Beginning of a new year

The Roman poet, Virgil, once wrote

fugit irreparabile tempus

which when translated from the ancient Latin vernacular means, "time flees irretrievably”. More commonly, we tend to say “time flies”. I guess its a shared experience between those of us who are older than 35 to be alarmed at the speed with which each new year comes by. In my experience, the extent of that alarm is directly proportional to one’s age. By the time I’m 60, I’m going to have take Valium with my breakfast come January 1. Now don’t get me wrong! I’m not old, nor do I feel old, but time does seem to be speeding up the older I get.

There are a few interesting theories that try to explain that effect. One is telescopy - this is simply the underestimation of time. Just as things look close when viewed through a telescope, so past events are seen as having occurred more recently than they actually did. Then there is the reminiscence effect - when we’re young, we’re doing new things for the first time, but as we age, we fall into routines (ruts sometimes) and what used to be new and exciting becomes mundane. I would have thought that would make time drag, but according to scientists, regular events tend to pass by in a blur because they are not emotionally charged. The third theory has to do with the ageing of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or the brain’s biological clock - this has something to do with circadian rhythms and the ends of one’s DNA strands fraying like shoelaces...?

Anyway, it would appear that the perceived speeding up of time as we age is a scientific fact, not merely a sneaky feeling. And here we are, having sped, at a dizzy speed, through the first month of yet another year. I have a feeling though, that this year is going to be a significant one (not that previous ones were insignificant). Its just that this year will see me turning 47. It will see the wife of my youth turning 46, 44, er...45ish. It will see our 12th year in Asia (our 3rd in Singapore). Most significantly, it will see our return to South Africa in December.

This is significant because when we left SA 12 years ago, I thought that I would go back in order to retire. Happily, or maybe unhappily, I will not be going back to retire. Instead, I will be going back to start a new chapter in my life. A new work with OMF, done in a new way, in a new era. I am very excited about going back although I do expect things have changed a lot in the past 12 years. I know I have changed in terms of my thinking and expectations. My personal circumstances have also changed in that I will be going back with 3 children, having left 12 years ago with none. When we left for Thailand in 2003, we had to learn a new culture and a new language. We had to learn to live in a different country. The same when we moved to Singapore. I suspect, apart from having to learn the language, our move back to SA is going to require a similar learning curve to the one we went through when we moved to Asia.

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Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy sucks wherever you may find it, but when faced with a sea of bureaucrats in a country and language other than one's own, its that much harder to maintain one's sense of humour. I recently faced that here in Thailand.

I purchased a new motor vehicle in Chiang Mai towards the end of April. Part of the deal was that the dealership would, at no extra cost, register the vehicle in my name- i.e. no red tape to deal with. I provided the dealership with all the documents they needed and they told me it would take a week or two to have the vehicle registered in my name. In the meantime, I was given a temporary red number plate (paay deang) to use. One week after purchasing the vehicle I moved to Lampang, a town 100km south of Chiang Mai. Biiiig mistake!

After I had moved to Lampang, I was told, via the car dealership that the authorities in Chiang Mai wanted proof of residence and that I should go to the Immigration Office in Chiang Mai to apply for the necessary document providing proof of residence. So I made the journey, only to find out that the Immigration Office had stopped issuing these documents months ago. I was told to contact my embassy in Bangkok. Fortunately, I had business to attend to in Bangkok, so I picked up the necessary document (which was full of typo's!). Another trip to Chiang Mai, to the vehicle dealer to provide proof of residence. When the vehicle registration authorities in Chiang Mai saw that I was resident in Lampang, they informed me that I had to register the vehicle in Lampang. So I had to make another trip to Chiang Mai to collect all the registration documents from the dealer. It was now up to me to register the vehicle myself in Lampang. It took me 3 days to find the relevant authorities in Lampang, and when I submitted the documents to them, they informed me that one of the pages (in a bundle about 10 pages thick!) needed to be stamped by the Chiang Mai office. So back to Chiang Mai to have a jolly rubber stamp put on a page.

Finally! All the documents stamped and signed and ready to go, I went to the Lampang vehicle registration authorities. After standing in 3 queues I was rudely told that my vehicle needed to be inspected first and that I was to join the queue of vehicles. This queue went halfway around the building, so I gave it a miss and went home. This happened twice more and finally, the 4th time I go, I decide to brave the queue, which is about 10 cars long (at 8am!). 2 hours later my brand new vehicle is "inspected". I am given an extra wad of papers and told to report to counter 4. Counter 4 signs and stamps some of my papers and sends me to counter 11. Counter 11 peruses my documents for 10 minutes and sends me back to counter 4. Counter 4 doesn't know why I'm back, but I refuse to leave until they clarify with counter 11 what the problem us. Counter 4 phones counter 11 and tells them off. Back to counter 11 I go. They take half an hour to process my forms. They take my money and I start to see a light at the end of the tunnel - or maybe its just the train! Counter 11 sends me to counter 15. After an hour-long wait at counter 15, I finally get my new registration plates. Yippee ! I'm outa there, but no! wait! Gotta go back to counter 11 to get the blue registration book. After another 1 hour wait I finally get my blue registration book and this time I really am outa there before they find some other problem.

Mission accomplished. Final score = Total distance traveled in getting all the necessary documents to register my new car that I paid cash for - 1900km. Total time taken from date of purchase to date of registration -3 months. Total mileage on new vehicle before its finally registered - 8000km. Now you can't beat that for an exercise in bureaucratic inefficiency and patience stretching!











Before and After

Rice Planting

July is the beginning of the rainy season in Thailand. That also means that its time to plant rice. Everybody clubs together to help with the planting and its an interesting time in rural Thailand as all available hands head out to the rice paddies. Suddenly finding a builder or a handyman, or even a mechanic, becomes impossible and little odd-jobs are put on the back burner for a while.

