Barbara
This is the first installment of The Frohne Flier, chronicling the
adventures of the Frohne family during their term at Mission College in
Muak Lek (means small hard hat), Thailand, 2 hours north of Bangkok. If
you don't care to receive future issues, just send me a note at frohba@wwc.edu
asking me to remove your name from the mailing list, and I will do it.
If you want a personal letter from me, just send me a personal email and
I will respond. Other wise, you will probably only hear from me via the
newsletter. Our phone number is ??? . The difference in time is 10 hours
if you are on the west coast. The easy way to calculate it is to look at
your watch. Note the time, then add two hours. Add a day and change it
from a.m. to p.m. or p.m. to a.m. What ever you are, we are the opposite.
For example if your watch says 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, it is 9:30 a.m. Wednesday
here.
In this issue I will tell you about our departure, the flight to Bangkok, and the first few days at Mission college.
Wednesday, June 6, 2001 - We left the house with plenty of time to make our 9:00 a.m. flight out of the Walla Walla airport. We had 4 large suitcases, one large backpack, a jogger stroller and several carry ons. Shauna Allen helped get all of our things to the airport, but sadly she ended up with a little "fender bender" on the way out of College Place. (Sorry Shauna! Hope everything is getting worked out ok. Her husband was able to come and we transferred things into their other vehicle and on to the airport we went. The Ralph and Thacia Stirling surprised us and came and saw us off at the airport.
The kids enjoyed the flight. William was excited about the planes he saw. Every time he saw one he would exclaim, "Main! Main!" meaning plane. We had about 5 hours in the Seattle airport. We found a relatively quiet spot and laid William down under some seats where he took a nap caged in with bags. Araya listened to an Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan tape. We ate lunch at Taco Bell, then found our gate and waited a little more. Dorothy Pulley, an "retired" woman who we had met in College Place just in May, met us there as she was going out on the same flight and heading to Mission College also to volunteer.
Dorothy's seat was just behind ours on the the flight to Tokyo and the seat beside her was empty, so Araya spent quit a bit of time back there playing with her. The kids did pretty well for such a long 10 hours in a small space. They wouldn't go to sleep in the seats so I laid them down for a nap on the floor, which turned into an interesting situation I would not have predicted.
When I first saw this particular stewardess I could tell she was not easy to get along with, and hoped she wouldn't be serving our part of the plane. Well, she was. After the kids had been sleeping quietly for quite a while, she suddenly appeared and told us we couldn't do that, and that I would have to pick them up off the floor. Well, the mother bear came out in me and I was not about to wake up my sleeping children, since they needed every bit of sleep they could get. I stood my ground said I would not. She went away and came back with the head stewardess And I dug my feet in further. She said it was because the fasten seat belt sign was on and it was for the safety of the children. There was some turbulence a while back, but hadn't been for quite a ways. Then Rob mentioned the fact that William was a lap child anyway and it wouldn't be much safer in my arms then where he was. Well, she finally said she would talk to the captain. And within seconds the fasten seat belt sign came off and we didn't see the bothersome stewardess until the end of the flight. If there was a really good reason to wake up my kids, I would have done so, but it would have had to been a really good reason. It was the first time anyone had ever been upset about my kids sleeping on the floor, and we had started doing that with Araya when she was 5 months old on her first flight. (Actually, I was more afraid of the germs they might be picking up off the floor, then a bumpy ride).
After 2 hours in the airport in Tokyo we still had 6 more hours to reach Bangkok. Rob and I were very tired by then. It was the middle of the night in Washington, though the sun was still up in Tokyo when we arrived. We got on the plane and all of us quickly went to sleep. Dorothy was in a different part of the plane, and the flight was full, so we didn't have any extra space to stretch out, but we all fell asleep. They brought us our meals, and we kept on sleeping. Rob got confused about the time and thought we were almost there when there was still two hours left, so he woke us up and had us eat. And then we had to wait and wait. This seemed like the longest part of the flight. We arrive in Bangkok at 11:00 p.m. Thai time, which is 9:00 a.m. Washington time, exactly 24 hours after our first flight's departure! What a long day, but we still had immigration and customs a 2 hour van ride before we arrived at Mission College.
