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Joni & Friends International Special Needs Retreat
A few weeks ago we went to this family retreat and I was chosen to tell you about it. We heard about it from our friends and they told us it’s the highlight of their year. The camp is for families with kids with disabilities or special needs. This one was specifically designed to support Missionary families. We got to go since Tallulah has Down Syndrome. Four other kids at the camp also had Down Syndrome. There were fifteen families there from all over the world (South Africa, Taiwan, Cambodia, and all over Thailand) and all of them had kids with disabilities.
The retreat was Tuesday evening until Saturday afternoon. It was at a resort on a mountain and it was really nice. We shared a duplex cabin with another family but we had the bigger side. As soon as we looked around we found out we would be sharing the cabin with tree frogs and hundreds of ants but that isn’t very different from our house in Doi Saket (trade the frogs for countless geckos) so we didn’t care too much after we took the tree frog off the wall of Mom and Dad’s room. Although the frogs outside the windows every night were extremely loud. During the day, the frogs sounded like small dogs yapping from inside a house.
The camp is designed to give the parents a break, so every kid had an assigned buddy to spend the week with. Right when we got there we met our buddies.
As you can see, Tallulah loved her buddy Leighanna.
My buddy Andrei was was sixteen and liked reading and playing games. He did not enjoy dancing and that was completely fine with me. We watched the dance party together.
Jeremiah had a lot of fun with Nathan and Selah loved Brenna.
We were with our buddies at every meal, devotions, and during afternoon activities. After breakfast each morning, we would go to the meeting room and worship. After the parents left for their morning sessions, the teens would go into the neighboring building. There we would play games, watch videos, and make silly reenactments to bible stories. After morning activities we went back to the main building for lunch. Then from 1:00 to 4:00 we had free time to do what ever we wanted with our buddies: swimming, hike up to the cafe, play games, or just talk. Then the buddies would have time off for an hour to shower or change before dinner.
After dinner, we would go and do a group activity. One night we had a huge Minute to Win It competition. Tallulah had a ton of fun playing the Hungry Hungry Hippos game. Having people cheer her on while she mopped up the floor with her shirt was sure Tallulah’s idea of a good time. Jeremiah’s very flexible nose was put to good use in the cookie face challenge. Selah played a good toilet paper mummy, and dad finally put his skill of balloon blowing to good use.
The next night, there was a formal dinner for the parents while the kids had dinner and a dance party.
The last night was a talent show. There was everything from singing to reciting things from memory (like basketball players, car models, or pi) to magic to comedy skits! Selah and Tallulah did a clogging dance. There was also a Dad Joke Contest….and my dad won.
Overall it was a ton of fun and we will definitely go next year.
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100 Flavors
A little while back we went on a little family trip to Doi Suthep, the biggest mountain in Chiang Mai, right after church. We drove up the windy roads all the way to the temple on top, making a few stops at the markets and towns along the way. The temple was huge. After climbing a ton of stairs, we were high enough to watch planes land and take off from the airport below us. There were souvenir shops and coffee shops and restaurants and great view points all the way up and down the mountain. We ate dinner at Beast Burger, which has the best burgers we have had since we moved. But my favorite part of the trip by far was 100 Flavors.
Our Thai Teacher recommended this little place and it sounded fun. We had it for dessert after our burgers. We found it in a back alley road in a crowded area of town. It wasn’t very big but it was nice and clean. As soon as we walked in we saw four freezers with dozens of flavors. A man was standing right by this big sliding door with the pictures and names of several different flavors that this place has made.
The man told us there were around ninety flavors available and told us a little about the flavors. There are three different categories of flavors: sweet and creamy, sorbet, and savory. The sweet and creamy is what you think of when you hear ice cream. That is where you get your basic vanilla and chocolate (though they didn’t have anything so plain as vanilla or chocolate). The sorbet is the sour fruit flavors like raspberry, lemon, and blackberry (though they didn’t have anything so plain as raspberry, lemon, or blackberry either). And the savory is where you get your savory and spicy like Khao Soi (spicy noodle soup), or Pad Gra Pow (spicy ground pork and basil), or ramen (they did have these flavors). He also told us that this place has created well over 1,000 flavors of frozen cream.
We got a family pack of 15 different flavors but they gave us two free flavors as well, so we tried 17 different flavors. We all had our favorites and we could agree for the most part what flavors were worth coming again and what were “steer clear.” There were too many flavors to recall but my favorites were Charcoal Mint Chocolate Chip, Seven Flowers Sorbet, Cappuccino, Mocha, and a couple more on the tip of my tongue. This was my second time having charcoal ice cream and I love it every time. It barely affects the taste, but the color is really cool and it actually has health benefits. And I just love Mint Chocolate Chip. The Seven Flowers Sorbet tasted exactly like sour Berry Bing Su (shaved frozen milk and berry sauce, although there are several different things like chocolate you can use). And the Cappuccino ice cream tasted like Cappuccino ice cream. And the Mocha was almost the same thing but with chocolate. Even though some of the flavors didn’t seem original, they had so many fun flavors like Avatar Way of Water, which was maple syrup and chocolate chip dyed bright blue, and Spider-man, which was Thai buttercream (would not recommend), and so much more. They were almost all delicious.
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Stinkfruit Stinks!
