What My $35 Can Buy

I just returned from the grocery store which I can walk to in about 5 minutes (longer depending on how long it takes to cross traffic which doesn't stop for pedestrians). I took my reusable bags which make carrying my purchases home much easier. I thought I'd take a photo of what $35 can buy. I laid out all my groceries and pulled out my camera which i just put new batteries in just over a week ago and...the batteries are dead!!!! cheap batteries! Anyway, I took a lousy picture with my computer to show you what I can buy.

We have watermelon, yogurt, baking powder, baking soda, brown rice, soy sauce, sweet potato, snow peas, barley, mangoes and sticky rice (to celebrate my sister's birthday today!!) guava, spinach, mushrooms, bean sprouts, apples, tomatoes, carrots, bananas, a pineapple, pumpkin, onions, string beans, parsley and spaghetti sauce (not photographed). Not bad eh? (Hey mom, if you are reading this I hope this answers your question about if I'm eating healthy!!) If I went to the open air street market I could actually actually save myself another $7 or so but the markets are all closed down by the time I get off work.

Actually this is more food than I typically have in my house all at one time but I figured that I'd better have enough food for a little while just in case things in BKK get interesting.

Now, what shall I have for dinner?

Elephants and Gibbons

Friday I got a call from the office saying that due to the 3 grenade explosions the night before the office would be closed. Fine with me! I got online, booked a room for $20, gabbed my "emergency beach bag" packed with everything i need for a beach getaway and I headed out of town. The guide book said the bus ride would take 2.5 hours. Over 4 hours later after stopping at what felt like every intersection along the way, we finally arrived. I dropped my bags at the hotel and headed to the beach to people watching. I love the sound of the water washing ashore. That evening I took a nice long walk and found a street vendor selling one of my favorite dishes, spicy green papaya salad.

Saturday I woke up to the noises of construction outside my window and breakfast dishes on the floor below me. After breakfast I decided to ask about the elephant trekking I had read about in the guide book. It sounded fun so I signed up and decided I was going to need an extra day in Pattaya so I extended my reservation another night. The bus came by to pick me up about 10:00. I wasn’t entirely sure what all this half day adventure would entail but it sounded exciting. Say the word elephant and i'm pretty much there!

Upon arrival we were explained that the first hour would be elephant trekking and we were encouraged to buy bananas for our elephant. Then we would go walking through the jungle and learn more about the jungle and Thai traditions. Perfect! I got my own elephant while the others shared with their partners. I removed my flip flops and felt the elephant’s skin under my feet. I asked the elephant driver the name of my elephant...i don’t remember what he told me but he then asked me if I spoke Thai (since i had asked in Thai). I told him a little bit and then he started spouting off in Thai...i told him I didn’t understand. From that point he and the other drivers mocked me playfully and we had a good time as they tested my knowledge. If they had just asked me where the book is I could have clearly told them that the book is between the table and the chair...not very helpful conversation while riding elephants in the jungle! The elephants walked through the water, through a bit of jungle and through some fields. It was a great way to spend a morning. My elephant would swing his trunk over his head when he wanted a banana. I was happy to indulge him and we were both disappointed when the goods ran out.

Next began the foot trek into the jungle. Despite my bug spray the mosquitos found my sweet blood. The guide was trying to tell us about wild boar and the rolling seed but we were all slapping away the mosquitos. Seeing our discomfort he quickly moved us on. He taught us about the different plants found along our way and their medicinal purposes or uses in Thai foods. Lemongrass is good at relieving gas, jackfuit is helpful for nursing mothers in producing sufficient milk, Siam weed can stop bleeding, and there were others. As we stood around listening someone looked up and spotted a gibbon (monkey like creature) in the tree. Our guide explained that there are 3 gibbons that live in that jungle area, a male, a female and their 5 month old baby. It was the mother and baby we saw. It was fun to watch her swinging and jumping from tree to tree as the baby hung on instinctively. What a beautiful sight!

We continued on to a traditional style stilt wood home where we learned about the process of obtaining the silk from the cocoons, making thread out of it and then weaving it into beautiful fabric. Now I understand why Thai silk is so expensive! As the tour guide spoke the rain began to fall. We stayed under cover until it lightened up then we walked towards the boat. As the boat pulled away slowly from the dock we could see that our gibbon friend had followed us and was spying on us from the tree tops. During our slow boat ride across the small lake food pellets were thrown into the water and large catfish and bass swam to the surface to gobble it up. At one point they were all flapping around and splashed me good with water! A black swan followed us across the lake eating the pellets the fish had left behind.

