Welcome to PlaaPlaaPlaa!

So you may be wondering why PlaaPlaaPlaa? What are those strange fish symbols above? What is ปลา and what does it mean? In short, this is a blog site, so surely there's going to be plenty of rambling. Unfortunately BlahBlahBlah was already taken, so I had to settle for the 'Plaa'. But there's actually more to it then just ramblings. The first fish symbol is actually a Christian symbol meaning ICTHUS - a greek acronymn which means "Jesus Christ is God's Son, the Saviour". The other strange letters you see in the last fish is actually the thai word for fish which funnily enough is pronounced "Plaa". So when you put it all together, this site is going to be my ramblings in telling people about how Jesus Christ is God's Son, the Saviour in Thailand (with plenty of good stories about food in between). Happy reading.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Now I can add 'Kanom chef' to my resume

Firstly, sorry for the week of silence. The past week has been somewhat crazy. Since Sunday last week, my days have been filled with making various types of 'kanom' (basically snacks), acting as courier and chauffeur, waking up early and getting home late as i helped Pi Ratree with the catering for a Graduation Ceremony and a week long camp. So why do it? As most of you would probably know, part of my time here this year has been to help an orphanage on a number of levels. To help the kids learn some english and music (ok, that's not going so well), but to help the parents earn some money so they can pay for the rent of the house they're living in. So this year, they started up a restaurant in the hope that it would bring in some income.

God will never cease to amaze me in the way that he works. When i first came here, i helped them to make a simple flyer to promote the restaurant. I'm not sure how the person at Compassion ended up with the flyer - if it was through one of my friends that i gave the brochure to who worked there, or through another means, but however it happened, Compassion had a weeklong conference and a 'graduation' type ceremony (still not quite sure what that was all about) and was needing for some catering. Through that one camp, we've made close to the entire years budget. Mind you, it was an absolute killer, but it's something to really praise God for.

While it was hard work, i did manage to have a lot of fun making various slices, cakes, cookies and brownies for the first time ever - and in bulk! Pi Ratree didn't realise i hadn't ever made them before and thankfully she didn't find out til after i had made most of it and she had tasted it and given it the tick of approval. Here are a few of my creations:

Pumpkin Cookies

Actually, LOTS of pumpkin cookies

Choc Brownies. Unfortunately they weren't 'Betty' ones, but it's a recipe that's about as close to Betty as you're going to get making it from scratch

At the Graduation ceremony, i discovered a 'new' Thaiglish' word which i personally think is ingenious. I was watching them as they put the letters up and it had me completely baffled for a while as to what they were trying to spell.

I'm hoping that this week i'll be able to catch up on a bit of the rest i lacked from last week (in fact the past month). But one thing you can be praying for is for the opportunity i have on Wednesday to share my testimony to the teachers at my school. i'm still really hoping to do it in Thai, which has obvious limitations for me. Please pray that i'll be able to say what i want to say in Thai and that the teachers will be able to understand me and that the time will be encouraging and challenging for them as well (even if it is just trying to understand me :) haha)

I've also got a meeting with Niim, a girl who's working with SIL in translating the Bible into Thai sign language this week. It's still in it's early stages, but it'll be a great chance to meet some of the people i hope to also work with later on when they're ready for production of the Thai signed bible.

There are plenty of other things also happening this week, with helping my teacher do a song for her 'worship' time at school next week, Mam and Up's wedding on Saturday (and yes, i am helping with music for this wedding too), teaching english at Baan Tawai tomorrow night, i've got to get cracking on making a few videos for church and for other missionaries here, sort out some marketing for some christian organisations here, plus a few other things. Hmmm, and i thought it was going to be a quieter week :) hehe For those who are praying, it'd be great if you can pray that i'll fit some rest into the mix :)