Tuesday, I was VERY pleasantly surprised to receive a call from none other than Keith and Rhoda. They were in the area and asked if we could set up a time to meet. So yesterday for lunch we met at The Little Big Cafe in Bangkok, close to the On Nut sky train station.
I think the last I had seen them was when they were in the US awaiting their son Jadon's birth. So I also had the privilege of meeting Jadon, who is now approximately 2 years old (but don't quote me on that--I'm notorious for getting ages and names wrong!:).
We had a really nice time catching up on each other's lives, and it was all too soon when it was time to say goodbye. While we were chatting, Jadon discovered he loved my little deep fried minnows that came with my platter. "Baby fish" was Jadon's term for the crunchy snack.:)
Last Monday I met Carol, my mentor, at the Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok. Last year I had spent time there on a retreat, as it is in a quiet area of town and is quite inexpensive. It tends to attract backpackers and writers among others.
I love its in-your-face policies. I hope I stay on its list of people permitted to be on its premises, though I think I almost botched it by taking pictures of the entrance to the hotel; as I snapped picture number 2, a non-smiling guy (no smiles from Thais are VERY unusual) from inside opened the door and asked me where I am going, so I politely told him I was on my way to the sky train, and with that I ended my photo shoot.:)
Inside the hotel, as I was going down the stairs with Carol from her 5th floor room, I saw a sign that I also took pictures of. Not sure you'll be able to read them, but you can always copy and paste, then blow up the picture if you feel like taking the time.:)
Last Monday I couldn't help but take a couple pictures of the pink, gray, and blue taxi masses crowding a street in Bangkok as traffic waited for a traffic light to turn. :-)
A week ago this time our team was in Chiang Mai for a 4-day retreat. We spent much time in meetings, both Bible studies and strategy discussion. We stll had time, however, for some fun, as you might notice in the photos below.
This is ALL of us! That includes Amy and Lowell Stoltzfus's, who are currently staying in Bangkok awaiting the arrival of a new family member.
One final highlight for me was to meet a Malaysian English teacher who stumbled upon my blog a few months ago and happened to be coming to Chiang Mai the day we were leaving. We had a nice time chatting before it was time to board the train. Sorry, no photo; my friend is a tiny bit shy about having a picture posted for the world to see.:)
Yesterday was Dan's birthday, and the team took him to Ayutthaya for the day. Ayutthaya was the capital city of Thailand from 1351-1767, when it was destroyed by a Burmese invasion. Today there are only ruins left; but there are MANY ruins, including some wats and pagodas housing the remains of some of Thailand's kings.
When we arrived there, Tom acted as our tour guide, and Dan interpreted into Spanish for our Latino members.
As I was walking along, I unthinkingly walked up to a Buddha image overgrown by tree roots, and was instantly reprimanded by some park authorities for not getting down on my haunches in order to keep my body from being elevated above the Buddha head. I quickly obliged in order to take the photo below.
We walked through many ancient ruins.
Here's our beautiful, smiling REACH team.:)
Moving on to another section of ruins, we discovered an elephant show taking place.
Below is a video showing people walking under an elephant 3 times, which is supposed to bring good luck or avert bad luck.
Claire took this picture of Raul at the top of some steep steps. Claire is a great photographer, don't you think?
And here's Claire herself! She's not only a great photographer, she's also quite photogenic!
More ruins...
Here's one of my favorite flowering trees; I love the brilliant orange/red hue of the blossoms.
Feel free to check my extended entry for more.
We went to lunch at a floating restaurant right on the river. That was our time to sing happy birthday to Dan and give him our gifts. It was a fun, relaxing time, and the food was delicious.
Note the wording of the sign on the stall door in the ladies restroom.:)
After leaving the restaurant, we took our songtaew to our final destination, an area with yet more ruins, but also with more of a "garden" feel.
One building housing a Buddha image, among other things, was crowded with people bringing their offerings and prayers.
Here people buy little sheets of gold and rub it on the snake image in order to make merit/receive answers to their prayers.
The video below shows in action what the above two photos show.
Just a few more shots of a wat or chedi...
