Elissa's Life Story

Chiang Rai for the New Year- Day 2

2012-01-15T06:38:00.000-08:00

After the festivities of the evening 9 AM sounded way to early the next morning to begin our next adventure. Since it was our agreed upon time we had no choice. The potential of the day motivated me. Today we would head to the boarder with Burma (Myanmar) and then to go to the area known as the Golden Triangle.

We began after winding our way through hairpin turns up, up, up the mountain, at the Mae Fah Luang, the Princess Mother's home in Doi Tung. The current King's mother spent a good deal of time in northern Thailand and was very concerned about the health and livelihood of the hill tribe inhabitants, especially the amount of efforts being spent on the drug trade. Initially she began by traveling to the area with doctors to care for the sick. Ultimately, she decided to fight against the drug trade by encouraging alternative sustainable options. Opium became replaced with coffee beans and other plants. It was inspiring to learn about her endless efforts in her older years and dedication to helping people improve themselves. A truly selfless woman. It's no wonder her son, the King of Thailand, is so good and beloved by the people.

We also visited the garden the Princess Mother had planted. Since her home is situated in the hills of the area she recognized that it could support the growth of plants from cooler climates. With a passion for travel she decided to produce the flower garden giving those who were unable to travel the opportunity to experience a wide variety of flora. It was a place I could have spent all day. Definitely a place of beauty. I felt grateful to begin the new year inspired by the good works of others. I felt the desire to increase my efforts to make a difference in the lives of others around me, looking for ways to make the world a better place.

After too short of a rushed visit to the popular and packed highland getaway we continued to our next destination the boarder town of Mae Sai, the northern most city of Thailand which boarders the city of Tachileik, Burma. There was a lot of activity at the boarder. People were crossing in such a variety of modes of transportation. By foot, by rickshaw, by bike, by tuk tuk, car, mini bus and on and on. The variety of what they transported with then was equal to the modes of transport. I would have been perfectly happy to sit at the crossing and watch the activity the rest of the day. But there was exploring to be done!

We started by walking the crowded streets packed with vendors and shoppers. Vendors sold food, clothing, electronics, jewelry ranging from costume to precious stones. Just getting down the street on the sidewalk was a challenge. I picked a side street and turned up it. More shops selling herbs, healing concoctions, hill tribe fabrics, souvenirs and more. As we walked further up the hill we arrived at the foot of a long set of stairs leading to the top of hill, home to a Buddhist temple. We took on the challenge of climbing the stairs along with several others already making the climb. The stairs were uneven and seemed endless but we finally reached the top and found a great view of Tachileik. I have to admit that I've now seen enough temples that they rarely hold my attention. This was the case at this particular temple. The view, for me, was the most exciting discovery.

We descended the stairs, swearing that would be our last climb of the day and made our way back to the busy streets of city. I would have enjoyed spending a few hours wandering through the markets and doing some shopping but it was time to move on. I made a mental note to return someday and spend the day in this point of crossroads as we made our way, slowly, through the traffic and out of town.

I appreciated the drives between locations allowing us to see the countryside. I have a real passion for driving through farmlands. I love the view of farmers and animals working in their fields, planting, grooming, harvesting. Food, a basic necessity of life, yet there is such variety in where and how it is produced. A common thread is that it requires hard work.

Driving up another mountain we passed a caravan of trucks carrying people- young, old and monks- colorful decorations and instruments. I wondered if it was a wedding procession but there wasn't a couple I could identify as celebrating a union. It wasn't until we got to the front of the 10+ car procession, passing a few cars at a time up the narrow 2 lane road, that it became clear. The lead vehicle carried a large Buddha image. It was making its way to a temple. A family or community was beginning the year by making merit and ensuring good karma.

We continued up the mountain and finally reached a town. Again we met a crowd of people, the consequences of choosing a popular destination for the New Year weekend. Luckily, we were among the less than 10 people in the Opium Museum. Inside we learned about the role opium played in the lives of those living in the area, the folklore around its beginnings, the process of growing and delicate harvesting techniques. Displayed were the numerous tools used in each of the stages up to its use. All very interesting.

After learning the history through current day we then went to the Mekong river's edge where we could see both Burma and Laos, each on either side of the river dividing the three countries. This area, know as a key location in the transport of the drug is referred to as the Golden Triangle. While we didn't witness any trafficking of drugs there were shops lined up and down the street selling all sorts of souvenirs. I opted not to purchase any drug paraphernalia.

Before heading back to Chiang Rai we made one last stop on the edge of the town of Sop Ruak which had vinyl lanterns strewn back and forth across the streets. There was a ruined temple. The sun would soon begin to set and we were tired from a long day so we just spent a few minutes walking in and around the ruined bricks. What was once surely a beautiful ornate temple had lost its outer beauty but with its insides fully exposed, somehow the beauty remained in the mystery of what once was.

Day 1 of the New Year came to an end over a bowl of noodles.

Chiang Rai for the New Year- Day 1

2012-01-05T04:54:00.000-08:00

The New Year holiday fell on a weekend this year giving me a 3 day weekend. As with all 3 day weekends I began to wonder which part of Thailand I should explore. Chiang Mai is a favorite for ringing in the new year but I was too late for that as all the flights were sold out. So, I decided on a city just north of Chiang Mai...Chiang Rai. I had heard that it was a beautiful place with a cool climate in the winter and it's located just an hour from the Burma, Lao boarder. I booked a ticket, found a hotel and began planning out the trip.

Since I couldn't take time off work I departed on Saturday morning and arrived to the hotel around 11:30. I met up with a friend who had arrived a day earlier and learned that she had arranged for a driver to take us on a tour of a few sites south of the city. Off we went to explore.

The first stop was at a Karen Long Neck Village. This is a hill tribe group that still practices neck elongation by placing rings around a woman's neck. It is thought that this custom began years ago after several attacks by tigers. It was decided that if the women placed these rings around their necks it would protect them from the murderous teeth of the tigers. I had mixed feelings about visiting this village knowing that such experiences are often turned into something more like a human zoo than an educational experience. My fears were accurate as we walked through the village which was basically just a shopping trip. The walking paths were lined with displays of various mass produced handicrafts, very few of which were made by the Karen. At one point we were sat in a thatch covered area to see some traditional dancing. A group of about 5 men and 5 woman unenthusiastically walked and shuffled a rhythmic circle while a few played instruments. The music played drum, gong and cymbals seemed a completely different song than what was played simultaneously by the bamboo flutes. Each on their own would have been interesting to hear but the combination was not music to my ears. The complete lack of emotion by the dancers left me chuckling as I again reflected on the zoo type feeling of the visit.

Despite my discomfort I did manage to take a few photos and find some handicrafts to purchase which I watched the artisans craft. There were several women hard at work on their looms weaving scarves. Typically this would be up my ally but I find I have very few opportunities to wear scarves in this climate and I'm pretty sure my friends and family are looking forward to the day they get something other than a scarf from me. :-) One of the handicrafts I purchased was a mug made from green bamboo. Very unique.

Next on the agenda was my main

purpose for wanting to visit Chiang Rai. I'd seen pictures of a new Buddhist temple which began construction about 12 years ago. It is completely white and has the feeling of an ice castle to me. I was excited to actually get to see it with my own eyes. My experience matched my expectation. The sight was fantastic. The temple, so ornately constructed was happiness to my eyes despite the swarms of people in and around the temple grounds. I was surprised to see that the inside of the temple was not yet finished. The construction was complete but the painting of the walls was still in progress. No photos were allowed inside but I snuck a picture of the painters pallet. The paintings on one wall were humorous, depicting images of super heros such as Spiderman, Superman, Harry Potter and others on the lower part of the wall and above it were paintings of heaven. I'm not completely sure what the painter was going for but I was left with the impression that the message was to rise above the world and things that aren't real, a message I can relate to.

The last stop required an 1800 meter hike up a mountainside to a lovely waterfall. It was a terrific ending to the outing. We headed back to the hotel to prepare for the evening festivities celebrating and end and a beginning.

The plan for the evening was to walk up the street a block to the city center which had been blocked off to traffic for the celebration. Food vendors were lined up both sides of the street which was already packed with families and friends visiting and enjoying the various stages of performers. My pick was the center stage which featured traditional dance of both the Thais and the hill tribes. Before setting off the fireworks a story was told that I didn't understand a bit of. But it involved a dragon in Chinese style, dancing around the stage. It was a beautiful performance and ended with fireworks being spewed out of the dragon's mouth.

We headed back to the hotel, drained from the days adventures and listened to the fireworks from our room. Welcome 2012! Please be as good to me as 2011.

Christmas in Malaysia 2011

2011-12-28T04:47:00.000-08:00

I had the grand opportunity this year of spending Christmas in Malaysia. Why Malaysia? Because my aunt and uncle live there while they are engaged in humanitarian service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka the Mormon church). They have been living there for the last year and will finish their time in March and return to the US. Over the last year I've visited them on several occasions and have made friends with their friends and worked with the people they get to serve. I've taught an English class, a Spanish class and Sunday School. Butterworth, Malaysia has become a place I look forward to spending time, not that there are magical sights to see but simply because of the people who live there. A real mix of people. Among our friends there are those with backgrounds from India, China and Malaysia. There are so many different languages spoken by the church members that the meetings are held in English as a common language.

Since I had taken my home leave in November (another blog for another day) I opted to spend Christmas with my closest relatives. I was unable to take any time off so I flew out on Saturday afternoon, Christmas Eve, and arrived to their home around 7:00PM. Upon arrival I found a Christmas party in full swing with good food and good company. It was fun to visit with friends and hear what had happened since my last visit. I turned my camera over to a young man after teaching him how to use it and then enjoyed watching him snapping photos all night and using up all my battery. It finally felt like Christmas.

During the evening the leader of the congregation asked me if I'd be willing to share a Christmas message in church the next day. I gladly accepted the opportunity to share my feelings about Christ, feeling it would add to my personal celebration of the holiday. I didn't have much time to prepare since church began at 9AM the next morning but the ideas of what to say came easily after reading a few thoughts of others.

Sunday morning came and we headed off for the short drive to church which is held on floor 12A of a highrise building. Floor 12A and not 13 since 13 is an unlucky number and hence not used in Malaysia. In place of having a 13th floor it's called 12A. Up the elevator and into the church. Inside the church door we remove our shoes and place them on the shoe racks provided which is already full of tattered shoes of various shapes and sizes. You can tell which shoes belong to the 19 year old missionaries since they are the shined black ones. The others are well worn with soles and heals thinned from years of use.

Immediately we began greeting the church members with handshakes and hugs. The children were most eager to greet Sister and Elder Johnson and I. The love the church members have for my aunt and uncle is very apparent. The children swarm around them as if they were their own grandparents, negotiating who will sit next to them during church. As we make our way down the narrow hallway, through the kitchen, which also holds the above-ground baptismal font, down another hall and into the chapel we continue to greet church members young and old. Finally we make our way to our seats as we continue to greet and visit. We are accompanied today by a Hindu woman who has been living in Butterworth studying dentistry and who also lives in the same building as my uncle and aunt. It's her first time in our church and her second time in a Christian church. She was invited by my relatives to show her how we celebrate this special day.

The meeting begins with a Christmas hymn. The chorister stands at the front of the room, barefooted. The pianist, Chinese-Malaysian woman, newly returned from serving a mission in the Salt Lake City at Temple Square, begins playing at a fast tempo the chorister is having a hard time keeping up with with. Her hand beating and her voice following a much slower tempo she hears in her head. Everything is mismatched but somehow we all make it through the song ending at the same time...for the most part.

After the sacrament is passed to the members by young men between the ages of 12 and 16 the remainder of the meeting is announced. I will speak first, followed by a missionary from Utah who will be returning home in less than 2 weeks after his 2 years of service. The meeting will conclude with remarks by the recently returned missionary who had just been our pianist. I made my way to the podium with a few notes in my hand to remind me of the points I wanted to make.

"Joy to the world," I started by repeating the first 2 verses of this traditional Christmas carol. I talked about my experiences visiting Bethlehem and other historic sites where Christ lived and performed miracles throughout his life. I talked about being in the shepherds fields and reflected on the sign that was given of Christ's birth, reading scripture from both the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon describing the signs and events surrounding the shepherds. I then talked of recent conversation I'd had with a friend who asked me if I really believed in God. I shared my convictions rooted deeply in my heart of Christ and the role he plays in my life. I ended by asking the congregation what gift they would be offering Christ this year on his birthday, suggesting that some options might include giving up a favorite sin or developing a new talent. I then returned to my seat and enjoyed the remarks of the other 2 speakers feeling a deepening of my own feelings and gratitude for the blessings in my life. It was an enriching meeting for me.

Normally we would continue on at church to 2 more hours of classes and lessons but since it was Christmas the meetings were cut to allow more family time. The congregational family continued to visit and it was another 45 minutes before we left and headed home.

We weren't home long before it was time to head down the hall of the complex where we had been invited to our first of three Christmas meals. Friends and neighbors of my relatives invited us for the most delicious Indian turkey curry and other delicious dishes. I knew I'd need to pace myself if I was going to enjoy 3 meals in the next 5 hours but the first meal was so delicious I contemplated just filling up there but decided against it. That ended up being a good decision as meal #2 was in the home of friends from Nepal. The curry they served us in their small, sparsely furnished apartment was equally, it not slightly more, delicious. I helped myself to seconds. How could I resist!?

Luckily we had time to return home and take a nap allowing our food to digest before heading out for our last meal. At 7:30 we walked up the street a bit to our final appointment in the home of a Chinese Malaysian family (the home of the return missionary who played piano and spoke in church earlier). I could hardly think of eating more food but found just a little room to fit in a few bites of calamari, noodles and pineapple upside down cake (compliments of my aunt). Delicious!

After dinner and watching 17 Miracles, a movie about the miracles the Mormon pioneers experienced while making the trek to Utah from various parts of the world, we said our parting goodbyes and rolled ourselves home to crash on full stomaches into our comfortable beds.

Somewhere among all the eating we took time to open Christmas gifts. I had given my uncle a large box of his favorite cereal-Cherios, which I had hand carried from the US. To my aunt I gave detergent she wanted. I also brought a box of See's chocolates to share with them which I had received while in the US and a bag of carmel corn I found in a mall in Bangkok. I was surprised to find that Santa had found me in Malaysia and left me a gift as well. A beautiful purse from an Indian neighborhood in Malaysia. I was tickled.

It was a terrific Christmas full of Christmas spirit, good food and great company. Pictures to come!

I believe.

My Thai Massage

2011-09-04T02:16:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I decided, would be the day I would use the gift certificate a friend had given me for a 2 hour Thai massage in a private room at what I've heard is one of the best places to get a massage. I've been exercising a lot this week and my hamstrings were sore along with a few other muscles and I thought a massage would help. So, Saturday morning after an hour of bootcamp and then an hour of pilates I headed to the spa. I checked in and was asked to wait in the lovely reception area until it was time. I took a nice cold glass of water to enjoy while I waited and sat back comfortably until my name was called.

When it was my time, a nice woman in her 50s led me through the hallways, darkened for ambiance and showed me to the room. Normally when I get massages I'm laying on a mattress along side others with only a curtain hanging between us. This time, I would be in my own, private room. The room was simple and I was a bit perplexed that it came equipped with a television. I changed into the clothes I was given and the lovely woman returned. She began by asking if I wanted the TV on. No thanks, I responded. She then asked me where I hurt. I explained that the backs of my legs were sore from exercise, thinking she would go easy on them...not the case! She then began what started out feeling so good, spending about 40 minutes massaging each leg as I lay on my back and side and we chatted in Thai and she laughed when she bent my legs releasing a loud popping sound (I get the popping legs from my mother). She wanted to know about my family in America and if I was married and had children. She was amazed when I told her my age insisting I had to be 10 years younger and she giggled hearing that I have no husband and no children...not even a boyfriend! She asked if I like Thailand and Thai people and Thai food. She wanted to know about life in America and how much money I earn. I find this question difficult as I know there is a huge discrepancy between what I make and what Thai's make. I choose to tell her how much money I have the company give me in cash monthly rather than the full amount I get paid that is placed into my account. She then tells me that she makes about 10,000THB (approximately $330) monthly which she says is about 50THB ($1.50) per hour. The conversation was fun and challenging as I don't spend much time speaking Thai. I was grateful she was so patient with me and that she spoke so slowly.

She then asked me to turned on my stomach and what had begun as relaxing and slowly moved to minorly painful became torture! She started working on the backs of my legs where I was most sore. I was under the false assumption that she would be careful in the areas I had pointed out but she was determined to loosen up the muscles and scare the pain out of them. She began with the use of her fingers, then her arms and then her knees to kneed the fat lined muscle. It all culminated into the moment where she stood on my thighs and used her toes and heals to dig into the sore meat of my thighs. I winced in pain and she laughed. "You hurt," she said. "Yes", I responded. "I hurt a lot-mak mak!". But she didn't let up. I found it difficult to relax the hamstrings because every time I did the pain only worsened as the weight of her small frame (which no longer felt small) sank deep into the core of where I hurt most. Finally, just when I could bear it no more she stepped off and moved to another part of my aching body. Ending the experience sweetly with a head massage and some chiropractic upper body twists. At the end of my 2 hours she left me to get dressed. As I stood up my hamstrings and calf muscles ached so I took a few minutes to stretch them. And then, as if everything had been wonderful, she then lead me out and I thanked her with a tip.

So, if you learn anything from this experience let it be not to get a Thai massage on sore muscles! They may be luringly inexpensive (450THB/$14...or free for me in this case) but if you get the right woman, who knows how to give a great massage, what would normally feel amazing, could end up feeling a lot like torture!

Family Reunion-Nauvoo, Illinois

2011-08-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

At the end of July I headed "home" to the US for the McConkie family reunion which was to be held in Nauvoo, Illinois, a small town of historical significance to the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I bet you didn't know that Nauvoo was once the second largest city in Illinois following Chicago! That is, until the the "Mormons" as we are often called, were driven from the city after Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was killed. It was from Nauvoo that Brigham Young led the pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley. Having grown up in Illinois I've been to this historic town many times but it has been years since my last visit so I was looking forward to gathering with my family in a town where I have a rich heritage (many of my own ancestor made the trek by handcart to Salt Lake from Nauvoo).

I left Thailand on July 23 and arrived to D.C. the same day despite the fact that it was a 25 hour journey. I have to admit that I wasn't the most obedient of passengers as I was asked to lower my shade but the fascination of seeing a 12 hour sunrise (or was it sunset?) as I flew from Japan to the US was too enticing and led to my disobedience. The rays of the sun peaked over the horizon the whole way creating an elegant pink hue beautifully lining the atmosphere where earth met eternity.

I decided to fly into D.C. and spend a few days there to spend some time with a dear friend who had just bought a townhouse. The 24th was my birthday and she treated me like a princess with many of my favorite foods and the sheer delight of being reunited. We spent Monday and Tuesday shopping our pocketbooks empty. I had a list of things I had hoped to take back to Thailand with me and I knew this would be my only opportunity to shop. What fun it was and what terrific treasures we found, not to mention fantastic prices! Almost everything was crossed of my "to purchase" list.

Tuesday evening I met up with my "baby" sister Cynthia (sorry Cy, I know you hate being called that) and her family who were finishing packing and preparing to move to Utah. The plan was for me to make the 12 hour drive with them to Mom and Dad's house in Illinois. After a long night of packing and cleaning we loaded, or rather stuffed, the car as full as we could making every effort to save room for us who would be the passengers. I squeezed (in every sense of the word) into the back of the car along side 2 car seats which held my dear nieces ages 3year and 6 months and off we went. Making several stops along the way to readjust, rearrange and refuel (both the car and our stomachs) we finally drove up to my childhood home where we found the family already beginning to gather. Esther and Anna had arrived with their families and Ruth and company would be arriving by plane within the hour. And the fun began!

The next 2 days were packed with preparation and play. We made menus, shopped for groceries, went to the petting zoo, had facials, caught fireflies, swung on the rope swing, chatted, played and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Cynthia even dragged me out on a run around the corn and soybean fields. Each road along side the corn field is a mile long making our run a 4 mile square up and down the rolling hills. It felt good to be out in the fields listening to the music of the insects. They say if you're real quiet you can actually hear the corn grow.

Saturday morning we loaded up the motor home with all the groceries purchased and other reunion related items and began the 4 hour drive to Nauvoo where we would meet up with the remaining family members. All of my siblings would be there with the sad exception of Bryce as he was in the middle of a school semester and couldn't make it. In all we had 80 people in attendance. Yes, that is just my immediate family. Incredible.

