Two Birthdays, Four Continents

This has been an amazing year. I spent my last birthday (accidentally) in the best hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, while volunteering with LEAD Asia. Since then, I've traveled through three other continents, joined the Peace Corps, and learned another language. Here are some pictures highlighting this journey:

Free birthday cake, courtesy of the Grand Kemang in Jakarta.
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

Homeward Bound!

Three months have come and gone, and we are headed home! After Indonesia, we had one day in Bangkok to get some last minute things done, including a massage and some Christmas shopping.

At about $8 for an hour, we couldn't pass up the chance to get a massage here in Bangkok. I think it was probably the best thing we could have done for ourselves health-wise. After 23 flights in the last 3 months and looking forward to a travel time of 27 hours to get back to Tucson, we needed a good stretching. Thai massage fits the bill - is it more like facilitated yoga or like getting beat up by a ninety pound Thai woman? Maybe some of each... Make sure to get one when you visit Thailand.

We'll get into Tucson Monday night, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone! Actually, this blog was just an excuse to show a picture of Isaac in silly clothes. Enjoy!

 

Isaac in his massage uniform. The pants are somewhere around size 50 with a cloth belt. Sorry for the weird light (says Isaac). Kirstie (the photographer) says it's supposed to be like that... (C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

..Isaac and Kirstie..

Spotlight on Cambodia

Here is our second Spotlight, this time on the Kingdom of Cambodia. Our Spotlights will continue to be little snippets of things we saw and learned while in each of the countries we visit this fall. Feel free to skip the parts you don’t want to read, but don’t miss the quiz at the bottom!

Kirstie and Isaac in Mondulkiri, Cambodia
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

To the Philippines! (Plus Thailand Quiz Answers)

Here are the answers to Thailand's quiz!

1. What in the world is a tuktuk?
      b. A form of cheap transportation

A tuktuk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

The tuktuk in the photo is actually from Cambodia, not Thailand, but it's kind of the same idea. The difference is that, in Cambodia, you ride in a trailer pulled by a motorbike, and in Thailand tuktuks are kind of their own vehicle and have 1 seat instead of two. In both places, they're cheaper than taxis. Tuktuks aren't as regulated as taxis, so you want to make sure your driver knows exactly where to go, and agree on a price beforehand.

Dreadlocks in Thailand

..In preparing for this trip, I really would have liked to have information about how dreadlocks are perceived in the places where I am going to be visiting. Believe it or not, I couldn't find this information on the internet. I hope that by sharing my experiences in the places I am visiting, others who would like that information will be able to find it. These posts will primarily be geared towards people searching the internet for information, and not for the regular readers of this blog..

Is it hard to have dreadlocks in Thailand? Should I cut my dreadlocks before I visit Thailand? How are dreadlocks viewed in Thailand? Read on to hear about my experiences.

Isaac at Phu Chi Fa waterfall in ChiangRai province.
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

Spotlight on Thailand

..We're going to have a series of posts called "Spotlight on..." to give a little information about each of the countries we visit. Here is the first, on Thailand..

Kirstie and Isaac in Chiangrai Province.
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

Jump to ChiangMai

Hello Friends,

We just landed in ChiangMai (see map below), northern Thailand. Katherine, a bubbly woman from the UK who is doing multilingual education work in northern Thailand, met us at the airport and drove us to the guesthouse where we are staying. Before we could do that, though, we had to get out of the parking lot. In the few minutes she was inside, someone had parked behind her, blocking her in (this seems to not be an uncommon practice here). They were kind enough to leave the parking brake off, so we just pushed the car out of the way, pulled our vehicle out, and moved the other car back into place.


View Larger Map

We just finished a conference in Bangkok where we learned a lot! The conference was designed for people who don't know very much about LEAD or who are new to the organization, so it was a perfect place for us to get some deeper questions answered. We also spent some great time talking with SIL members who have tons of field experience doing community development. We are looking forward to spending some more time with them in the coming months, seeing their projects and writing stories of the work they are doing. We also learned about the Micah Network, a global Christian community that is committed to what they call "integral mission." Integral mission is the concept that LEAD strives to achieve in all of its projects. The following definition is excerpted from the Micah Network website.