Aida, fellow intern from Ecuador, and I
I think we all had a good day, though we were also all ready to go home and get a nice cool shower and some rest.
NOTE: this will probably be my last blog entry till next week, as tomorrow evening our team heads to Chiang Mai for 4 days. "Talk" to you when we get back!
My weekend has felt busy (once again:). Friday I was at Lee's apartment working on teaching English resources, when she discovered Beth was sick and wouldn't be able to teach on Saturday. So I agreed to teach the morning class, and Lee said she would teach the afternoon class.
When I got home Friday evening, my friend Pen came to see me (I had invited her to come), so I didn't get to look at the lesson till after 10 pm. Saturday morning I taught my class; it was a fun time, though only 3 students showed up.
At lunch time all the classes had a meal together--delicious and varied as usual--after which I chatted a while with the afternoon students till time for class. They are a great group of students. Three of them will study one more level (which I will be teaching barring any unexpected hospital stays:), along with 3 students from a Thursday night class. In the picture below, only the young guy on the right will not study again; he needs to go back to school again since break is over.
Saturday evening I was expecting to have alone time in my apartment but met up with other I knew and ended up chatting. But I did get my laundry done in between--it was WAY past time to get that done! When I went out for a late supper, I found myself making my way down the row of vendors I know, catching up with them, so I didn't return to my apartment till maybe 9:30 or so.
This morning I went to Promise Church in Pak Nam, where I teach my Saturday English classes, met another girl there and ate lunch with her at the church. Once again I also met several others and then saw a few people I knew, so talked with them as well. So much for trying to hurry out and get an afternoon rest before my 3:00 plans with other friends!
I got home at 2:00, in time to get ready for my friends Nun and Lek to pick me up. Nun and Lek were English students that I had just met in the last week at Promise Church. They took me to Seri Center, which is a mall not too far from here. A free concert by a group called Over 50 (:-) was performing oldies music in English. I recognized several of the songs from my high school and college years. It was a fun time.
Here's the band:
...and here's a video of one song that I happened to know:)
...and a short clip of a dear little farang lady absolutely in her glory with this music!
Everybody cheered when she waied the crowd and sat down.:)
After the concert we went to the food court for a bite to eat; here are the three of us:
And here are some delicious Thai "kanom" (sweet snacks) with which we ended our meal.
The bright multi-colored "fruits" are actually some kind of sweetened mashed beans inside colored gel. The square is custard with taro (a sort of sweet potato type vegetable); and the small orange balls I forget, but they were VERY sweet. I believe they said these little balls get served at weddings to bless the couple with prosperity and long life together.
So now I am home and will soon go to bed. Tomorrow will be another interesting day, as our team is taking Dan to Ayuttaya for his birthday. I have never been there either, so I am excited to see it.
Today I saw my cardiologist and my infectious diseases specialist. My cardiologist is happy with the progress, though he wants me to stay on Concor for the next 4 months. Then he wants to see me one more time.
My other doctor also feels good about my progress; she is not prescribing any medicine for me, so I am down to just one kind of med--YAY! Thank God! She wants me to see her one more time as well, so in August I will have one more "doctor day". I also managed to finally get her to agree to a have a picture taken together; she has put me off until now.:) She is a real sweetheart; I have loved her being my doctor.
After my appointments, I went to the little cafe on the main floor, ordered some coffee, and sat down to study my Thai lesson for this evening--my first meeting with my tutor since before I was in the hospital almost 2 months ago! While sitting there, I saw one of my "porter" friends. Porters are the guys who wheel hospital patients around and also welcome incoming people. We ended up chatting a bit, and he kindly allowed me to take his picture as well.
At the sky train as I was heading to my Thai lesson, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the beautiful flowering tree just outside the station. The rain we've been having has resulted in lush green and brightly colored plants/trees. Aahh, refreshing!!
This morning I boarded a bus about 9:30 to head for The Shelter, the small drug rehab center where I used to go once a week to teach English. Today was sort of a test run, because they moved their center next to Don Muang Airport (the old airport), which is on the opposite corner of Bangkok from my home area.
