Football Fellowship; D wins Best Player?!

Football fun.
A few weeks ago, one of our students who works in sports ministry organized a mini-football (soccer) tournament to help build relationships between teachers and students. I love football, it's just part of growing up in the Caribbean and Latin America, so I was one of the teachers who joined in the play.

Play is a divine gift, and I opened with a prayer of thanksgiving and for our play to bring us just a bit closer to each other.

Although the games were light spirited and fun, there was still hefty competition. These girls were really tough! And it seems to me it's no good if you play without getting some bruises--and I got kicked instead of the ball more than once in the shin. Our team got second place. Due, I think to a poor referee decision that caused us to tie instead of win the final game. Another, perhaps unfortunate, part of growing up around football in Latin America is that your team never 'looses' but always gets 'cheated.' When your team wins, it is always fair. Ah. The emotions of the beautiful game! Please, bear with my fanaticism! try see it as charming folly if you can.

As for my own playing skills, all I can do is wait up front and kick the ball or pass it to someone who has an opening. The simple job of a striker! It worked. I managed two assists and two goals--one goal, believe it or not, with my left foot. I suppose because of my willingness to play, my fanatical passion, along with the goals and the assists, the students voted me Best Player of the tournament. Here the students and I receive our awards. Thanks to all, and that you Anthony for organizing everything. It was great to have non-classroom fellowship.

Spiritual Retreat on Doi Suthep Mountain

I've been doing quite a bit of hiking lately around the many mountains and lovely forests that envelope Chiang Mai. The picture above was taken by David on the way up Doi Suthep mountain a few weeks ago were discovered that the sky, often full of smog, was the clearest we'd ever seen! We just had to take in the view. (That day we also discovered that my not-so-young car can make it up the steep mountains! ... good girl.)
I recently went up to national cabins with my colleagues on a meditation retreat, just 150 meters uphill from the Doi Suthep temple. The picture above is my walking meditation in the spirit of the forest-monk traditions of Thailand.

Incidentally, our spiritual retreat was held the same weekend as the beginning of the Buddhist Lent. All morning the faithful made their walk up the 300 plus flights of stairs with flowers to place on Buddha images.
The monks were chanting and the temple bells were ringing, tapped by the constant flow of the faithful into the temple. At the same time, 150 meters up the mountain, we were singing Taizé Christian songs between contemplative silences. Our music and singing, along with the bells and the monk-chants, made for a surprisingly pleasant cacophony of spiritual sounds.

Listen to the spiritual cacophony by playing both parts at once
(above Taizé 'Alleluia,' and below chant of 'The Three Refuges')

[Listening may require Quicktime plug-in and settings]

Laos Highway up to the Border with China

Is that aj.D doing an interview in a hut in the middle of Laos? Why, yes. Let me tell you, it's hard to resist an invitation to go to the friendly and relaxed Laos when much of the transportation is paid for. A few weeks ago a friend and colleague ask me to go to Laos to help research the economic and social impact of the newly completed highway from China to the Mekong River across from Chiang Khong, Thailand. Other than to look pretty (ha ha), my job was to help with phrasing questions that would not scare people away from talking about sensitive topics. The others in our six person team had more essential roles and we had a Chinese and a Lao student who could help with language as well.

We started off the trip with a night in low key Chiang Rai, and went straight to the Night Bazaar, which I totally love. The next day we awoke to start our journey all the way to the Chinese border. Thanks to Pornsak getting us our own van we made it to Chiang Khong in no time through a scenic route I hadn't been on before. This was my second time to Chiang Khong, and I have to say I really enjoy being on the Mekong. The sign in the pic let us know we were at the GATE TO INDO - CHINA. From there we took a taxi boat across the mighty Mekong River to Hui Xai (or Bokeo).
Above is a view of the boats from the Thai side sporting the Thai flag, and below a view from the Lao side.
From Hui Xai Pornsak arranged a nice van to take us all the way up, stopping along the way to do interviews or explore things that were relevant to the research. It was really interesting to go on this kind of travel for me. It was great to talk to people about what was going on, and to see the Laos countryside, which is a riot of green--for the most part.
Unfortunately however, one of main impacts of the road was environmental. The construction of the highway was quite destructive to the surrounding area; mountains were blasted and basically all the trees near the highway were burned or cut down, as you can see from the picture. The Laos government basically gave the Chinese and Thai a free pass to do whatever they wanted. But the execution of the road reflects a flayed 'building'/'construction' mentality: build now, clean up later (if you clean up at all!). Sadly, in just a few months, the road is already deteriorating because of erosion and blasting. Who will fork out the money for the upkeep?

