First Days at Surin Rajhabat University

Well, it's day three on the job and all is well. I was a little nervous the first day, but got over that really quick as things have picked up to a skippy pace. It's actually started to feel something like cold. Haven't felt that in a while, in fact, we had to go out and get some jackets. It's cold in the morning when I ride the motorcycle to work. Anyway, the classes themselves are going very well.

Monday was the big start. My first class was "Creative Writing in English", a class taken by 4th year English students. It went very well, at the beginning of each class this week, we will go through introductions, which always bring laughs as the students cook up their best English to tell me their name, hometown and hobbies. Most hobbies consist of radio, TV, comic books, music, Thai dance, or sleeping. It's been a little interesting trying to take the roll as their names on the roll itself are in Thai. I am trying hard to learn the alphabet, but have a ways to go yet. So I had them write their English nicknames, which helped immensely. During the lunch break, I asked one of the Thai teachers a question about my schedule. When she went to check with the master schedule, she discovered that I had an extra class. Apparently, it was written on the master copy in pencil, and so when it was photocopied for me, the pencil was invisible. In other words, I had no idea about "Features of Extended Writing" until an hour before the class started. So after a quick lunch, I scrambled to put together a syllabus. We didn't have class this week, just went over assignments and such. That was amazing.

Tuesday came and found me starting the day out with the second class in "Features of Extended Writing". Thailand is interesting in its collegiate educational system. When somebody starts in college, they decide a major and stick with it (I suppose anyway). So the English majors come in together, and graduate together. The class takes all the same courses together for their entire college career. So they are usually a pretty intimate group. When they are too big for a class, they will split them up. So while I am teaching 4 subjects, I am actually teaching 6 classes (two classes are split). The second class on Tuesday was "English for Tourism 1", in which we began talking about how to relate to a foreigner. It was really something because I was able to relate the things I have learned coming to Thailand.

On Wednesday I only had one class, "Background of English Speaking Countries". This was a promising and fun subject to teach, and I was very excited about it. Unfortunately, the class was a second year English major class, and so some of what I was trying to communicate was going right over their heads. So I ended up drawing lots of pictures and trying to make things as simple and clear as possible. Whew, I was exhausted after that class!

It's been a very interesting experience already, and it's only day 3! Most of the students in my classes are female, though there are a few male students here and there. One sad thing I find is the amount of transvestite students here. It makes me sad, not out of some spiteful hate (sin is in fact sin), but rather the thought that people really do reject God's natural creation for their own choices. Think about it, somebody who makes these kind of choices, even to the point of undergoing operations (not uncommon here, it's in the hospital brochures), is in essence saying that God did not make them correctly, and so it must change. It is a natural, sinful human tendency to tell God our ideas are better than His. I guess it's just heart-breaking to see people say that in such an outright way. But then again, that is why we are here, to bring God on the scene and let people know how far He came to take away all that sin.

So thank you all for praying, we have surely needed it, and continue to. We are thinking of you and praying for you. Oh... by the way, just as an FYI... we found out we can actually track where people are viewing our site from. It's been encouraging to read all the comments you leave and see where everybody is praying for us from! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Till next time,

Drew

Slight Correction...

Yeah... about that cat. Let's just change all of those "she's" to "he's". This would explain the aggressive behavior, and why we are trying to figure out how to discipline this thing every 5 minutes. 'Nuff said. He is trying to be picky, wanting only wet food at this point. He'll learn, it's dry or die. Okay, not quite that heartless, but he has this pre-teen kind of "meow" where his voice actually cracks. It would be very funny if he wasn't doing it CONSTANTLY. We're learning.