From the bus (this morning about a 1/2 hour ride), I took the sky train all the way from one end to the other, about a half hour; then I met up with Trujit, who along with her husband Rolf, run the center. We boarded a van and arrived at the bus stop close to The Shelter about 45 minutes later. From there, we hoped to get a motorcycle taxi, but as none were coming, Trujit called Rolf to come get us, and 5 minutes later we arrived at the house.
They have a MUCH bigger property at the new place, and two buildings, one that is the main living area and the other that is the kitchen/dining building. They hope to build a football (soccer) field in one area and have gardening in another--if it doesn't rain too much. It appears that flooding happens quickly on the land.
Apart from the airplanes roaring above the place, the neighborhood is a quiet community, much more out of the city. It has a much more rural feel, including some chickens that I heard crowing from time to time.
We had a nice lunch, and it was wonderful to see the guys again. They are really a sweet yet fun group of guys. After lunch, I--of course--had to get out my camera and take a few pictures of the group.
The first picture is taken on the roof of the second building (the kitchen), with Don Muang Airport in the background.
Who are these crazy guys, anyway?:) Still on the roof of the kitchen, in the background you can see the main house.
Finally, on the ground with the house behind them to the right, and the area they hope to turn into a football field.
I have decided to give teaching a try; the distance is a bit daunting, but they are open to me stopping if I feel it is too much. I love teaching these guys, and I also like discovering new areas of Bangkok.
PS When I got home tonight, I met yet another girl who lives 2 buildings down from me who is very excited about the idea of learning English! As she seems to speak quite a bit already, I invited her to join my Monday night class, which is the higher level class. She has a friend she wants to bring, so that could bring my Monday night class up to a total of 4 at this point.:)
You're going to have to humor me once again! Today I was admiring my guppies. I love sticking my hand in the water and watching them swarm over and around it looking for food, which I eventually break down and give them. I think they really don't need anything; they've got a little natural environment all their own, but they're too cute! They have multiplied beyond count; I love the bright swirls of color on my little friends. OK, so below are pictures and even a video (!!) of them. Just in case you're interested.:)
After admiring my fish, I cleaned my room. As I was cleaning, the sky grew darker and darker, eventually ending in heavy rain on and off for the next hour or two. It is still rainy; I decided to eat cereal in my room rather than go out to find a street vendor.
I have not even started back on my "normal" (what's normal, anyway?:) schedule, and I am feeling busy. Saturday I taught 2 English classes at Promise, since Beth was away. Saturday evening, as I previously mentioned, Anita, Candice and I watched Fiddler on the Roof; I didn't get home till almost midnight, and before I got to my apartment, my street vendor friends on the corner called me over to chat while they cleaned up. By the time I got to my apartment I decided it wasn't even worth trying to sleep, since I needed to leave again by 3 AM to meet some friends at the airport.
Those friends were none other than Harold and Betty Miller and their daughter Luceeta. For those who don't know, Harold and Betty go to the church I attended in Ohio, and they also happen to be my former bosses at Miller's Furniture (http://www.millersfurniture.com/). Very nice Amish-made furniture, by the way:).They had just spent some time with the rest of their family in southeast Asia and were on their way home.
As this was the only time to see them, I decided to be crazy and meet up with them at the airport at 4:00 AM, so we had a very nice time chatting at Starbucks at Suvarnabhumi Airport, about 30-40 minutes from my apartment.
When I got home I slept for maybe 4 hours; then I took a songtaew to Bang Phli to the home of some Thai friends who had invited me to come for lunch--or so I understood in my limited understanding. Being a Thai event, it did eventually include a nice meal, but the main intent of this gathering was to present Amway products, especially their vitamins and water filter machine.:)
My friend invited me because she is very concerned about my health after my long hospital stay. I didn't "join", but I did purchase about 4 months' supply of vitamins. That should keep me healthy for the time being, right?:)
I returned to my apartment, planning a quiet evening alone and an early bedtime. It was mostly that, but then I noticed a girl from apartment 412 had tried to call me. When I called her back, she asked if I could teach her and her boyfriend English. I get excited about getting to know neighbors, so we set up a time for them to come study.
