Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Goal

Hi,

Life in Thailand continues to be a pleasant, mysterious journey. It looked like rain all day, tonight it came. New insights on language have surfaced, we had an art visit, and a tax bill.

This song may seem obscure to some of you, but many readers knew it right away. Here's a bit more for you:
"Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back two squares. Send an instant comment to me, initial it with loving care..." Clue: There seems to be a chess game in progress. The sub-title makes it clear.

This morning Noot and Kwan came over to look at Lisa prints, and to get some thoughts on ways Kwan could expand her approach to art. They brought us a cake. While they were here we asked them to explain a letter that was in the mailbox. With Boot out of town we had no way of knowing what it said. It was a property tax bill for a grand total of $4.00, plus a $.30 late fee. I gave them the money and they said they'd take it to the appropriate office.

Today we lunched at Big C. In the course of ordering my chicken sandwich I asked the manager for 'nit noy mayo', meaning 'a little mayo'. She gave me a puzzled look, then looked at the picture. It turns out that 'mayonnaise', the way we say it in America, meant nothing to her. In Thai the first syllable is pronounced 'maw', so it's 'mawyo'. She worked real hard to understand and we finally got it straight. More on words later.

We have known for some time that vowels are very specific in the Thai language. There are five tones, and the tone one uses can change the meaning of a word. If you get a tone wrong, many people have no idea what you're talking about. Some people will correct our pronunciation, while others will just look at us with wonder. I asked Boot about an island in the south and I thought I was saying it right. She didn't understand what I was trying to say until I tried different tones, and then she got it. The name was Koh Lanta. Koh means island. My western mind just assumed that 'lanta' could be figured out but I was wrong. In the west, consonants are pretty exact, but here it's all about the vowels, and there are a lot of them. The adventure continues.

Driving in the rain does not decrease the number of daredevils on two wheels. Tonight I encountered bikes driving against the traffic, people negotiating with one hand while holding an umbrella, and riders in T-shirts weaving in and out of the traffic. Amazing.

Have a Thrilling Thursday.

Peace,
Danny

"You think that the goal is to be over there, and we say the goal is the
journey over there; the goal is the fun you have along the way on your way
to over there."
~Abraham

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style
www.flickr.com/photos/gratidudepics
http://blog.risingstardom.com/
www.lisamosesgallery.com

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