Skateboarding and then some generalities

Skateboarding here is great. Hardly anyone does it and the Thai people are definitly not used to seeing it which means you don't really have to worry about getting kicked out of every spot you go to. The other night we went for a evening skate around the city guided by our friends from the Crossing youth center.

The first spot we went to the workers actually stoped to watch and when one worker came out to work and got in the way while moving shoping carts the other workers told him to move and cleared the way for us. Then when one of our friends landed his trick there was a big round of applause from them.

We then rode a mellow hill down to the beach where we grabbed on to the back of a truck and hung on while it pulled us down the street, just like in back to the future. The truck started going like 30-40 and one of the guys lost his board to a crack in the road. He kept hanging on and dropped to the pavement, dragging on the road for about ten seconds before finally letting go and rolling to a stop. Luckily there were either no vehicles behind or they stopped and He was up and skating after so all was well.

We continued along the beach, stopped to ollie(jump) a set of stairs. Those of us trying were succesfull and were met with applause from many chinese tourists celebrating the new year when we landed.

After we climbed this huge hill in Pattaya that houses temples on the top of it and looks out over the beach front. After climbing the hill we finished off the night with a long and FAST ride down the streets decending it. The last hill was the steepest and fastest ride. I was lucky enough to make it down but two of my team members, Josh and Dave weren't so lucky. Josh hit a rock going mach 3 and ended up with his glasses on one side of the road, one of his shoes on the other and a bunch of skin left on the road. Dave had a similar fate after getting beat by speed wobbles. Both are doing alright now, despite some road rash Josh is fighting a bruised hip and Dave a sprained hand.

Other than that I don't have to many stories to tell, we went to bangkok this weekend which was interesting. I saw more Desiel jean ripoffs than you can shake a stick at.

As a team we're doing fairly well right now, more orphanage painting this week and some prision work for the males and possibly bar visits for the girls(the girls go to meet prostitues and tell them about the Tamar center which teaches them skills like hair dressing and stuff so they can make money without having to have sex).

The new skateboard ramps are under construction and should be done in a couple weeks. We're travelling to Northern Thailand in a couple weeks time and are working out the details for a trip down to southern Thailand in the end of April.

Oh, in-case you're interested, actually if you're not I don't really care because I can read through this stuff when I'm old and remember it. But we went to an oriental night at the school where our youth group members attend(we run the youth group on Friday nights). The purpose of the night was to celebrate the Chinese new year. We were able to try Chinese, Korean and Thai food. Then we watched the children at the school perform traditional dances and songs from each culture. There was this great kung-fu dance where they opened fans to the music, very dramatic. It even featured a dancer who looked and moved exactly like Napoleon Dynamite. There was also an incredibly colorful Korean fan dance that seems worth mentioning. The dance was wonderfull and ended with the dancers standing in a circle with their backs to each other and fans out to form a giant flower.

later

Cola

I have come to realize that Canadians are lacking glass bottled Cola and that it is a bad thing. I'm not sure about the waste/recycling factor but as far as taste goes I've come to realize that nothing beats cola out of a glass bottle. It's to the point now that I walk along the coolers in the convience store and am repulsed by the sight of plastic bottles. I can no longer even entertain the thought touching plastic to my lips after experiencing the sweet feeling of cold glass pressed against them.

You see, glass is cold and doesn't conduct heat well, so it stays cold for a while keeping you're cola colder longer. Glass is heavier, it feels like your drinking something important instead of a cheap, branded, tooth decaying, health reducing drink made by a global corporation with an un-ethical history. Add these two factors together and you have enough of a reason to transform perception of cola. I very much doubt I'll be drinking cola when I return due to the ever present presence of those retched plastic bottles.

Start of a new week

So it's the start of our second full week here in Pattaya Thailand and we started it off with a day of rest for the team.

As previously mentioned last weeks time was spent at the Mercy ministries orphanage cleaning and re-painting in preperation for the move coming up on Friday. There was and still is alot of work to do there but it's coming along nicely. We'll be spending the rest of this week finishing up and then helping them move on Friday.

Thursday last week we went down to the beach to do just walk and minister in hopes that God would show up and use us. Nothing huge happened until the evening when we put on a brief improptue dance presentation on the beach. We then headed up to a hill overlooking the blocks and blocks of go-go clubs, massage parlors and "beer" bars to pray.

Saturday we got a projector(our leader left the original back in Canada) and performed our presentation for about 100 people at the youth centre we've been working with. That went fairly well and was exciting being the first performance. The next day we performed it for the Victory Church, it went really well, we talked to some people who are going to help us get the presentation into schools and other venues. The message also had a very positive effect on a number of people there. After that we went to the Crossing/Tamar church which consists of youth centre attendees and ex-prostitues working with the Tamar centre for a better life. The girls did two dances there and then we enjoyed a powerfull service to follow.

