Farwell Pattaya

My last blog wrote of weekend events and now I find myself in the next weekend writing to you about the events of the week. the weeks events -went to some slums with world vision, complex experience filled with joy and sadness. Was nice to see sponsered childeren that were not on t.v. who now have hope for the future. Everyone, sponser a child this week. -more orphanage labour and then a wedding. Wedding was a really good time and the couple was wed in the bottom of the new mini ramp. I hope when I get married it can be in the flat bottom of a ramp, or maybe an empty pool -another school, more english teaching and we put on a one of our best performances. We also put on an impromptue skateboard show for the children. They love it and you don't have to do much to impress them, as long as it looks cool. Josh gets frustrated because he'll land something hard, he just learned cab heelflips(hard trick), and no one will clap. But they clapped when he kickturned(lifted his front wheels off the ground and turned around)...... Well I think that was the week, somewhere in there I think I forgot a day or an event but I can't remember what. Right now it's about quarter to four Thailandeaze time and were getting ready to head out for a week away from home. We'll be going to Angel our interpreters home town up by the laos boarder. While there we're going to perform at her old school and a buddist temple where Angel will be preaching the gospel at the end which is going to take alot of bravery and tack. We'll also be going to Bangkok and performing at a traditionally buddist house warming for Angels family. If you're the praying type, please pray for us as we're heading into the hills for this trip and it looks to be a trying time. Hope everyone is doing well Blessings, daniel

Nationals

This weekend we judged the Thailand National Skateboarding competition. It was super busy weekend but everything went of well.

The competion was held at big C, the supermarket/mall that sits inbetween our place and the youth center. It was scheduled to start at around one o'clock but at around that time the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. The rain lasted for two hours or so and everyone stayed busy skating the parkade. Despite some anxious big C workers everything went well and the course was dryed and being skated about a half an hour after the rain stopped. The prelims went smoothly from there and we retired, tired, after a long day of skateing and the judging of about
90-100 runs.


The next day we woke at about nine to get ready. We were informed that the finals were going to start at nine but not to show up until ten(somedays I think I should have been born here, everything happens about an hour or so after it's supposed to). We skated up to the course at ten though to find it still covered by tarps without a soul in sight. We placed bids as to when the contest would actually go down and the consensus was one o'clock. Later that evening, after delayes to to insanely hot weather we finally started at about 5:30. Everything went well from that point except for a breif moment of super stress. We were scheduled to do our dance/media presentation afterwards but had a huge scramble to get the sound and media equipment funtional. Luckily everything went down just as it should have after we got the media stuff set up. We had some Iranian man tell us that the preaching sounded as if it was Gods own words. But then either he or his friend, I'm not sure which one, followed up by hitting on and giving up his apartment number to one of the girls. The night then ended with a water and baby powder fight to celebrate the weekend.

The moral of this post is, people in Thailand generally don't care if things start late or don't go according to plan. To get to worked up over the delay's of the weekend would be seen as a sign of insecurity.

Also, after a ton of miscommunication and dealings with the talent scout Josh and Joel will be going back to Bangkok to film for the commercial March 3rd or 5th. I have been cut, probably due to my under acting. No big loss, it's turned into a messy situation and acting isn't my favorite thing to do.

Tomorrow we go to the slums to do some work, it should be good.

School Daze

The team visited to our second school today. We arrived to a very friendly greeting while parents dropped off thier kid for the day and found out we would be spending the morning teaching english classes. We were partnered up and went out to different classes to teach. I was lucky enough to get an older class that hadn't started yet. They were still busy in the gymnasium so we headed over to wait for them.

We arrived at the gym to find about 500 students, all dressed in yellow standing in rows on the gym floor. Up front the large sound system was just starting to pound out the first beats of my humps and about ten teachers we're stepping up to lead the students. Sonja, Angel and I watched as they hilariously stumbled there way through aerobic excersises to my humps and the song a certian famous fat kid sings to "my ahee, my ahooo, my ahee, my ahaha"(for those of you not up on the e-mail or pop culture these were very funny dance songs to see kids dancing to). One of the funniest things was one teacher who got really into it and wasn't exactly the fittest looking lady. She swung herself around with an amazing display of excitement that could only come out of a genuine love for aerobics to my humps.

