I didn't know true love could be so real...

there are SO. MANY. STORIES. from the time I've been off the blog which I want to share... But I have no time to catch up on all of them right now.  I'll try to do it step by step. And for now, there is one particular story behind this picture which if you still don't know of you might want to hear ( or to read for this matter)...

 All I have to add right now is that God is faithful.  And God's love really is enough to be full of joy, if we make it real with Him. 

About some places I visited before moving to Bangkok last year...

Yeah I know it's been a long time since this blog was updated. I have a whole bunch of random things to share. So I'd better not try to sort them out and just do it, lest this blog grows more and more forsaken.

So Bangkok, eh. I went there in late October and I really loathed the idea of living in the capital city of Thailand. It's noisy, it's dirty, and there are not that many (cozy... or any, in this matter) coffee shops unlike in my sweet home Chiang Mai. So I went to explore some places in the south, Phuket, Chonburi and Phattaya, before the school started. Chonburi is small town, practically a fishermen's village in the not so deep south of Thailand. I went the to spend time with and see the ministry of some lovely people from Canada (of course :)). Karen and Ricky Sanchez and their four beautiful girls have lived there for a few years. Their burden for abandoned children led them to put every effort to provide shelter for kids with AIDS. A growing facility of Abundant Life Home Orphanage. Spending some time with the kids and workers at Abundant Life Home was a blessing. It was just the very beginning of dealing with missing my Home of Joy for the next 6 months.

I was also blessed to meet another lovely Canadian couple, Judy and Walter Martens. They extended really parental care to me when I so needed it and opened their nice little home for me to stay with them.

Phuket was nice, but too many Russians everywhere, hehe. I went to the resort to spend some time with my Canadian family from Mongolia. And we as always had SUCH a good time together...

Pattaya was not ok, I could barely stand being in this tourists (Russians, mainly) and red light packed town. Later on my dislike of Russian tourists was challenged by this point of view someone had opened my eyes to. Pattaya had been a core of sex industry in Thailand for decades. Years of prayer and ministry in the city were answered by a flow of Russian families coming there on vacation. Family presence of Russian tourists who come to the tropics to escape some slightly cold winters started to change the atmosphere in Pattaya. And now there's another field open for the ministry: the Russian families themselves...

with all these thoughts, impressions, and some rest before the start of the school I came to Bangkok. The Mission base is situated in Ram 2, one of the outskirts of the city and reminded me of my the district I grew up in in Russia, only that there were no drug dealers in Ram 2...

Gezelligheid

My friend Becky has shared an article on her facebook page about ... what do they call it?-- Gezelliheid!

Quoted from wikipedia: Gezelliheid (Dutch pronunciation: [ɣəzɛlɪɣhɛit]) is a Dutch abstract noun (adjective form gezellig) which, depending on context, can be translated as cosy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. The word is considered to be an example of untranslatability, and is one of the hardest words to translate to English.Some consider the word to encompass the heart of Dutch culture.

I guess that's the word to describe some of the most precious Gezelliheid I had  tonight with my boys. At the end of a frustrating day (for both me with some stuff happen and the kids with their bunch of tests on one day) we were working through six chapters of their Thai reading text book for tomorrow's test. 

One of the boys had gotten a bleeding cut on his chin- crushed in a bathroom, another one had run into a rope and burned his leg, the other one was having a stomach ache, you name it.  But we still had to read about "Baibok and Baibua", two little elephants and their friend Pupaa, a boy who looks after them.  Tired and complaining about their awees, my boys cuddled on my laps...

"เด็กเด็กรักไบใบก. ไบใบกรักเด็กเด็ก... "

กะลีนารักเด็กเด็ก...

The last week of high fashion. For now.

-Kelly it's the last  week when I have to wear my uniform.- I said to my roommate holding the hangers with  this professionally looking but unsuitable for the heat, old fashioned outfit.

--So how does it feel? Are you excited?- asked Kelly smiling. Boy, she surely knew what I thought of my collection of four jackets of purple, pink and white, each designed for a different day of the week according to Thai tradition. 

-It's sad. I mean I'm trying not to think about it. 

Yeah, why does a change often come so sudden? Sometimes work days seem endless. Routine doesn't let us enjoy the work we're doing. And then one morning-- oops! It's the last timeI come to the office streaming the motorbike into the parking lot five minutes before the lesson starts. The last time I say to my dear little ones "Good morning children!" and hear their choral response: "Good morning teacher!" as we all sit on the classroom floor in a circle (yes, me -and them- still wearing a super hot uniform).

After I'd told my little students that I was going to go study in Bangkok and thus would be teacing them for only another two weeks they said it's "mai ok" (not ok).  But then they added that they knew what to do if they miss me. They're going to pray.

And with my kids at Home of Joy we decided to do push ups every time we start missing each other.  I bet my guns are going to boost by the time I'm back...

Interview of sorts

During the last two weeks I celebrated two personal anniversaries: three years since I left my home in Siberia and two years in Thailand. 

People often ask me what it feels like to have changed one of the coldest climates to one of the hottest. So I thought why not to share some bits of my story here. FAQs about my journey  from Siberia to Thaiand, so to say...

Where did I spend the first year away from home?

- In Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia

Why did I decide to go to Mongolia?

-I was looking for an opportunity to step back and sort out my life. The teaching job in a private school came as an answer.

What was Mongolia like?

-It was hard. Wild. And beautiful. UB is an ugly soviet town, to my taste.  It's probably be enough to just say that people pee everywhere, even in the center of the town! 
Chingiz Khan who was a greater conqueror than Alexander the Great is still a national hero, even centuries after the fall of his great empire (blame it all on his kids and the Chinese). 
 
The countryside is breathtaking and is beyond description, with it's amazing blue sky, wild green meadows, two hump camels, eagles, yurts.... Oh, and don't forget the delicious goat's intenstines on a picnic, yum yum!

I got lonely. I was happy. I got heart broken. I learned to appreciate friendship and the Word of God in a new way. And the Lord was always there.