Clearly the road was not benefiting the Lao, at least not yet. And sadly most people along the road still have no power. Clearly the road was made to satisfy two immediate needs: for Thailand to get natural resources out of Loas, and for China to do the same, plus bring goods to sell to Thailand. In this regard, Laos is a mere truck stop. But they don't (or can't) charge very much tax for Thais and Chinese stopping in either. That said the road is more a potential for greater development, since there is basically no cars or trucks or anything else on the road! China especially is thinking big, way ahead into the future when trade might increase. Anyway, for now, the road is mainly enjoyed as a play ground for children and domestic animals. Let's see, among the animals we almost ran over were: ducks, chickens, a buffalo, cats, goats, and dogs (one poor thing got hit bad).
This is a picture from a Hui Xai market selling goods from China.

Finally, we made it to the three year old town of Boten on the Chinese border. We knew some of what to expect, but we were not prepared for what we found. Pressured by Chinese, the Laos government forcibly relocated all the villagers in Boten about 10 kilometers down the road to a 'New' Boten, leaving them with many unfulfilled promises of land to farm. We knew that Chinese investors with many connections had "bought" (leased for 99 years, renewable) several kilometers of land from a Lao official. From interviews we come to find out that the Lao official that sold it has disappeared off the face of planet, and the Chinese are basically running the show. There was not one Lao official, police or border guard anywhere. Ladies and gentleman, this place was quite strange. I would like to call it little Las Chigas. You know? like how Las Vegas first started, with one little casino that expanded. And with the same lack of regulation that Las Vegas began with. It's both illegal for Chinese and the Lao citizens to gamble, but hey! this place runs by it's own rules, obviously. We even saw several cars with Beijing license plates! It must be worth the trip if you get to gamble, eh? That, my friends, is a giant road trip.
The picture above gives a feel for the town: on the left is the huge casino, and the rest of the town is makeshift stores and food stalls. Below you can see the huge jail-like massage and brothel houses (the cream, orange, and white concrete buildings).
In little Las Chigas no one spoke anything but Chinese, all the shpokeepers were Chinese, and more, they took no currency but Chinese yuan. Yikes! All but one of us (thank goodness!) had yuan; we had baht, dollars, Lao kip, and euros ... all useless. Where the heck were we?! It seemed evident to us that in this strange and lawless place we see the workings of an unofficial colonialism that is emerging in parts of the Chinese border with Laos and Burma. (I may do a similar trip to Burma in the near future).

It goes without saying that there's not a whole lot to do in this town besides gambling, going for a 'massage' and other kinds of 'services.' And all of us have rarely been stared at so much: what the hell where we doing there if we didn't want any of these things, and further, why did we have to come this far out in the middle of nowhere to get it? We were out of there the next day.
One thing we did get to do was eat amazing and authentic Chinese food! Lucky for us, JN ordered some great fish and noodle dishes, Yunnanese style. It was the best Chinese food I have ever had, by far. So good! To pic shows the two fish dishes and noodles we had with some tasty and spicy dipping sauces. Yumm!

The trip was unconventional for a trip to Laos in my book (no temples!? no hiking or outdoors!? These things dominated my first trip to Laos with Silivren and Bjørnstjerne). Yet it turned out to be extremely fascinating, and it really helped me to understand the greater Mekong region better. The most fun was interviewing people, of course. We really got to know a little about the Lao way of live, and welcomed the general friendliness that Lao people are known for. Sabaidee!

Some Highlights of Europe 2008, pt4

A great view of the Neckar, on my way out of Tübingen. It is really a pleasant town. Bye bye! It was great to visit with S and B, who were wonderful hosts. Lots of good company, amazing food and drink, rest, outdoors, and the nice landscapes and towns around the area, made for wonderfully pleasant trip. Now, here are some highlights.

Biking was a big part of my visit, and it was a great way to see things: from panoramic views of the Alps on Lake Constance, to recycling dumpsters, to the Mercedes Benz Museum (left) in Stuttgart.

