To Serve

Hi,
Chiang Rai is buzzin', winter has entered, and the sky is filled with colors. Yes, Loy Krathong is in full swing and you can feel it all over town.
The weekend song was "Little Egypt" by The Coasters. Oh, now you remember. This one should be easy. It starts with this:
"Anyone who ever loved could look at me And know that I love you. Anyone who ever dreamed could look at me and know I dream of you..." Clues: By a singer who had a string of major hits written by the same writing team. If you walk on by this one, you weren't listening in the mid 60s. At least you should be able to get the artist from the clues. (Ha)
Last night we were treated to a brief but colorful fireworks show that we watched from our bedroom window. There were also lots of very loud booms and whistles. Early this morning, I got the true meaning of 'cold snap'. I was awakened with the undeniable feeling of coldness. What happened? When we went to bed it was the usual moderate, pleasant temperature. I had to put on a long sleeve shirt and a blanket was put on the bed. The day was cool and tonight it's cold again. From what we read, it's like Culver City weather. So, I'm officially declaring that winter has begun.
We live in the village of Namlat. There is a big school behind the corn field to the north and beyond that is the temple. The last couple of evenings there has been chanting and music coming from the temple. This afternoon there was a band concert at the school, complete with lots of brass and a big drum corps. They played some very involved horn arrangements and I enjoyed it. It's also where a lot of the fireworks are set off.
To the south of us, across the road, there's another corn field and then the Maekok River. On the other side of the river is the fairground where major celebrations take place. To put it mildly, the joint is jumpin'. Also, there are colorful lights strung across all the major roads and some have big lanterns hanging from them. And to think, Loy Krathong isn't until number 12. Hmm.
Johan came over today to look at the pool. He's been in Holland for the past three weeks. At one point we started talking about the festival and the fireworks. He told me that in the village where he lives there used to be a fireworks competition. The monks of the village, along with anyone else who wanted to join in, would brew up a mixture of gunpowder and metal bits. They'd cook this concoction over a fire (What?) and then pour it into a big fat piece of bamboo. The bamboo would then be buried in the ground. There would be six or seven of these in a row. Each one would be lit and a giant explosion would shoot fire 30 meters into the night air. They would all be judged and I guess a prize was given to the winner. Don't try this at home.
Our neighbors gave us a package of 'balloons' this afternoon. These are the big paper cylinders that are lit and then set off to fly into the night sky. We'll probably send ours up tomorrow night. It's all very surreal.
Have a Great Week.

Peace,
Danny

"Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve.
You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace.
A soul generated by love."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style

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