I made the drive with Mom and Dad in the motor home and then unloaded the groceries with the help of Camille's family and whoever we could get our hands on. For the reunion we rented out a camp site with air-conditioned cabins for all our family and a nice big lodge where the kids could play, the adults could meet and we could feed the masses. The kitchen was a dream! It really was perfect for our family.

As families began to trickle in you could hear the squeals of cousins reuniting. Laughter filled the air and at times it sounded like everyone was talking at the same time...which they probably were. Joy was definitely our companion. Everyone got settled and at dinner time we called the multitude together for our opening ceremonies and meal.

The first question people ask me when I tell them about our reunion is, "how did you feed all those people!" The answer is that each family was assigned a meal. Anna and I had organized all the food by meal and posted the menus so whoever was in charge of the meal could easily find the ingredients and put together the simple meals that had been planned. At first we were concerned we hadn't purchased enough food for the crowd...there were a lot of big appetites among the growing children...but it turned out that we had PLENTY and enough to spare.

Saturday night we enjoyed a country fair in the historic town where we played games, walked on stilts and danced dances from the olden days and then watch the pageant which is put on every night during the summer months. We were there for the last performance. The pageant taught a bit of history of the town and it's occupants and lifted our hearts higher than they already were, if that is possible.

Sunday we went to church and then returned to the lodge for a family meeting where we were able to share our feelings and gratitude for the Savior Jesus Christ and the blessings God had given us. It was a sweet meeting as the children, teenagers and adults all shared their tender feelings. I was in awe of the sweetness of the souls my siblings have raised. We then witnessed the blessing of Cynthia's youngest baby. You see, in my church we don't baptize children until they reach the age of accountability which is 8 years old. But at a young age the children are given a blessing. It turned out that the local Bishop who came to preside over this blessing was a not too distant relative of one of my sisters in law. The world is such a small place.

Monday morning half of the adult family members went off to the temple and in the afternoon the other half of the adults went as well as the youth aged 12 and above. There is such a sweetness in the opportunity of worshipping in such a sacred place together as a family. Unity in faith is a powerful thing. As I went to the temple in the morning I volunteered for babysitting duty in the afternoon to allow my siblings the opportunity to attend the temple in the afternoon. I love it when babysitting means taking a nap with the children and then feeding them ice cream and playing games. That night we had an adult meeting where we talked together of concerns on our minds and listened to the words of our wise father who instructed us in ways to teach our children and strengthen our families. While I've not yet had the blessing of being a mother I have the privilege of being an aunt more than 60 times with a responsibility to help my siblings watch over their children and guide them through the challenges of life. I'm grateful for a dear, wise father who cares so deeply for his family.

Tuesday we started the morning early with a handcart trek. We pulled our carts over rugged terrain, through narrow passageways and open pastures while reflecting on the experiences our family members and fellow church members had as they were expelled from yet another city and forced to find freedom of religion elsewhere. We shared stories of our ancestors and read the placards placed along the path of others who also made the journey. Afterwards, went into the historic town of Nauvoo to see shows, homes, shops and relive the old days. I was surprised when, while watching one of the skits, several references were made to my ancestors, the Ashbys, who had lived in Nauvoo. Surprisingly the skit mentioned their big family and busy children. It made me laugh! I guess big families are just in our genes. In the evening, after roasting hot dogs in 100 degree heat we came together for a talent show. Some sang songs, others played instruments (banjos, violins, pianos, ukulele), some recited poetry, several did skits, dad played his harmonica and mom told a funny story putting us all in stitches as she usually does with her skits. It's impressive to see the talent in my family!

Wednesday was a sad day as we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. It was a terrific several days of renewing family relations, meeting newborns and other recent additions and having a good time. I was so impressed with my nieces and nephews. To watch them play together without excluding a single person was inspiring. It is amazing to me to see how well my siblings have done in raising good children who are kind, smart and fun. There were no injuries, only a few sharing issues among the youngest children and Ruth and Anna did just a fabulous job of planning a terrific time! We are all looking forward to doing this again in 2 more years.

I've posted about a gazillion photos in my flicker account which you can browse through if you're interested but they are mostly meant for my family as you may find them boring. :-)

Left Behind

2011-06-05T01:26:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I was sent to Malaysia for a site visit for two weeks. During those 2 weeks was a 3 day weekend...and you know how I LOVE those 3 day weekends! I debated my options for the weekend. I could visit my uncle and aunt who are humanitarian missionaries in the northern city of Butterworth. This, of course, is my top option. But, when I find out that they will be in meetings most of the weekend I decide to consider the other options. Borneo? Panang? Singapore? Borneo would be beautiful but I decided I would really prefer more time there. Panang was a nice option as it would include beach, good food and lots to see with the benefit of possibly seeing my aunt and uncle. But when my coworker said I should go with her to Singapore where her husband lives and works I decided the company would be nice.

Friday afterwork we made our way to the bus stop and waited for the bus. The ticket cost about $30 US. We loaded the bus with snacks packed for the 5 hour bus ride which went smoothly and quickly.

We spent the next few days wandering through the city's various neighborhoods...Chinatown, Little India, downtown and more. We watched my coworker's husband play a tennis match, ate ice cream and lots of delicious food, enjoyed a ride on the giant swing as well as the bungee chair, went to an open air zoo and I was introduced to kayah butter. It was a great weekend.

Monday came too soon and it was time to head back to Malaysia. My coworker decided to stay a few hours longer, finding it hard to say goodbye to the husband she sees not near enough of so I made my way alone to the bus station and found my seat inside the 24 seat bus. I turned on my music, pulled out my book, placed my dinner at my feet and enjoyed the 90 minutes of the journey. We arrived to the Malaysian boarder where we were to unload the bus, grab our bags and make our way through immigration. I took my stuff, got in line and made my way to the front of the line. The immigration officer had some trouble with my passport as it wouldn't scan properly, a problem I had entering Singapore as well. It took a few extra minutes for her to key in all the information and soon I was allowed to continue on. Everyone else had made their way through so I grabbed my suitcase as quickly as I could and walked out the door only to see that my bus had already left. I looked out and watched as it drove away, too far for me to run down. In disbelief I looked up and down to confirm that it really was my bus that I had just seen. Certainly the bus driver would have taken a minute to look and see that all 24 passengers were back on the bus. And certainly he would have noticed if the only white girl hadn't yet made her way back onto the bus...certainly...right? WRONG! Indeed it had been my bus.

So, what do I do now? Luckily I had my ticket on me so I went back inside and asked the ladies at the bag scanning station where I could find a phone to call the bus company and send the bus back for me. They told me there was a phone outside (my cell phone had no charge). I went back outside to the side of the building, found the pay phone and it looked like it hadn't been used in about a decade. It didn't work. I went back inside and explained my situation to the women at the scanning station and asked if they could help me call the bus company. "Just wait until the next bus comes," one suggested. I did know that the company had several other buses scheduled to come by about every hour or 2 but I also knew that my bus had been completely booked so who was to say that the next few buses wouldn't also be booked and I'd just be sitting there waiting for who knows how many hours. Besides, I wanted to get home at a reasonable hour. I explained this to the women and she was not being very helpful. "Listen," I told her, "I don't need you to do anything for me except to help me find a phone where I can call this bus company. I'll do it all myself, I just need a phone." Apparently those were the magic words. She agreed to take the phone number and try calling the bus company. She disappeared for about 5 minutes and then returned. Unfortunately it was after 6:00 and the offices were closed and not answering the phones. Good grief. Now what?

The next option was to sit and wait for another bus by the same company. But, again, knowing that it too could be full and who knows how long I would have to wait, I decided to try and get ask a driver from another bus company to take me back to Kuala Lumpur. By this time I was frustrated and slightly angry. I went from bus to bus and asked if they were headed to KL. No, no, no, no, no. They were each going to different locations. Finally I found a driver that was going to KL and his bus was nearly empty! Only about 7 seats looked occupied. I explained my situation and asked him if he would take me back to KL. He didn't speak English so he called over the attendant on his bus, a young woman and I told her what I needed and she translated to the driver. He looked at me and took a few deep breaths. He told me I'd have to pay. Knowing that the money I'd give him would go straight into his pocket, but not caring as I just wanted to get home I asked him how much. $30 the full price of a ticket. I looked and found that I only had 52 Malaysian Ringit, about $16. I offered it to him and he just looked at me. At that point I decided he didn't have a choice. He was going to take me home. :-) I put my bag in the luggage compartment boarded the bus and took a seat behind the other few passengers. I'd just see what would happen.

Not only did they take me back but they also served me dinner, as mine had been left on the first bus, and I was given a blanket and a pillow. I spent the next hours of the journey enjoying my book, my music and my thoughts. We stopped for a potty break and you can imagine my hesitancy to even leave the bus! But, I gathered my courage, RAN to the toilet and RAN back with plenty of time time to spare.

The last leg of the trip was super slow as it had begun to rain and then pour...harder and harder. It was hard to see further than a few feet in front of the bus, not that it mattered, there were so many other cars on the road we were moving at a snails pace. We finally made our way into the city and unloaded the bus. The driver, through his attendant, asked me for the money. I again told them I didn't have the full amount and they asked for what I did have. I told them I was happy to give them the money but asked where I could find an ATM so I could pull more money out and pay for a taxi ride home. The attendant told me there wasn't an ATM nearby so I told her I'd have to bring her the money the following day as I would have no money for a taxi if I gave it all to her now. She then confessed that there was an ATM nearby and showed me where I could find it. Why she didn't just give me that information the first time is beyond me. I gave her my money, pulled more out of the ATM flagged a taxi in the rain and finally made my way home.

Adventures are found in the most unusual places!

I'm off to Malaysia again for 10 days to work. This time, over the weekend, I'll be meeting up with my aunt and uncle to participate in a service project in the Cameroon highlands. I wonder what adventure will find me there.

Cambodia Day 4- The Large Circuit

2011-05-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Our last morning in Siem Reap our driver picked us up at 5 a.m. and took us to a lake where we could see the sunrise. More interested in photographing the ruins at sunrise than just seeing the sun come up over the water we asked him to take us back to the Laura Croft Wat (This is where part of the Tomb Raider movie was filmed) where we had been the day before but the lighting hadn’t been ideal for photos. We hoped that in the early sun photos would turn out better...and they did! For the first hour we had the Wat all to ourselves. It was so peaceful and serene as we moved about photographing various angles and details. Slowly other tourists began to show up as well as a few young boys that set up their “shop” of trinkets to sell. I watched as one boy swept the leaves from the dirt and surrounding area giving it a tidy feel, while the other boy laid out a cloth and then began to set up very systematically the mini metal statues of various gods and wat replicas.

The plan for today was to hit several wats that were further out (which is why we paid $3 more than the previous day) and which is referred to as the Large Circuit. We started with the Bantea Siray (Fortress of Women) which was a special treat! To begin with, the road to get there was lined with Cambodian life. Children riding bikes to school in their uniforms, children playing in the dirt, cows and chickens in the front yards, basket weaving, cane sugar being boiled down to make crystalized sugar and many more activities. We saw a man on a motor bike with a basket on the back filled with young pigs. There were flat carts on the back of motorbikes overflowing with charcoal. So much life taking place. Then we reached the women’s fortress which is the smallest of the temples but also the best preserved. The stone has a pink hue to it. The carvings in the stone are so intricate. Unfortunately, it was hot and very crowded so I didn't get a chance to admire it as much as I would have liked.

We moved on to other temples which were much less crowded since they were further out than the temples in the small circuit that we had enjoyed the day before. As the day progressed and it got hotter and hotter we lost our energy and enthusiasm for climbing the steep stone stairways to the tops of the eroded edifices. When we learned that we had just a few temples left to see we decided to stick with it and keep the end in mind. Some of the sites were more interesting than others I have to admit and at some point they all start looking the same...tall stone structures with really steep, tall stairs to climb, with much of the engravings and carvings worn off. That's about all we saw in the end as it all became a blur. But, we knew we only had 2 full days to see it all. Probably not the best plan but it’s what we had. While it was an intense 2 days I think we would have enjoyed it all a bit more if we had planned one additional day in order to avoid being out during the hottest parts of the day.

At several of the temples there were groups of landmine victims playing music and selling recorded CDs. We decided to purchase one as it claimed to have traditional music. The CD is described as “A group of the cripple musians at the east Prasat Preah Khan Buy one CD of the cripple is that you have supported the cripple musians projested in Cambodia.” No, those are not my typos. I've typed it exactly the way it is written. :-) It made us chuckle. The music, I have to say, is pretty good.

So, that brings to an end our time in Siem Reap. I mentioned in a previous blog that we had the companionship of a monk for a little while. He asked us what we thought of the temples. I told him I was amazed by all the work that went into the construction and how well preserved it all was. He admitted that the buildings left him empty inside but that he did have a sense of pride for his country. The artistry is tremendous! Imagining what these buildings must have been like when they were first built (some dating as early as 800! The most recent dates to about 1300). It really is spectacular.

Cambodia Day 3- The Small Circuit

2011-05-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the intermission...I ran out of juice. Here we go again.

Ok, to remind you were we left off...I'm on a trip with Nate and Cheri. We took a bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. We entered the Angkor Wat park for sunset and now...the story continues.

We arose at 4:30 wiped the sleep from our tired eyes and met the driver who would transport us from the temporary hotel (you'll remember that the hotel we booked had put us up in a temporary location since they overbooked) with breakfast in hand. Breakfast consisted of an egg, cucumber sandwich with green tomatoes. It was not delicious. The driver took us to drop our luggage off at the hotel we would stay at for the remaining 2 days and then were were off to Angkor Wat for the sunrise, again finding ourselves among throngs of others also hoping to catch a glimps of and photograph the rising sun behind Angkor Wat. After a frustrating experience of trying to avoid getting heads in our photos the sun purched high in the sky giving off way too much heat and we made our way into the Wat to explore the ruined temple. What a joy it was when we found several monks in gold colored robes inside the temple making the experience picture perfect. We then wittnessed what I can only imagine was a monk initiation ceremony where a young boy (around age 12) also dressed in a yellow gold colored gown with head shaved except for a pig tail on the crown of his head. There was chanting, gift giving, water flicking and then the ceremony was crowned by the shaving of the remaining pig tail on top of the young boys head. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Afterward the ceremony and exploring Angkor Wat we continued to several other sights including the Bayon where Cheri and I rode and elephant eager to go on break and get some rest. I’m pretty sure he was running to the finish line as we caught up and even passed the elephant in front of us leaving him in our dust. We then happened upon a group of monkeys and several young girls selling bananas to feed the monkeys. I declined purchasing the bananas despite the continued assurance that “monkeys don’t bite.” I glanced over my shoulder and found that one monkey had begun to climb up Nate’s leg. Knowing that monkeys are never to be trusted I got a bit nervous for Nate and was glad to see the monkey jump off him without injury. I took my camera over to get some photos and soon enough I found a monkey climbing up my own leg. Not having any food to offer him he began chewing on my leg. Luckily it didn’t hurt but it was starteling. I went back to the tuk-tuk to join Cheri and was again approached by a young woman selling bananas insisting that "monkeys don’t bite." “But he just bit me!” I told her. “That’s because you have no banana’s she replied.” We both laughed at the irony.

The day was unbearably hot and we must have spent $20 on water alone! Finding shade was difficult and even then...we had to keep moving finding relief only when seated in the breeze of the moving tuk-tuk. We stopped for lunch at a foodstall inside the park and negotiated cheaper prices than what they had advertised for the simple meals we ate. Cheri and I ate yellow noodles with veggies and chicken and Nate ate the Anok curry. The young woman serving us said she was 12 years old and off school that day. She was a good negotiator as she offered us discounts on the rates advertised.

After lunch we continued on our way and came across the most darling 4 or 5 year old girl repeating the phrase “10 for one dollah”. Looking in her hand to see what she was selling I found 2 magnets one of which was broken. We wondered how she could sell 10 for one dollah when she only had 2. Trying to talk to her we discovered she spoke no english except to say "ten for one dollah." Sweet little girl learning the trade of her family I’m sure as she was not the only child vendor we came across. In fact, anywhere we went, as soon as the tuk-tuk came to a stop we found ourselves surrounded by children of various ages begging us to purchase (normally 10 for one dollah) whatever they were selling. Their wares included bracelets, post cards, whistles, books, water and much more. Most of the children, while they were very pushy, were polite. Unfortunately, we ran into 2 young men who were not. One approached Cheri and she wasn't interested in what he was selling but she did make a purchase from another vendor. The young man who had approached her first told her she was "a bulls$%# lady." He was quite bitter and let us know of his disgust. Another young man approached me and told me that if I didn't purchase from him I'd make him cry. Well, I didn't purchase from him and as I was leaving he cocked his arm as if he intended to punch me.

We made our way to a number of ruined sites taking countless photos and trying to bear the heat. The ruins were decorated with Buddhist and Hindu gods and their stories. Some were well preserved while others almost completely destroyed. To think about what the sites would have been like in their heyday was not difficult and left me with a sense of awe for all the hard work that went into the construction yet sadness to think of the forced labor that was used to construct the edifices. At the end of the day we found ourselves atop another Wat enjoying the sunset which was over as quickly as it began. We then made our way down the ridiculously steep stairs (which were intentionally made difficult as it was explained that reaching heaven is no easy task). The driver returned us to our hotel just in time for the rains to begin falling and not just falling but POURING! It lasted less than an hour but the lightning and thunder that accompanied the rain was most enjoyable.

For dinner we decided on a Khmer restaurant that had a traditional dance show. Cambodian dance is very similar to Thai, slow moving with similar leg, arm and hand movement. After dinner we stoped for what was advertised as foot massages but which we would refer more descriptively as leg rubs. Nate said it’s like they read a copy of a copy of a copy of how to do a Thai massage...a perfect description that made us laugh. But ya know...for $5...it was alright. We walked back to the hotel, crashed in bed, trying to prepare for another early, early morning.

Easter Thoughts-The Last Supper and the Sacrament

2011-04-23T22:37:00.001-07:00

I was asked to speak in church today on the Last Supper and the Sacrament. Many of you have asked for a copy of my talk and so I post it here.

Let’s start by setting the scene. We are in Jerusalem during the great season of Passover which celebrates the miracle of the children of Israel being passed over by the angel of darkness simply by placing the blood of an unblemished lamb on their lintels and door posts and, thus, finally being freed from bondage. It is a celebration that the Lord commanded should be celebrated as a reminder of their deliverance from Egypt.

A traditional passover meal is prepared and served in an upper room which has been specially prepared for this meal. It has been cleaned thoroughly to ensure not a crumb of leavened bread could be found. The menu of the meal included an unblemished roasted lamb, which had been sacrificed in the temple by a Priest having the necessary authority; unleavened cakes, to represent the hurry the Israelites were in that they could not wait for the bread to rise; bitter herbs such as horseradish or green onion to symbolize the bitterness of bondage; and a salt water which the participants would dip greens into representing the tears shed during the harsh slavery. Christ, the lamb of God, presided at this meal. Elder Haight stated that this “was significant because as the One who took the place of the family patriarch, He made a last symbolic sacrifice in preparation for the real sacrifice that He later offered. He understood this; the Apostles did not. By celebrating the Passover feast, He gave His endorsement to all those similitudes, signs and tokens of the past millennia that had prefigured his great sacrifice.”

The symbolism continued. Feet were washed as a symbol of cleansing and Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it offering it to his apostles saying, as we read in Matthew and Luke, “Take, Eat. This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.” He then took a cup of wine, blessed it and again offered it to his apostles saying, as we piece together various scriptural accounts, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for the remission of sins. This do in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come again” meaning it would testify of his death.

The spilling of lambs blood for sacrifices and the commandment to offer sacrifices is a beautiful symbol that began with Adam when he and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. The Bible Dictionary says that this included “offering the firstlings of their flocks in a similitude of the sacrifice that would be made of the Only Begotten Son of God.” The offering of sacrifices was carried throughout the years until this miraculous night. From this moment in time things changed. No longer was there a need for the sacrifice of animals, for sin offerings, burnt offerings and peace offerings. That night Christ would be found praying for us in Gethsemane and suffering for our sins. He would become our ultimate sacrifice, the perfect, spotless Lamb. He would endure a sadness so intense and so excruciating that he would declare “it caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit and I would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink.” And as he suffered, his friends lay nearby sleeping. Not knowing what Christ was enduring, they slept.

Later, Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, his own apostle, and he would be beaten, spit upon, scourged and then hung on a cross to die to later raise again and live, a sacrifice that guarantees resurrection and triumph over death for every member of humanity.