The New Ride

Hello again! God has been so good to us. I say that not because of what He gives us but because of sometimes what He doesn't give us, at least right away. I would have loved to have gotten a motorcycle early on, but circumstances kept getting in the way of that. Circumstances that I realize now were divinely appointed. These are things like having to get the visa in order to get the work permit in order to get the bike. Even once I had all of these, THEN I had to get my address confirmed/verified by the US Embassy. This all may sound simple, but it has taken me a solid month to get it all done (most of it waiting on something to get all the proper stamps and signatures... bureaucracy... ugh!). Finally, a few days ago we were able to get the motorcycle. But before I go into any specifics on the bike, I must give God honor where it is certainly due. See, I really thought we would need this thing right away. God had other plans, clearly. He told me to wait. Nuts, that is really hard, you know! But last week, in the English Bible Study, we were going over Matthew 6:25-34 talking about how God knows what we need much better than what we think we know. So God knew what I NEEDED was to be able to get around. And guess what, we did... without a motorcycle. So we used other ways like bicycle (and we both lost weight!), songtale (like a bus, except it's a truck), tuk-tuk (3 wheeled motorized taxi), and samlaw (3 wheeled bicycle with two-seater). Really, God provided all we needed. Right at the main road near our house, we could access ALL of these alternate forms of transportation. It was really a perfect spot for these. Now though, with the school year coming, it was evident that we needed a motorcycle. These other forms were either getting expensive to do everyday, or were not dependable to get us where we needed to go in time. So God provided at just the right moment. Not a moment too early or too late.

So, here's the motorcycle. It's a Honda (one of my favorite brands) Air Blade. Black and silver, sleak and stylish. All bonus kind of stuff, you know. The best parts are some of the safety features, such as no-startup-if-the-kickstand's-down, locking handlebars (when parked), and the best, combination brakes (meaning that the brakes hit on both front and back wheels simultaneously, as opposed to handbrakes for the front and footbrakes for the rear). The engine is 110 cc 4-stroke, which means it has enough power to get me around quite comfortably, and do so without making a racket. It also means the engine itself is cleaner, quieter and will last much longer than some others. It's a bit different than anything I've experienced before. It's much heavier than a bike, but it has a lot more pick up (my ole' legs just can't compare), and it is pretty easy to maneuver around (here in Thailand, you are usually maneuvering around potholes, cows and dogs... and the occasional cobra, like we did yesterday!).

So for all of you who were (are) petrified about us riding a motorcycle. Your nightmares have come true. And for those of you who actually had faith in us :), praise the Lord He provided this. It really is going to be nice to go to church not sweating through my shirt. A luxury? Perhaps, but I can't help but think the Thais will appreciate not having a sweaty Farang running around the premises. And hey, just think... it will give everyone something else to pray about! (that was supposed to be a joke... we'll see how funny it actually is...)

in Thailand for His Name's sake,

Drew

Cat friend

I, Leah Kilcup announce that yes, I am a cat person, and I am not ashamed. Now that it is said I will get on with the blog. Drew and I had to make an emergency run to Bangkok this weekend. We had to file our proof of residency and obtain a re-entry visa for December. Friday was all business with that but as Saturday rolled in, we decided to go to Chaktu chak Market. Basically its your average Thai exotic market but on a hundred times scale. Anything and everything for sale! Alligator skin boots, snake skin belts, rubies and silver, silk in every jeweled color you can think of, curly toed shoes and exotic head dresses, and food food food! I was so overwhelmed by it. I am pretty used to the markets here but this was overwhelming. We found that one part is devoted to selling pets and animals. If I wanted to I could roll on home with a Mongoose. But instead my friend Amanda helped me find a furry little kitten. It was the most emaciated thing I could find, and it eats like a pig. She slurps and grunts when you feed it... And I love it!

