like I’m going through a valley kind of time…I know that if I keep my sight straight ahead on my Shepherd, I will learn, I will grow, and I will be better for it.

So there’s my Sunday sermon for you.

Vanderbilt Wife

Trying to be the housewife I'm not

Tag Archives: Thailand