--Integral mission or holistic transformation is the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ.--

We concluded the conference by going to a great Lebanese restaurant (try some nan and hummus - it's amazing!) with most of the people who attended the conference. It was a great time of developing friendships with new people.

We will be in ChiangMai province for the next week, visiting several projects that are partnerships between LEAD and the Foundation for Applied Linguistics. These projects primarily focus on multilingual education in Hmong primary schools. Multilingual education programs allow young students to learn first in their native language while gaining skills in the dominant language of the country (Thai, in this case.) We'll talk a little more about these projects once we have more specific information.

..Isaac and Kirstie..

First Days in Bangkok

Hi Friends!

We've spent the last couple days adjusting to the time zone (and awfully long flight) and getting to know Bangkok and Thailand a little better. We've gotten adjusted to using the lightrail system here, called the BTS.

Isaac at the BTS station.
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

Public transportation seems to be reasonably priced and is pretty highly accessible. At least, it goes everywhere we've needed to go so far! Bangkok is a big city, but everything you need is always nearby, especially if you want food!

Bangkok street from the BTS station at Sala Daeng.
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

Today we got some last-minute vaccinations (WAY cheaper than in the U.S. and at a super nice hospital) and our malaria meds. Then we spent time with the two women who will be joining us for the first portion of our trip.

Kirstie, Isaac, Malynda, and Sara
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

Sara is the US-based communications director for LEAD, and Malynda takes care of communications from this side of the world. While Malynda will only be joining us for the first leg of our journey, Sara has been planning this trip for us and will be our guide while we do our work here. It's been great getting to know these two women, and we are excited to be able to work on this project with them!

Here is Bangkok (and if anyone can tell me how to center my maps in Blogger it would be awesome... my HTMLing isn't working...)


View Larger Map

At the end of this week we'll be participating in a Community of Practice (CoP). We'll learn more about LEAD projects and meet many LEAD partners. It will be good foundation for the rest of our trip. Then we'll be off to Chiang Mai to visit our first project!

Prayer requests:

• That we'll continue to adjust our sleep schedules - we're still very tired!
• That we'll stay healthy - so far no travelers' diarrhea...
• Good communication - that's why we're here!
• Safety - from everything: trip accidents, pick pockets, Kirstie's clumsiness (this is unfortunately not a joke), etc.

Thank you all for your well-wishing and support. We are tremendously blessed by all of you!

..Kirstie & Isaac..

Arrival in Bangkok!

After a long journey--over 26 hours in airports and airplanes!--we made it to Thailand! Highlight for the trip was a TSA agent in the Tucson airport who reminded us to take off our shoosies before we went through the metal detector. We'd like to thank everyone who helped us get here, whether through financial support, through prayer, or by buying us food or letting us stay in their house. We've been overwhelmed by the kindness of our friends and family.

In our Hotel in Bangkok
(C) Isaac and Kirstie Bickford

So far we've been getting un-jetlagged and will meet up with the rest of our group this evening for dinner and to get to know one another better and to learn more about our next steps (we've been told there's everything from Thai food to Irish pub food within walking distance). We'll be in Bangkok until early October when we'll attend a conference to learn more about what LEAD Asia is doing in Thailand and to meet some LEAD staff and partners.

In other news, we've been invited to join the Peace Corps! We've accepted and will leave mid-January for Ecuador. This is exactly what we were hoping and praying for as it gives us some time in the US after we get back from Asia, but we won't have too much waiting-around time. We'll discuss our future with the Peace Corps more in a future update.

Right now we have excellent access to Internet, and we'd love to hear from you! You can comment on this post or email us--it will mean a lot to hear from our stateside friends while we're across the ocean from home.

..Kirstie & Isaac..