I love the little biking signs like this one with the EU starred wheels, that guided us on our trip. It’s so darn cute. Needless to say, the trails are extremely well organized. You can pretty much go from one end of Western Europe to the other on bike trails.

I'm proud to say that the grand total for all the biking: 156 kilometers! (97 miles!). Nothing like the 200 miles B and S did recently, but, hey, still good for the leisurely pace we took.

One of the major bike rides was along the German side of Lake Constance (or The Bodensee, as they call it in Germany). Below is a view of the Alps and lake from the town of Landau.Above is one of the Ferraris from the Ferrari Club Germany party we ran into in Landau. Sweet. To the right is one of town's cute buildings.

Biking along Lake Constance we rode for a few minutes into Austria before turning back. I didn't even notice we had crossed over! The EU has made borders crossing easy. In 6 crossing, I was checked only once on my way back to Zurich.

Another big bike ride, along one of the Rhine River canals south of Strasbourg, France, on an absolutely perfect day. The only strange thing is that we couldn’t find a restaurant to eat lunch at in any of the small towns along the way. It seemed to us that a path that pleasant in Germany would be packed with beer gardens and restaurants. But it was nice to have the path almost to ourselves too. S and I ride away below.There was also some hiking in the woods around Tübingen, and then later I went to Freiburg and hiked through some vineyards and hills there.Above is the view of Freiburg, with the Black Forrest looming, from the vineyards I passed through before running into one of the workers who told me that it was private path. Ooops! But he was nice enough to direct me to the gate and told me I could jump over it, which I did.

I was bit starved for western art, so, besides looking at churches we also spend a day in Stuttgart and went to a museum. Among the expressionist I really can’t get enough of Max Beckmann. One of his paintings:The food we had in France was amazing, and we pretty much splurged for dinner, about which I have no regrets whatsoever. And I can’t forget the pastries! It was funny to see B and S basically gallop to their favorite bakery in town when it came into sight! I think I might have overdone it by eating a chocolate éclair for breakfast, but I just couldn’t stop myself. Now it's back to Thailand and back to work. Thanks S and B for such a good time.

Zürich and Strasbourg Churches, Europe 2008, pt3

Now here was my favorite stained glass work of the trip: Marc Chagall's windows in the Fraümuster, (Church of our Lady) in Zürich, Switzerland. I think I sat there for an hour without realizing it. There are five windows in total, with each a different primary color. The blue depiction of Jacob's dream, struggle with the angel and the stairway to heaven is brilliant, as is the green depiction of the virgin and the crucifixion.
The roman style Grossmünster above became the symbol of the reformation in Switzerland, spearheaded by Zwingli. It has some interesting history before that as well; legend has it that Charlemagne commissioned it in honor of the martyrs Felix and Regula's tombs.Door carvings at the Grossmünster, note four women at the bottom, Jesus' mother and foremothers: Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Maria. Don't you just love how all of them have such unconventional stories? Rahab, a former prostitute? Ruth, a gentile heroine, etc? I do.
The Limmat river and sunset in Zürich.
The Cathedral in Strasbourg, France above, was also interesting to see. As B put it, it feels like the church was made for giants it's so big. But the most interesting was the carvings below above the main entrance of different theological narratives.
These scenes start from creation and go right up to the apocalypse, and include themes like creation, prophecy, old testament stories and gospel scenes. It is one of the most thorough and complete statements I've seen in one place.
Inside the cathedral was another extremely fascinating item: the huge clock to the left. Not only did it tell you the state of the moon relative to the earth and gives all the astrological signs, but at the top of the hour 'Death' in person comes dancing out! I suppose to remind us that we will all die?
Speaking of clocks, um, there were so many clocks! everywhere! and bells! and at the top of the hour the all compete for your ear. I recorded a few minutes of the 7:00pm bells in Zürich. I miss not hearing them, actually.

[Listening may require Quicktime plug-in and settings]

Spiral in Ulm, Freiburg Cathedral, Bebenhausen, Germany, Europe 2008, pt2

Here are three memorable sacred spaces and art from Germany. One of my favorite churches from the trip was the the minster at Ulm, Germany. The spiral makes it the tallest church in the world! and it's pretty amazing:
Inside is also very nice, and the 14th century stained glass above is notorious for being some of the first to be so colorful, with scenes from creation to crucifixion. This was my second favorite stained glass I saw on the trip.
The Cathedral in Freiburg, Germany, and a piece by Cranach.
Bebenhausen is a great little former monastery near Tubingen.
The halls of Bebenhausen ...

