Supot

Last night Liz and I met up with our new Thai friend, Supot. He studied mechanical engineering in Bangkok but he's here in the US to learn (improve) his English. While he is learning English, Liz and I hope that we can simultaneously learn Thai--maybe not much but enough to help us transition better to life in Thailand.

"Where is the BSC?" An important question though Supot had never heard of the BSC before... (in Thai, you would say "BSC is where?")

The sounds that one needs to produce in order to make any sort of sense in Thai sound so similar to my American ears--upward intonation versus downward intonation can totally change the meaning. I was so glad that Supot was there to tell us when we made sense and when the sounds we were producing made no sense or meant something we never intended (say the word for "rice" the wrong way and you can potentially confuse a Thai person.)

"Gang ki-ow wan" is sweet green curry soup! We spent some time talking about food--how to order something, what types of foods you can order and the critical question for me which was what's for breakfast? I said cereal? Supot vigorously shook his head and said that mostly you eat rice and fried egg or some other meat that looks alarmingly similar to what's served for lunch and dinner too. Oh well. Giving up my favorite meal for a year will open up so many possibilities for new favorite meals.

If you can't tell, this artfully drawn picture is a food cart from which we'll eat many of our meals!

It was such a pleasure to meet Supot and for him to give up his time to meet with two strangers who are moving to Thailand in a few months. I really hope that God uses us in these weekly meetings with Supot and foreshadows what it's going to look like to have a relationship with Thai friends who don't know Jesus. Pray that we love him and ultimately point him towards Christ who is love.