I just had Durian for the first time and it was awful. Durian is also called stinkfruit. The fruit has sharp spikes all over it so the people harvesting it have to wear protective gloves when they pull it off the tree. It has a gross, slimy texture and the smell of rotten fruit and garlic. The taste was the worst part though. It tasted a lot like it smelled but also like Tutti Frutti Ice-cream that has gone moldy with onions on top. It is by far the worst fruit I have ever tasted. People here seem to like it though, Dairy Queen even has a new blizzard here: Durian ice cream with black sticky rice and coconut cream. It was DISGUSTING.
If you ever get the chance to try a durian you totally should. Just keep a trash can handy.
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Nori Seaweed Chips (YUCK!)
I hate seaweed. I always have. It tastes like salt, ocean mud, fish pee, and grass. Oh wait! That’s what seaweed is! These chips tasted exactly like seaweed but saltier and they had more crunch. They were so gross. We couldn’t even finish the bag we just threw it away half full. These chips are everywhere and they seem to be a good seller. I cannot get my head around that. I can’t find anything in seaweed chips that strikes me as “Yum!” Do seaweed chips sound good to you? And if so, why!!!?
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Som Tam
Today I tried Som Tam. We ordered it on Food Panda and it came in this big bag, which is pretty normal in Thai delivery. Thai coffee shops often deliver their drinks in bags like these with a cup of ice next to them.
Som Tam is Thai Green Papaya Salad. It is usually made with unripe or green papaya, Thai chillies, garlic, peanuts, fish sauce, and limes. There are hundreds of other things you could add of course but those are the basic ingredients. This one also had shrimp, green beans, and tomatoes.
Som Tam is one of my dad’s favorite dishes. I loved the flavor. It was a perfect balance of sour papaya and vegetables. One thing they didn’t balance though was the spice level. My mouth was on fire. I was melting ice cubes in seconds by breathing on them. I could only take a couple of bites before my eyes started watering. I offered my sister, Selah, 5 baht (Thai currency. Only about 15 cents, but it goes pretty far.) if she would take a bite. One bite and she was tearing up too. The other thing off balance was the texture. It was crunchy and stringy and kept getting in between my teeth.
I would strongly suggest trying Som Tam, but when you do, order it “not spicy” or prepare for your last meal.
Part of the reason I wanted to order Som Tam is because I tried some potato chips a while back that were Charcoal Grilled Chicken & Som Tam flavored chips. The chips tasted like a BBQ chip at first but then I really got the chicken flavor. And then, when I swallowed the chip, the sour Som Tam flavor hit the back of my tongue. They really did taste almost exactly like Chicken and Som Tam.
P.S. My dad came home and tried the Som Tam and said it wasn’t the spiciest ส้มตำ (Som Tam) he has had. That made me a little mad.
P.P.S I was not lying about the 5 Baht (or Haa Baht). If the exchange rates are good, 35 baht is about one dollar.
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Road Trip Chips
Try saying that 5 times fast.
If you walk into any 7Eleven in Thailand there will probably be a whole row of potato chips. And there will probably be at least 25 different flavors that you would never find in America. But not all of them taste like Thai food. We found these two flavors at an 7Eleven on our trip to Myanmar (or how the Thai say it, PaMaa, or, พม่า,) and we had to try them. First we tried the double cheeseburger. No one in my family liked them. They tasted like over-peppered American cheese with a tiny bit of a pickle taste.
The Carbonara Parmesan weren’t bad but we don’t need to get them again. They taste like Carbonara (creamy spaghetti) with a ton of salt, a little lemon, and much more parmesan than I like.
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แมงมุม! (SPIDER!)
Living in Thailand has its privileges but it also has its downfalls: like sharing our home with unwanted guests. We have found countless geckos and ants in our kitchen, but everyone (in my family) can agree that geckos are better than these disgusting, eight-legged fiends that trespass into our dining room.
แมงมุม was very smart and hard to kill, even with the state-of-the-art bug smasher my mother created with my father’s shoe and a broom.
Somehow we got it trapped in a container and set it outside. And, while we were still freaking out, Dad came home, shook up the box, dumped the spider on the road, and stomped on it.
P.S. Just know that if God ever calls you to Thailand you will have unwanted critters in your house. No doubt about it.
P.P.S. My mom is not sure about the factual basis of that final statement. She still has hope that it is not true.
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Hot Chili Squid Potato Chips
My name is Josiah Keim and I am going to do my best explaining the complex and exotic flavors in Thai Food. Everything from Pad Thai to potato chips.
Speaking of, I tried the craziest flavor of potato chips today: Hot Chili Squid. They might sound gross but I kinda like them. So does my sister Tallulah. But she likes any flavor of potato chip. I tried tricking my siblings into eating them by saying they were Mae Ploy and Potato flavored. Surprisingly, when I tried them I felt like that is actually what I think they taste like. If you don’t know, (which is normal for most Americans), Mae Ploy is a Thai sweet chili sauce. You can buy it in the states and it is amazing with sticky rice and chicken. It isn’t too spicy and the flavor is delicious. My dad even put it on pizzas at our pub before we moved. The chips taste a lot like a raw potato that someone dipped in Mae Ploy, but there is also a salty seaweed taste at the back of my tongue.
Like I said, I like them, my sister Tallulah likes them, my dad hasn’t tried them yet but I bet he likes them. The rest of my family thinks they are disgusting but that is because they expected them to be gross. If you get rid of your expectations you may really like them.