After this amazing display the kids scuttled off to there classes and we met the english teacher who turned out to be no less than the excited aerobics instructor. We taught a few classes, which was really wierd at first because we were just kindof thrust in without any instruction. But we caught on to what we were doing and ended up having a great time. We played a game like hot potato where when the music stops, you stop passing the ball and whoever has it has to write an english word. The teacher ran the music and you'll never guess which songs She used for the game.....dancing by the cd player almost the whole time we played.

After lunch we got ready and performed. It went pretty good and I finished it off by speaking the gospel. It's interesting, I've talked alot about Christianity and discussed different aspects but never have I had to do a full gospel speech.

It's funny how you can sit in Church for many years and you pretty much believe what you hear and believe in God when moves in you're life and touches you in specific ways. But to actually stand up and tell a group, this is what one man did and this is what we believe to be true about him is a whole new level. It's easy to talk about abstracts but to nail down the basics of what you've founded everything you believe on and say, despite what doubts you may have, this is true. It's almost like profession of faith all over again exept this time you don't just say I do or whatever, and then come down into the arms of a loving congregation. This time, when you're done you hope the teachers arn't to mad and offended and then when you see that there not you wonder if it was even worth it. You were just talking to kids with no attention span and there's no way to know if they even care or will remember. So, you sit on the stage and laugh as the students ask questions and giggle about which foriegners are cute. But the whole time you're wondering if any kids were changed, if they felt God touch them when you spoke, if they felt him as you have before. But, no answer comes and so you truck it back to Pattaya and get ready for an evening at the youth center. (this may be slightly over-dramatic, the kids we're quite happy when we left and it was a good experience but you still wonder)

Well, since that ended on a bit of an emo tone, I'll just finish this off with the top five things I miss since I'm feeling slightly homesick. I promise to make the next one more positive, maybe my top five favorites.

1. Gravy
2. Solid food
3. Independence
4. Skating bowls
5. Late night adventures

Countryside services

Monday morning we woke at 5:00 and headed to the Crossing youth center. There we met up with the a bunch of the young adults and got ready to leave on a two day mission. We headed up to a coutry school east of Chon Buri where one of the girls, Lik, had grown up.

The people there are reasonably poor and the studets there don't have alot of chances. Some of them will go on to high school and then to a secondary education but it is only a select few. If students there are not fortunate enough to go to secondary school they stay to work on the farm or go/get sent by their parents to Pattaya where they make money having sex with Europeans and military men from around the globe. It almost seemed like an incubator for prostiutes.

I don't know Lik's story but She came from this school and it has been Her dream for some time to go back and share what She has found in Christ. To do this She planned a two day retreat for the junior high aged children where She could share the message of salvation with them and invited us to help her and other Crossing members run it.

Our time there was great, we played games with the kids, the crossing team sang songs, did karaoke with the kids and our team did the performance arts presentation for them. We also preached the gospel on Monday night after the performance which went quite well. You could feel a definite spritual tension in the whole place but we pressed forward and presented what we believed. After the gospel speak at the end of it all the kids gathered around the members of the teams to inquire into the message more. A few kids sat at the back and proclaimed that God is dead but the majority seemed intent to learn more. The Thai speaking members talked with small groups to explain more about this unheard of Jesus. One child who had started crying during the speak and recieved prayer and talked with Josh and Angel, Angel was lead to give him her bible and He seemed really touched.

Following this a bunch of team members were struggling with a slight nausea and feelings of being really heavy and dark. We gathered to prayed and everyone began to feel better before we closed the evening off.

The next day went really well, there were no reprecusions for teaching what we believed the night before and everything went well. We started the day off with arobics at Six in the morning and then had the students sit blindfolded and threw baby powder and water all over them. After that all the Farang/Foriegners stood in a circle and it was their turn to get us. We showered and then continued the day with more music, games, a little skateboard demo and then some testimonies and final words of encouragment and teaching. At noon we packed it up, signed our names on the papers of all our new friends and headed out.