Well I gues thats the official report for those of you who have attention spans long enough to read it(I doubt mine is long enough). Below are a few randomish tidbits that I'm too lazy to try and incorporate into the body of this posting or any others.

-we gave some boards out to skaters at the youth centre and there reactions we're amazing. the one just yelled "praise God! praise God, oh Yes!" and ran to switch the new deck with his old one. They're sooooo stoked to get a new board. It's so rad. I can't wait to build the ramps, it's going to be amazing.

-I'm having a hard time maintaining a Godly love for european men. They are everywhere in this city walking with Thai boys and girls in hand. As you drive through the streets you can see loads of them throughout in beer bars and clubs picking up "companions".

-Also, Shims(she-hi) are everywhere and I've been checked out one to many times.

-Thai people are generally laid-back and very friendly. They love it when you smile at them and if we knew Thai I'm sure many would love to chat with us. It's interesting that in North America we always greet with whats up? But there usual greeting translates roughly to are you good and relaxed?

-Scooter are everywhere, everywhere. Everyone has one, everyone rides one.

-I'm tired and our internetting shop is closing, Peace.

A Post in a blog

I feel like I had a whole lot to say when I came in for my internet session today but now that I'm writing I suddenly feel as if I have nothing to say. Well, we'll see what happens.

Yesterday was a long, busy day. We came home from working on the new orphanage and found water streaming from the second story belcony of our home. We entered find the upstairs flooded and water dripping from the ceiling onto the floor from the ceiling downstairs. Apparently Angel our translator accidentely left the tap running when we left that morning.

We spent the later part of the afternoon cleaning up the water and drying out what we could. After a late supper it was off to the Crossing youth centre where we skated for a while before hanging up our salt encrusted clothing for the day and laying down on the hard floor to sleep(as our mattresses were all soaked).

Today we went to the orphanage again, painted some ceiling tiles for them and then jetted home. Tonight we skate some more and then relax until tomorrow. Tomorrow will be interesting as its been set aside for spontanous God directed action, whatever that may entail. We'll see, I'm not to expereinced with these sort of things so it should be interesting.





A bit of a side-note:


I can remember when I was young exploring the neighborhoods and forests around our home. There was this feeling of excitement and newness to places that you hadn't been before. It sounds cliche to put it this way but the world was such a big place, so full of adventure. There we're all these places to discover, explore and conqeur. Over the years though that feeling was slowely lost in the day to day living of life. As I grew and became more familiarized with the world, life was filled with more and more with commonality. There were still things to learn, new skateboard tricks to do, new jobs to do, new skills to learn, new girls to meet but that feeling and excitment that I once felt as a boy exploring the world was lost. The feeling of coming face to face with the unknown, of a place that seems so fresh filling you with excitment, expecation and wonder. I know I'd forgotten that feeling for the most part. I've felt it a little on trips to the coast or different places but never as strong as I once felt it until now. Being here in Thailand traveling through the streets and country side has re-awakened that feeling within me. To the point of bubbeling up childhood memories of exploration and adventure within me, it's an amazing feeling. Just riding through the streets lately I've experienced that something you climb watertowers to experience at the age of 22. I'll probably adjust soon but for now it's been great.

Monday the 16th, this is my entry

Today we went to the new site of the Mercy Mission's new orphanage and cleaned for most of the day to prepare it for use. The new house was beautiful but in a definite need of cleaning. Its in a walled yard that use to belong to the American Diamond cutting factory, a small factory is in the yard that will be used for other missions office space. We had a few breaks of for gecko catching and delicious Iced Coffee. We'll be going back tomorrow to finish up with some of the cleaning, maybe some painting and probably the movment of things from the old location to the new.

On Sunday we went to the Victory Church which is lead by pastors Fred and Dianne who are from Lethbridge and are amazing people. They've been running the church for six years now and are heavily involved with the Mercy mission orphange. We'll be performing our dance/multimedia presentation at church next week which is pretty cool because there are a few teachers and a school principle who attend.

I also found out that the presentation will almost certianly be performed on stages at some of the big malls in Pattaya. We met a teacher from another town here in Thailand that will likely be bringing our presentation in. It really seems like there are some good doors opening which is super exciting. Also, besides skateboarding and dance the Missions that are accosciated with Pastors Fred and Dianne sound like they alone could keep us busy for four months.

