Day 4 – Saturday (Thailand’s Children’s Day)

We woke up this morning to a man’s voice over a loud-speaker.  Obviously, we do not understand Thai language, but it was clear that the day of celebrating children had begun – it was 6:30 am.

Note: We have been staying in a ChumChon – known as a slum community (a derogatory term – we prefer Chum Chon, meaning neighborhood). The Chumchon is full of children and hospitality. We eat and sleep here with people of the community. Our host is Auntie (sp) and she calls Lindsay and I her “son and daughter” – it is wonderful. We eat our breakfast and evening meals at a table on the street. During breaks, we walk to the neighbor’s storefront and buy Coca-cola in glass bottles (refreshing).

Today is Children’s Day around Thailand, and we are hosting a party with the people of the neighborhood Thailand Covenant Church (also located in the Chumchon). Nitya (sp) was our local leader/hostess, and she is an incredibly organized and diligent leader. She set up several games and invited our group to manage the chaos. We had so much fun with the kids. This was an enlivening day for us.

Kyle directed the balloon popping game, which included real darts, so it was both hilarious and anxiety-producing to be sure that no children ran between the balloons and the dart-throwers. Indeed, no one was hurt and all were joyful.

We spent the afternoon recovering from the morning activites and visiting the sites of Bangkok. We traveled through the city on Tom-toms and water-taxis. It was a great day seeing the breadth of Buddhist urban culture. We went to bed early as we needed to wake up Sunday morning and take a 12-hour train ride to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.