Well, we had to jet back to Surin saturday night and the fastest way was the bus. Let me just share a bit of personal history before I go on.
I have been on old buses in Peru going up the Andies mountains with questionable breaks and gears. Unpaved roads and shear cliffs on one side, with sharp mountain on the other. I thought that was intense. That was nothing compared to flying through the country side in a Thai bus.
The Driver took off at a break neck speed, screeching over curves and bends like a taxi. The bus was a double decker, swaying two and fro, some times on two wheels (I am not lying to you) I thought, perhaps we where just being scared Americans, but when I looked back and saw the terrified faces on the Thai people and hearing their gasps of fear, I knew we where in trouble. When the locals are scared you should be too. Mean while our stewardess would come by handing out snacks and water like we where supposed to be able to eat on that rocking monstrosity! At one curve we all had to lean to the left as the Bus veered into the corner, speeding up faster. Drew clutched the seat arms and held me up so we wouldn't fall into the Isle. People all around us where yelping. Funny thing, the whole time the cat slept under the seat through it all.
When we arrived in Surin the bus driver smiled and bowed to every one as if it had been the best ride ever. Maybe for him. All I know is, I will NEVER get on a bus to bangkok again. Unless the burning bush calls to me to do it, you wont see me near another bus like that again. Ill take the Train thank you!
leah

A Little Paint Goes a Long Way

Hello again all faithful readers! (Or at least, I will imagine such) Here's a bit of an update since the last time. We be painting! That's right, a little lime-green paint and Voila! We have a new house. We have currently only painted the bedroom and bathroom a lime-green, but might do the kitchen area the same color. But we haven't gotten that far yet.

Our newly painted bedroom!

Leah painted the entire bathroom and most of the bedroom by herself while I was at work, then when I got home we finished off the bedroom together. Whew, tiring stuff. But what a satisfying thing it was, made the place look like new. You see, there were all sorts of unidentifiable marks and stains on the wall from who knows what, so to be able to cover them over with some beautiful paint was a real blessing! Thais don't usually go for color on their walls too much, so you don't normally get a house or apartment with colored walls. It's a bit of an anomaly. So as silly as it may sound, it really helped make this place home to have clean walls to look at. You don't really think about things like that until you are in a situation like this, and we have learned how to appreciate something so seemingly insignificant, and yet profound!

Movie Night: The Passion

Well, in our second installment, we had another dinner/movie night at the Kilcups here. Again, the students from the local high school came, which was a really big blessing! We ate Korean Barbecue. You heat coals in a bucket, then put a metal lid/grate kind of thing on top, which has a lip around the edge where you pour a kind of broth. So in the middle is a raised dome where you cook the meat. Around it is a moat of broth where you can cook veggies, ramen type noodles, and meat as well if you like. You just reach in with your chopsticks when it looks done and take what you want. It's really quite fun. We also had a number of different kinds of Thai fruit, the Palmello and Papaya.The ants tried to get to all the good stuff, but they're efforts were... squashed...

Hands reaching with chopsticks into the pot... Yum!

So we watched the "Passion", as a kind of follow-up to the Nativity that we watched a couple weeks back. We had about 11 people show up: Myself and Leah, Jim and Kathy, Orawan, Ya, Neang, Sai, then the students- Korn, Doc, and Foam. So we had a nice crowd. Throughout the movie, Orawan and Ya were again explaining what was going on. Things like the veil tearing in the temple, Judas Iscariot, and so on... Important things about the story that might pass them up. They were extremely interested, and listened and watched very seriously. Even Doc, who is usually making jokes, was very serious. We gave them some tracts about the "Passion" afterward, which had been translated into Thai. We are praying that each step the Lord allows us to take is a step toward their salvation. It would thrill our hearts to see these young people decide to follow our Lord Jesus. What a thrill it was to see Him working in their hearts! They are very tender to it, I think.

Orawan and Korn at the Korean BBQ

Just watching all of this happen made me think about what the Bible says about the "New Covenant". Thinking of human history, and how God interacted with man, and how it culminated in the New Covenant. And to watch the movie as everything unfolds, it reflected back to the last supper, where Jesus says, "this is the blood of the New Covenant". Wow, it all came to what Jesus did, didn't it? What He did on the cross, was God giving us a covenant that was completely of His doing, something that would finally and fully obliterate the sin problem we brought on. Amazing. I am so thankful that God allowed us to see His Holy Spirit working in the hearts of our friends that night. Thank you to all who prayed for this, it isn't the end of the story. No, in fact, it's just the beginning!