The whole process starts with seed beds that have been prepared in advance. These are harvested and the rice seedlings are bundled.

(The ladies in this picture are harvesting and bundling rice seedlings to be replanted in prepared paddies).



At the same time, paddies that have been lying fallow are prepared by pumping water into them. Thailand literally has thousands of water canals (called khlongs) which are used for this purpose.

(Water being pumped out of a khlong into a paddy - note in the background the 2 dry paddies)


After the water in the paddies has made the soil soft and mushy, its time to dig it up, or plow it. For this they have a fancy contraption that looks like a generator on 2 big wheels.

This is what they used in the good old days and will probably revert to if fuel prices keep going up!











Once the paddies have been plowed, they are ready to be planted. Now the back breaking task begins as rows of people stand shin-deep in water, bent double, as they plant the rice seedlings. (Aaagh! It hurts my back just looking at them!)
In a few months time the rice crop will be ready for the harvest.

Our July Newsletter

KHAO PANSAA (BUDDHIST LENT)

We went to Trish’s favourite noodle shop for lunch – where they
throw in boiled pig intestines for no extra charge! There was a
festive atmosphere, and a friendly guy offered Nick a whiskey.
Nick declined, but his new friend was insistent, explaining that
“Khao Pansaa” is about to start, and during the 3 months of
Buddhist lent, drinking is forbidden, so drink as much as you can
today. In fact, he told us, he was drinking enough today for the
next three months. Later he admitted that he probably wouldn’t
last 3 months without a drink!

The rains have started in earnest and we are in the time of the
Buddhist Lent ("rain retreat"). Its an auspicious time for
Buddhists: it marks a period of spiritual renewal for them. It is a
time devoted to study and meditation. The monks usually stay in
the temple grounds, a tradition which dates back to years gone
by when it was necessary to prevent them from trampling on
newly planted rice paddies when they ventured out to receive
offerings from the villagers.

Thai people are usually actively engaged in merit-making during
this period. They bring offerings of food to the monks, but it’s
the offerings that provide light, like candles, which are
considered to be particularly important. It is believed that these
offerings provide monks with illumination physically and
spiritually.

Not insignificantly, within the next couple of weeks we will be
opening our outreach centre, The Lighthouse, right in the centre
of Lampang.

ARM AND OTHER FRIENDS

His name is “Arm”, he hardly has any teeth – those that he does
have are black stumps. He is five years old, but looks as if he’s
only two. His mother is very poor and the gardener in our
housing development. Arm has adopted us. For the first few
weeks that we lived here, he’d stare at us and follow us around
on his bicycle… and race away the minute we’d try to initiate any
contact with him. Now, he comes into our home, eats our food,
drinks our cooldrinks, plays with our toys, watches our TV, and …
listens to Bible stories, learns to sing “Jesus loves me” and hears
Trish read stories about how good God is. Naturally we have to
translate for him, and even so he probably only understands a
tiny bit of what we’re sharing, but, seeds are being planted in his
life.

On Saturdays, we have Kids’ Club in our home – Carrot, Champ, Satang (Thai word for a 1 c coin), Stamp (see photo), Rainbow and others are coming faithfully despite the focus on Jesus. While its fun and games, again, seeds are being planted each week. Its rainy season and we have a powerful God, so we’re optimistic!!!

Thai Drivers

I love Thailand - its a great country and Thai people are very nice people - I guess that's why I'm a missionary here! There are some Thai ways however, that irritate me beyond belief. One of those are the driving habits of the average Thai.

• they generally are in no rush to drive anywhere fast. Average speed that I find myself driving behind most Thai folk - 35km/h.
• solid lines - purely for show. When those who do go faster than 35km/h overtake their less speedy compatriots, they do so anywhere, at anytime. Oncoming traffic? Who cares - they can move onto the shoulder of the road!
• Traffic lights - purely for show and late night entertainment in the quieter towns. Motorcyclists especially, treat traffic lights, red ones that is, with total disdain. In fact, I almost took a motorcyclist out on my way home this afternoon as I went speeding through a green light and she went speeding through a red one.
• sometimes, especially at bigger, busier intersections where traffic police are always lurking, motorcyclists do stop and give rise to my biggest and most severe irritation - motorcyclists who squeeze in front of me whilst I am waiting for a traffic light to change, then proceed to take off dead slowly and speed up to 35km/h whilst my car's bumper hovers a dangerous 10 cm or so behind their back wheel (many is the time that I have been oh sooo tempted to give them a little nudge to help them along their way).

Some other pet irritations in the traffic;

• people on cell phones - their speed then comes down to 25km/h and they weave erratically across the road.
• slow moving traffic in the fast lane of major highways - there are even signs up telling people to keep the outside lane open for faster moving traffic - these are steadfastly ignored!
• big trucks that pull out into the fast lane in order to overtake slower moving traffic without so much as a glance, a warning, or any indication at all. Most times this happens, I am the only fast moving vehicle in the outside lane and if the the trucker and waited 5 seconds, he would have the whole road to himself and I would not have reduced the lifespan of my brakes and tires as much as I had in trying to avoid a collision.
• People who do not give you a gap to get into the flow of slow moving traffic, leaving you stranded and unable to "go with the flow".
• Traffic lights out of order and there is no order as it becomes a free for all to see who can get across. No taking of turns here - you just go - he with the biggest car and nerves of steel wins!
  

Driving in Thailand is an experience that has got to be seen and experienced to be believed. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "defensive driving" and those who think that mini bus taxi drivers in Johannesburg are bad..., ain't seen nothing yet.