It is these events that are symbolized in the sacrament we partake of each week. And it is the sacrament that is the main purpose of our weekly gathering. A loving Heavenly Father knew we would need a weekly reminder of the most important events in the history of time as well as an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the covenants we made at baptism. And so he blessed us with the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and turn our thoughts, once again to Christ. Christ said to the Nephites, “Ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood, yeah, your sacrifices and your burn offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings, And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”

As we eat the bread each Sunday we remember the body of Christ. We remember Calvary and that through Him we may be resurrected. After breaking and blessing bread when among the Nephites, Jesus said, “this ye shall do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you."

As we drink of the water we remember the blood of Christ. We remember the excruciating anguish of His suffering in Gethsemane. And we rejoice that Christ, despite wanting to be relieved of this great burden, said “Glory be to the Father” and he partook. Through His blood both shed at Gethsemane and on Calvary our sins were paid for, upon the condition of repentance and obedience, as was the debt for Adam’s transgression. We were indeed bought with a price as the Apostle Paul said. An expensive price. After Christ invited the Nephites to drink the wine he said, “Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done, for this is fulfilling my commandments and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you. And ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you , that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my spirit to be with you.”

And so you see that by partaking of the sacrament we renew the covenants we made at baptism which are that we will love and serve Christ all our days and keep his commandments. And, in turn, he promises to pour out his spirit to us. Each Sunday we are reminded that we have taken Christ’s name upon us and that we have covenanted to obey his commandments. Elder Featherstone states, “If we take of the sacrament with a sincere heart, with real intent forsaking our sins and renewing our commitment to God, the Lord provides a way whereby sins can be forgiven from week to week.” No wonder this meeting where we partake of the sacred emblems has been referred to as the “most sacred, the most holy of all the meetings of the Church.” No wonder we have been urged to prepare ourselves before coming to church that we might have a broken heart and contrite spirit to offer our Heavenly Father.

What an honor it is for young men to have the opportunity to bless and pass this most sacred symbol. What an honor it is for us to partake of it weekly. As I listen to the prayers offered in the blessings over both the bread and water the word “remember” sticks out. In the quiet moments as the sacrament is being passed do we take the time to remember and reflect? What a wonderful time for us to be able to ponder the life and ministry of our Savior and the importance of Christ’s roll. Do we make the partaking of the sacrament the crowning moment in our meeting?

The Lord said “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." I look forward to the day when Christ will preside in person over the blessing and distribution of the sacrament emblems. I pray that we will come prepared each week ready to offer up God our broken hearts and contrite spirits as we renew our covenants and our commitment to follow His commandments that we might more fully receive the blessing of his Spirit to guide us back to his presence.

Brothers and Sisters, I have been to visit the empty tomb. I have seen for myself that the tomb does indeed lay empty. I testify that Christ lives. That he suffered for us, that he was slain for us but that he lives.

Cambodia Day 2-The drive to Siem Reap

2011-04-10T02:11:00.000-07:00

The bus would depart at 8:30 so we would be picked up at 7:30. For $10 a ticket we would take a 6 hour ride in this cramped bus. They had placed us in seats located over the back wheel which meant that there was a hump at our feet making even less room for our legs. Now, for Cheri and I this was an inconvenience, for Nate, however, this was not going to work. I would put Nate at about 6' 3". With legs that long you need all the room you can get. Nate was able to negotiate seats one row behind. While it was still quite cramped it was an improvement. As for my seat, I was still in the row with the hump but I was in an isle seat next to a local cambodian man. I'm sure he was very nice but the thought of sitting next to a stranger for the next 6 hours and not in a window seat didn't thrill me. As the bus started Cheri and Nate's abandon seats lay vacant so I took the liberty of sliding across the isle and occupying both seats.

For the next 6 hours we bumped along on a partially paved road under construction. At times there was so much dust in the air that I resorted to pulling my scarf over my mouth to filter the air. The ride made Nate, a normally strong stomached traveler, slightly nauseous. Despite the discomfort of the ride the scenery made it all worthwhile. The glimpses into Cambodian life were eye opening. The whole way of the drive the road was lined with simples wood homes on stilts with a ladder or stairs leading to the entrance. There were children and/or livestock in the front, dirt lawns and under the house where hammocks were hung. There was often freshly harvested rice laid out on tarps. I wondered what the purpose of walking through the rice with bare feet was. was it part of the process of separating the husk from the grain? Many of the homes had deep, wide pits in front that looked like perhaps they collected water during rainy season but for what purpose I'm unsure. There were also scarecrows at the entrances to several of the properties along the way. But they were different than the scarecrows I'm used to seeing. These had scary looking faces and some had pretend swords or guns in their hands. I learned later on what there were for. You'll have to wait to find out!

It was about 2:30 PM when we finally rolled into Siem Reap. We transferred from the bus to another bus to a tuk-tuk that finally took us to our hotel. Along the way he asked if we were interested in his services to drive us around Angkor Wat. He then gave us a price we could not turn down- $5 for the rest of the day, $12 for the next day and $15 for the following day. We told him to pick us up at 4:30 which would give us time to drop off our bags and prepare to head out and take in the sunset at a hill above Angkor Wat.

We walked into our hotel and the staff broke the news to us that they had overbooked and didn't have a room for us. They made a few phone calls and had us taken down the street to another hotel where we would spend one night and then transfer to the hotel we had originally booked. What could we do? We agreed.

We then met up with our driver and headed off to Angkor to see the sunset. On the way we had to stop at the entrance to pay the $40 fee. We started at THE Angkor Wat taking just a few minutes to enjoy the majesty of the ruins. While we were there admiring the beauty and intricacy of the stone carvings and architecture a monk struck up conversation with Nate. They talked for a while while Cheri and I continued our tour. I think the conversation ended when the monk (23 years old) asked Nate if he could all him father. That made us all laugh. We said goodbye to our new friend and then joined the masses of other tourists on a walk up a hill to enjoy the sunset from atop another temple. While the fact that we were with about a thousand other tourists did detract from the romance of the ruins in the light of the sunset it was still a beautiful sight. The silhouettes brought out in the setting sun, the color of the sky...I had to take a breath as I brought myself to the reality of where I was.

The sun set quickly and we all made our way back down the hill just as it was becoming dark enough to need a flash light. We had again met up with our monk friend at the top of the hill and so again, we said goodbye and headed back to town in our tuk-tuk.

The driver took us to Pub Street where we were able to choose from a number restaurants. We decided on one serving Khmer food and I selected the traditional Anok dish, a delicious fish curry and which I shall miss. Then it was off to the "Noon Night Market" which confused us a bit but we went anyway. The market was just like the ones in Bangkok. Even the products were the same. I came away with 2 Angkor Wat t-shirts and a hand embroidered pillow cases showing a scene of country life. Knowing we would meet the driver the next morning at 5 a.m. we headed home and crashed in bed.

Cambodia Day 1

2011-04-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

With our adventure at Railay Beach complete we had a day to do laundry and repack and then we got back on a plane and headed to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. My first encounter with the idea of Cambodia came about 10 years ago. I dated a man who had been a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He had served his mission in the US but was Cambodian speaking. He introduced me to a book I read and my eyes were reopen to the atrocities that had taken place during my lifetime. My next interaction with Cambodia was when I went to the airport to pick up a Cambodian refugee. His spirit was strong and his smile contagious.

I was excited to finally meet Cambodia in person. I found that I wasn't prepared for the experience I was about to have. I am so grateful to have had my trusted friends at my side to experience it all with me.

After a short plane ride we arrived in Phnom Penh and headed outside the airport to catch a taxi into town. Once outside we were immediately surrounded by a host of men offering their transportation options to us. There were several options for riding into town including motorbike, tuk-tuk and taxi. Surprised by the mob that greeted us I asked them to leave us alone for a minute so we could discuss our options. We decided on the taxi and made our way to our hotel which was so lovely. We were greeted with cold fruit drinks and a cold wet towel to cool us down from the intense heat. The host showed us to our room where we left our luggage ready to meet the city. We only had an hour or two left before the sun would set. We stopped by the front desk and booked bus tickets to Siem Reap the next day and then began walking towards the riverfront where we found all sorts shops, restaurants and hotels. We selected among the many a french restaurant to enjoy dinner. During dinner we were approached several times by children wanting to sell us bracelets, postcards and other items. We turned each of them away slightly heartbroken. That's when we began to fall in love with the darling children of Cambodia.

After dinner we returned to the riverfront and walked back to the hotel. Along the way we met the personality of the city. The feeling was light and festive. There were several dance and exercise groups moving to various types of music...some more enjoyable to watch than others. One woman in particular looked like she was having convulsions. Poor thing. :-) There were food vendors and families strolling along the walkways. It wasn't a rich city, it wasn't a clean city, but it was a city full of seemingly happy people making the most of their situation. I had a good feeling about what lay ahead.

Railay Beach Day 5-Rock Climbing

2011-04-07T05:19:00.000-07:00

Our last day on the beach. It had been so enjoyable. I love exploring a new area of this beautiful country. Doing so with friends was even more fun. We had done so many fun things up to this point. Our flight would take off this evening and return us to Bangkok but we had all day to enjoy ourselves. This meant relaxing on the beach for Cheri and Nate and for me it meant getting up early to meet my climbing team.

I was the first to arrive at the meeting point. I got my harness, shoes and chalk bag and then waited for the others. Two other girls showed up and one man. None had done any climbing which meant our guide would have to go through all the basics of climbing. I hoped they would catch on quickly so we could move on to the fun stuff...climbing. Once everyone had been issued equipment our guide gathered the necessary ropes and gear and we headed to the climbing site which ended up being just a short walk from my resort. There were several other groups already set up and ascending the limestone cliff. There were about 5 different routes. We dropped our gear at the foot of one climb and the guide began to take us through the important safety instructions and then he began to teach the role of each piece of gear and the basics of knot tying. I was glad that we were able to move through this quickly and then our guide started the climbing with the initial ascent to secure the rope and prepare the way for the rest of us.

It felt so good have my hands on the rocks, to use my muscles differently than I usually do and reach the top of a climb and then have the enjoyment of looking back to see the view, the sea, the sand, the cliffs, all from a different angle. Then then comes the fun part, the belay back down to the start only to start all over again on a new route.

After 4 climbs my muscles were exhausted! The last was the most difficult as my muscles had given all they had and the technique involved challenged my strength and nascent skills. About a third of the way from the top my body failed me and I was grateful when I fell, to be in the able hands of the guide. He held me steady and I clung again to the cliff and gave it another try. Again I failed and again I fell and again he caught me and held me until I have it one final effort. Determined to not to give up despite my fatigue and raw hands I drew all the energy I could find in my body and directed it to my arms and legs in an effort to hoist my body upwards. The efforts paid off and I finally reached the top. Once there I turned to enjoy the view one last time. The sense of accomplishment filled me as did the thrill of doing something I thoroughly enjoyed.

I left my climbing friends, the quiet girl who methodically took 3 times longer than anyone else to climb to the top, the valley girl who about drove me batty with her "Oh, that's totally cool" and other annoying mannerisms and the guy who tried too hard to impress everyone around him. Gee, I wonder how they are describing me in their blogs. :-) I went to find Cheri and Nate at the beach where they informed me they would be when they passed by between my second and third climb. I found Cheri basking in the sun and Nate swimming in the cool water. Starving, I went for a walk down the beach to where several vending boats were set up selling a varitey of food including sandwiches, noodles, omelets, smoothies, roti and more. I ordered a roti with egg and banana for Cheri and pad thai and a mango smoothie for me.

We spent the next few hours on the beach, in the water, soaking up the last drops of the salty water and the last rays of the Railay sun. Nate decided to go for a hike to the summit of one of the cliffs as Cheri and I were enjoying our final moments on the beach. When it was time to pack up we waited for Nate at the bottom of the path and when he descended we headed off to the pier. We had to wait for 8 people before the boat would take us back to Krabi or pay the equivalent of 8 people. After waiting and waiting I negotiated back and forth with the captain and finally decided that for 300B each he would take us to the pier as well as drive us to the airport.

Well, the rest of this adventure is very uninteresting. We caught the plane back to Bangkok and instead of being greeted by the warm evening air there was a surprisingly cool breeze, unseasonal for March, the month before the hottest month of the year. We breathed it in and made our way to the taxi line and headed home.

Railay Beach Day 4-Seaglass and Seashells

2011-04-06T00:39:00.000-07:00

Cheri and I have a lot of things in common...and a lot of differences. Our similarities make our friendship so much fun and our differences balance and enrich us. We often end up purchasing the same clothes, the same bed spread and we have similar hobbies. One of the hobbies we share is the collection of sea glass. Since a mutual friend introduced me to the collection of seaglass and I saw how beautiful her collection was I started my own collection. I've collected glass in the Dominican Republic, throughout Thailand beaches and wherever I can find a beach. Seaglass or beach glass as some call it, is glass that has been roughened by the waves and sand. It's washed ashore and that's where I find it.

After having seen several pieces of glass on the beach we were on the day before we decided to start day 4 combing the sands of the beach collecting the glass. Sure enough, there was plenty to collect. There were also countless seashells in such great condition and such a variety of shapes and colors that we just couldn't help not picking a few as well. After several hours walking the beach with heads down and eyes focused on picking the glass out from all the shells we neared the end of the beach. I lagged slightly behind picking up the pieces that Cheri and Nate had passed up. I found them on a sandbar jetted out into the water. They were so excited to have found several large shells in great condition.

Hot and sweaty we decided to take a break at a little restaurant on the beach. It wasn't much to look at but all we were interested in was whether or not they had cold water. What a delight to enjoy the coldest water we had found thus far. It was refreshing on such a hot day. Inside the restaurant with us was a man and woman who had obviously been traveling a long time. They were dressed in typical "backpacker" style with dreadlocks. The man was helping the owners with something computer related behind the bar and the woman was busy redesigning a crotchless pair of pants into a skirt. I wasn't particularly fond of the style she had chosen for her redesigning but I didn't have to wear it!

With 2 large water bottles emptied it was time to head back to our beach. This meant once again climbing over the boulders and walking through the water. We all made sure to check our pockets to ensure there wasn't anything electronic we didn't want to drown (having learned from yesterday's experience) and began wading back. At one point of climbing over the rocks, Cheri was in the lead and she turned back with a look of fear in her eyes and declared that she had just seen a snake. Luckily we had brave Nate with us and he went ahead looking for the snake and navigating us safely over the rocks. Once we were over we had a better view of our snake which we then found out was a lizard. Not knowing which of the snakes and lizards are venomous we were sure to take all precautions possible.

We took our loot back to the hotel, enjoyed a late lunch and then were excited to rent a kayak and go out on the water. We initially tried to fit all 3 of us into one kayak but the kayak rode so low and was so unstable that I opted out and let Cheri and Nate have a go while I enjoyed sitting on the beach soaking up the rays of the end-of-the-day sun. After about an hour I saw Cheri paddling the kayak back to shore alone. Nate's recovering shoulder just couldn't endure the activity any longer so he opted to jump ship and swim back to shore. It was then my turn to head out to the open water. With me in the back and Cheri in the front we set out. We headed around the bend and out to twin islands side by side. We paddled around them and then over to the beach we had spent the morning. It felt so good to be out in our small kayak in the big sea. The feeling of insignificance was strong as I contemplated the vast creations both above and beneath the water. I took a moment to soak in the reality of my experience. I was in a kayak, on the Adaman Sea, just off the coast of Thailand, where I live and have an amazing job, hanging out with one of my dearest friends. I seem to have a lot of these moments these days. It fills me with gratitude to God for the opportunities he has guided me to.

We paddled back to shore and as we saw that there was a wedding reception taking place. Cheri and I deviously decided that they needed the added flavor of a kayak in the back ground of their photos, so we paddled back and forth trying to get in the photos laughing hysterically! All in good fun.

Once again we ended the day with mangos and sticky rice. That night there was a fund raising fire dance for victims of the recent events in Japan. We watched for awhile and then wandered up the walking street. Nate pointed out a shop that was offering 1/2 day climbing and I signed up for the next day. How could I leave this place without enjoying the climbing? Having not climbed for about 2 years I knew it would be a tough morning and that I would feel the effects for days afterwards but I also knew that because of my Bootcamp style training which I've participated in for 9 months I was up for the challenge. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

Railay Beach Day 3-Elephants and Snakes

2011-04-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Day 3 began with what we thought was a 15 minute walk to a nearby beach. It ended up being an hour long trek through the jungle. The sweat poured from our bodies as we walked the path that lead us into the jungle, up a steep hill, directly into the mosquitos lair, past a monitor lizard, through the back packers bungalows (meaning wooden boxes on stilts furnished with barely a mat on the floor) and finally to the beach. Before reaching the beach we began to get nervous as it was drawing near the time we had been told a boat would pick us up to take us to Krabi for our elephant trekking adventure. Upon reaching the beach I found a group of boat taxi guys and asked them how much they would charge to taek us back to our beach. They laughed and told me just to walk around the bend and we would be at our beach. Getting there would require us to walk through the water and boulders. So, we followed the boulders partially buried by the water that reached mid thigh, climbed up and over some of the large rocks, tried to keep balance with the waves doing their best to throw us off balance and finally we reached the beach close to our resort. Unfortunately, in the process, we lost Cheri's IPhone as it was in a pocket of her board shorts and drown.

Luckily, we got back to the hotel just in time to catch the boat to Krabi. We arrived to the location of our elephant trek and the elephants were eager and waiting for us. We immediately hopped on and headed out for our hour long trek. We started off with me in the lead seated comfortably on the bench strapped to the back of my elephant and Cheri and Nate sharing an elephant behind me. Almost immediately my elephant began searching for food. She ate vines growing along the jungle floor, tore branches off of young trees, whatever she could find went in her mouth. I looked over my shoulder and found that Cheri and Nate were having a similar experience. For an hour we trekked around the jungle perched atop our elephants as they wandered about happy not to be hauling logs. At one point my mahout (elephant driver) asked if I'd like to sit on the elephant's neck. This is my favorite part of elephant rides. I climbed on the neck and the mahout dismounted. What he did next started off as cute but soon became creepy. He began talking to the elephant and whispering sweet nothings to her. he pet her affectionately and gave her lots of kisses and hugs. It turned creepy when this went on, and on, and on and then started chewing on her ear! NO, I'm NOT kidding! I'm totally serious. He really went on and on and on. Finally, he pealed himself off her and we continued on our way. We turned around and began to make our way back when in front of my eye s slithered a big 'ole snake! I was so grateful to be so high off the ground. He slithered into the growth and disappeared.

We made our way back to the beginning without falling off (despite some close calls for both Cheri and I) got off of the elephants and then went to get bananas to thank the elephants for toting us around. We watched as one of the elephants walked into pool of water in the nearby stream and bathed. The experience was a fun one and, as fun things often do, it came to an end. It was time to head back to the pier and back to the resort.

At the pier we found there was just one other couple waiting for the boat and we needed 8

people for the boat to leave the pier. We waited over 30 minutes and then talked to the other couple to see if they were interested in pitching in some extra money so we could pay the captain to take us back. They agreed and off we went.

Mangoes and sticky rice was the perfect way to finish off the adventure.

Railay Beach Day 2-Lion fish and Sharks

2011-04-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

After our first night at the resort on Railay East Beach we woke to an alarm, dressed in our swim suits, ate breakfast at the resort and headed to the meeting point for our day on the water. The day would begin with a 2 hour boat ride to the dive/snorkel site. The water was somewhat rough the whole way. About 30 minutes into our ride the captain yells "SHARK" from above and we all ran to the side of the boat to get a better view of the dark shadow swimming around and the black fins that came in and out of the water. When it was determined to be a bull shark several people went for their fins and snorkels and got ready to jump in the water. "Are you crazy?" I asked one eager boat mate. "Sure," he responded, "it's just like a big cow in the water." A cow in the water huh? He didn't convince me to wanna jump in. I decided to see if the others got eaten first before I was going to volunteer to be shark bait. About 5 people jumped in as the captain tried to circle around and keep up with the sharks. Unfortunately, by the time they jumped in the sharks had moved on their way. They climbed back into the boat and we continued on.

The sun was already high in the sky at this point. The feeling of the breeze on my skin beaded with perspiration from the hot sun felt nice. I sat on a bench watching as we sailed past inhabited and uninhabited islands. I could see the change in depth of the water close to the shore as the water color changed from dark to light as the sea turned into beach. The landscapes along the way were lined with palm trees, white sand beaches and inviting blue green water.