Unfortunantly when you don't speak the language of the kids it's kind of hard to sum up the whole outcome of the situation. We went mainly as support for the team from the crossing so apart from doing our presentation we worked mainly in the background and just showed as much love as we could to the kids. A huge hope is that if the kids are still forced/end up coming to Pattaya to make there living they will hook up with the crossing when they come and have a chance to avoid or leave a life of prostitution. From there the crossing can help them find other jobs or hook them up with the Tamar Center which trains ex-prostitutes so they can make money in other ways.

In other news, we got the new mini ramp at the crossing and it's been heavily used already, another bank should arrive any day now. This weekend is a big Thailand x gamesish skatebaord competition at the Crossing. It's pretty exciting, skateboarders from all over Thailand will be coming. The head of the extreme sports here in Thailand is also a Christian and wants someone to present the gospel so that will be good. Next weekend we'll be heading up to Angel's home town to present in schools and do some other ministry.

Today is Saturday

Today is Saturday and the day has gone as follows.

We woke and came down to a Phillipino Valentines day party. Two of our team members have been to the Phillipians before and told tales of their ministry there. We followed with some singing and games amidst delicious Phillipino foods. The girls on the team also performed one of their dances and it was amazing.

It actually almost brought a few tears to my eyes, which was out of the ordinary considering I've seen the dance many times. Dave, one of my team members calls it the Phillipino anointing. He told us of it after our first time attending church here. During church the worship portion of the service was lead by a bunch of the same Phillipean women as today and all three of the guys on the team cried during worship. It's interesting because I don't think singing and worship has ever brought tears to my eyes. The songs were even old cheesy songs that I normal don't get into. I guess Dave used to feel the same thing when he was in the Phillipeans every sunday.

Well, other than that tidbit, I'll be leaving the internet shop soon and travelling to the crossing where the new ramps will be arriving. I can't wait to skate some transition(a ramp) again.

Peace.

I ran out of time on the computer I was using when I posted my last entry and left a few details out.

The day was bizarre and overall really funny. We went to Bangkok thinking that we were still trying out for the skateboard commercial. Then without telling us what exactly was going on we were suited up and the events detailed in the last post unfolded. It wasn't until after I found out that they had decided we looked to old to be skateboarding in a commercial but still wanted us to try out for the soccer one.

So we get there and go through this hillarious casting where we get swore at by a little Thai photographer yelling at the top of her voice.

Now I'm not exactly offended by swearing, not in the least to be honest. I hold the belief that words only carry the meaning we asign them. So it's a good thing not to say words when you know that they carry a negative meaning for others and especially if they do for yourself but it's just meaning behind the word that really matters. Anyways thats just a longwinded way of saying I thought that the swearing was quite funny given the context, besides I may be wrong but I don't think there will be swearing in the actual commercial(if we're even cast).

On the way back Boy the talent scout asked Joel why we seemed different than all the other foriegners he had met. Joel told him honestly what we were about, Boy asked a few questions and seemed interested.

In other exciting news we'll be helping the young adults who run the youth center to run a big youth event on Sunday. Also the new skateramps will be finished tomorrow and all the skateboarders are really excited. We're soooo excited to. I'll try and post some pictures of the ramps next week. A huge thanks to Rocky CRC's Sunday school for making the purchase fo the ramps possible, it's a huge blessing for the youth center. In fact the center may end up with one of the best skateparks in Thailand(by Canadian standards not much of a park but by Thai standards an incredible park!).

A day at the studio

Ok, someone suggested in an e-mail that this blog is full of bad grammer and spelling mistakes. Before I continue with my tales of Thailand I just want to clarify that this blog promises stories and not solid grammer or spelling. By providing bad spelling and grammer I get the pleasure of exercising everyone elses dicernment of proper english therefore providing a service..... how unselfish....

Anyways, today we were picked up at noon and transported to Bangkok by Boy, our talent scout. We arrived at the studios around 2:00 and started getting ready. A female who was once a male before She had had surgery took our measurements and recorded our info. Then we headed into the dressing room and got ready. Joel, Josh and myself took turns suiting up into designer jeans dress shirts and blazers. After suiting up we each had a photo shoot and then went outside where we commenced to audition for a Frisk mints commercial.

