Friday, November 20, 2009

Loy Krathong

On our road, making krathongs


Kaiya (and friends) with the krathong we made


Getting ready to float the krathong


The sparklers were a hit


Several weeks ago there was a holiday here called Loy Krathong. Translated loy means 'to float' and krathong means 'raft'. For this holiday, people build little floating rafts from banana tree trunks and decorate it with banana leaves, flowers and candles. Then they take their little "rafts" to the river and float let it float out on the water. When I was here before (13 yrs ago) I remember doing this and seeing how beautiful all the candles looked out on the water. This year Jonathan was sick so we stayed home and were not going to do or see anything for the holiday. However when I went out on our street in the evening, there was a group of people sitting on a mat making the krathongs. Kaiya and I (with Jonah watching on) decided to make our own little krathong. We had fun decorating it and collecting flowers for us and others to use for the krathongs. Then later in the evening we went and put our krathong in our little pond near our house.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Friends and Memories


Thailand 2009: Becca and I



Thailand 1996: Myself, Becca, and Rebekah



Thirteen years ago, two friends and I came to Thailand as student missionaries for a year. One of those friends, Becca, recently came to Thailand for a visit. It was so nice to see her and take a walk down memory lane. I enjoyed meeting her daughter and it was fun to watch our daughters play together. I find it interesting and exciting how life turns out because thirteen years ago I never would have thought that one day we would be back in Thailand watching our girls play together.