At long last we reached the dive site, Bida Nok. I dressed in my wet suit, placed the weight belt around my waist, donned my Buoyancy Control Device attached to the air tank, placed my feet in the fins and giant strided into the water. The waters were rough and visibility wasn't terrific. It didn't help that I had forgotten to spit in my goggles to keep them from fogging up. Once at the bottom of the sea there was a variety of fish and sea creatures including box fish, moray eel, crab, scorpion fish, mantis shrimp, sea stars galore, crown of thorns starfish, sea wards, and trigger fish to name a few. I even found Nimo! But the highlight was taking a look at the lion fish, a strange looking fish with these spiky fins. A glorious, wonderful sight. I felt so privileged to enjoy its crazy company. If that had been the only dive of the day I would be happy just to have seen the lion fish. But NO, I still had another dive to look forward to.

We took a break to eat lunch and rest. I was sad to learn that the snorkeling experience for Cheri and Nate hadn't been good. The equipment inadequacies mixed with the roughness of the waters made for a much less enjoyable experience. They decided to give it another try when it was time for dive number 2-Maya Wau. Dive two displayed many of the same fish and creatures as dive one sans the lion fish, unfortunately, but in it's place some puffer fish, porcupine fish and you can imagine my surprise when several feet in front of me swam a black tip shark and then a leopard shark! And you can imagine my nervousness knowing that they were out there somewhere but I couldn't see them! It was exhilarating to see such marvelous sea kings on their turf, in the wild, and not in a glass box at the aquarium. This diving stuff is pretty terrific. The dive soon came to an and it was time to surface and swap stories with the other divers.

I was happy to hear, as the boat began to make it's way back to shore, that Cheri and Nate had enjoyed a better experience this time around and that they too enjoyed a swim with a shark. I happily pealed back the layers of my dive gear and welcomed the warmth of the sun to dry me off. I made sure to keep fairly covered both in sunscreen and in my blue sarong to avoid the unwelcome effects of too much sun exposure. I had lent Nate and Cheri my jelly fish repelling sun screen which they lathered on multiple times. However, to our surprise both had the craziest, diseased looking sunburns. We learned the hard way that while the cream may be good at repelling jelly fish, it was terrible at sun protection. Oops.

Back on shore we enjoyed mangoes and sticky rice...mmmmm. And when that was all gone we planned our next adventure. Tomorrow, elephant trekking!

Railay Beach Day 1-Monkeys and Toads

2011-04-03T01:28:00.000-07:00

I had the great pleasure of receiving a visit from 2 of my dear, dear friends. Cheri and Nate were my Sugar House neighbors in Salt Lake and we had been talking about their visit to Thailand for quite some time. I could hardly believe the day had arrived for me to meet them at the airport. In fact, even on my way to the airport I was half convinced that they wouldn't even be there...kind of like when we would go to pick up a refugee family from the airport in the States and we never really knew if they would be there or if they missed a connection or in the situation of the Cubans, maybe they decided to deplane in Florida and start life there. To my amazement, they did arrive and the familiarity of being around old friends felt as delicious as Lyn's chocolate sheet cake.

The first week that Cheri and Nate were in Thailand I left them on their own to explore Bangkok while I went to work. I tried to fill their heads with all the information they would need. How to ride the sky train and the metro, how to ensure the taxi uses the meter, nearby restaurants and grocery stores, where to go, what to see, maps, keys and much more. Off I went to work as they went off to explore. I felt like a mother dropping her children off for their first day of kindergarden. Or was it that I was just so jealous that they got to play that while I went to work that I convinced myself that they would need me?

Luckily, that first week went by rather quickly. I would meet up with them in the evenings and we would have dinner while I listened to their various adventures for the day. The week soon came to an end and I made arrangements to be out of the office for the next 2 weeks while I joined Nate and Cheri on their vacation...now, our vacation.

First on the agenda was the beach. We took a plane to Krabi and from the airport headed to the pier to catch a boat to Railay Beach, a beach best known for it's limestone cliffs making excellent rock climbing. As Nate is an avid climber this was an area he was really looking forward to. Unfortunately, a recent shoulder surgery removed the option of climbing for him. Cheri knew it would be painful for him to be surrounded by climbers, ropes and quick draws but not be able to join in the fun. Nevertheless, we would have a great time.

Knowing from our guidebook that the longtail boat ride from the pier to our beach shouldn't cost more than 100 Baht ($3) we were surprised when we go the pier and the woman tried to charge us 600B. After some back and forth in my weak Thai the woman wouldn't budge on the price and we suspected that the driver had brought us to the wrong pier...one he was hoping for a kickback from. I pulled out my cell phone and called the hotel. I asked the voice on the other end how to reach the hotel and she said to go to the pier and take the boat that cost 60 B. I told her we were at the pier and they were charging us 600 B. After some back and forth we finally understood each other and I handed the phone to the woman behind the desk at the pier. When she hung up she gave instructions to our driver to take us to the pier we had asked to go and which was just 30 seconds up the road. Once inside the car driver said he had taken us to that pier since at the other pier you have to wait until there are 8 people for the boat to take off. I told him we would have appreciated if he had just taken us where we had asked to go. Once at the right pier we waited maybe 15 minutes and enjoyed the sounds of the calls to prayer from nearby minarets. We paid our 60 B ($2) and took the 20 minute boat ride to Railay Beach.

The boat ride was beautiful. We skidded across the bluegreen water, around the cliffs, by the white sandy beaches and finally arrived at Railay Beach. We unloaded the boat by stepping out of the boat into the warm water, grabbed our bags and walked the remaining distance to the dry beach. Not knowing exactly where to go we followed the signs pointing to our hotel and found ourselves walking in circles. Stopping to ask for directions we found that we had found the right place and we checked in. We unloaded our bags, grabbed our cameras and immediately headed out for a walk that lead us to a beach. The sand was so fine and almost silky on my feet. The feel of walking barefooted felt romantic and worlds away from the office.

Walking along, enjoying the heat of the sun and the sand beneath our toes we found a clan of monkeys swinging in the trees and walking along the beach. We joined the other tourists in the feeling of excited and joined in the photo shoot. The animals found snacks left unattended by sunbathers and took the "finders keepers" approach claiming the bags of chips and tall iced coffees. The sunbathers were too intimidated to put up much of a fight and some even freely offered their snacks to the monkeys. Once the monkeys had had their fill, they moved on and we remained enjoying the beach until sunset. Our stomachs indicated it was dinner time so we indulged and as we walked about continuing our exploration of our new surroundings we found a company that booked both diving and snorkeling adventures. We decided the following day would be perfect for that so we booked tickets, diving for me and snorkeling for Cheri and Nate. On the walk back to the hotel we passed a climbing shop and stopped to look at guide books (guess whose idea that was). The owner had a pet monkey and I asked if I could pet it, not knowing if he was friendly to others besides his owner. The shop keeper said yes so I began to pet the monkey (named Harry Potter) who proceeded to climbed on me and stole my barrett from out of my hair. When I tried to take it back the monkey got mad, hissed at me and gave me a little bite. With the help of its owner Harry Potter finally gave up my hair pin.

As we found our way back through the maze of the outside walkways through the resort to our room we had to be sure to walk lightly as we found along the path numerous toads hopping about and we caused a few near death experiences for them.

That ended our first day on Railay Beach. A great start to our grand adventures.

Exchanging Smiles, Warming Hearts, Making Friends

2011-02-16T05:27:00.000-08:00

Making new friends isn't always easy. It takes work to let people into your life, to trust them to know who you are. But when you let a friendship take root it makes even far away places feel like home.

A few weeks after moving into my apartment in Bangkok a nice man appeared on the path I walk home. Every evening there he was, sitting on the sidewalk, in front of a store with his life's possessions neatly packed into a backpack. Sometimes he has cans or bottles of water, tea or other beverages lined neatly up in front of him. Sometimes he's eating dinner, and if i'm getting home late enough he has already laid out his blankets and with his backpack for a pillow he's fast asleep.

At first I just walked by and paid little attention to him but it soon felt silly and, quite frankly, rude to not acknowledge him. So, I started smiling at him as I walked by and our eyes met...and to my delight he smiled back. And, that's how our friendship began. Nearly every day since then I've seen my friend.

There were some long periods of time when I didn't see him starting with the period of demonstrations in the city. For weeks I didn't see him and I wondered if he was out protesting along side the others where he would be provided with food, money and camaraderie. I just hoped he was safe. It was a happy day for me when he returned, our eyes met and he had a huge smile for me.

One night I was walking home and the police were talking to my friend. Knowing that often when the police are talking to homeless people in the US they are encouraging them to move along and telling them they can't stay there I became nervous, wanting to tell the police that they were talking to my friend, a good man who was welcome to come stay at my house if needed. But, unable to communicate coherently in Thai and not knowing the conversation that was taking place I walked by, hoping all would turn out well. To my delight I saw my friend in his usual spot 2 nights later.

Sometimes, when I'm up early and out exercising I see my friend. It might be that he's still asleep, that he's packing up, or that he's walking around the park. In the park he might be swinging his walking cane or just meandering along with his crooked walk. You see, my friend has a twisted leg and walks with limp. It takes him a while to get far.

I've never spoken a word to my friend, we've only exchanged smiles but that's all it's taken. My friend gives me a sense of home. Seeing him lets me know I'm in the right place. I'm so grateful my friend has opened himself to me and allowed me to be his friend. Maybe he has a million other people he smiles at too...but he makes me feel like for that one, short moment when our eyes meet and smiles are exchanged...we are best friends.

McConkie family Christmas

2011-01-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

What fun it was to return to the US for the holidays. I split my time between Utah, where I most recently lived prior to moving to Thailand, and Illinois, where I grew up and my parents still reside. I got a chance to spend time with 10 of my 13 siblings and see a few friends.

I first flew into Salt Lake City, Utah and met my new niece, Donna (Anna's 2nd child). She is an absolute joy and I think she found me equally lovable. After a few short days in SLC I flew to Champaign, Illinois where I grew up. It was fun to be back in the house of my youth and to be with mom and dad. The snow was falling when I arrived. The fresh blanket of snow definitely helped me feel the Christmas spirit.

In Champaign I met my nephew, Oscar (Thomas' first child) who was just a month old. It was strange to see my baby brother as a father and interesting to watch him struggle between the kid he is inside and the adult he is now, as a new father. Often, his first instinct was to go and hang out with the teenagers, but he then remembered his responsibilities and took good care of his wife and sweet baby.

Each day more and more family trickled in. At the height we had 54 people in the house! Feeding that many mouths is no small task! We made a menu for the meals each day before everyone arrived and listed out the ingredients needed. Mom, dad and I went shopping and bought a lot of food. Luckily the garage was cold enough to use as refrigerator so we set up tables and piled up the groceries. I'm sad I didn't think of taking a picture of all the food! That would have been a fun memory. Oh well...next time. Next task was figuring out how to sleep everyone! My parent's house is a single story, ranch style home with a full basement. There are 5 bedrooms in addition to my parent's room but 2 of the rooms have been converted one to an office and one to a sewing room, to fit the needs of my parents with no kids left at home. We reclaimed the sewing room and put a family in there and a family went in each of the 3 remaining rooms that could be used. We then took over a neighbors house where 3 of us stayed and a church member who was also not going to be in their house over the holidays offered up their condo where the 2 largest families stayed. Problem solved.

The next challenge with a crowd the size of my family is keeping the kids busy so they aren't complaining of being bored. Luckily there wasn't much we had to do in this department. Dad had arranged for us to take a tour of the high school where each of the 14 children in my family graduated from. This ended up being a lot of fun as we relived memories of productions we had been in, teachers we liked, teachers who didn't like us and sports we played. The grandkids got to see where their parents had gone to high school and it was all a big hit. Mom and dad had also rented out the ice skating rink one night so we laughed as we all relearned how to skate. For some of the grand children, this was their first time on the ice. It was great fun and miraculously no one got seriously injured although I think most of us were left a bit sore and bruised from having fallen so many times. I took one big spill which I blame on Thomas but I guess he probably blames me for his one big spill as well...guess we're even. Other than these 2 activities there was nothing else planned. The kids had great fun sledding down the hill my parents live on, building snow men, playing numerous games (including several games of Risk and a new game called Curses...a big hit!) and in general just enjoying each others company. It was fun to see the kids get a long so well and have so much fun.

When I arrived in Illinois the family had been unable to find a suitable tree (Thomas refused to have a tree shorter than him...he's something like 6' 4") so the day after arrival mom and I were running some errands to get some final Sub for Santa gifts and we drove out to a nursery mom likes to frequent. There, they had the perfect tree! We loaded it on top of the CR-V and took it home to be trimmed with all the decorations from my childhood. You see, the McConkie family tree is not an elegant one. It's first wrapped in strings of hand strung popcorn and then overloaded with handmade ornaments from our youth. There are the decorations we made at school with our photos on them. There are the ones we colored as part of an art project. Some of the ornaments remind us of events of the past or places we visited. Then there are the very special ones which mom and dad made their first 2 years of marriage. I loved listening to dad recount Christmas morning, the story of how when he and mom were first married they didn't have money to buy pretty ornaments for their tree but that mom had saved the tubes from the rolls of receipt paper from her work. She brought them home and she and dad painted and decorated them and hung them on the tree. The second year of their marriage was similar and so they purchased red yarn and made tassels to hang on the tree. Those decorations go on our tree still today. It's fun to think of my parents as young and poor.

Christmas Eve is our special night. It's when we enjoy our Christmas feast, act out the nativity of Christ and celebrate the reason for the holiday. This year our meal consisted of ham, mashed potatoes, salad, green bean casserole, a jello salad, our favorite molasses bread which we only make at Christmas time, hand made rolls (my sister Heather's recipe) and mom's carrot pudding for desert (it never was my favorite but I was the only one in my family who didn't like it). Camille organized the nativity, assigning each person a role. During dinner we adopted one of Bryce's family traditions and pretended to be shepherds in the fields the night the sign was given of Christ's birth. We talked as shepherds about what it would be like when Jesus was born and how he would come to deliver us. An angel then appeared to us to deliver the good news of Christ's birth. After dinner we all put on our costumes and moved into the front room where a fire was blazing in the fireplace. We played our parts (I got the role of photographer), read from scripture and sang to give praise and honor to the babe born in Bethlehem (played by baby Oscar). We then hung stockings over the fireplace and sent the kids off to bed before Santa's arrival.

I was a bit surprised Christmas morning when I woke up, got dressed and waited with the other adults as the children were all still fast asleep. It was a strange feeling not being woken up in the wee hours of the morning by kids anxious to open gifts. Around 8:15 the anxious children started showing up and just before 9 all the children lined up in order of age, the curtain hiding the front room, was taken down and the children spilled in to find what Santa had brought them. For some it was a new doll, another got a bb gun. One got a football, others new music and a remote control car. All were happy with what they had received and enjoyed watching while others opened gifts they had purchased or made for each other. One child made a poster for his dad to display some favorite baseball cards, another made a small log cabin for his mom and another made pottery at school. What fun it was to watch parents and children exchange gifts and express gratitude to each other. The joy of Christmas.

...to be continued...

Khao Yai -Day 2

2010-12-05T05:05:00.000-08:00

You will notice that I spelled the name of the National Park differently in this post than in the last post. This is intentional. You see, in Thailand there is no official translation of Thai characters to the roman alphabet so there are numerous ways to spell things.

After a sleepless night the alarm finally sounded at 5:30. We dressed in preparation for a day of hiking and were out the door shortly after 6:00, on our way as the sun was rising, into the national park. We shared the road with several monks and a few women. The empty roads were a stark contrast to the backlog of cars on the roads the night before as people were coming from all over to enjoy a nice long weekend out of the city. As we arrived at the entrance we were prepared to pay our entrance fee but found that due to the celebration of the King's birthday the entry was free. Not bad.

We drove in and made our first stop at the salt licks which are supposed to be a favorite place for the local wildlife. We were hoping to find a heard of elephants there but were disappointed when we found nothing. It ended up that we were the attraction! A group of Thais asked if they could have their photo taken with us. We continued our drive to the visitor center and decided to begin our trek from there. As we got out of the car the sky was filled with noises. We didn't know if they were made by birds, monkeys or what but we decided it was a good sign that we would have lots to see on our hike.

We crossed a rickety bridge across a narrow river, holding our breath and trying to make ourselves as light as possible afraid if we stepped wrong we would fall through the rotting, wood planks. Making it safely to the other side the noises lulled us into the jungle on what we hopped would be a day full of wild animals from a safe distance. The vibrotic, high pitched calls were perplexing to me. What was making that noise?! Despite the attempts to look through the trees to find the source the jungle growth was too thick and the attempts were unsuccessful. I even climbed to the top of some scaffolding that had been placed for research purposes but still couldn't get a view of our music maker. We saw a wood pecker and knew he was not the the culprit and we saw a gorgeous, red breasted multi colored bird but nothing that could make such a big noise. So, we continued on our way, found the waterfall...meaning the water was falling off a 3 foot cliff, and then decided to delve a little further into the jungle on a trail indicating it was 8 kilometers. We looked our our map and saw that it lead to an area of 3 waterfalls and began down the path.

The calls continued to fill the air and we continued to be unsuccessful at finding the source. Then I heard movement and we stopped, again looking into the trees. I couldn't see well so I stepped off the path to try and get a better look. I saw something swinging from tree to tree...several somethings. I told my friend to come see the beautiful sight of monkeys swinging through the trees but the noise of the cracking branches under our feet scared them off and they were gone before she could see. My heart leapt with joy! What a beautiful sight!! We finally knew the source of the calls we were hearing.

A few more steps down the path I heard another noise. It was strange, almost like deep breathing...but not quite. I wondered if it was the breath of elephants as it sounded deep and made with great effort. We snuck forward to see what it could be but saw nothing. Then something large swooped among the tree tops. The jungle brush was so thick and I only saw the mysterious creature's shadow. Then I saw something on the ground leap through the bush and then heard a loud barking noise. I remembered that one of the animals advertised as native to the area was the barking deer. That was the only explanation I had for what we had just experienced. But there was still no answer to the swooshing in the tree tops and the heavy breathing. Then the noise came again and looking up we saw 2 huge nests. We realized that the breathing sound was not breathing at all but was the sound of a very large birds wings. Unable to get a clear view of the birds flying over their nest very aware of our presence directly underneath, we finally got a good enough view to see that the bird was a great hornbill, indeed a great bird! What a treat! We stayed around a bit longer to see if we could get a better view but the smell of bird poo was so intense and uncomfortable and the view so obscured by jungle growth that we decided not to hang around any longer.

Back on the path we walked and walked and walked sometimes finding the path obstructed by fallen trees and having to navigate around, through the growth and back to the path. We knew we were headed in the right direction as we followed the red paint occasionally marked on trees along the way. At times we wished we'd had a machete to chop our way through the dense vegetation. We came to a few places where we had to cross the river as well, sometimes it was narrow enough to cross on stones, other times it was walking across a fallen log. It was definitely a jungle experience! There were vines hanging everywhere and the temptation to pretend to be Tarzan was strong but avoided.

At about 10:30 we got to a point where we just couldn't figure out where to go. Trail led to a place where several trees had fallen and we were unable to crawl over so we tried to go around and meet up with the path again, as we had done before but the trail just seemed to end. There was no clear indication of where to go and the vegetation was so thick we really needed a machete to get through it, a clear indication that it wasn't the right direction. We back tracked to see if we had gone a wrong way, as the way was often obscure and overgrown and sometimes it was a guessing game which way to go. It seemed so clear that we were headed in the right direction but just couldn't figure out how to move forward. Again, we backtracked and this time we found signs we hadn't seen before but one had fallen from the tree and it wasn't clear which way the arrow should be pointing. The other sign had an arrow pointing into thick jungle brush that was impassable. It was decided that we should just turn around and go back to find a path to one of the other waterfalls. As we did this we found that, again, the path was obscure and we were unsure where we had come from. Nervous about leaving the path for too long we made short deviations to see where the path would continue but always found dead ends. Finally we decided to head west as that was the direction we eventually needed to go. Quickly we were able to find a trail and we followed it.

Again, we walked and walked and walked and felt confident we were on the right path as we continued to find occasional paint markings on the trees. The trail took us over more fallen logs, through more overgrowth and deeper into the jungle until we reached a cliff. We climbed down the cliff to a narrow river but there were, again, several fallen logs and it was unclear which path to take. We tried several routes but nothing seemed right. Frustrated what could we do but to turn back and try to find our way back to the car. By this time it was after 1 pm. I had packed some snacks for us along with a can of tuna and some crackers. This would be our lunch but we had to eat fast and get on our way if we were going to make it back to the car before nightfall.

I said a quick, heartfelt prayer that we would be able to find our way back safely and quickly but I didn't know how we would possibly be able to make it back before dark. We hadn't seen another living soul on the path other than the monkeys at the beginning. We started thinking that maybe paying the $100 for a guide wasn't such a crazy idea after all. The trail seemed so clearly marked when we begun but since the trails hadn't been kept up real well, it was hard to know where to go.