Welcome to Tübingen, Germany, Europe 2008, pt1

Prost! Enjoying a day with Silivren and Bjornstjerne inside the renaissance Collegium building.
Above is a view of the city from the castle below.

B and S live right in the center of town, it's great. The market in the old town sits right in front of the Rathaus (townhall).

More coming up from lovely western Germany soon ...

Phu Chi Fa and Siam Gate: One Foot in Thailand the Other in Laos

"Phu Chi Fa" is this dramatic cliff on the border with Thailand and Laos in the Chiang Rai area. As we saw when we went up, there is no clear border demarcation. The Lao and the Thai have been arguing about this area for some time. The Lao insist they should have some share of the revenue brought in by visitors. Clearly, Thais don't agree with this. But the border remains extremely porous; when you walk up there, one step down the ridge of the mountain or cliff and you're in Laos. So there's a good amount of movement into Thailand, particularly of the Hmong who are pretty much being hunted down by the Laos government while Thailand turns a blind eye and sends them back. With all the craziness in Burma this atrocity gets completely overshadowed. You can see various villages from the cliff--and a Laos army base too.

Below is a picture of "Siam Gate." Unlike Phu Chi Fa, this is not a known spot at all. It is an entry way the Lao used especially during the Vietnam war to get into Thailand. Nowadays, you can just walk right into Laos! Pornsak and J did it a few weeks before; when we went, some men from a nearby Lao military base (supposedly) hammered some rickety bamboo together and blocked the 'gate'; no more gallivanting in Laos without a visa! But, hey, anyone would be able to just jump over of crawl through it if they really wanted to.

Songkran Holiday in Pai, Thai New Year

The rolling mountains, chilled out huts, and lazy river of Pai, above. Wobbly bridges like the one below get you over the river. During Songkran holiday a car-full of us went up to the sleepy town of Pai for a few days. Songkran is the Thai new year that lasts for days, and is also a custom in other South East Asian countries. It has many religious roots, one being of cleansing and renewal, where people pour water over the hand, shoulder or head of someone respected; often people also oo to temples to make merit in various ways. Nowadays, polite water pouring has turned into water wars, where you douse anyone you see with water. I'm holding a water-gun below.
From the inside of our car we took this picture of poeple on side streets singing and dancing and throwing water. Last year and part of this year, I spend the big songkran in Chiang Mai, the center of Songkran festivities in Thailand, and everybody seemed to be out on the street 'playing water' as they call it (sorry no pictures, my camera would not have survived the soakings!). But as in much of northern Thailand, in all of the towns we went to in Pai and on the way there people were playing water like crazy as well.

There are many ethnic minority groups in and around Pai. The most prominent are the Shan (tai yai) and Chinese--both Muslim Chinese and nationalist who fled China during the communist takeover. The architecture that stands out most in the town are the Shan style buildings, with structures up on stilts, the first floor having a large open hall and getting smaller on top, with distinctive silver trimmings on the roof, like the Buddhist monastic residence below.

The place where we stayed was managed by a nice Shan family. The women who checked us in below sits next to Shan memorabilia, including pictures of her ancestors who have been in Pai for several generations.

In the temple below we also got the chance to speak to a monk about the Shan take on the tradition of bringing sand back into the temple grounds and forming a stupa. The monk told us this represents bringing back what one took from the temple.

The stupa is adorned by colorful paper flags having animals from the 12 year cycle Zodiac.
Below is one of the Chinese villages nearby. This picture is from the village-run guesthouse. I recommend it for those who would rather be outside of the town and prefer giving money back to the locals.

We made a day trip to one of the waterfalls, jam packed with villagers. English translations are a constant laugh in this part of the world: Caution, "Be Slip Down." There are many cute little places in Pai to eat, drink and just relax. The art above by children (including a portrait of the King), is from a great spot called 'All About Coffee.' The building is a 150 year old teak structure taken care of by a Thai family; they make great coffee, bake their own bread, and play funky jazz music. Above is one of many cozy little night spots you can go to listen to decent live music.

Not too far a drive from Pai is an old World War II Memorial Bridge built under the Japanese occupation. Apparently they used this windy route to get to Burma. After the bridge the homeward journey began on the curviest stretch of road I've ever been on. Two dramamines and a few hours later we made it back.