Startup at SRU, Adventures in Laos...

Leah in the rain in Laos

Well, I must say it has been quite interesting! I started October 1st, which was not too much of a day. No sooner had I gotten there and sat at my desk, than we began discussing visas. Mine expired on the 4th, and so I needed to get my non-immigrant (which permits me to obtain a work permit) visa, which in Thailand means you need to exit the country and re-enter. This meant traveling three hours to the Thai-Lao border, crossing and working out the visa process. Well, I had initially hoped it would be a day-long deal. Nope. No way, no how. Let's talk three days. Jim was so kind and patient to take us up, he had some books he needed to read anyway for his doctorate. So at the border we found a guy who would take us into Laos and help us through the process, for a fee of course! Jim couldn't go because he would have to sacrifice his visa to do so.

Savannakhet, Laos

So this guy takes us in and we get to the embassy at 11:30. No problem, they're usually open until noon. Not here. Closed at 11:00. Nuts! So he dropped us off at a hotel and said he'd pick us up at 8:30 the next morning. Well, now we had a whole afternoon and evening in Savannakhet, Laos. The town is awfully run down, which wouldn't be a problem except that everybody had their lights off in their shops and nobody was selling food (that we found). It wasn't like Surin, that's for sure. You walk down the street, and there's somebody selling food everywhere you look. So we trudged about in the constant rain, bought some umbrellas finally, and eventually found a couple places to eat. Good thing, 'cause this wasn't over yet.

Faculty of Humanities (where I work) at Rajhabat

The next day we got up nice and early, packed our things and headed to the embassy. We waited, made this copy and that copy and finally thought we had things in order. They asked me for the original copy of my degree. No problem, I brought it to Thailand. Problem, it's in Surin. "That's okay" the guy said, "We'll just charge you another 1,000 baht" (about 30 USD). So instead of paying $30 for a visa, we ended up paying $60. And of course, every time I found out I needed to pay more money (that I didn't have on me) it was a trip to the ATM. Now, Lao money is called the khip, and it is about 281 kihp to the Thai baht. But it's 34.5 baht to the USD. So, it is 9,600 khip to the USD. Imagine now, I had to withdraw about 10,000 baht when it was all said and done, for all the expenses incurred here. That was millions of khip. So only in Laos will I EVER be a millionaire.

Typical Classroom at SRU

Back to the story at hand. After all that and a dozen copies of everything I had, we found out we had to wait ANOTHER day. Ugh. Savannakhet wasn't looking real good at that point. So back to the hotel, which fortunately had cartoon network. Unfortunately, it was all dubbed in Thai. Oh well, it was something! It rained the ENTIRE time we were there. But we did get out and see some things. We saw a dinosaur museum (one room with a couple bones thrown in there) and a book store (we woke some people up who were sleeping on the floor) and actually found a place that served pizza. Finally, the next afternoon we trekked to the embassy at 1:00pm and were FINALLY able to get our visas. So our driver rushed us back across the border, where we met Jim and got ourselves home. Whew, I must say I NEVER want to do that again!

So that was the visa. This past Monday, I started at SRU (Surin Rajhabat University) in a more official sense. I have been putting together course layouts and syllabi and researching for some of my classes. I have 4 classes but 3 subjects. They are...
1. Creative Writing (4th year English majors)
2. English for Tourism (3rd year English majors- two classes for this one)
3. Backgrounds of English Speaking Countries (2nd year English majors)

So that gives you an idea of what I am up to. Pray for Leah, we handed in all of her information, transcripts, resumes, etc... to the Demonstration (elementary) School at Rajhabat and we are waiting for their response with a contract. Pray that happens sooner than later. She has her non-immigrant (piggy-backed on mine), so that's not an issue. Now I just need to go and get my work permit, and we can finally purchase a motorcycle! That makes me very excited, because I have waited upwards of 45 minutes to catch a bus sometimes. Keep praying, God is doing wonderful things!