We started back at a much quicker pace than we had kept prior to this and made our way back through the jungle. You can imagine the relief in our hearts when we spotted a small group of hikers with a guide just in front of us. The guide in his broken English asked where we were going. We told him we were unable to find our way after the cliff so we were headed back. He looked concerned and indicated that we wouldn't make it back before dusk. I asked if we could follow them and they, of course, agreed. It turned out that the hikers were from Mexico and we were so pleased to be able to speak Spanish with them. They were so kind and it was such a relief to be with them...with a guide.

The guide led the way back along the path to the cliff, down the cliff, over the river by way of the fallen logs and up the steep side of the mountain on the other side. My friend and I looked at each other...there was no way we would have found our way!

Finally, we reached the waterfall and enjoyed the cool water and rested our weary feet. I got talking to one of the other trekkers who informed me that he had been told that the waterfall we were headed to originally was unreachable at the moment. I laughed and told him I could confirm that. After about 30 minutes we continued on to the next waterfall. Again, there was no way we would have found it on our own. We felt so lucky to have found this group.

Then we had to face our next obstacle. How to get back to our car. We decided the best option would be to hitchhike. We imagined there would be so many cars in the parking lot at the end of the trail that we could find someone to take us back. When we got to the parking lot we found that it was almost completely empty. It was only 4:00, where was everyone? We spotted a nice Japanese man and approached him. He spoke no Thai or English. Luckily the woman with him spoke Thai so I explained to her that our car was at the visitors center and asked if she could give us a ride. Sweetly she agreed, amazed that we had walked all that way! As we drove we realized how far we had really gone!!! And so thankful we didn't have to walk back to the car.

On our way out of the park we decided that on our next hike we would either take a machete or hire a guide.

I'm grateful for a loving God who listens and answers my prayers so directly and quickly.

Um, Yikes!

Ok, BRING IT ON!!

Kao Yai-Day 1

2010-12-04T04:05:00.001-08:00

I know I still have to blog about my wonderful Thanksgiving in Malaysia but I've been so busy at work and my internet isn't working at home and I am not home when the apartment office is open so I haven't gotten to tell them it's not working...sigh. BUT...I'm not writing about Thanksgiving just yet. This weekend is the King's birthday and monday is a holiday so since I never get to go anywhere or see anything cool I decided to take the weekend and go on a little trip a few hours outside Bangkok to enjoy Thailand's oldest national park. I learned today that 18% of Thailand is protected land...impressive! The park I'm at is called Kao Yai. They say it takes 2 hours to drive here but my friend and I have a tendency to get completely lost! :-) We have a GPS and we print out directions but the roads are so unclear...or we are just so unfamiliar, that we always end up taking wrong turns which makes it difficult to then follow the directions we have printed out and then it takes about twice as long to get anywhere! But that's ok...we accept our disability and make the most of our time together. She made cinnamon rolls for the trip and we just laughed, ate cinnamon rolls, practiced recognizing Thai alphabet characters, listened to Christmas music and had a great time.

Eventually, we made it to the park. If you are Thai you get charged 40 Baht each to enter the park ($1.20), if you are a tourist you get charged 400 Baht each ($12) but since we live and

work in Thailand and since she has a Thai driver license somehow we fell in the middle and were charged 130Baht for both of us ($4).

Upon our entrance I announced that the first person to see a monkey wins...not indicating what the winner's prize would be. The drive into and around the park was beautiful! As we had climbed some altitude the weather cooled off and the leaves were actually changing color! We were experiencing fall! It was so wonderful! Leaves falling from trees, crisp air...I loved it! Not too far into the park I spotted several monkeys on the side of the road and declared myself the winner. As we drove by so slowly and stopped the car the monkeys would stand erect outside my window and look to see if I had anything yummy for them. As monkeys are not as kind and snuggly as they look I kept my window closed and enjoyed them from inside. With the exception of their strange red hind ends they were quite cute. Their eye lids looked to be dressed if freshly applied blue eyeshadow accented by red eyeliner. Very modern! I wondered if the look would work for me.

We passed giant salt lick areas where we plan to return tomorrow early morning to see if the wild elephants will visit. I would be so very pleased to see a family of wild elephants!!

We hiked to waterfalls, saw several small deer about the hight of perhaps my shoulder, if that, saw lots more monkeys and then decided to check into the hotel and have an early dinner since we had only eaten cinnamon rolls all day.

Our hotel was a bit further outside the park than we expected. We finally found it and checked in. I'm not really sure how to describe this place. It is set in a "garden" setting. I use quotations as it is called Kao Yai Garden Resort or something like that. But it's not a garden in the sense that there are flowers all around. Unfortunately the grounds look a little unkempt. It has so much potential but there I go using my American eyes again. What I do love about this place is that they have 4 good sized turtles which I almost walked by without noticing. Luckily they caught my eye and we spend several minutes coaching one out of its shell, feeding them and watching them fight over the food (of which there was plenty!). I didn't appreciate, however, the ginormous mosquitoes trying to find their way to my sweet blood.

We went in search of dinner and randomly stopped at a restaurant. Only outdoor seating. A woman approached me and in my best Thai I asked if we could have dinner. She said yes and we sat. We were given a menu which to our humor was only in Thai. :-) In most places I've been to they have had English menus or someone who speaks English...not here! It was a test of our Thai abilities. Oh boy. We looked at the menu...laughed and decided we would order chicken and rice and veggies, and I found a photo of a dish that looked interesting (it was served in a coconut) but I had NO idea what it was. When I've had coconut dishes in the past they have been seafood mixtures so I wondered if this would be the same and decided we would just have to find out. We ordered drinks, pineapple juice, and the woman slipped away to prepare them. Meanwhile, we were ready to order so a gentleman came over to the table (we were the only customers) and my friend and I looked at each other and giggled. Before we could get anything out of our mouths the boy disappeared and never returned! Then the woman came to bring our drinks and also tried to dash away but we immediately asked her about food. I pointed to my picture of the something served in coconut and asked if it was available, she responded that, yes, it was available. I'll take one. Then my friend tried to order grilled chicken and the woman couldn't understand her. We repeated the order and still nothing. So, I repeated chicken, in Thai and she got that. Then she started asking how we wanted it and I thought we finally made ourselves clear. Off she went and we waited for our food. My dish came and we started eating it. It turned out to be quite good. I don't know exactly what it was but it had seafood in it. :-) It's normal in Thailand for dishes to be brought to the table as soon as they are ready even if the other dishes are not ready. We started on my dish and then finished my dish and waited but no chicken came. We decided that the waitress must not have understood our request and so she just ignored it (no uncommon). So, we called the server over and ordered chicken fried rice which he understood right away and 5 minutes later the dish appeared and was eaten. Then we were asked if we wanted another drink and we declined but asked for the bill. It never came. So, I asked again and it came right away. We chuckled over the experience and left...never to return again.

So, that was our day. We will turn in a bit early tonight so we can get an early start tomorrow with hopes high of seeing elephants, great hornbills, barking deer and so much more!!! A tiger maybe?!?! Perhaps that's too much to ask.

I love that this sign informs me that I smell bad to wildlife! :-)

These monkeys sad on the roadside as we drove by. Photo was taken from inside the car...window shut.

Baby monkey eating an apple piece which he decided he didn't want anymore so he threw it on the ground. Cute thing!

Bangkok Mornings

2010-11-17T04:54:00.000-08:00

By 5:30 AM I'm out the door and start my 30 minute walk to the park where I attend an intense strength training, fat burning work out appropriately called Bootcamp. My friends and coworkers think i'm crazy for getting up so early but they don't know what their missing out on. The exercise class is pretty fantastic and quite challenging but that's not what I'm referring to. What they are missing out on is the experience of the Bangkok pre sunrise morning. On my way to the park I pass by the same street sweepers. I see the food vendors setting up and preparing for the rush of the morning meal. Many of the foods I have no idea what they are but they are nicely packaged in banana leaf being warmed and/or cooked on the grill. What I do recognize are the fried meats, the soups and a variety of drinks from coffee and tea to the sweet ladies juicing the oranges for fresh OJ. There are also the nicely sculpted ice delivery men out dropping off bags of crushed ice to the various vendors to keep their products fresh. The same security officers are hanging around their territories and I'm pretty sure the same rats are scurrying across the sidewalks each morning while the same homeless people are sleeping on the same steps. I see prostitutes on their way home, white men with an asian woman on each side still drinking, laughing and enjoying themselves and there are food vendors who are now cleaning up, packing and headed home. It's normally the same people each morning but occasionally there is a random man at the bus stop who greets me as I walk by...my personal favorite being the man who asked me if he could come with me.

Once I get to the park I join in with a group that ranges from 5 to 20 depending on the day as we run, jump, squat and engage in a large variety of annoying, difficult and effective activities that challenge this less than prime body. There is a lake at the park and so while I'm doing the exercises I like to look across the lake and see the sun rise between the skyscrapers as the sky begins to dress itself in a pink tone before she changes her mind and the color disappears. I like to watch the fish jump and nibble at the surface looking for breakfast and often the turtles are also near the surface taking a look around.

This morning as we are doing whatever that crazy exercise is called where you are in plank position and then you bring your foot up to your hand...anyway, while we are doing those along the edge of the lake a good sized turtle pokes his head out of the water to get a good look at us. He swam by just watching us which was somehow refreshing. Later, as we are doing 2 minute runs I nearly tripped over a lizard as long as I am tall! I stopped to watch him crawl over a wall and splash head first into the water beneath nearly flipping tail over head.

After my hour of torture which ends with a cold, wet, scented towel to help cool down (and wash all the dirt off from rolling around in the grass...and probably to help those who have to be within smelling distance from us be less offended) the sun is fully exposed and it's time to head back to the house. Again, I embark on my 30 minute walk home. This time, there are more vendors on the sidewalks, many surrounded by people on their way to work grabbing breakfast along the way. The sidewalks are more crowded with professionals and students and motorcycle taxis carrying both. There is a line of 20+ uniformed students waiting for motorcycle taxis to transport them to their destination. It's against the law for these motorbikes to drive on the wide sidewalks but with the streets so congested with larger vehicles the sidewalk is too tempting for them to pass up...so, pedestrians beware!

And then comes one of my favorite parts of the walk. I pass by a small park that has a "dancing" fountain. The fountain is spraying water in a lovely rhythm and the turtles in the small pond are often sunbathing on the stones at the edge of the water, often piled on top of each other. One day I saw 7 turtles piled onto one rock. I love walking by the dancing fountain and seeing the turtles hanging out. It fills me with gratitude for the variety of beauties in the world.

Indeed, 5 AM is pretty early for most people, but the beauty of the morning's activities and sights really makes it worth it!...not to mention that bootcamp makes me stronger!...not thinner, mind you...but stronger.

AK-47

2010-11-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

Tunnels and Guns

2010-11-07T03:24:00.000-08:00

Last week I returned to Vietnam but this time I was headed to Ho Chi Minh City. Knowing there are often scandals at the airport by taxi drivers I opted to have the hotel driver pick me up. I found my name held by the driver, waited for another couple to show up and we made our way into the city. Arriving at the hotel I then made my way up the 6 flights of stairs to my room where I dropped off my bag, grabbed by tour book and started exploring the neighborhood. I loved the french colonial influence reflected in the architecture mixed with the the Asian flavor of the residents. It made such a beautiful combination. Markets, vendors, shops, parks, french pastries...I explored it all!

The next day I decided to make my way to a large market whose ... is "if we don't have it, you don't need it"! So, armed with my map and my handy compass, off I went. As I walked into the market I was immediately overtaken by women wanting to sell me cothes. They grabbed me by the arm and I had to pry their finger off of me to be able to move on. That experience made me have second thoughts about shopping adventure but quickly I was able to slip down another isle, away from the overzealous sales women. The market was full of clothing, housewares, food, souvenirs and such but I was on a particular mission. Before leaving for Vietnam a coworker and dear friend called and asked me to pick up Weasel coffee. Let me explain what that means. There is actually a coffee bean that when harvested is given to weasels who choose and eat only the best beans. The bean passes through their digestive system and are passed all the way through to the other side. Yes, they are pooped out! Then they are washed and packaged and then people actually buy it and brew it and drink it! DISGUSTING!!! Apparently it makes a darn good cup of coffee but as I'm not a coffee drinker, I'll never know...and i'm ok with that! So, that was my mission, to find the weasel coffee. After accomplishing the missing I enjoyed wandering through the rest of the market and then enjoyed a most delicious sandwich before leaving.

One of the activities I wanted to enjoy was a cyclo ride around the city to see some of the important sights. This means the rider sits in a seat in the front of bicycle and the cyclist sits higher than is usual on a bicycle and peddles you around for as many hours as you hire them for. It's a great way to see the city but agreeing on a price is painful. I found a cyclo driver outside the market and we were finally able to agree on a price. I made it as clear as i could that the price I was offering was for 2 hours and NOT per hour. The driver spoke very little English but there was a boy interpreting for us. The driver apprehensively accepted my price and then biked me through a small portion of the city stopping for me to see some of the sights. We stopped at a Chinese pagoda, passed by the War Museum, went on to the Reunification Palace and then he declared that my time was finished. I knew that we were only a few minutes ride from our starting point and insisted that he take me back to my hotel as our time was not yet complete. He did and we pulled on to the street of the hotel just a few minutes later. I opened my wallet and pulled out the money that was agreed on and the driver began his "show". He insisted that I pay him more demonstrating that he needed food to eat. I knew that the price was not only fair but generous. The driver stomped off without accepting my money. I knew this was all part of the show and so after offering my money several times I turned and walked away. Just as I expected he came running after me and finally accepted my money and threw out a few curse words to put the icing on the cake. It was really too bad that he ended it this way but I knew that cyclo drivers are known to pull such kinds of stunts. Unfortunately, it also meant that I didn't get a photo taken...sad.

After the ride I decided to console myself with a yummy french pastry. I took it to the park to enjoy and was soon joined by a stranger who asked if he could sit on the bench with me. My red flags went off but I couldn't keep him from sitting there. I focused on my pastry and ignored him. He tried to make conversation. Any time someone asks you if this is your first time to their country it usually means they are taking your temperature and planning a scam. I told him it wasn't (truth). Then he asked if I was alone and I told him I have friends in the city (truth). In fact, it reminded me that I needed to check my phone for an SMS from a long lost friend who was now living in the area and who I hoped to meet up with after meeting him 10 years ago. I pulled out my phone and ignored the stranger who finally left me alone and walked off. Success! That night I met up with my long lost friend, met his sweet wife and his adorable little boy. It was a great evening and I was grateful to have friends.

The next day after work I headed out to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are tunnels the Vietnamese used to fight against both the French and the Americans. After going through a tour and learning a lot we were given a chance to actually crawl into the tunnels. I was surprised at how small they there! The tunnels were just barely broader than I was and not nearly as tall as me. I had to crouch down into nearly a duck walk to get through. I had a great admiration for the strategy and use of the tunnels. It was not for claustrophobics!

After the tunnels I went back to the area of the tour where you could shoot a variety of guns. I've never shot a gun before and thought I'd take the opportunity. I choose a classic, the AK-47. I purchased 10 bullets and was walked out to the shooting range, given ear protection, the gun was loaded, they showed me how to hold it and I tried desperately to hit the target...unsuccessfully. I was amazed at the heat that came off the gun as well as the blasts of air. It was a strange experience. I'm glad I did it.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful with the exception of terrific shopping at cute boutiques and a delicious tapas style meal. It was a great trip! My decision remains...I love Vietnam!

Confessions of a Taxi Driver

2010-10-22T04:24:00.000-07:00

I have met and dated some very handsome, good men who I've met in very different places and under very different circumstances. Some I met in class at school, others I met at church. Some I met through my work, others I was introduced by a mutual friend or by a family member. There was a time I winked at a boy in my class, the time a boy told me he heard I was dating the most handsome man at church and I simply said, "I didn't realize you and I were dating." There was the boy my soul fell in love with at first glance but I refused to allow it for several years and the gave into him. I will never be the same.

I've also turned men down. There was the boy who thought I needed company while running, the man who just loved to hear me sing, the guy who insisted after only a few minutes of knowing me that we must be soul mates, the one who asked for my friends phone number after I told him I didn't think it was gunna work and others. I've hid from men in the bathroom, given men the wrong name, I've told men I just want to be friends.

The moments of confession of love have come in many different ways and different places. Cooking a new recipe in the kitchen, horse back riding through the streets of Rexburg, walking temple grounds, an emotional conversation, a kiss on the porch...such fun memories.

With that said, let me tell you about my cab ride earlier this week. The ride seemed normal as far as cab rides go. I was on my way to the airport and the cab driver asks me in Thai which way I wanted to go. I preferred the expressway. He took a turn heading in a direction that I hadn't gone before. I wasn't concerned but interested to see if this would be any faster. Along the way the driver asked me questions, like most taxi drivers. How long have I been in Thailand? Do I like it? What work do I do? Am I here alone or with family? I tried in my best Thai to understand each question and reply but there times when I had to tell him "Mai cow jai", I don't understand. He asked my name and I told him. He was nice and it was fun to practice speaking Thai. Then he asked for my phone number. In Thailand it's not uncommon to have a taxi driver's number and he he have yours so you can call on him when needed yet I felt a little funny about it. But, as it's important in Thai culture not to make someone lose face I thought it would be ok to give him my phone number...a little jumbled up and take his number for any future need. But then the conversation started getting a little uncomfortable. He started telling me that I'm beautiful. "Yes," I responded, "Thailand is beautiful, I like it here". He said other things that I didn't understand. Then he said, "I love you". Oh! um...well...thank you. It was kind of cute because after he said it he blushed and got all shy but it was still creepy. I wasn't sure what to say so I just sat back and looked out the window. Then he pulled out his phone, took my phone number and dialed. Oh crap! Well the phone number obviously didn't ring through to my phone. I ignored that and soon enough we arrived at the airport. He asked which door I wanted and I just told him to stop where he was, I handed him my money (which ended up being the most expensive cab ride to the airport I've ever had here) and he tried to give some of it back. I declined and insisted that he keep the money and scooted out as quickly as I could.

And that is the story of the confession of love of my taxi driver.

1 Year Anniversary

2010-10-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked the end of my first year in Thailand. I can't believe its been a whole year! As I look back over all that has happened I am so pleased at all I was able to fit in! And so grateful for the amazing experience it has been. From massages, to manicures, to elephant rides, to lazy days on the beach and amazing diving adventures, to being in 7 different countries, to visits from family and friends, to making new "family" and friends, to my first karaoke experience, to numerous markets, new foods, learning to accept the discomfort of constantly sweating, challenging my body in a new exercise program, and challenging my patience serving in church working with the children and growing to love them dearly, and challenging my intellect while learning a new language and my professional skills while learning a new job and the list goes on and on and on! My heart is so full. I'm definitely looking forward to all the challenge, adventure and excitement that lies in wait for the next year.

A huge thank you to IRC who gave me the chance to be here, to those of you who encouraged me as I worked through the decision stages prior to my move and those of you who have supported me through your friendship (whether near or far) while I transitioned from my comfort zone to find comfort in my new zone. And most importantly, a mighty thank you to my God and Savior who are constantly by my side offering guidance and direction and a lift as often as I need it. Without them I am nothing. It is my faith that gives me the strength to be the woman I am. I dedicate my life to them through the work of my hands to help others. May my daily offering gain me favor in their sight, that they will continue to bless and strengthen me that I may continue easing the burdens of others and lifting their spirits.

Here's to the next 365 days and all the adventures awaiting me!

Halong Bay, conclusion

2010-10-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

Oops, I forgot I hadn't finished blogging about this trip!

On Day 3 I woke up at 4:30 a.m. It was already light outside. I laid in bed and watched the sun rise past the horizon, into the sky. We ate breakfast and then I packed up and was taken ashore. The boat I was on was headed back to the starting point but I was scheduled to have another night on the bay so I had to switch to a different boat. On shore I met up with my new boat mates. The plan was to start the day with our choice between a hike or bike ride. We all opted to do the hike owing to the amazing vista promised at the end. We started on our way and I began to be a little nervous as I saw people returning from the hike with shoes covered in mud. I wondered if my Teva's would be sturdy enough for what we were about to face. Others in my group were wearing flip flops but we were assured it would be fine. The hike was steep and indeed very muddy! It took over an hour to climb to the top of the hill. The weather was HOT and humid. We were all sweating so bad we were soaked. At the top the view was nice but there was a platform about 40 stairs high and the view from there was amazing!...And then it was time to go back down the trail, which proved harder than going up. By the end our feet were covered in mud but there was a nice pool of water where we rinsed off, enjoyed a cold drink and relaxed before loading the bus and heading off to lunch.