At the other end of the lake we were given ponchos as the rain had continued to fall, and we walked to where the ox carts were waiting for us. We took an ox cart ride back through the fields and back to our starting point where enjoyed lunch and entertainment. Entertainment consisted of performances of traditional music and dance. One dance by a woman followed by a fighting dance by 2 men using swords. They recruited me into their performance and showed me how to swing the sword back and forth...cling, cling, clash clash. It was fun to watch and participate.

Then it was back to the beach. The water was about as warm as the weather so it was just barely refreshing. It was good enough for me. I let the late afternoon sun dry me off and then watched as the big red sun sunk into the ocean. I went for a walk to enjoy the evening. Indian men tried to steer me into their shops to have a dress made or into their restaurants but it was seafood I was after tonight! I spotted a nice Thai/Italian restaurant that wasn’t too busy, nice music and away from the high energy beach crowd. Browsing the menuI found just what I was after! Seafood in coconut soup (yum!) and seafood cooked in Thai herbs. The price of each was about $5 so I assumed the 2 combined would make a nice size meal. And I added a coconut smoothie to the order to wash it all down. I was quite surprised when they brought out the soup and plate! Both were very large servings! There was no way I was going to be able to eat it all. I felt sad thinking that so much seafood would go to waste but I was determined to eat as much as I could. I started with the soup. HEAVEN! It was perfect. My taste buds were h-a-p-p-y! Shrimp, clams, fish, squid, crab and more, all in one delightful bowl, swimming in coconut milk. Heaven indeed!! Quite full I took a look at the 2nd dish and wondered how I was going to even begin. I decided I would just eat the seafood and leave all the other stuff behind. I didn’t get through it all before I gave up. Good thing I had a nice long walk ahead of me to help it all digest. I walked along the water’s edge in my bare feet as the moon peeked through the clouds lighting the evening.

I took advantage of the free breakfast the next morning and headed to the beach one last time. I sat on the sand watching children playing together in the water and families and friends gathering. The old woman sitting behind me sat in a meditative posture with her eyes closed and hands cupped on her lap. It was wonderful, except for the vendors walking by every 30 seconds selling sunglasses, ice cream, seafood, fruit, henna tattoos, wraps, fried foods...even the children were walking by with bags filled with rolls of toilet paper they were selling...interesting.

Too soon, it was time to find my way back to reality. This was much easier knowing that I’d be back to the beach (a different one) next weekend for a 3 day weekend and that really, the beach is close enough for me to enjoy any time! Big smile! I pack my bags, check out of the hotel and find a ride to the bus station. And, to my utter delight the trip back was a quick 90 minutes. Hmm, i need to learn the bus system better to make sure I alway take the fast one!

Making memories in S. Korea

The week I had off of work due to the celebration of the Thai new year, known as Songkran, seemed like a perfect time to reconnect with my little sister who has been living in South Korea for the last 2 years. It became even more perfect when I realized that she would be turning 30 years old. Now, one of my major flaws is assuming everyone thinks like me...so, naturally I assumed she would LOVE to have someone fly out to see her for her birthday and help her celebrate such a notable year.

I emailed her my idea in February and she agreed to host me for a week. I knew there would be no skydiving as I had so badly wanted to do on my 30th bday but was unable to find anyone to enjoy the experience with. But I hoped we could make some fun memories. Indeed memories were made!

Day 1- After a flight and a bus ride I met up with Ruth and her 3 year old, red headed son Jeremiah and 1 year old and still bald headed, Sarah. Jeremiah was a bit shy at first but Sarah gave me a big smile from her secure location on her mother's back. We said our hellos got in a bus and took the 30 minute ride from Pohang to her nearby town. It was then that I realized, once Jeremiah started talking, and talking, and talking that it was going to be difficult communicating with my sweet nephew who speaks great Korean and not so great English. :-)

Ruth introduced me to their little 2 bedroom apartment on the 4th floor. All doors opened into the small main room/playroom/dining room/computer room/kitchen...a multipurpose room in every sense of the word. This is when my korean lessons began. I got down on the floor to play with Jeremiah who had dumped out his bin of toys onto the floor. The most important word to this young man was the word for "digger" as in the large construction machine with the digger on the end of the arm (pretty sure these are not the true technical terms). Jeremiah is fascinated with diggers. He loves looking for them, he makes up stories and very long songs about them. He has digger toys, digger puzzles...all things digger!

