Mar
27
2011
Hi everyone,
In the Oriental or Asian countries, people are very superstitious. They believe in spirits and ghosts. In Thailand, there is a spirit house in almost every single house there. A little house is for the spirit of the land where the house sits on. The family makes a food offering to the spirit house daily. They believe that the spirit will keep them safe and protect them. The spirit house has to be put up right and has to be straight and level. If they do any damage to the spirit house, they have to make a food offering and apologize right away. Of course they have to repair it right away. If they don’t do that, they believe the spirit will come to see them at night and will break their neck. The spirit will kill them instead of protecting them.
Thai people believe in fortune telling. At the temples, they have bamboo sticks to tell their fortune. There are many flat bamboo sticks with numbers on them. They are about 12 inches in length inside the round bamboo container. Thai people make a wish and shake the bamboo container until one of the bamboo sticks falls out of the container. They look at the stick to see what the number is. Once they find out about the number, they go to the wall of the temple to see what fortune is written. There are hundreds of written fortunes on the wall. You just match the number on the stick and written fortune paper. After that, they make a donation to the temple so that their wish will come true. Some Thai people go to the palm reader to seek their fortune. The palm reader has their booth set out side the temple. They really believe the palm reader even if they have to pay the money for it. Some people go to see the man or woman which has been possessed by some spirit. It is the same way in the movie ” Ghost ” in USA. They ask about their loved ones that passed away or what their future is that lies ahead. I didn’t know if they really had been possessed or not. I was very young at that time. Their voice had changed so much and was different from their own voice. Sometimes it was a man’s voice and sometimes it was woman’s voice. I just observed and kept it to myself.
There is a true ghost story in Thailand. The story of Mae Nak Phra Khanong is well known in Thailand. This story is based on actual events that took place during the 19th century. The story is about a beautiful young woman named Mae Nak ( Miss Nak ), who lived by the Phra Khanong canal in Bangkok, and her husband, Mak.
With Nak pregnant, Mak is called off to war, and is severely injured. While he is being nursed, both Nak and the child she is carrying die during childbirth. When Mak eventually returns home, he is cast under a spell and finds his loving wife and his new child waiting for him. Neighbors, who try to tell Mak of the death of his wife and to warn him that he is living with her ghost, meet with grisly ends.
One day, while Nak is preparing a meal, she drops a lime down to the cellar. In her haste, she extends her arm to pick the lime from the upper floor through the floor’s hole, not knowing that Mak saw the whole event. Terrified, Mak realizes she is a ghost, and tries to find a way to be free without her becoming aware.
At night, Mak lies to Nak by saying that he needs to go to the rest room. He then breaks a little hole in an earthen jar which is filled with water, so that Nak will think that he is urinating, and runs away into the night.
After discovering Mak is leaving, Nak pursues him. Mak sees his wife’s ghost, he runs to the temple of Wat Mahabut, where Nak cannot enter the holy area. In grief and despair Nak terrorizes the people of Phra Khanong, venting her anger towards them for helping Mak to leave her. Eventually, Nak’s ghost is bound by a powerful exorcist. After confining her within an earthen jar, he throws it into the canal.
Mae Nak’s story is popular because her true love and devotion for Mak inspires many people. There is a shrine dedicated to Mae Nak at Wat Mahabut. The shrine is located by Phra Khanong canal, at Wat Mahabut, a large temple down a small soisoi ( side road ) off Sukhumvit soi 77, also known as On Nut Road. I did visit and gave respect to her on my last vacation in Thailand.
My parents told me that there are so many unknown things in the world. Some are very powerful. It is better off for us not to go challenge them, no matter you believe it or not. The story of Mae Nak, you should pray for her and wish for her and her family to rest in peace. If you believe in after life, you should pray for her and her husband to be able to see each other again, and have an ever lasting love together to eternity.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this article. I see you later. Bye for now.
Nov
24
2010
Hi everyone,
When I first came to this small town where I live now, I was surprised to find out that the children here didn’t know how to play SOCCER at all. I came from Thailand and almost every kid there played soccer. When the World Cup Soccer tournament started, Thai people dropped what they were doing. They watched all the matches. All over the world, people watched the most popular sport SOCCER, but not here in this small town, where football is the dominant sport and baseball is second. So I decided to do something about this matter. I got together with the local YMCA and a nice gentleman ( ex-professional Baltimore Colt player ) to organize a soccer league. We set up two days for a basic soccer clinic. I coached both 100 volunteer adults and 500 children how to play soccer, coaching and refereeing. It was a big challenge for me at that time because they didn’t know anything about soccer and it was such a very large crowd. I had to use a bull horn to instruct them. The clinic went smoothly and so did the first season of soccer. The children had a lot of fun and their parents were cheering for their kids. They were so proud of their boys and girls.
A few years later, we made a big change from a fun league to a competitive league. We tried to give our children a chance to advance their skills and to know where they stand in comparison to children in other cities. One of the teams was an 8 yr. old division that my son played on. They had a first scrimmage of the season. They lost 13 to 1. The coach was yelling at them and told them that they were no good. The kids felt so sad and did not enjoy playing the game. They lost their self esteem. I went to talk to their coach and let them know that it was not a proper way to educate the children. They need some guidance and positive encouragement. They asked me if I knew anything about soccer. I told them yes. They wanted me to take over the team. From that moment on, I coached that team and completely turned the team around. Two years later at the age of 10, the team entered a competitive tournament in the town bigger than ours by about 3 times. We won first place and a big championship cup. We not only won the championship, but we won every single game by a shut out. Two years later at the age of 12, we repeated it again. We won the tournament in the city that was ten times bigger than ours. We won every game by a shut out, and no one scored a single goal on us. The children did very well and their parents were so proud of them. I was very happy that the kids’ parents put a great trust in me and gave me an opportunity to educate them.
The reason for our success was hard work, respect, discipline and focus. I taught them to respect their parents and teammates. For their parents, I wanted them to say yes m’am or no sir and to always show respect to the elderly. I taught them to show their love by action such as by doing some house chores without being asked. If you saw your dad doing yard work, don’t just ask him, “May I help you dad?” You need to go in there and help him or take over the yard work. That’s what I call showing your love and respect. They need to show their love while they are still alive. I taught them to work hard by jogging a few miles a day and to keep increasing the mileage. They did very well by disciplining themselves and practiced hard all the time. I taught them to stay focused on whatever they were doing, no matter if it was on the field or off the field. That’s how they were so successful on the soccer field. Some of them got good scholarships, and some of them played professional soccer and football. They are all enjoying good lives and have good families now. They told me that they will teach their children the way I taught them. They are paying it forward.
Tags: competitive, discipline, encouragement, hard work, love, pay it forward, respect, Soccer, sports, World Cup Soccer | 
Comments (1)
Comments (1)