Reality has always been interpreted through the reports given by images. – Susan Sontag
As a good old Friends’ fan I like the name of my guest house where I moved the 1st of January. The place is really home-like and most people who live here stay for a few months, mainly Taiwanese. The rest is cheaper as well comperad to where I used to like so it’s all good here. Here - a little visual tour to my room. Welcome in!
I had the count down for 2010 in Chiang Mai style with beautiful lanterns (which again ended up stuck in the trees but still managed not to burn the whole city down). Very nice. But I miss terribly all these people in the picture above. Happy New year all my loved ones who get these greetings (even if you’re not in the pic 
) !
My mum elephant riding!
My sister, Kaisa enjoying Thai food in the floating lake house.
me happy. 
Happy New Year 2010 everyone! May God bless you with His wisdom and love in many new ways.
I know it’s been forever since I last posted anything and it’s really a shame ‘cos I have seen so many sweet things completely worth sharing. Here, last weekend I went to this Arts and Crafts market at one of the famous arty streets here in Chiang Mai. There were artists and artisans from all over Thailand and it was so much fun. Thai people seem to love everything cute and they’re definitely not afraid of pink! So, here are some pics from the fair, as well as one from the current exhibition of the contemporary art museum which is on kids’ art. It was really interesting and a great lesson on Thai culture. They also held a puppet workshop at the fair and here is one of the cute youngest participants. Christmas holidays are coming up SOON!! Can’t wait. The city is actually decorated very nicely and my sister and mum are coming over for the holidays. Yeppee!
Ps. I saw ‘Science of Sleep’ last night and it was one of the best films I’ve seen – I recommend highly for holidays!
free a bird for good luck
This is a great exhibition of young talent in the city and graphic design, video art, textile, jelwery, painting, printing, grafitti and comics getting married into the holy union of art. Which I don’t believe was birthed by a fat elephant-like Ganesh god. The God of Arts is vast and beautiful beoynd measure and I can see Him a lot around here. http://thejellyproject.com/
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader for Pro democracy movement and Nobel peace Prize winner who has spend more than 13 years under house arrest. (photo is from a local “a day”-magazine)
I’m back from Fang, where we went to shoot an evangelistic video for the Shan people. I talked with a missionary who works in Myanmar (where the majority of Shan people live having no civil rights). To be honest the more I hear about life in Myanmar the more depressed I get. After spending some days of hearing life stories of these people it seems that there is so little hope for the Burmese. All that makes me angry and all that the missionary tells me to pray for is salvation of the souls when I ask how could I pray for these people. I was actually looking for some clues of how the government could be defeated and people would be set free to get proper education and have some more opportunities to build the country. I hear what the missionary is saying but I still feel extremely sad about the situation and it still seems unsolved in my head.
Then I meet Sarah. She is a Shan woman who lives in Myanmar. She is finishing her masters theses on Christian counselling and tells me how she desires to teach the local pastors about Biblical communications. She explains me about the reasons for great depression among especially Shan (and Burmese) women. They are not heard. They get the message that their opinions and feelings don’t matter. – They don’t have a voice.
We talk about the wrong leadership image and hierarchal thinking that dominates the culture and leads people into deep depression while denying their human need for free expression of mind and the sense of self worth that it brings.
Sarah is also a rock singer. She concerts around the Shan state and sings about environmental sustainability and how we have to take care of one another – to love each others.
I think I will pray for more ’Sarahs’.
This week the School of Frontier Media launched their Outreach and a big bunch of them left for the Northern Thailand (Fang) to make an evangelistic film for the Shan people. The rest of the office (including me) will join next them up there week. So now I’m going to be alone in the house for some days…
Today we had our one team member’s wife’s English class (mainly made up of Shan people!!) having a little party. It was funt o get to know them and a little more of their culture. (see a photo below)
The drama of the week was during my little search for an avocado the other night. Apparently it’s the season for the avocados and I woke up with a desire for one which turned out to have sad consequences.. So, I advanced the country road in a hope of finding one (in the dark) and couldn’t find any. I kept going and found myself out of the sight of any landmark or people. It was around the time when I smelled the cows when they appeared on the read followed by this huge troop of street dogs. They were all over me and I cycled like crazy but one of the four following beside me for about 10 minutes had a bite of me. I think my love for dogs has suffered a bit over here. The dogs are just NOT nice here! I might turn into a cat lover (even though it would be sad to admit after all these years that Alle, Tosin and Mao were right about cats and dogs after all…hmmm). Some people here in the team are worried that I might have caugth some serious virus from that dog bite so I think I should visit a doctor tomorrow to settle the situation.
Now it’s the rainy season in Thailand, so it occationally rains a little. I got my bike and I’ve been exploring (=getting lost) the city a lot. It’s pretty exciting. One time on a motorway a big grass-hopper jumped on my lap and travelled with me the next half an hour or so. I still find myself thinking “Where am I!?” every now and then but this place is beautiful and I would have ever thought of coming here so I’m thankful to God for taking me here. I have been reading a book called Ecclesiastes in Bible. It’s very interesting, you should read it if you never did.
I found a petshop along the street. At first I thought the baby bunny had died (they all seemed terribly hot) but after a while Isaw her moving a bit. They didn’t sell rats (as most of you knows I really want one) but they did have hedgehogs for really good price (like 10 euros!).
I guess being in a situation that you feel completely out of control or even out of place really makes you depen on God in a new way. I have also been thinking how little it’s about what I do in life and how much is about who I am. I am a child of God.
When it rains I enjoy worshipping at home with my sketchbook. Love to all.