I posted a few pictures, if you click on the link to the left you can view them. I think they are all of the island vacation on Saturday. I'll hopefully have some orphanage and other pictures up at the end of the week.

Peace.

3 days in

After a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride we arrived at our place at about 6:30 in the morning. Unfortunatly we didn't have a key to get in and had to wait outside on the street while Joel our leader went to pick it up. Almost immeditly after arriving Mellissa, one of my team members unknowingly stepped in dog poop and then proceeded to sit down, cross-legged, and wipe it all over her leg. Fun times. Joel got back about a half-hour later and we entered our new home.

The street we're staying on is just off of an express way that runs through all of Thailand. It's the equivelent of Canada's number one and we run across it multiple times a day dodging traffic and risking our lives. On the second day I drove a scooter on this highway for my first and only time so far. It was short drive but definitly not without excitment. Driving on the left side of the road in four lanes of traffic anarchy was a definite adventure.

The evening of the second day we met with Matt who runs the youth centre here in Pattaya. We talked about the mission, Thai culture and what we may be doing. Alot of the things sounded exciting and it looks like we may be traveling around most of Thailand during the four months with our dance/multimedia presentation. We've also had a chance to skate with the guys at the youth centre and start working out plans and ideas for the ramps we'll be building.

We went to Pattaya's mall and walking street on the first day. Walking street is filled with go-go bars, beer bars and sweaty fat white men with young Thai girls in tow. It was hard. Almost everywhere you go, especially if it's a toursit area you see older white men walking, sitting and holding young Thai girls. It's surreal and sad, not just for the prostitutes but I also can't help but feel sorry for these old men who seem to be living in such an empty lie.

On a final and lighter note we went to a small island today and hung out on a beautiful white sanded beach. I also rented a scooter and toured the island for a couple hours which was so amazing, the island is covered with cobbel stone roads that wind over hills and through towns, trees and beautiful rural areas.

Tomorrow we worship and relax then Monday we'll be helping an orphanage move and after that I'm not quite sure yet.

Flights

I'm sitting in the Bangkok airport with my team waiting for our ride to Pattaya. Angel our translator came down early and was supposed to be waiting for us but is seems She is late. When she gets here we will disembark and two hours later arrive in the Pattaya.

The flights in went well, layovers didn't take to long and Air Korea is pretty rad, we each had our own screen to watch movies and play games on. Yikes...my time is up and we've hired a charter to leave apearantly...well, Peace everyone I'll update soon and wish the best for you all.

Christmas Break

So Christmas break has come and gone. Bootcamp ended on the 16th of December roughly and was followed by two weeks off for rest and a final at home session. We came back yesterday, the 1st for a final week of hanging out and perfecting the dances, dramas and material that we'll be bringing over. A few crazy things happended over the break and I will tell you about two of them.

The first is my personal story. During Bootcamp I had been working on a video that goes with dances that the girls have been working on for school presentations that we'll be putting on while were in Thailand. My computer had been acting kinda buggy the whole time but the video was basically done at the end of bootcamp and I was looking forward to my two weeks off to poilish it up and finish it off. About two days into my break though I lost the hard drive on my computer and all the video data! To follow would be a week of frustration trying to recover data, a struggle that turned out to be all in vain. End the week off with some festivities and manditory family funtions, I forgot my troubles long enough to enjoy some Christmas. Week two, re-editing and exporting video literally up until the minute I left home for Calgary with a Kanker(spelling?) sore the size of Montreal and suprisingly a better video overall than I came home with.

Second story isn't mine but is gnarlier. A girl on my team named Jessica was waitressing during her Christmas break and started to notice her heart was beating unusually fast and for no good reason. Appearantly the intense beating of the heart escelated so much that you could see it beating through her shirt! A co-workers mother came in for an after shift pick up and was called to take a look, She grabbed one of those things you check blood pressure with and insisted that Jessica go to the clinic imediately.

Appearantly She was having a heart attack and to follow would be some sort of injection to stop her heartbeat from escelating until She died. The injection though left her heart stopped for twelve seconds. After which it began beating again and climbed to a normal rate where it stayed and her heart is fine now. I couldn't believe it though, a girl on my team was clinically dead this Christmas for twelve seconds and She's here in Calgary and still coming. From what I gathered the attack was due to an extra nerve that started sending extra siginals for the heart and it sort of short-circuted or somthing. She's going to have surgery to fix it when She gets back and should be fine while were in Thailand. Our leader is a certified EMT so in the small chance that her heart goes off again we should be able to deal with the situation properly.

Anyways, I'm back in Calgary and it feels good not to be stressing over a video. A week of relaxed development, prayer and seeking until departure.