Lunch was very similar to the lunch of the previous day...in fact it was almost identical...but delicious all the same. You won't hear me complaining about seafood! At lunch I got to know my new friends a bit. A very diverse, fun group of people. I feel lucky to have met so many great people! After lunch a bus came to pick us up but it wasn't the same bus that had dropped us off which worried me since I had left my backpack on the other bus. At each stop prior to lunch we had been told to leave our belongings on the bus so I wrongly assumed we were to do the same this time. Our tour guide assured me he would recover my luggage. I hoped he was able to recover the bag with all its belongings. I didn't let it worry me and went ahead and boarded the bus which took us to the pier where we boarded a boat that took us to monkey island where we would have time to swim and hang out on the beach. Since I didn't have my bag I didn't have my swim suit so I decided to go on another hike in search of the monkeys the island was named for. No one else was interested with the memory of our morning hike still lingering in their legs so I headed off on my own. As I began the hike I was excited at the possibility of seeing monkeys...I LOVE MONKEYS!!! And then I realized that I was all alone, which isn't the smartest idea. And then I got nervous that I might actually see a monkey! Monkeys aren't exactly as cute and snuggly up close as they look from a distance. I've heard stories of people who've been attacked by monkeys. I continued the hike and then got to a point where the direction of the trail became unclear. I poked around a bit and then heard rustling in the trees. It made me a little nervous but I continued exploring. I heard the rustling again and decided it was time for me to turn back. I was too nervous that it might be a monkey. :-) On my way down I passed another single hiker and noticed he had a beer in his hand. We greeted each other, I told him I was unable to find my way to the top and he went up and I headed down. I reached the beach and shortly thereafter several monkeys made their way to the beach. I sat and watched them play. There was a mom and her young baby that were particularly of interest to me. What joy it gave me to watch the young monkey cuddle with its mom and then slowly venture out to play with something only to be startled and sent running back to the security mom's arms. It reminded me of the tremendous importance of motherhood. A role not to be underestimated or undervalued.

Then I saw the hiker I'd run into before ordering another beer. I asked him if he'd found the top. He said no, that shortly after we'd met up a monkey came out of the trees and stole the beer out of his hand! He showed me the picture of the monkey drinking his beer, hilarious! He said it scared him half to death. He was still a bit shaken. I'm glad I decided to come back when I did!

After enjoying the monkeys, the beach and the water we climbed back on the boat and headed back to the Cat Ba island. Both on our way to and from Monkey Island I found myself engaged deep in conversation with a 5 year old boy from Australia or maybe New Zealand? can't remember now, with an imagination the size of Texas! He wanted to play the "what if" game. What if the waters were infested with water. What if a snake came after me. What if, what if, what if. It was so cute! There was also a 10 year old girl from Indonesia. She was a joy. When we reached Cat Ba island she made me a bracelet from small flowers growing all around.

The sun went down and we loaded the boat I would spend the night on. Dinner looked like lunch. I'm beginning to think the menus are all the same! Still yummy, but very funny. We all had a good laugh about the never changing menu. I met new people, a reporter for a Vietnamese paper, a Scottish man just living the life in Vietnam and a Vietnamese couple. After good food and great company I headed to the top deck to enjoy another starry night and then tried to fall asleep while others were enjoying karaoke. My room was situated just in the right place so I could hear EVERYTHING happening on the boat. I could hear what was going on in the kitchen, people going up and down the stairs and lots of karaoke. I didn't get much sleep that night.

In the morning we had breakfast and began to head back to the mainland. Sailing out of the bay was just as beautiful as it had been on our way in. None of us could stop taking pictures. Then we arrived to the icon of Vietnam. Two islands side by side that look like two birds kissing.

My time in Vietnam was definitely a highlight of my first year in south east Asia. There are so many reasons to come back!

Halong Bay, continued...

2010-09-26T04:09:00.000-07:00

As we navigated through the islands of the mystical Halong Bay (there are over 2000 islands) we saw fishing boats of a variety of sizes. We saw single man row boats, multi man boats with a motor and larger outfits. I was mesmerized by beauty of the islands and boats.

At lunch I was taught by a wonderful woman from Singapore, how to crack open a crab which was cooked but still starring me in the face and enjoy its meat. If all the meals were going to be as delicious as lunch I knew I would be a happy woman. What I didn't realize then was that each meal I would eat for 3 days would be virtually the same...but you didn't hear me complain! I'm perfectly happy to eat shrimp, crab, fish and calamari over and over. The need for variety is over rated!

We stopped to explore a cave passing a funeral ceremony on our way in a floating fishing village. It was difficult to see the ceremony itself but we were able to hear the songs and speeches, although not able to understand Vietnamese hindered any understanding. We were told that after the cave tour we would return to the floating village.

Caves are such a beauty to me! To envision what it took for nature to carve out a cave and the thousands of years required to create a stalagmite and stalactite is incredible. The clear pools of water often hard to detect for their complete stillness and transparency are so beautiful to me. It's fun to use the imagination to identify various shapes and images formed in the rock. I've explored a good share of caves during my life and this one wasn't necessarily at the top of the beauty and magnificence scale but nonetheless, the small area of the 2 km area of the cave we were shown was nice.

I was excited to get back on the boat and be taken back to the nearby floating village where we kayaked through the small village and around some of the islands. I was kayaking with a woman from South Korea (she was in front and I was in back). During our time together I learned an important lesson in communication and shared vision. If we had different ideas of which direction we wanted to head and didn't tell the other we found ourselves working against each other and going nowhere. Anyway...this experience of kayaking through the fishing village and through the bay was definitely a highlight in my list of life experiences. The tiny, one room homes of the fishing village with hammocks hung on the porch, laundry hung outside, children playing in boats sparked a desire for an experience of living in a fishing village for a week...another experience for another time. As we kayaked through the tall islands it was easy to feel a sense of my individual insignificance and then remember that God created all this for our benefit, a thought that suddenly made me remember my tremendous importance in the eyes of a loving heavenly father.

All too soon it was time once again to board the Elizabeth Sails and move on our way through the bay. In late afternoon we anchored the boat and it was time to go swimming! I started by jumping off the 2nd story of the boat into the refreshing water. Then it was time to go up a level. Several of us "younger" folk climbed to the top deck of the boat and plunged down 3 stories and deep into the water below. The swim felt good and worked up an appetite for dinner...more delicious seafood! But before dinner was served we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Sigh, another very magical moment.

After dinner I looked forward to returning to the top deck of the boat to enjoy the view of the heavens unpolluted by city lights. Since I couldn't figure out how to turn off the lights on the top deck the view of the stars, while still very beautiful, was not what I had hoped. I laid there watching for falling stars and enduring the pollution of the night silence by very mediocre karaoke coming from the next boat. Asians LOVE karaoke. I tried to put it out of my mind and focus on the beauty of the sky. I found myself singing one of my own favorite songs...Oh Lord, My God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder and then proclaim, My God, how great Thou art. I saw four falling stars that night and then retired to my quarters.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

2010-09-24T05:35:00.000-07:00

I made a last minute trip to Vietnam this month, leaving the same day my parents left Bangkok. I had decided to head to Hanoi but hadn't had much time to plan. I'd also never traveled internationally by myself. I'm sure that had I had more time to think about it I would have been nervous but it was all so last minute I didn't have time to get nervous. The day before I left I had booked a hotel and a driver from the airport (I find that airports are where scammers love to attack so I'm willing to pay a few extra bucks to not have to deal with it). After gathering my luggage I found the man holding my name and he took me on one of the most beautiful drives in my memory. Vietnam countryside was covered with fields being worked with by their owners, each one wearing the traditional pointed straw hat Vietnam is known for. The roads were filled with motorbikes loaded high and wide with various goods including food, toilet paper, huge vases, families of 5 and much more! As we pulled up to an intersection there was an overloaded motorbike tipped on it's side. None of its leafy contents had been spilled and the owner approached with a helper and they were able set the bike upright after a bit of a struggle. I was absolutely fascinating to be introduced to Vietnam like this. On the highway we hit a top speed of maybe 80 Km/hr. Traffic was slow but moved fluidly, each vehicle honking its way down the roads ensuring everyone knew of their location and intentions. It was slow but it was loudly communicative.

I was dropped off at my hotel and then I began to consider where I might spend my time. I had heard of the beauties of Halong Bay and thought I might look into that option but wasn't sure what that would entail. I took off on a walk around lakes, passed outdoor barbershops where hairs were being cut leaving hair all over the sidewalk, declined numerous offers by taxi drivers, and found my way into the city center, thanks to a map and my handy compass...a gift from my dear aunt. Once inside the city center which was packed with traffic going in all directions on narrow streets lined with vendors selling produce, sweets, spring rolls, souvenirs and much, much more. I stopped at a tour office and spoke with a sweet woman who helped me plan my time. She told me I could spend 3 days 2 nights on Halong Bay where I would enjoy the beauties of hundreds of mostly, uninhabited islands protruding out of the water. I would spend 2 nights on the boat, go kayaking, see floating villages, explore a cave, hike and enjoy delicious seafood meals...all for a very, very reasonable price! I said "sign me up." I just needed to find my way back to the office the next morning. Until then I still had some time to kill. I learned about a puppet show held on a watery stage. It was unlikely I would be able to get a ticket for that night as the show is popular among tourists but I thought I'd try. Approaching the ticket office I saw the "sold out" sign and decided to purchase a ticket for Saturday night, my last night in Hanoi. As made my way towards the window a woman asked me if I needed a ticket. Her friend was unable to attend the show and the woman was selling her ticket at 1/2 price (she didn't know I would have paid double the price for that ticket!) . I purchased the ticket and went straight into the show. The wooden puppets danced in and on the water, the operation of which I'm not entirely clear on. It looked like somehow there were polls attached to them. I dunno...but I know it was fun and very entertaining.

The next morning I loaded a van with several couples and we went on a 3 hour drive through the picturesque countryside. We arrived to the dock of the bay and loaded a small transporter boat that took us to our boat, Elizabeth Sails, a 3 deck boat. My room, located on the bottom deck, was very lovely with the exception of the roach I found crawling around on the second bed in the room. Needless to say, I decided not to sleep in that bed. We made ourselves comfortable and then lunch was served as we began to make our way into the bay. The view was breathtaking and I knew I'd made the right decision for my time in Vietnam.

More to come!

A Visit From My Parents

2010-09-19T03:04:00.000-07:00

I recently received a visit from my parents. Before coming to visit they had spent 2 weeks helping my little sister, Ruth, and her husband and 3 kids (the youngest less than a month old) move from South Korea to China where my brother-in-law is enrolled in a Master's program. By the time they arrived in Bangkok their desire for adventure had fizzled. You see, my parents aren't as young as they used to be. My father is now 72 and my mom is 68 (plus or minus a year or 2). On top of that my father was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and on top of that both are cancer survivors and they raised a family of 14 children and are still active in the lives of over 60 grandchildren! I decided that the best approach would be not to plan out our time together but to present them with options and let them decide what they were up for.

Thursday evening after work I took the sky train to the airport to greet them. After about an hour of waiting I began to wonder if they had gotten lost or if, a more likely alternative, I was waiting in the wrong place, although I had asked and it was very clearly stated on the arrivals board that they would come from exit C. My phone rang and my mother's voice was on the other end, "Elissa?" Indeed, they had exited out exit B. What fun to see my parents! We took a taxi to my apartment and I introduced them to my home. I don't think it was what they had expected. After seeing my sister's place in Korea (and maybe China although I haven't seen it but it is, as my 4 year old nephew states, "more big") my apartment is quite spacious (the benefits of not having to pay for my living quarters).

We sat down and discussed what the options for our next few days together were and we made a general plan which included resting around mid day. We chatted together that evening as they updated me on their adventures with Ruth and other updates and then we made our way to bed.

DAY 1 we had planned to go to the ancient city park and cruise around in a golf cart but the sky looked like it would rain at any moment so we decided to start with a tour of the Jim Thompson home/museum. With 3 of us running around together it was cost effective to take taxis most of where we went and not hassle with using the sky train, thus saving my parents from numerous stair ascents and descents. The museum was very enjoyable, I hadn't been there since my first trip to Thailand 4 years ago. After a guided tour and then taking time to poke around a bit we opted for the sky train to take us to my office. By now it was about 1:30. The sidewalks were fairly empty in front of my office but after climbing down the stairs from the sky train there was a man who insisted on crowding my father. Dad stopped to let the man walk by but he then quickly turned and walked the other direction. It was then that we realized that this man was a pickpocket and making an attempt on my father who had his cell phone clasped to his belt with a latch making it difficult to remove.

We went into the office where I introduced my parents to various staff and showed them the work I am engaged in. This visit took longer than I had anticipated and we didn't leave until nearly 4 pm. As we left the office we, again, opted for the sky train as it would be the quickest way home. On our way up the escalators I was telling my parents something and I turned around and saw a man, again, crowding my father although there were only 2 other women around. Then I noticed this man had his hand on my father's cell phone and was trying to undo the latch on the case. I'm afraid instinct took over and I yelled at the guy and got in his face in a very un-Thai way telling him to get away. He just looked at me as if to ask why I was so mad and what had he done wrong. That made me more angry and I pushed him and told him to go. He finally went the other direction but the woman and baby with him continued up the stairs with us. I looked for a police officer or security guard but none was there. I also apologized to the women around us as my behavior was not appropriate in Thai culture. I realized that by yelling at the man in public I was causing us both to loose face...I was ok with that. The experience had left me a bit shaken though the pickpocket had gotten nothing it made me angry that he would prey on my sweet father who had once been pick pocketed in Italy and then taught us all a lesson by praying for the children who had stolen his wallet.

We finally made it home, took a nice rest, ate dinner, visited and retired to bed.

DAY 2 was Saturday. We took a taxi to the National Museum for a tour guided by a friend of mine. The tour was insightful and delighted my parents as well as wearing us all out. My father was feeling dizzy and so after the 2 hour tour we just sat for a while until our stomachs urged us to find our way out of the maze that was the museum. Outside the museum there were vendors selling some fried snacks and fruit. We got a few items and as it started raining we found a bench partially sheltered from the rain by a large tree where we sat huddled under mom's umbrella and ate. Feeling refreshed we made our way to the Jim Thompson outlet store where my mother enjoyed looking at the 3 floors of fabrics. I think in her younger years she would have made a nice purchase and looked forward to new sewing projects. On this occasion we just browsed and then enjoyed mango smoothies after a hard afternoon of browsing.

Leaving the outlet store we happened on a little market which we walked through before heading back home. The plan for the evening was to attend a puppet show. We didn't have tickets and I couldn't get through to the ticket office but we decided to show up and see what happened. What happened was that we found out the puppet theater no longer exists! Luckily there was a night market nearby so we wandered through giving my parents to pick up a few gifts for folks back home. It turned out to be a long night and after eating dinner at the food court in the market where I introduced my parents to Thai noodles and green papaya salad we fell into the taxi and were glad to find our way to bed.

DAY 3 we attended church in the morning and then headed out for the 2.5 hour drive to the pier where we took a speed boat to a beautiful island. I get my love for the ocean from my mother who could spend several days just sitting and watching the waves, which is just what we did Sunday night. We found a nice hotel on a quiet beach who gave us a great discount on a room. The woman at the front desk (a Thai woman in her late 40s) told me that she would take care of my and my aged parents :-). She gave us a room for about 1/3 of the normal price. I suspect that it also helped that the hotel was almost completely empty and they were just happy to have customers. We spent the evening sitting by the waters edge, collecting shells and enjoying the peacefulness of the surroundings until after the sun had set. Then we fell asleep to the sound of waves washing onto the shore.

DAY 4 ended too quickly. By the time dad and I rolled out of bed mom was already on the beach. We joined her and had a beautiful start to the day. When stomachs began to rumble we decided it was time for a breakfast of fish, veggies and rice washed down with fruit juice. We then headed to the room to change into swim suits but by the time we got our suits on the rain had begun to fall. Luckily I only lasted about 30 minutes and we then headed to the water. We took snorkels and masks out with us to see what was happening beneath the surface. Over near the rocks there were various fish of different shapes, colors and sizes. I called dad over to take a look. This was my fathers first real snorkeling experience. The problem was that he was trying to walk around the rocks and found it difficult to keep his balance so he scraped his legs on the rocks and came out of the water with scratches all over his legs, some even bleeding. After our snorkeling experience mom and I rested on the lounge chairs trying to stay out of the sun and dad went for a swim. Too soon it was time to shower and pack and head back to Bangkok. We left grateful for the beauties of the earth.

DAY 5 was the final day with my parents. With dad's sunburned feet we decided it would be a good day to explore the ancient city park by golf cart. Dad was feeling dizzy today so we just drove around the park admiring the replicas of significant ruins, temples and buildings around Thailand. The day was warm. After 3 hours at the park we refreshed ourselves with water and ice cream and headed back home to rest before our dinner cruise on the river. My parents celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary this month, a dinner cruise with their daughter seemed like a proper celebration! Sadly, it was raining by the time the cruise began. Happily, the rain was not enough to cancel the cruise. We enjoyed traditional music and dance, a large, delicious buffet dinner and then dancing afterwards. All this as we cruised up and down the river admiring points of interest lit up, highlighting their significance. It was a delightful evening and a good way to end our time together. We returned home, packed our bags (mom and dad packed in preparation for an early flight back to the US and I packed for a trip to Vietnam) set our alarm clocks for pre-dawn hours and crashed into bed.

In the morning I said goodbye to my parents, helped them into a taxi and sent them back to the airport grateful for their visit and grateful for such wonderful parents. I then returned to my bed for a few more hours, finished my preparations for my trip and headed to the airport en route to Vietnam...my first international adventure trip on my own...but more about that later!

Thanks mom and dad for coming to visit me in my new home.

Flying Fish

2010-08-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Thursday was the queen's birthday. I figured it was the perfect chance to use a vacation day and enjoy a 4 day weekend back at Koh Tao for more diving. I was joined by 2 friends who came on my first Koh Tao adventure with me.

Upon arrival to the resort we had stayed at just 2 weeks previously, the staff greeted us warmly welcoming us by name, expressing their excitement to see us back so soon. The found us rooms in the otherwise booked resort and we spent the first day relaxing at the beach, soaking up the sun. The second day we went for a 3 dives. The location was one we were excited about. It was raining when we loaded the boat and it was pouring as we made our way. Unfortunately, the first dive was terrible! Visibility was less than 5 meters and we had to stick close together so we didn't loose each other. We weren't able to see much on that dive. The original plan was to do 2 dives at that location but due to the visibility it was decided that we would move on to another location where visibility was reported to be 10-15 meters. On our way to the site I was sitting by the side of the boat looking at the water (it had stopped raining finally). All of a sudden I saw something leap from the water and skid across the top of the water and then disappear. I was not entirely sure what I had just seen! I looked a bit longer and it happened again but this time, whatever had skid across the water appeared to have glided across the water and then disappear. I looked at my friend whose back was turned to the water and tried to describe what I had just seen. She chuckled and said, "you mean, you just saw a fairy?" I didn't know how else to describe to her what I had seen. YES! a fairy! It must have been a fairy! She laughed and I swore to her that I saw something fly across the water. One of the dive masters came by and heard our conversation and said, "oh, did you see the flying fish?" Flying fish? Just at that moment more fish jumped out of the water and flew across the top of the water only to disappear again. Finally my friend believed me! No, it wasn't a fairy but it was truly flying fish! I had no idea such a thing really existed! We spent the rest of the boat ride enjoying the entertainment these silly fish provided.

The dive site proved to be equally entertaining! It was the first time I had experienced such amazing visibility! I was able to see so much and really enjoy the surroundings. It was a completely opposite experience from our last dive. The colors, the fish, everything was beautiful! The 3rd site was equally beautiful! Although I'd been there about 5 times before it was as if it was the first time! Everything looked so different in such clear water.

That's all I can write for now...the mosquitoes are eating me alive!!

Swinging Through the Jungle

2010-08-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

I had the most wonderful day today! I signed up to go with the American Embassy on a trip 90 minutes outside of Bangkok to an adventure park called "Flight of the Gibbons". A gibbon is like unto a monkey. I has short legs, long arms and no tail. Since it has such short legs it prefers to do less walking and more swinging through the trees. The adventure park is named after the gibbon because it is made up of about 20 or so zip lines above, and though the trees of the jungle. We would make our way to each one. So cool!

