Building blocks

One of the questions people often asked us during our Home Assignment ran along these lines: 'What's it really like, on a day-to-day basis, living in Thailand?'

Hopefully, over the coming months, this blog will give you some insight into our daily experiences living and working here in Chiang Mai.  For now, we're still in a period of transition - re-adjusting to the climate, the cuisine, the culture.

At times that transition can feel jarring.  A few days ago, we were at Legoland celebrating Jacob's fifth birthday.  This morning I was standing in a pool of mud listening to a bible school choir singing in Karen during a worship service to mark the start of construction for their new dormitory building.  Stepping from one of those contexts to another in such a short space of time isn't easy!

Legoland

Foundation Stone Ceremony for the new dormitory building

And the most difficult aspects of that adjustment aren't the languages involved or the weather conditions, but rather the less-visible cultural leaps we need to make.

Slowing down, from a frenetic Western pace and focus on results and activity, to a more relaxed, relationship-based approach.  Opening up, being willing to welcome guests into our house at inconvenient moments, rather than expecting a phone call and a time.  Becoming attuned to subtle changes in social relationships and hierarchies, and making sure we're paying appropriate respect in the right places.

If we don't manage to make those leaps, we'll simply be unable to effectively share our faith with those around us.  For now though, it feels a little like hovering between two worlds - after all, how do you get your head around the reality that a massive theme park built out of plastic bricks even exists in a world where people are struggling just to survive?