So we returned to Nakhon Sawan along with a huge bunch of NU students who were coming for the combined CU party in the park. The transport? Songtheow. We thought there’d be a few, or two at least, but no, all 34 of us piled into a single songtheow! Though this one was a bit larger than the norm, it was still a tight fit. And a bit of a worry for us when the police stopped us. But, after checking the driver was licensed, it was all go again.

The trip doubled as a Thai language school for me, with no shortage of students keen to teach this falang some Thai. Though I love learning it, I have been realising how difficult it must be to become fluent, with the language’s many intonations and sounds. I find myself contorting my mouth in ways I have never done before to make sounds I have never made before. And one word said in a different tone can mean something completely different. I tried to tell one of the staff how beautiful she was in Thai, but she wondered why I was telling her how unlucky she was – that’s what the word “souai” means when said with a different inflection.

There’s so much to tell, but not enough time – right now I need sleep, the days have been pretty action-packed. I’ll leave you with one last surprising – and sad - observation about things here: there are people who don’t know what Christmas is about, that it’s celebrating Jesus’ birthday. Some of them have heard of Santa Claus, yes, but that Christmas is about the birth of Christ was news to at least some of the students we talked with. A Chinese guy I talked with today told me he never knew that, and when trying to understand the resurrection suggested Jesus was “born” three days after he died. He asked me where Jesus was, and why he couldn’t see him.

It’s sad.

But I guess it’s understandable – “how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14 NIV)