I was with a group of 8 other people and 2 guides. The group included a family of 3 plus a friend (mother, father, daughter and daughter's friend...11 years old), a mid 50 year old woman and about 4 of us women in our 30's (one happened to be a good friend of some friends of mine...we'd never met before but became fast friends). With the exception of one of the group members, none of us had ever zip lined before so we were a bit anxious and some to the point of down right nervous! We started on the first zip line and there was a lot of screaming! Once we got over that, and looked around us at the tops of the trees and saw the butterflies flittering about beneath us we became more and more comfortable. Personally, while I've only been on a little zip line AGES ago, I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed swinging from tree to tree (not without my fair share of screaming mind you).

The surroundings were beautiful!! Dense vegetation, tall trees and the music of all sorts of different birds. We also heard the laughter and screams and squeals of other groups we knew were out there somewhere but it was impossible to see them through all the trees. It added to the suspense as we wondered what was making the groups ahead of us scream so much!

I had such a great day enjoying the beautiful scenery that Thailand has to offer in a bit of a different way than your typical jungle walk (but we did that too). Playing Tarzan was a blast! And the image of the butterflies of various colors and sizes floating among the tree tops is one that will stay with me for awhile.

Life after PADI certification

2010-08-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

After becoming certified it was time to go on a "fun dive" meaning I didn't have to pass off any skills, I could just enjoy swimming in the water looking for cool fish. So, I signed up to go on Wednesday. We had to meet at the equipment room at 6 AM to get suited up and catch the taxi to the pier. No sleeping in for me! We were on our way before most of the city had woken up. Our group consisted just of myself and the friend I'd gone with and our dive master who would be our guide. No other divers on our level had signed up which was terrific! I put all my skills into practice, sunk to 18 meters and had a look at some neat stuff but my darn mask kept fogging up! So, sadly I missed out on seeing other cool stuff...darn mask! Mostly it was just fun to swim around and look up to see that you're in the middle of a school of fish.

We did 2 dives and were back to the resort by noon. I logged in my diving log book that we had gone for one dive at 18 meters for 32 minutes and a 2nd dive at 17 meters for 47 minutes. I wrote that we saw trigger fish, the cutest little, yellow box fish, butterfly fish, glass fish, parrot fish, eel, banner fish and the list goes on!

We decided not to go diving Thursday to give my friend a break who had been experiencing seasickness on each dive from concentrating too hard setting up equipment while the boat was rocking up and down. I decided that throwing up each day of vacation is pretty harsh so we opted for a day of snorkeling to mix things up. It turned out to be a super decision! The morning was cloudy and rainy. We boarded a boat with about 50 or more other snorkelers and hit 5 different areas throughout the day were we were dropped off for about 40 minutes of exploration, loaded up again and moved on to the next spot. While I did feel like cattle to some degree the underwater exploration was beautiful! The coral was different in each location as were the fish. I even saw a shark at Shark Bay! After swimming in Shark Bay for about 15 minutes without seeing any shark I began to wonder why they called it Shark Bay. Just then a shark swam right in front of my nose! I began to panic and then realized that if it were dangerous they wouldn't have brought us to this area to see them! So, I calmed myself down and went looking for more! :-)

Unfortunately, with the sun hidden behind the dense clouds I didn't remember to reapply my sunscreen and am now suffering severely from sunburn. Let's just say my back side is a lovely shade of purple! Which has made sitting a little uncomfortable and sleeping a challenge.

The last stop of the day was a group of 3 islands connected by a sand bar that washes away in high tide. It's a beautiful location where the water is crystal clear! It really is paradise! By the time we got there I could feel the sun beating on my skin so I tried to stay hidden under a beach umbrella after a short snorkeling excursion.

Friday was the last day of diving. We had signed up for another 6 AM dive but I was so sunburnt I wondered if I would possibly be able to get into my wetsuit and put that superheavy tank on my super-burned back! I decided to give it a try and was successful...with minimal wincing and whining. It turned out to be a beautiful day for diving! The visibility was much better than in previous dives. Again, our group consisted of just my friend and I along with with out dive master. During our 2 dives we saw scorpion fish (I pointed that one out to the group...they are very well camouflaged!), more eels, big grouper, trevelley, a blue spotted ray, pipefish, a sawblade shrimp and the highlight was a mom, dad and little baby clownfish in their anemone home! It was breathtaking. I'm so glad I'd found a way to keep my mask from fogging up!

Saturday we left the island in the afternoon so we decided to spend the morning at the spa. I found a place that offered an aloe vera massage. I went inside and told them about my painful sunburn and they told me they could do this aloe vera massage. I told them I was not interested in the massage since I knew I was burned beyond the point of massage...that would have been torture! They kept assuring me that it would be soft and not painful. Finally I showed them my purple back and they agreed that a massage was not what I needed. Instead they covered me with a layer of cold aloe and then a layer of cucumbers. It felt so good! I just laid there and let the aloe and cucumber creep into my skin to remoisturize it. The sweet women offered to take a photo for me to post on facebook but I graciously declined such a photo! Unfortunately, when they removed the cucumber and had me wash off the aloe vera the pain returned. I was then coated in a layer of coconut milk and sent on my way. The reality that I was going to have a miserable 8 hour bus ride back to Bangkok set it. Luckily I survived.

So, I've now completed 8 dives and I'm already planning my next trip back to the island for more diving. Since we will be celebrating the queen's birthday next thursday, I've taken off Friday as well and will make it a nice 4 day weekend! I should be able to get about 6 more dives in! It's kind of addicting! I may need to rethink my budget! :-)

PADI Certified

2010-07-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I was hoping to write each day of my certification process but it ended up that I had so much studying to do that it took all my time and there was no time left for writing! So, here is a brief summary of my experience:

Day 2-I met with my instructor, Kev, and we went over the homework quizzes we had been assigned the night before. He talked a lot about things we needed to know, explaining how scuba diving works. In the afternoon we got fitted for gear and headed to the pool where we had to take a 200 meter swimming test and then float for 10 minutes. Basically you have to show that you feel comfortable in the water before they allow you to continue on. Luckily I passed the test. I put on my scuba equipment got into the pool and took my first breaths underwater. While in the pool we practiced a lot of worst case scenario situations. We learned to take our respirators out of our mouths and replace them, take off our masks and replace them, etc. We also worked on controlling our buoyancy. That was a bit more difficult than I expected. The 3 of us in the class kept bumping into each other and floating to the top...it was pretty comical. After several hours in the water the day came to an end. We were given 2 more chapters to study...This is turning out to be much more studying than I anticipated.

Day 3-This morning we went over the chapters we were given to study the night before. It was hard to fit all that information into my head in such a short period of time but I did it! I passed all the quizzes and that afternoon we headed out for our first real dive! I was nervous but excited. We would do 2 dives each lasting about 30-40 minutes at 12 meters. We headed out in a boat with several other divers at differing levels. The water was choppy and setting up the equipment while the boat was moving made some unsettled stomaches. I'm not prone to sea sickness but I could definitely understand one could feel that way after that experience! We got to our dive location, suited up and jumped in. Down we went into the water...down, down, down, stopping to equalize our ears every few feet. We weren't underwater to enjoy the scenery just yet. We were there to practice the skills we had learned in the pool setting. My mask kept fogging up so I didn't see much around me but I passed all the skills and I didn't drown! The second dive was more skill practicing and a little more swimming around. It was so cool! I was doing it! I was swimming with schools of fish, admiring the coral...very cool.

Day 4-The last day started at 6 AM. We gathered our equipment, loaded into the truck that took us to the pier where we crawled across one boat to get into the boat that would take us to our dive locations. We would do 2 more dives to finish demonstrating we could do each of the skills. It was amazing except that it took so long for one guy to get to the bottom (20 minutes to be exact) that by the time we were all at the bottom we didn't have much time to pass off the skills AND swim around. A bit frustrating but...we are all learning so, it's all good. The last skill we had to do was to practice an emergency, out of air ascent. Let's pray that I never find myself in such a situation...but just in case, I know how to handle it. Once we had passed our skills we loaded the boat and headed back to the resort for the final exam...which, thankfully, I passed!!

That's all there is to it! Just a whole lot of studying...lots of worst-case-scenario skill practicing and if all goes well you end up with a dive license and a dive log book where you log each of your dives, the depth of your dive, the length of the dive, the water temperature, what you saw, etc. We filled out our books, logging our 4 dives and walked away excited for future dives, which I'll write about in my next post.

PADI Certification-Day 1

2010-07-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

As a birthday present to myself I decided to become certified to scuba dive. It was one of my goals when I moved here so no time like my present (haha)! I chose the island of Koh Tao as my location as I had heard that it was a diving hot spot. I requested the week off of work recruited a friend to join me and found another 2 friends who were also planning to head to the island to do some diving. In Thailand this is a 3 day weekend in celebration of Buddhist Lent.

We boarded a bus Friday night for the 6 hour bus ride to the pier where we loaded a boat that took us 2 hours to the island. I don't remember much about the bus ride as I was able to sleep pretty peacefully, curled up on the bench seat assigned to 2 of us. We arrived at 6:30 and went in search of transportation to the resort we were hoping had accommodations for us. We found the truck, loaded up and off we went. The island is beautiful! Fine, light colored sand, light blue water, palm trees and huge rock formations. I think this might be paradise!

Since we arrived so early nothing was open. Two of the friends I had come already have their basic certification and are hoping to get the next level. They were certain this resort is where they wanted to be. My friend and I who are not yet certified decided to wander up and down the island a bit to see if there were any better options for us. But, like I said, almost nothing was open we were able to talk to one place that sounded pretty good and then we decided to have breakfast until other places opened up.

We found a cute little Thai owned restaurant along the way and went in. After ordering all the things on the menu they DIDN'T have I finally ordered a pancake and 2 eggs with fresh pineapple juice. The juice came out and and I was ready for a glass of fresh juice. I put the straw in my mouth and took a good, big swig. To my dismay the juice had quite a bite to it! I think the pineapple was a little old! It was not drinkable but my Thai was not sufficient to convey that message to the girl serving us and her English was BARELY good enough to take our order! So, I was stuck with the nasty juice which I made my friend try and confirm that it was indeed disgusting!

After breakfast we went back to our original resort, learned about their diving course and accommodations and decided to book there. Unfortunately, our room, the last one they had available would not be available until 1:00 as the current occupant was out diving. So, we decided to hang out on the beach until then. It was extremely overcast and looked like it would rain at any moment. The wind was blowing and it felt nice to sit and enjoy the beautiful view.

Four hours later we checked into our room. I looked down at myself and found that I had spent way too much time in the sun. Yes...I was sunburnt! Day 1 and I'm already toasted to a crisp! UGH!!! Wish I'd had access to my sunscreen! Wish the clouds had blocked the suns rays enough not to burn me. Oh well. My feet and ankles are swollen and I'm pink!

We showered and prepared for our diving course that started at 3. Today was just a basic orientation. We filled out paperwork and watched 2 movies explaining a lot of information. Then we took a knowledge quiz and did great! We were done for the day so we took our books to an indian restaurant for dinner to celebrate my birthday. It was delicious!

What a great birthday and a wonderful start to a birthweek celebration! :-) Getting older isn't as bad as I thought it might be! :-)

Ayuthaya, Thailand

2010-07-18T03:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went on an Embassy sponsored trip to Ayuthaya (the "th" do not make a "th" sound like in english...just a "t" sound). My friend who works for the embassy signed us up. We met at the embassy at 7:30 and rode a bus the 90 minutes to get there. Our first stop was Bang Pa-In Palace. Ayuthaya was anciently the capitol of Thailand. A palace was constructed in Bang Pa-In during those days but after the fall of Ayuthaya it was left to be overgrown and in disrepair. The palace was revived in the 1800's and is quite lovely!

The next stop was Wat Mahathat home of the Buddha head embedded in twisted tree roots. This Khmer style temple built in the 14th century was burned down by the Burmese during an invasion. The ruins themselves are impressive!

The final stop was Wat Phrasisanpeth. I'm afraid I don't know much about this Wat other than it was built in the 1400s and also burned by the Burmese since as I wandered to the entrance I was bombared by school children with the assignment to practice their English. They each had a paper for me to write my name and my email address and a lot of other questions I just couldn't get to! They practiced their English and were patient while I practiced speaking Thai. After signing about 20 papers and getting multiple photos taken and shaking each students hand at least once I was finally able to slip away, into the walls of the Wat, only to be snached up by university students of tourism doing a survey. So, I didn't see much of this ruined Wat but got a few photos.

After this stop we got back on the tour bus and headed to the pier where we were picked up by a small cruise boat that had lunch waiting for us. I enjoyed an international buffet as we cruised the 2.5 hours back to Bangkok. It was a lovely day except that sometime before lunch my friend got food poisoned. YUCK! Hard to tell what it was since the only thing we had eaten before lunch was fried bananas and fruit, which we shared and neither effected me. strange. So I had to drive us back in her car to her apartment. Driving the streets of Bangkok on the left side of the road was nerve-racking! We made it with minimal damage to her car (I took a turn to sharp and met up with the curb...oops).

As soon as I can figure out where my photos are I'll post them! :-)

Finding Balance

2010-07-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

I've now attended 8 Thai language classes and already I'm forming basic sentences. Dichan poot paasaa thai nitnoi. I try to use the vocabulary I've learned whenever possible but I definitely need more practice. My sweet tutor speaks so slowly during our 90 minutes together Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Sometimes I feel badly for making her start our lessons at 7 AM but mornings are the only part of my day I feel I have control over. I now know basic family members, several adjectives and verbs, question words, some professions, foods and such. My flash card collection is growing and I love adding new words to the stack. In a meeting with staff the other day I tried out a few phrases and wowed them all. :-) It sure feels good to be challenging my brain like this! It's a great brain work out.

I'm also working out physically. On the mornings when I'm not at language classes I'm at Bootcamp. That's what they call it and that's what it feels like! It's a strength building workout that involves lots of pushups of various kinds, squats, jumping, running and all sorts of crazy exercises. Boy was I sore after the first week!!! It's exciting that after just a few weeks I'm making lots of progress and while I can definitely feel my muscles after an intense work out, I'm nowhere near as sore as that first week! On Saturday we had time trials where we were timed running about 2 kilometers. I was so sad to see how slow I've become after not running as much as I used to while living in Utah. Not having Cheri, my running partner, to get me up every morning coupled with the intense heat that makes running so uncomfortable here has diminished my desire. But I'm growing strong in other ways, using different muscles now, and it feels so good.

I'm up by 5 every morning which is an exercise of self control for sure! And if I'm not in bed by 9:00 each night that self control is really tested!! I've changed my work hours to 9-6 to allow me to have the mornings to focus on my physical, mental and spiritual strengthening. Having the balance of physical, mental and spiritual workouts makes me feel complete.

A Trip Down Under-Part 5

2010-06-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's where I stopped writing in my journal and now it's been 2 weeks since I've been back from the land down under so let's see if my memory serves me.

Day 13- Today was the last day in Cairns. We decided to take the day easy and buy any last minute gifts and souvenirs. We walked down some of our favorite streets, including the walkway by the croc infested beach (we never did see any crocs there), by the pier where we enjoyed a nice lunch, to a jewelry store, and when we were walked out we passed by a didgeridoo store. Maren reseted her feet on a bench outside the store and I wandered around having a look. The store advertised lessons. I became curious and with Maren's encouragement took a short lesson. In order to play this aboriginal instrument which is basically a tree branch which has been hollowed out my termites, one has to...umm, how to I explain this. I guess the best way is to say that you have to imitate a horse by blowing through your lips to make them vibrate...you know, like a horse. Does that make sense? Once you have this technique down you place your mouth on the top of the instrument and do the same thing. I did it the first time perfectly but then lost my beginners luck and it took several more tries before I could successfully do it again. Finally I figured it out and it I was making "music". It was fun to practice. While I decided not to bring a didgeridoo home with me (tempting) I did purchase a CD of great didgeridoo music. As we left the store the store keeper and music teacher (a handsome single man) apologized that we hadn't been picked up by any men while on our holiday. He said he was just downright embarrassed. We assured him it was ok and he rightfully assumed we must be "good Christian girls". He invited us to return to meet his 2 "good Christian guy" friends who also worked at the store. We told him that under normal circumstances we would accept the invitation (why not?!) but that since we were on our way to the airport in just a few hours we would have to take a raincheck. :-) Then we headed for the park where we spent our last hour recapping our favorite Aussie moments and soaking in the sunshine. Then it was off to the airport and back to Sydney. After a delayed flight and trying to avoid a scuffle at the metro station we made it back about 11:00 pm.

Day 14-Well, this is the final day. We spent the night in a haunted hotel...at least that's the rumor. We were hoping to get the haunted room but weren't so lucky. I had picked up a cold and spent the night coughing so I'm sure I scared all the ghosts away anyway. In the morning we packed up, enjoyed breakfast, and checked out of the hotel leaving our luggage until it was time to go. Maren and I said goodbye since he flight left earlier than mine and I wanted to spend a few more hours in Sydney instead of hanging out at the airport. I bought a ticket for a city tour and spent the next 2 hours being driven around the city seeing some beautiful sights and cute neighborhoods. I fell in love with Sydney even more! After the tour I headed to a store we had visited on our first day in the country. I purchased a painting by an aboriginal artist. Once I had selected the piece , which is dot painting of patterns I learned that the pattern represented women in a meeting. Cool. Then I walked to a grocery store and purchased some cold medicine and tissues, a huge jar of Nutella, since it was on sale for a much better price than I'd find it in BKK and forgot that I there were several other things I wanted to pick up while I was there. Oh well. I returned to the hotel, grabbed my bags and headed to the airport. My Australian adventure had come to an end. The 2 weeks had been amazing! We saw and experienced so much! And it was easier to leave knowing that returning is actually very affordable! I'm so glad we chose Australia!!!

Ugh, i just realized that I skipped day 12!!! What a crazy day that was!! Another entry for another day.

A Trip Down Under-Part 4

2010-06-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Day 11- Today we headed to the Great Barrier Reef! Can you believe it! ME...snorkeling on one of the only 2 visible things on earth from outer space!!! I was totally excited for this day! I prepared for the day with yet another peanut butter and banana sandwich. We headed to the pier to meet our boat with the other 100 who would also be going with us and off we went to Green Island. The ride took 90 minutes. The whole way I looked so closely for a whale to leap from the beautiful blue water. No whale but the color of the water was mesmerizing. As we neared the island and the view just got more and more gorgeous my excitement grew. The reef became more visible and in some areas, as we neared the shore of the island there were parts of the reef above the water. We pulled in and unloaded the boat with our snorkel gear. There was only enough time to find a locker to put our stuff and then we headed back up the pier to load the semi-submersed boat which would give us a divers perspective of the reef. The first thing I saw out the window when I took my seat was a shark on the bottom of the ocean floor. NICE! Except a little scary to think that I'd be out snorkeling with the sharks a little later. We headed out to the reef and saw several types of fish from very small to pretty big, a HUGE giant clam (I'm talking several feet in diameter!), several turtles and amazing reef. It's so amazing to think that there is a whole other world in the depths of the blue ocean. After our boat trip the snorkeling began. We donned our snorkel gear and began the trek into the water. It took a little while to get out to where the water was deep enough to swim in but finally I got there into the water I went. Immediately I was looking at the most colorful parrot fish, tiny electric blue fish and then I nearly ran into one of those super huge clams! As I went on it just got more and more amazing. Such a variety of fish, lots of starfish...one was so big! It had long, thin arms and was such a beautiful color blue. I just wanted to keep exploring but without a wetsuit I began to get cold and finally had to end my exploration of the colorful, living reef without seeing a turtle or shark. I sat on the sand to dry off and eat my lunch while trying to shew away the most pesky bird who was bold enough to get into my bag to get to the apple core wrapped in a plastic bag! geesh! At the end of the day we boarded the boat and the staff threw pellets into the water to feed the fish. Quickly several sharks came to the surface to try and beat the numerous other fish to the free meal. It was a great day. My only regret was not having worn a wet suit so I could have stayed in the water a little longer. Happily, I remembered to lather on the sunscreen and where a shirt so I came out of the experience with very little burn. Good thing Australia isn't too far of a flight from Thailand so a return trip is totally possible!