In the airport Rob was concerned about how things would go because we had had such a problem getting our visas before we came. And he didn't know the right answer to some of the questions we were supposed to complete on some paper work to give to immigration. As we were walking to that section of the airport, I remembered a verse that stood out to me a few days before in my Bible study, something about God would go before us. I asked God to fulfill that promise for us and go before. There were very long lines! I asked a lady in uniform which line we needed to be in and she pointed over there. We headed in that direction and we started walking, me carrying William, a couple bags and holding Araya's hand. Before I knew it she came over to me and told me to come with her. I was afraid, but then I could see she was a very kind lady. She took us past all the lines to a little desk and personally took care of the paper work, not even asking Rob one question and then we were done!! I was amazed! After that when we picked up our luggage, a uniformed man helped Rob bring our suitcases over and load them on the carts. We were also a bit concerned about customs. Rob had brought a radio receiver with a wide range of frequencies and the customs declarations form said receivers were "restricted or prohibited". I was hoping that they would not want to see it, because I had no idea which suitcase it had be placed in and did not want a suitcase search. I had had to go through that before and was not interested in trying to put everything back in. There was prayer on my breath as we headed over to an empty customs line, everyone else was going through "nothing to declare" Rob handed them the form and the man said "That's all?" (There was also two laptop computers and a camera listed as they were over the stated value). We said, "Yes", and he said, "OK. You can go." He didn't ask anything or even charge us a single thing! I was amazed! God did go before.
People for the college were waiting for us with a sign. They loaded us up in a van and drove us here. We arrived at 3:00 a.m.
The houses are stucco with red tile roofs. Ours has two floors, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It is a VP house. There are several different houses kinds of houses here, though they all look about the same from the front. The presidents is the biggest. The VP houses are single family houses with a carport, dishwasher, side by side refrigerator with ice machine, and lots of fancy wood furniture, pale Champaign couch and chair, 3 air conditioners, and more. The next smaller houses are one story duplexes. I think they are actually nicer houses in layout. They still have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a bigger kitchen. They are for department heads and other important faculty. The smaller houses are two story town house apartments. We were going to be in one of them, but they had this one empty so they put us in it. The don't normally give wash machines, but because we have two children they had pity on us and put one in after we arrived. It is out the back door on the carport ledge. I have to stand on a stool to get the clothes out. Yesterday I tried to wash clothes but after a while I realized it was just filling and draining and never agitating. I spun them and then declared them as clean as they were going to get and hung them on they line, hoping it wouldn't rain before they dried. Today man came and says he has it working now. I will try another load tomorrow and see if it works any better. It is a really big machine (much bigger then my one at home) so I can do a lot at one time.
Rob is part of the Science faculty now, as the math classes he is teaching is for the Biology majors. The science faculty are treating us so nicely. They have provided lunch and supper for us every day through tonight, so we have time to get settled in before we have to do much cooking. They are all so friendly. We eat lunch in the cafeteria every day. It's the best Thai restaurant I have ever been too. All the food is vegetarian and so inexpensive! I think we may continue going there the rest of the time. It is going to be hard to go back to the Bangkok 103. Hopefully I can learn to cook what I am eating so I can open my own restaurant and cook for all of you.
Sabbath we went to church. There is no English kindergarten. Araya didn't want to go to Cradle Roll, and I didn't blame her, so I took her to Thai kindergarten Sabbath School. The teacher did a really good job. Araya was really quiet and shy at first, but by the end of the class she was warming up a bit. I think will take her back there every week. It will be good for my Thai too.
For dessert at the science faculty potluck there was lots of good food and for dessert, the best Durian I have ever eaten. It was very creamy and smooth and the aroma was mild.
We put the kids down for a nap at 3:00 and laid down ourselves. The kids kept on sleeping and so did we, past supper and through the night until 3:00 a.m. Sabbath morning Araya, William and I woke up at 3 ready for breakfast. So we ate, then read stories and played until daddy woke up at 6:00. At that time I went back to bed for a nap. And we ate again before we went to Sabbath school. On Sunday morning I didn't want to replay what had happened the night before, so I made us all stay in bed until 5:00. Araya had a hard time with that and actually I did too, but we needed to reset our clocks.
Sunday morning we went for a long walk up a gravel road past lots of bloom flowers, butterflies, birds, scenery. We came to a dairy farm. It was interesting to see how they took care of their cows. We saw some of them being milked in a dirty open shed. I hope the milking equipment was cleaner. Makes me not very interested in drinking milk here.
There isn't a single printer on campus that Rob can use with his computer. There reason being every single printer on campus is the same kind, with the only kind of printer port that Rob can't use. This has caused Rob some problems getting ready for class. But I think he has figured out a system now, though a not very quick and easy one.
Rob has had two days of classes now. Two students in Differential equations, 8 in discrete math, and 13 in computer programming It was looking like we weren't going to be able to take a vacation at the end of our time, because he needs to work in 6 classes that the students will loose because we are leaving before the end of the semester. But Rob has figured out where to add them in and we are going to get a vacation anyway. They do midterm exams kind of funny. There is a whole week off of classes for studying for them. The students can come in during that time and take the exam any time they are ready. Some one proctors the exam. Rob told the science dean that is when we will take our vacation. Yea! It will be in August I believe. There is a 3 day weekend the first weekend of July. We are going to go with the science dept to Koh Sumet. I have been there before and love it. It is a small island just a few hours east of Bangkok. And I am going to try to figure out something for us to do most every weekend.