About 30 minutes later, Kun (Goon) called me back and asked to come to my room, as she had a snack for me. So she came up, bringing with her a container of various mini cookies and a carton of soy milk.:) So we got acquainted a bit more. I wanted to take her picture, but she asked if we could do that another time, as she was not prepared to have her picture taken (my sue-eye, meaning "not beautiful":) Maybe in 2 weeks I will have a picture to post.:)
Today I slept in till about 9:30 and then had a phone call from a gal I couldn't even remember at first. I hate when that happens, but I discovered that she also knew Anita, so after our conversation, I called Anita and discovered that this girl came to one of our Celebration meetings. OK, so NOW I remember her--a very sweet girl who is a neighbor to Wana and Uthai, a Christian couple who have been meeting regularly with Dan, Raul, and a few others for Bible study.
Now I am waiting for this girl to show up at my apartment. She wanted to come visit, and I suspect we will eat together--you know, favorite Thai pasttime.:)
The rest of my week is turning out the same way--the phone keeps on ringing with other invites, etc. But I will talk about them as they happen. This is already long enough.:)
Yesterday I went in to the Well for the first time since before my hospital experience. It was great to see old friends again, as well as get introduced to new people. Of course, I had to look at their card selection and ended up buying quite a few new designs. I really like the cards the girls make there.:)
Then last night, I met Anita, Tawan, and Poom Poowang (Tawan's younger sister) at The Little Big Restaurant for supper. We had a very nice time, as usual. The LIttle Big has become our regular hangout; it has great food and is a convenient place to meet.
Here we are!:)
Today I needed to go in to Bangkok again. While I was on the BTS sky train, I had to smile at the shirt pictured below. Obama has fans in Thailand too!:)
And, as I went to Lotus, I had to smile yet again at all the people in the magazine section lined up reading various magazines right there in the store. For some reason this is a normal occurence there.
Tomorrow I will teach English to the two classes I was originally supposed to teach before I fell ill. Beth is away in northern Thailand right now; she is my substitute. Now I am subbing for the substitute!:) And tomorrow night I am looking forward to spending an evening at the Mast house watching "Fiddler on the Roof" with Candice and Anita. Tom is with the REACH team in northern Thailand, so we will have a girls night.:)
One day when the team came to visit me in the hospital, Joelle and her sister Trudi, who happened to be visiting at the time, sang a few songs together. They are amazing! So here is the first song they sang.
Finally, after lunch, we went to the pavilion where the children packed in waiting for us. If you can imagine the following photos side by side, it will give you a better idea of how many there were.
Rin's husband, Khun Thani, was the moderator for the proceedings. A few people spoke, a song or two was sung, and then they played a few games. Regarding the speakers, I discovered on the way there that I was expected to share something, so I had the privilege of being one of the speakers.:)
Sorry, I'm really bad about eliminating pictures to post, but I couldn't resist putting the following picture on just for the facial expressions.:)
This little doll was fascinated by my camera. Her proud dad said he took a full album of pictures of her already.
The next set of photos show the handing out of the gifts and various children with their gifts.
The final post here is a video of the kids with their gifts. It was really fun watching them; it was also almost deafening!:)
Yesterday I went with my friend Rin and a group from her church (Immanuel Baptist Church) to her husband's home province, where we visited a couple small village churches and then handed out shoebox gifts from Samaritan's Purse to over 120 children. It was a really good time, though tiring (we left at 6:30 am and returned about 10:30 pm).
Sa Kaeo is about a 2-3 hour drive outside of Bangkok. It was refreshing to breathe in unpolluted air (some of it was even what we call "fresh country air":). Rin pointed out a road sign in Thai somewhere along the journey that I don't expect we will ever find in the US. Loosely translated, it was an "elephant crossing" sign.:)
Here Rin and I are at the first little country church we visited. I believe each of the places we visited were church plants from Rin's home church in Bangkok.
I loved the view out the window of the little church building.