He began talking very fast telling me things and asking me questions, all in a language I didn't understand. I had to keep telling him I didn't understand and he would repeat himself. A patient Ruth began trying to translate for him so I could get the basic gist of what he was saying. By the end of day 1 I had picked up several Korean words.

After playing Ruth and I started baking. We had talked of the internet about making cinnamon rolls, baking a cake and having yummy things to help us celebrate. I discovered that Ruth doesn't have an oven but uses a small convection oven on her counter top which she is now very proficient with, making bread in it every several days. We mixed up the dough and began rolling out cinnamon rolls. Then we baked bread. The afternoon turned into evening and there was still so much to do. The baking had to be halted as dinner (pizza from the dough we made) was fixed and we prepared a lunch to take with us on Saturday's morning adventure. Ruth taught me how to make Kim pop, rice and strands of egg, carrots and I don't remember what else spread out on a sheet of dried seaweed and then rolled up and sliced...just like a cinnamon roll.

Day 2- A friend of the family drove us to nearby Gyongju. Along the drive we enjoyed the beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom. We took a walk to see a Buddha image. The air was crisp and I was wrapped in layers to keep warm. It felt good to be cool after having sweated for so many months in Bangkok. Next, we went to see the mounds where kings are buried. Like the native americans important people were often buried in hill sized mounds. We walked through a park full of these mounds. We ate the local sweets (some better than others in my opinion) and enjoyed the morning.

Day 3- Sunday was Ruth's birthday! After breakfast I gave her all the gifts I had brought for her. It included Thai curry pastes and spices, coconut milk and other things she requested I bring her. In addition, knowing she has a weakness for chips and salsa I gave her several bags of chips and bottles of salsa. I then showed her a photo book Cynthia, our little sister, was putting together for her and which she would receive by mail in a few weeks. It is a book including family photos of each of our 14 siblings.

We went to church and enjoyed lunch with the church members. Rice with a variety of toppers to choose from: kim chi, sesame leaves, and lots of other yummy side dishes to eat with rice. We shared our cinnamon rolls which were a hit and disappeared quickly. After church we headed home and baked up the birthday cake. That evening we were taken to some friends home where we celebrated Ruth's birthday and one of their friend's who had a birthday earlier in the week. Again there was a beautiful spread of food and lots of rice. It was all very delicious!! After dinner we brought out the 2 layer sponge cake frosted with whipping cream and topped with strawberries (we had to put toothpicks in the layers to keep them from sliding!). We sang happy birthday to the guests of honor and watched them blow out candles. It was a nice celebration...good food, good conversation, good friends.

Day 4- Joshua, Ruth's husband, teaches English at a local primary school. He invited Ruth and I to bring the kids to class and help him teach. We decided we would sing some songs the students knew, teach them some new words by showing them some items in Ruth's backpack and then play "I'm going on a trip to America and I'm taking...". Our presence caused quite an excited atmosphere! The students were so excited to have Jeremiah and Sarah in class. They touched, took pictures, squealed and touched some more. I'm afraid not much learning took place but we did have a good time playing and singing. After helping Joshua with grades 3, 4 and 5 Ruth and I returned home with the kids.

Day 5- Tuesday was a home day. Lots of playing with the kids, more Korean lessons for Elissa and English lessons for Jeremiah. By this time Jeremiah's English had greatly improved and he was trying so hard to figure out how to communicate with me. We had a great time! I had a fun day playing with Sarah and Jeremiah. Then I helped Ruth put some alphabet books together she printed off the internet. She planed to used these to start teaching Jeremiah the alphabet. Knowing the books were for him he was excited about the project.

Day 6- Wednesday was another fun play day and laundry day, and bread baking day and cleaning day. In such a small apartment there is no possiblity of waiting to clean so we are always cleaning as we go, washing dishes, sweeping the floor, picking up toys. A clean house makes the whole family happier!

Wednesday evening I babysat while Ruth and Joshua had some time out on the town, by themselves. The kids and I had a dance party, played on the playground, ate grilled cheese sandwiches and put together puzzles. A very lovely evening indeed. Jeremiah did such a good job of figuring out which english words to use to express himself when I didn't understand his Korean (which I was getting better and better at understanding).

Day 7- Thursday Ruth and I took the kids to nearby Pohang and roamed around the town. We walked up a shopping street and meandered through a large open air market. We ate a variety of local foods and snacks along the way. Ruth bought some nice scarves to spruce up her wardrobe while Jeremiah flirted with all the old women winning over their hearts and coming away with $4 he received as gifts, a bag of fruit and veggies and a number of admirers. That little boy steals hearts wherever he goes. One moment we'd be walking down the street, the next moment some man would sweep him up and hug and kiss him. He'd ask a vendor for a a taste of whatever they were selling (cookies, fruit, veggies, sweets) and he'd get it! Sweet little boy spreading sunshine wherever he walked. He'd always bow and say thank you in a very polite Korean manner.