Sue Dixon gave me my first driving lesson yesterday. She drove into town and I drove back to the college. It is a bit hard to stay on the left side of the road, and follow the funny rules, but a couple more lessons and I think I should be ok. A couple people have volunteered the use of their car for me to get to town and back when needed. There is not public transportation from campus. It is out in the country.
The campus is beautiful! And much different from the way it look when I was here 8 years ago. The little ad building they were just making when I came is being torn apart and being made into a large 3 story ad building. There are two other large buildings for classes beside it and a large church complex and Cafeteria building. The cafeteria is the only building with outside doors, but there is open places in the upper part of the walls near the ceiling so Eurasian tree sparrows fly through at will looking for crumbs to eat. The other buildings have open areas that you walk right into without a door or window. There is lots of nice air flow. It looks nice now, but I have a feeling after a while, if they aren't careful, it will be quite dirty. I already saw a sparrow building a nest in a nice light fixture, a dauber wasps carefully placing mud on the wall near a restroom. There are trees and flowers and landscaping all around. The campus is surrounded by jungle, with a jungle covered hill the nearby.
By our house there are two papaya trees with ripening fruit, a bunch of bananas trees with green bananas. Single and double red hibiscus hedges. Bougainvillea hedges. A large patch of zinnias that the butterflies just love. I took some pictures this morning of an amazing butterfly about 6 inches across. It has an orange thorax, black abdomen, the upper wings are black with silver patches, and the lower wings are black with yellow patches. Hope one of those pictures turns out good.
Araya is clamoring for a swimming pool to play in. We don't even have a hose. I found a bucket under the sink and put water in it giving her a ladle, pitcher, and colander to play with. She had a good time making "rain" for the flowers and getting wet. The next time someone takes me to town, I am going to look for the largest clothes washing basin there and see if it wouldn't work for a wading pool. She would also love to have her bike here, but we decided at the last to leave it at home.
There are other little neighborhood kids, but most of the go to Kindergarten (read preschool). We had talked of putting Araya into a Thai SDA preschool when we came, but am not sure what we are going to do now. The kindergarten is taught in English by nice Filipino girls. She would be able to talk with the kids in Thai during the recess and lunch time, but in the classroom she would hear English. The class is from 8:00 to 2:00 or 3:00, depending on which class we put her in. I am not very ready to see her go off for that amount of time per day for something that is mostly unnecessary. But we are going to wait a few more days before we make the decision. Araya is the one who seems to be having the hardest time adjusting to the new place. We are experiencing LOTS of acting out, undesirable behavior even in public, and little melt downs. Every day things are getting a little better, but I don't think she is ready to have something else new added to her day yet.
William is doing really well as long as he has his mommy. Today He went to the market with me for the first time (my second time.) Let me tell you, we made quite the splash! Every one was talking about how cute he is and that he looks just like a doll and he has beautiful hair... I had a hard time getting my vegetables purchased. I didn't know who to buy from at first, but then settled on the stalls of the friendliest people. I figured they would give me a good price because they liked my baby. One lady gave William a rombuton. Another wanted to give him a lime, but he didn't want it. They all wanted to hold him, and he was not interested in leaving mommy. But one woman got him anyway and went to show him off saying, "Look at my new son. I'm a mother now." William survived. He liked all the dogs laying around under the tables. I am glad I didn't take Araya too this time. I am sure that will be a big thing when she shows up with her long red hair. So far she doesn't know what they are saying when they talk about her and William, and that might be a really good thing.
Two Thai girls are going to come start working for me tomorrow. They will come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday for up to three hours. They also want to come Sunday, but I might pass on that unless I can think of something for them to do. I think I am going to have a hard time keeping them busy that long. I think we will have the cleanest house and most wrinkle free clothes ever seen. I also think I am going to get one of them to tutor me in Thai every day, and may be the other one can watch the kids during that time. They really need the money for school so I want to help them out as much as I can. I think I will make up some detailed cleaning lists for them to check off every day. I think they can read English pretty good, but they can't speak that well, even though one is an English major. I think I will try to help them with English as much as I can when not being tutored in Thai.
I want to send you digital pictures of our surroundings, but I am not sure they will go out over this internet connection. They all talk about how fast it is, but I have found out they are just comparing it to how slow it was before. If I can't get pictures to go out, I will try to get a web page up for you to look at.
I have seen many people who were memebers of my church when I was in Bangkok before. Sabbath was quite the reunion. Some are working here, and some were just visiting. On my first day here I saw one men who was pastor in Bangkok when I was there, Surachet. I called out to him. He looked at me with eyes as large as saucers. He had heard Dr. Frohne was coming, but he didn't know I was Mrs. Frohne.
Well, I think that is all for now. Can't predict with the next issue of The Frohne Flier will be released. I'll write some more next time I have something you might be interested in. If there is something you want to know more about, ask, and if it is of general interest I will include it for everyone.
Sa Wat dee kah,
Barbara