Thailand's Religious Groups Celebrate The King's 84th Birthday

Today is the king's birthday! We're going to the King's Park tonight to witness the annual fireworks display.

Yesterday, on the eve of his majesty King Bhumibol's 84th birthday, Thai people of different religious background gathered together and offered prayers and wishes for the king and for the country. We took our homeschoolers to witness the celebration. We knew it would be a good cultural and historical experience for them.

We drove past yellow banners and arrived 2 hours before the program. We're glad we got a good parking spot right across the park.

Our homeschoolers, enjoying the space.

Sanam Luang, where the celebration was held, is an open field and a public square for royal ceremonies and functions.

While waiting for the program, Zoe entertained herself with her own acrobatics.

Thai monks

People from all walks of life and religious backgrounds came.

Thai Buddhists offering lotus flowers.

Thai Muslims

Thai Christians with their banners.

It was a colorful and peaceful day.

Behind Zoe are Thai Muslims performing one of their daily 5 prayers.

The program started with the Muslim group.

Muslims in Thailand

Thai Catholics, Protestants, and Seventh-Day Adventists

The Christians came in 3 groups but had a unified liturgical ceremony, and then followed by a praise and worship.

Some raised their voices. Some raised their hands. 

Some danced and raised their flags and banners. Some prayed in silence.

Zoe, sleeping soundly amid loud singing.

It's been a long day for some, too.

Today, Thailand is united in prayer for the king. Regardless of religious background, Thai people, including expats like us, were singing the same song, "Prajao owai pon Prathet Thai." (God bless Thailand.)

   

How Our Community Was Spared From Flood

No doubt, you've heard about the great flood that troubled my host country, Thailand, these past few months. It already claimed many lives and properties.  And for us here in Bangkok, it is not over yet. Many areas are still under water. We are just thankful that our community was spared. 

Here are some photos to show how our community cope with the danger of flooding:

"Let me out of here! I want to play outside!"

Houses are barricaded with all kinds of construction materials. Some made temporary prevention but most residents have constructed fixed barriers.

Never mind the grammar. We all understood what our Thai neighbors
were trying to tell us..

I've never seen our neighborhood as united as we were during the flooding days. We all contributed to buy pumps and men and women helped guard the pump and kept the floodwater low.

Entrance to our village.

I can't tell how much we spent to prepare of the flood but it's worth it. We were safe and it gave us peace of mind and good sleeps.

A boy sleeping while "watching" over his sandbags for sale
at the corner of our street.  

For sure, Bangkok will never be the same again after this great flood. I've heard that there's now a talk on moving the capital city to a higher ground because Bangkok is sinking every year. Whether true or not, Bangkok needs to reevaluate its infrastructure and sewage system. Definitely there will be more electronic engineering jobs available for those who lost their jobs during the flood as as many businesses and industrial sites were inundated and were permanently closed.

As for our village, though they helped, we cannot rely on these portable pumps the next time it floods again. A permanent and reliable solution must be done.

Bracing for the Coming Flood

Home-made lamp using used cooking oil, salt,
 and  cotton buds.

You may have heard by now that many of Thailand's provinces are now submerged in flood water and major roads are impassable. Our host country is in big trouble and needing your prayers.

We live in the capital city, Bangkok, and a flash flood is expected to hit our area on Oct.16-18, 28-30. In times like this you can expect people to go panic-buying, preparing for the worst. A sandbag could almost compete with the price of rice!
 
Today, we went to buy more groceries and the grocery shelves were dramatically empty! Basic commodities like bottled water, noodles, canned goods and eggs are all sold-out. No more candles for sale so we made our own lamp. It is more likely that we would not have electricity.

We pray that the flood will not be as bad as in other provinces. Although the government is doing its best to save the capital city but still we were warned to prepare for the worst. So we did!

We didn't have homeschooling yesterday and today because we wanted to focus on preparing for on  coming  flood. We made cement barriers on doors, sealed all drains and possible water entry points, and moved things to higher ground.







Naomi and Zoe were such a big help! They were eager to finish the little construction we did.



Please pray for us because, as I am writing this post, it is starting to rain again.

Dancercise Competition & Parade of Costumes

We took our homeschoolers to a convention center on top of a big mall to watch the National Teen Dancersize Competition in Bangkok .

It was a big event for many provinces in Thailand. There were hundreds of participants.

We watched only few dances on stage. There were so many people, and we thought they were all winners already to be on the national competition so we didn't bother to know who got the grand prize.

What we enjoyed more were the sights backstage. It was like a parade of dance costumes!

Some groups did their final rehearsals backstage so that was cool, we didn't need to wait until the competition was finished. We went home and had a great day.