Well, that's my trip in a nutshell...so much I left out (the delicious meals Ruth cooked up, Sarah's eardrum popping screams...both happy and sad and so much more). But I fear you are bored so I'll leave it there. But I should mention that Ruth is pregnant with #3 which is due just weeks before they move to China for Joshua to begin tackling a master's degree.

How lucky I feel to be part of a tremendous (both in size and in ability) family. And I'm grateful for the many people involved in my siblings' lives who befriend and help them while they are out of arms reach for family.

A week of growth

I’ve had an incredible week and thought I’d share it with you. This week my supervisor has been out of town and nearly all of our senior and mid level management are out of the office.

So, on Monday I had to help my team make final preparation before they headed out on a 3 week interview schedule. They are all now in various camps interviewing refugees and preparing their paperwork to be presented to DHS.

Tuesday I got to go meet the interviewing DHS officers. For the next 3 weeks DHS has a team of officers here to conduct interviews for several camps. They will interview about 970 cases. The officers come from various locations in the US. When they come we get a chance to sit down with them to go over their interview schedule and tell them what to expect. So, I went to meet the new group of 10 DHS interviewers. I told them about the camps they would visit, about what to expect from our interpreters, about how we had to transport all of the cases being interviewed from the most remote camp which is nearly unreachable during the rainy season to another camp for the interviews (a HUGE undertaking). Basically I just prepared them for what to expect.

That afternoon I sent a staff member off to a remote island to interview several cases. We were having to also send a Burmese interpreter since there wasn’t one available on the island. They got to the airport and despite what we found on the internet about visa requirements the airline wouldn’t let our Burmese passport holding interpreter on the plane without a visa (we were under the impression it could be obtained upon arrival). So, I had to scramble to figure out another solution (I was really missing my supervisor at this point!). I finally told the caseworker to go on ahead without the interpreter and I’d pray really hard another solution would come. I think we've found a workable solution! Interviews began today…I’m holding my breath until everything works out there.

Wednesday when I got to work there were riot police all around the office building. A nearby intersection was being blocked and traffic was at a standstill. With the protests that have been taking place here I was a little nervous with all the police. We talked to the police to determine if it would be good for us to send the staff home early. They told us that as long as it was just the police around we were fine, but that as soon as the military shows up we needed to get out. Luckily the military never showed up and everything was fairly calm and peaceful so we were able to get through the day and let staff leave an hour early as most of the staff travel over an hour to get to the office each day and traffic was very heavy.

Thursday I had to arrange more DHS interviews in the region, finalize trips for caseworkers to other asian countries, and I didn’t even get to most of the work that needs to be done this week. Unfortunately, the grenades that exploded in Bangkok last night too close to our office has forced us to keep the office closed today, Friday, so there is no hope of making any further progress this week.

It's been a super busy week but I've learned so much as I've been forced to deal with situations and make presentations which have stretched my knowledge.

Demonstrations

Several weeks ago demonstrations began in Bangkok by a group known as the Red Shirts who are not happy with the current administration and who are supporters of an administration that was ousted by the coup in 2006. I thought it would last just a few days but I underestimated the group. While they were unable to rally the numbers they were hoping for the group has been large and persistent. The demonstrations have been mostly festive and non violent but with the Thai new year/water festival aproaching and demonstrators eager to enjoy a week of vacation the heat is slowly being turned up.

This past weekend the Red Shirts took over the downtown area closing several high end shopping centers. Today they are sprawling out into other major streets and setting up demonstrations throughout Bangkok. They've been edging closer and closer to my area of work and my apartment. Today, a number of protestors clogged up traffic outside my office in an intersection of 2 major streets. It was becuause of this that we decided to send everyone home around 11:30. Rumors of military and riot police on their way and not knowing if things would remain peaceful or not sent us all home on what is a Thai holiday anyway. None of the staff complained. :-)

I'm now home doing laundry and planning for my upcoming trip to Korea to visit my sister Ruth and her family and to help her celebrate her 30th birthday.

We are all hoping for a quick, peaceful end to the demonstrations and hoping the refugees are safe in their homes with so many police out on the streets.

For more info here is a link I follow: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local