The pastor's family
The next church we visited. I was told this church had grown too big for the building, so it divided 3 ways, thus also acting as church plants.
Here is most of the group with whom I travelled.
The pastor from the above church took us to the next destination, where we were to hand out the shoeboxes we brought along. First we were served a meal; most of it was much too spicy for my taste buds, but in small, almost microscopic portions, I managed to fill my stomach. :)
These two men are both leaders in the church back in Bangkok. They were a riot, trying to get me to eat spicy food but also telling me what wasn't quite as spicy.
This afternoon a celebratory service was held at Promis Baptist Church for 40 years of existence. I have sadly few pictures of the time, as I was sitting in the back, too far to take any really good pictures.
They had beautiful flowers all over the sanctuary. A high school band played some really good music as pre-service and post-service music. A choir sang a song, and quite a few different speakers addressed the packed sanctuary. Unfortunately I didn't understand any of it except for an isolated word here and there.
But it was fun to see some acquaintances at the meal after the service. Below is my friend and student, Elle, and a friend of hers.
Here I am with my friend Rin, a friend of the church.
Last--and definitely least--is an extremely poor quality video of the band playing after service music. It really sounded great; I think the video doesn't do the sound justice. And the videographer didn't do the video justice. Watch at risk of becoming light-headed or acquiring a headache!
Saturday night fifteen of us decided to "celebrate" Cinqo de Mayo, since we now have 6 Latinos on our team. So we headed into Bangkok to Charlie Brown's Mexican restaurant. We were given a section in the loft area of the restaurant. Seating was tight, but we had a blast. It was a lot of fun just being together for a night out together.
No, don't start rumors.:) This is honestly about how squeezed our seating was.
Raul and Raena (it's difficult to get a pic of Raul smiling, though in real life he is quite a clown!:)
You know, I wasn't going to post this last picture; it's actually pretty much a repeat of the above pic. But I LOVE Joelle's big eyes back in the corner. Soooo.....sorry Beth, I don't suppose you'll like this pic very much.:)
On my way home from my check-ups, I stopped at a small park in Bangkok. Yes, I do like nature and flowers.:) And yes, I do have pictures of the park posted below. Hope you enjoy!
Yesterday I had another follow-up visit with 2 of my doctors, Dr. Apichai (opthomalogist) and Dr. Onumar (infectious disease specialist). Dr. Apichai told me my vision in my right eye is now 20/30 and the fuzziness from dead cells is continuing to decrease. He also sees no need for any further visits. Wow, great news!
Dr. Onumar is also happy with my progress. My bloodwork results were good, and I am finished with antibiotics. That means no more daily visits to any hospital! Yea!!
I did ask about 2 concerns. This week I began with the "red dot disease" (my name for it:). The REACH team first had this condition--little red dots all over their bodies. Well, the same thing happened to me, only mine started itching a bit. My doctor gave me antihistamines to help with that, thinking it might be an allergic reaction to being on antibiotics so long.
The second issue was my left knee,which was giving me pain. Dr. Onumar told me to start taking Arcoxia again, the pain medicine that my rheumatologist had prescribed. If it's not better in the next couple days, she wants to see me again. But I am not planning on that.:)
In two weeks, I will again see Dr. Onumar and also my cardiologist, Dr. Apichai. I am still taking some meds prescribed by my cardiologist. But overall, I am feeling much better than 6 weeks ago when I first was admitted to the hospital. PTL!
One of my creative friends recently sent me a package full of...CARDS!! Yes, a whole bunch of cards! Fourteen, to be exact. Most of them are get well, thinking of you, etc. I am opening a few at a time. One of them is especially cute. It actually folds into a box (my friend wanted to fill it with candy, but had no room, so it stayed flat:). I hope the picture turns out good here; I scanned it to put here to show you. Note especially the "Drug Facts":).
A few days ago, as I was walking down the sidewalk between the bus stop and Thai Nakarin Hospital, I couldn't help but notice all the beautiful flowers growing here and there. Most of them I recognized from my childhood as flowers that one of my brothers raised on the farm or in his greenhouses. Here they are!