The commercial involved the subject walking along as if to work, as He walks the subject lifts the mints contanier out of his pocket in front of him, pops the container open and then flicks a mint into his mouth. Up, pop, flick, pop and back down, in a cool rythmic fashion. After acting that out we would continue to walk down the street until getting hit unsuspectingly by a soccerball. From there we had to act out three different endings, the first one we acted like we didn't know how to kick the ball back to the players who kicked it our way and when we did hit one of them in the balls and then ran away, the second we did know what we were doing, kicked the ball around a bit and then kicked it snidely into someones balls, the third we acted blind after getting hit and then kicked a bald man in the head by accident because his head felt like a ball? I know, we were confused too but for any of you who have seen asian commercials you know....

The funniest part was everytime we acted it out the lady role playing would throw the ball at us and then yell "you f**king man! yeah you, you f**king man, kick the ball back, hey, yeah, kick it back" in a bad thai accent. Then, when we kicked it back She would scream soooo loud "ahhh, my dick, my dick, ahh", thats when we winced in empethetic pain and ran.

A Quick update

This next week looks good. It entails some more manual labour, a second tryout for the Japanese Candy commercial in Bangkok for teamate Josh and myself. I guess there's a 95% chance that I'm going to be in it. Then we have a trip up North to hill tribes for the weekend where the girls will perform their fire dancing feats of wonder and we will have to face up to the realities of squat toilets and sponge baths in the pursuit of cleanliness.

Yesterday was Sunday and we anointed, commissioned, and officially commerated the openining of the new orphanage. It was a nice affair, especially after pouring so much energy into the place prior opening. It's really rewarding too when you hear the childrens stories who live there and see there faces. Has anyone had there heart broken lately? I know I have. Also my video cameras battery charger is not working and that has been a punch in the stomach because I was just starting to get rolling on the documentation of our travels in moving picture and sound. Looks like I'll just be taking photographs unless I can get it fixed or replaced.

Well I hope everyone is having fun. later

Dreams of Superstardom

So a few of us are sitting in Big C, the shopping centre across the street from where we live eating supper. We look up mid-meal to see Matt and Angela who run the Crossing Youth Center that we work in walking through the food court. A few greetings go around and then Matt quickly interjects to tell us of a strange meeting.

His words went something like this. "So I'm walking along and this guy comes up to me and asks if I'm a really forigner and I'm like, ahhh yeah. I'm a real forigner, what else did you expect. And he's get really excited and asks me if I know any forigners who rollerblade and I told him that I didn't but I did know some forigners who skateboarded. He told me that He directs commercials and wants forigners so if you guys want to come to the crossing tomorrow around 5:00 He's going to be there to check out the scene and you guys can try out I guess. I don't know, here he gave me his buisness card and it's a high quality card, seems legit."

Our reactions from there were mixed, laughing, talking talk about the possibilities of whats to come. Then we go about our day.

The next day at around 4:18 we get a call from Matt saying, "the guys here we need you over here". So the four of us males who consist of and form the skateboarding portion of the team headed over to find a crew of 4 people waiting. We skated around and they filmed us while taking us each out individually to shoot portriat shots of us in many different poses, some were really cheesy, like us holding our boards on our shoulders and looking excited about something. Then they asked if anyone could do the bigger "hand"rail that went down a set of stairs(for any skateboarders out there it was about a 3-4 foot high flatbar down a seven set, it was super low to get on to but ended high, super easy for anyone who's done an actual rail or even the eights rail in Red Deer). Since I was the only one on the team who can larger sized rails down stairs I went and did it. They were pretty happy when I did and asked me to fake a fall. So I did and they grinned and talked a bunch of Thai about it that I didn't understand. I did a few more times and that was that. After I was done the director asked me some questions as to my availability and then told me he'd would call with a grin on his face. Then the girls on the team showed up and the director got excited again, took a bunch of their portraits and mentioned something about another commercial He might cast them in, haha. Craziness!

So we'll see what happens but you just might be reading words typed by the same fingers that will be appearing on Japanese Television(they film commercials in Thailand because it's so cheap) as they accompany the body they're attached to down a handrail. It will be good to because the job will pay about $1000 Canadian which will come in handy at the Crossing and for funding our travels around Thailand.

Oh and one more thing, we were approached quite randomly(?) last night while eating pizza by a Polo Club manager. After finding out what we do he got our number and said he would call about getting the girls to perform. It was neat when that happened and we smiled. When the day was over we concluded it was a good day. the end