A Trip Down Under-Part 3

2010-06-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Day 9- Now in Cairns we had nothing planned for today but to wander around the city and see what there is to see. A block from our hotel is a crocodile infested "beach". Even if there weren't crocs in it this beach isn't one you would find inviting...very muddy, not so sandy. We walked along the boardwalk unable to spot any crocodiles. We found the pier and admired all the large boats and the beautiful view of the ocean laid out before us. There were several fishers along the pier reeling in their catches...made me wish I had a rod to join them. We found some more shopping and Maren found an opal she fell in love with and purchased. We signed ourselves up for some day trips and just rested and enjoyed walking around the city until our feet begged us to stop. We headed back to the "beach" and sat on the boardwalk waiting for a croc to show up, which they never did. But some beautiful pelicans and a heron did make appearances. As we sat there and as the sun began to set birds began flocking in large numbers to 2 trees near where we were sitting. They were making so much noise it was impossible to not notice them. For some reason their song was so familiar. We looked up and realized that the birds were the beautiful rainbow lorikeets we had become familiar with at the beginning of the trip. I was amazing to see these birds all flock into these 2 trees to settle in for the night. As the sun disappeared the birds became completely quiet, like kids sharing a room finally drifting off to sleep after mom asked them time and time again to please quiet down.

Day 10- We were picked up by a bus at 8:45 and taken to a train stop where we caught a historic train that took us up the mountain, through sugar cane fields, rainforests, around waterfalls. After the 2 hour ride we ended up in the village of Kuranda, population 1200. The tiny town really has very little to offer other than tourist shops, a butterfly sanctuary, and a reptile zoo. We walked up the main street lined with shops and began with lunch. I found an option that intrigued me...a kangaroo meat pie! SIGN ME UP! It was fine...not amazing but

different. After lunch we went for a rainforest walk (can't get tired of them!), did a little shopping and then it was time to catch the gondola back to Cairns. The gondola took us up and over the rainforest...a different perspective. We stopped at several places along the way to take little walks and look out over the gorge, admire the waterfalls and learn more about the plants in the area including identifying the stinging fern...yikes! and seeing HUGE spiders! That night Maren and I split up. I went off for more walking through the city and some personal shopping time and Maren headed to crocodile beach hoping tonight would be the night a croc would show up. My shopping was successful...more Christmas shopping done! and an opal necklace for me!

Ok, that's all for tonight. I have to get up early tomorrow for my 7:00 Thai language classes so i'd better get some studying in and get to bed. Good night!

A Trip Down Under-Part 2

2010-06-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

Ok...let's see, where did I leave off...

Day 4- After a

night on the train unable to see any of the countryside (very disappointing) we arrived to Brisbane at 6:30 a.m. We made our way quickly to the hostel and we were able to switch our reservation since they weren't expecting us until tomorrow night. Surprisingly we were able to get right into our room... a nice surprise. Unfortunately, we found the hostel to be pretty undesirable. It was dirty, the doors were thin so you were able to hear even the whispers of the people in the hallway and the sheets on the beds were stained. We decided only to stay here one night since we were already locked in. We dropped our bags, found a hearty breakfast and headed off to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This was a special treat. We spent the day admiring the cuddly koalas who were lazily perched in trees munching on eucalyptus (I got to hold one and snuggle with it. It was so great!! Super soft and snuggly!), play in an open field with wallabies and kangaroos petting and feeding them, see a bird show, watch the herding and sheering of sheep and see numerous other animals inside the sanctuary. It was delightful to spend the day with the variety of animals

found in Australia. At the end of the day we gathered with others to feed the rainbow lorikeets. A wet, mushy, oatmeal-type porridge was placed into containers and the birds came flocking in with a thunderous roar. There were over a hundred birds! We held the containers and the birds climbed all over us to get to the food. At one point I had 2 or 3 birds on my head. I'll have to get that photo from Maren. The birds were so beautifully colored! After that experience we headed back in town, did some shopping ate dinner and headed to the hostel for a less than restful night sleep.

Day 5- After breakfast we headed to the information center to see about booking some excursions. We were able to book a 2-day trip to Fraser Island which had been recommended by an Australian friend of mine. The kind lady also got us a great price in a nice hotel...much better than the hostel! Two women at the information center were getting excited about some big sales happening at several stores. They kindly shared the names of the stores and locations with us and off Maren and I went to boost the Australian economy! I had been looking forward to an opportunity to buy some new clothes and this was it! I came away with several pairs of much needed shoes and some clothing. We also found a farmers market where we picked up some fresh produce to take with us on our adventure to Fraser Island, we did some shopping for opals (which are mined in Australia...there are opals being sold everywhere!!!) and after another long day on our feet we headed to the hotel and prepared for our trip the next day.

Day 6- We met up with our tour guide, Eugene, and the 5 other others in our tour group.

Eugene was a most interesting individual. A man in his early 40's (my guess) with long, curly hair and a goatee who loved music (we listened to AC/DC for most of the 3 hour drive to the island) and also composes his own music (he just released his first album...more on that later). The others in our group included a young couple who had just gotten engaged a few days earlier (cute story), a girl from Germany, a guy from England and another girl from England. It was a great group with fun dynamics. Once we arrived to Fraser Island we realized why people kept telling us to go with a tour company rather than on our own. The Island is one huge sand dune and unless you know how to maneuver a jeep in the sand you are out of luck...we saw several vehicles that had gotten bogged down in the sand. The sand was such a light color and the ocean was a beautiful blue. A beautiful sight. Immediately Eugene began pointing out the variety of bird life on the island. We also saw several dingos (wild dogs) on the beach. Most of the day we spend driving along the beach exploring the island. We stopped to meander through a creek with crystal clear water and we passed by another creek with deep red water colored by one of the native trees. It was interesting to see it spill into the ocean and turn the water in that area red. We also stopped for a bush walk. We walked barefooted on the sand through the rainforest admiring the plant life. Unfortunately, my little toe met up with a tree root leaving me fairly certain it broke my toe. Very painful, I don't recommend it. Made walking a little tough for the rest of the trip. Anyway. As we reached the top of our walk, which was a steady incline up, up, up we found ourselves at the top of sand dune which we then walked down a ways and found a beautiful lake where we stopped to rest and enjoy the view (and try to recover from the intense pain of a broken toe). All too soon it was time to head back down the path...ouch! We got back in the jeep and began the drive to the house we'd spend the night at. As we drove I noticed something out in the water...what was it? a fin? I had heard Eugene talk about the sharks that trolled the waters near the beach but wasn't sure if that's what I was seeing. When I decided that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me that there there was actually something jumping out of the water I asked Eugene if it was a shark. We got closer and he got excited. Not a shark...a dolphin! One lone dolphin swimming through the water, and jumping through the air in order to catch our attention. It was a beautiful sight as the sun was beginning to set. Eugene cooked us up a dinner of hamburgers and we asked him to play us some music. He pulled out his guitar and harmonica and gave us a concert. It was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated. He then pulled out his CD and informed us that we could take a piece of him home with us for a mere $25. Um, kind but no thanks. As the evening progressed and intoxication settled in the evening became more interesting. We began learning drinking games from around the world. We were all laughing our heads off, even those of us who were alcohol-free...perhaps especially those of us who were alcohol free! It was decided that a trip to the pub was in order via the beach so we all climbed back into the van and Eugene drove us up the beach a little ways. We got out to admire the night sky. It was majestic! It's been a long time since I've experienced a night sky with very little light pollution. Stars were falling from the sky left and right and the milky way showed herself in all her glory...a truly beautiful night. Maren and I would have preferred to just stay on the beach admiring the sky rather than heading to the pub but in an effort to be "dingo safe" we decided against the possible danger of that option. The local pub was full of young kids (i'd guess most of them between 18-21) who were in costumes they had put together using the props from their hotel rooms. They had a costume contest, played drinking games and consumed an amazing amount of fluid. Anyway, Maren and I decided it was a bit much for us so we headed out seeking a different environment. Most of our group also decided they were ready to turn in but Eugene wasn't expected to come get us for a while longer so we decided to try making our way back to the house on our own. After we began our journey we realized that none of us really knew exactly how to get home. We just knew that we had driven up the beach a ways. We walked and walked and tried to find the right road (there weren't many to choose from). After a while we doubled back and decided on a road that ended up leading up home safely. Exhausted we all fell into bed. Unfortunately, the pain of my poor toe kept me awake most of the night.

Day 7- I really wanted to see the sun rise over the ocean but I was so tired and my foot hurt so

badly I just couldn't get out of bed in time. Finally at 6:30 I decided it was pointless to stay in bed any longer so I got up, got dressed and forced myself to walk to the beach despite the pain. I walked through the cool water hoping to draw out the inflammation in my foot, enjoyed watching the birds and welcomed in the rolling waves. About 7:30 Maren joined me and at 8 we headed back to the house to find that everyone had finally rolled out of bed. It was a slow morning despite Eugene's efforts to hurry everyone along. Disappointingly, the slow morning resulted in a much condensed version of a morning bushwalk through the rainforest. What we did see, however, was beautiful. We saw the very rare shiny black cockatoo, a kookaburra, we learned about indigenous plants, saw magnificent trees and admired the handiwork of God. Then it was off to a fresh water lake. White sand, clear water...beautiful. It was only about 10 a.m. or so and still a bit cool but the water was too beautiful to pass up so I down to my swim suit and went for a dip. Cold but refreshing! I shared the lake with turtle. We stayed for about an hour or so and then it was time to have lunch and head back to Brisbane.

Day 8- Back in Brisbane we spend the morning riding the ferry up the river as we explored different parts of the city. To our surprise we turned a bend and there, on the cliff was a Mormon temple! What a beautiful sight. I knew there was a temple there but didn't expect to see it like this! When we had gone far enough we jumped off the ferry and caught a ferry headed back the other direction. We hopped off at one stop and began exploring. We found a beautiful church, ate our lunch and then headed to the botanical gardens where we spent several hours. Then we wandered through more of the city, shopping along the way, of course. Then we picked up our bags from the hotel and headed to the airport to fly to Cairns for several days at the Great Barrier Reef! YIPPEEE!!!

A Trip Down Under-Part 1

2010-06-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a 2 week vacation in Australia, a country approximately the size of the US. As you can imagine there would be no way to experience even a tenth of what the US has to offer in just 2 weeks and this was the same case with Australia. Planning for this trip was essential. Actually, this trip was originally supposed to be a trip to Mongolia where I'd meet up with a friend of mine but due to her work situation this was no longer possible. I mentioned to another friend of mine that I had this time off already approved and she volunteered to come meet me in Thailand and the plan was to explore Thailand and Cambodia. Unfortunately, the situation in Bangkok became unstable and we decided to choose another meeting point. Australia it was!

Maren and I had a few goals: Whale watching, kangaroos, koalas, Great Barrier Reef, rain forests. We decided to focus our time on 3 main areas, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns, in that order. So much happened and it would have been easier if I had been able to blog each day but I choose not to so I'll just give a quick run down of the highlights of each day.

Day 1-Arrived and met Maren in Sydney at 7 a.m. Dropped our luggage at the hostel and began our exploration of the city. We immediately fell in love with the city for it's old world look and modern vibe. It rained most of the day as we wandered through the streets, the botanical gardens and made our way to the harbor for a view of the iconic Opera House. It was magical to be there in person. We stopped for a bowl of soup for lunch which felt nice in the crisp temperature...a welcome change from the Bangkok heat. Maren had her introduction to the traditional music of the a hollowed out tree limb instrument called the didgeridoo as we listened to performances of local musicians. Then we found a local market where we enjoyed some dumplings and pastries, walked along the harbor bridge and decided our feet had had enough walking so we headed back to the hostel. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the hostel we realized we were starving and the only food within reach was Dominos Pizza!! I'm embarrassed to report that we broke down and ate it...and vowed not to do it again!

Day 2-As it was Sunday we got up, put on our skirts and walked a few short blocks to the church. We attended a small congregation of young single adults. It turned out that there was no one in the congregation that day who played the piano so Maren was recruited. I sat and enjoyed the meetings until I was called on to share some thoughts and feelings during the last meeting. What a surprise! I expressed my gratitude to God for the numerous blessings he has given me and encouraged the congregation to be service oriented, enjoy this time of life and to look out for each other. After church we headed to the Opera House for a symphony performance. The inside of the opera house was beautiful! Theme of the fins that defines the Opera House is carried through inside the building as well. The first number performed was a debut of a modern composer. I found the piece very difficult to listen to, very disharmonious, screechy, eerie and strange. I was relieved to hear the much sweeter sounds of composers who have been around a while! After the symphony we picked up our rental car, enjoyed some sushi for dinner and hit the road for a 2 1/2 hour drive south to Jervis Bay where we would stay the night. We had a rainy, windy drive. It was my first time driving on the left side of the road and I successfully got us to our destination. It was a strange feeling with the drivers seat on the wrong side, the blinker was where the wiper should have been and vice-versa. I'm just glad we had an automatic transmission cuz trying to shift gears with my left hand would have been too much I'm afraid!

Day 3- The plan for today was a whale watching cruise. We woke up early and found that it was still raining and windy. My heart sank knowing that there was a good possibility the cruise would be canceled. We had breakfast, wandered along the water's edge as the waves rolled in. Then we went to the office of the tour company and my fears were confirmed. The storm was too big to take a boat out. I admit that I was severely disappointed in the weather. As there was nothing else to do in the town of less than 1500 people we wandered along the beach, watched the surfers, who didn't seem to share my disappointment in the weather, and then decided to drive back to Sydney and see if we could change our train tickets to Brisbane from tomorrow to today. On the drive back we stopped to watch huge waves roll in at one beach and crash violently into the rocks. It was a beautiful sight and made me so grateful I was not on a boat at that moment! We made it back to Sydney, returned the car and got our tickets changed. We hopped on the train and off we went to Brisbane. Unfortunately it get's dark by about 6:30 pm in Australia so we were unable to enjoy the scenery as we had hoped.

Well, I'll stop there for today. Come back tomorrow for a second installment! :-)

"Together We Can"

2010-05-23T05:28:00.001-07:00

Today for church we had some visitors from the church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. All of the congregations in Bangkok (I believe there are about 5 congregations) were invited to attend one meeting held at a convention center outside Bangkok. The meeting was inspiring as we mourned over the tragic events that have taken place recently. The speakers reminded us that no matter what our political opinions we are unified through our love for and belief in God. They reminded us of the importance to build strong families who love goodness and peace. I sang in the choir for the meeting and felt strongly a love for this country and its people.

On the way home I was driving with a friend who is new to driving in Thailand. She has a navigation system we call Lee who speaks to us in an Australian accent. We typed in the address of our final destination and Lee gave us step by step directions on how to get home. Unfortunately, there are places where the roads are a bit unclear and the highways resemble a spaghetti bowl and so we missed a turn and Lee had to recalculate and quickly think of a new route to get us home. The new path drove us into the heart of downtown Bangkok where we were able to see the damage the fires and fighting caused. We saw the huge mall that had burnt to ashes as well as the remains of several other buildings. We could see in the road where the tires had been lit on fire. It was quite sad to see the loss and damage.

There were also crowds of people on the street. Many of them standing and, like me, were also grieving the loss but many had trash bags in gloved hands and were assisting with clean up efforts. They were picking up trash, washing soot off of walls, scrubbing the streets and sidewalks. There were large trucks driving into the area which I can only assume would soon be filled with debris and other garbage. Thai citizens were purchasing cold drinks and snacks and taking them to the drivers of these large vehicles in a gesture of gratitude for their service. My heart was full of joy as I watched the people of Bangkok come together to clean up and rebuild. I was caught off guard by the whole thing quite honestly! And I was so pleased to see after the protests filled with so much anger and destruction and violence this demonstration of unity and peace and teamwork.

There was a sign hanging on the side of the road that read "Together We Can". Many of those who were helping in the community cleaning effort were wearing T-shirts that said the same...Together We Can.

This is the Thailand I know. These are the loving, kind Thai people I have encountered. This is how I will remember Thailand. A community of peace-loving people who come together to work hard after tragic events to rebuild.

There is so much we can accomplish when we work together.

Together We Can!

The Ancient City

2010-05-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

I wrote up this nice blog yesterday about what was going on and my feelings and experiences with the BKK disturbances but it disappeared (I was obviously not on my Mac). I was too frustrated to rewrite it all. In a nutshell things are getting better here. Today I ventured out of the house and to a nearby park with 2 friends. The park is called the Ancient City. It's in the shape of Thailand and has replicas of significant buildings and ruins throughout Thailand. We rented bicycles and rode through the park visiting the replicas and learning a bit of Thai history and Buddhism. It was very interesting and the buildings were beautiful! The day was hot so we made frequent stops for cold water and ice cream.

It was great to see some of Thailand's most important structures. It was interesting to note that each building was influenced so deeply by religion. The symbolism in each aspect of the buildings, the carvings, the shapes, it all has hindu and/or Buddhist significance. The stupa, for starters...the square on the bottom is a square, like the Buddha folded his robes, in the shape of a square. On top of that is Buddha's bowl, upside down. On top of that is Buddha's staff. And there you have it...a Stupa!

It's so beautiful to see all the symbolism. I really love it.

So, it took us from 8:30 to 5 to see what we saw and we weren't even able to cover the whole park in that time. It was really amazing. And it was nice being outside, on a bike, in the hot sun rather than sitting on my couch, in front of the TV in the AC...well, ok, the AC would have been really nice.

Well, I've decided that I LOVE Thailand and that I can't wait to see the originals of the replicas I saw today. I feel so lucky to be here! Oh, I didn't even mention the purchases I made today. I bought the greatest little rocking elephant and a wooden elephant puppet with strings...so fun! And...a few Christmas gifts I won't mention. :-) Yes, I've already started my Christmas shopping.

Troops Moving In

2010-05-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday morning. I've been off work since Thursday at 3:00. I've been keeping up on the news by watching CNN, reading the Bangkok Post, The Nation and reading other sites online to stay updated on the happenings in an area I used to go to my Thai language classes and enjoy the large park in that area.

Since Thursday things have been heating up. Well, this morning I woke up (I have to admit that it has been nice to sleep in!) and turned on CNN only to see footage of troops rolling into the area of the protests, knocking down barricades and trying to stablize the area of tension. There are gun shots, lots of smoke from the burning tires and bank has caught fire.

It is strange to watch what is going on just couple of miles from me. But do not worry, I am safe. I might go stircrazy but I'm safe.

While I've been sitting here in my apartment I have been afforded the opportunity to chat with many people I haven't had direct contact with since I left the US (or longer). I appreciate these opportunities to hear updates on your lives and I'm so glad to hear that people are actually reading my ramblings! :-)

Well, I guess that is all for now. Time for me to find something else to do.

Oh, I just got a txt from the embassy stating the the security situation is deteriorating in areas closer to my house. Praying for peace.

Protest Update

2010-05-16T05:11:00.000-07:00

My heart is heavy today as the protests have turned ugly in Bangkok. We received word on Thursday that the government advised those who work around the protest area should go home early. We let staff go home at 3:00 and told them not to come in on Friday. Unsure of what would happen we had received notices from the US embassy that something was about to happen.

Not wanting to be here when things got ugly I decided to head out of town with a friend to Nong Nooch, a botanical garden she had heard about located about 2 hours from Bangkok. Friday morning we took the drive and found ourselves in such a beautiful area! Not only were there beautiful gardens but tons of elephants, a petting zoo, a butterfly hill and lots to keep us busy.

We had a great time riding elephants, walking through the gardens, watching a cultural performance, an elephant show which included elephants bicycling, playing basketball, soccer, painting, dancing and a host of amazing tricks! It was easy to feel like Bangkok was just a bad dream but we got regular updates that the embassy sends out informing us of shootings in various areas, explosions, road closures and other bad news reminding us that the bad dream was worse than just a nightmare...it was reality.

We spent the night in a little cottage inside the gardens and spent Saturday hanging out with the elephants, feeding the fish and the animals in the petting zoo (we spent way more money on food for animals than food for ourselves!), laughing hysterically, watching the elephant show again and eating ice cream. I made my first purchase of original art. It's a piece painted by an elephant! :-) I couldn't resist! It was a beautiful (very hot!!) day.

All too soon it was time to make our way back to Bangkok. Unsure if we would be able to make it back into the city on our normal roads due to various road closures from the fighting we took our chances and found a smooth drive back. Thank goodness.

I went to church this morning but only a handful of people showed up. The service was very short and then many of us gathered at the home of a family in the congregation to have lunch. From their apartment we could see the area where the unrest is centered. Smoke was billowing into the sky, probably from the burning tires. The family said they were able to hear explosions and gunfire from their location.

After a simple meal of taco salad we discussed the political situation sharing what we'd heard and what had happened. The death toll is now at 24, the government is giving all women and children until 3 pm tomorrow to get out of the protest area and then...well, we're not sure what will happen then. Will the military go in? Things keep changing. It's got to be hard to follow through with plans when so much of the military are red shirts themselves or "watermelons" as they are now referred to (green military uniforms but red shirts underneath). I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. I just saw on the news that the government has declared Monday and Tuesday as holidays so I've got another 2 days in the house. There isn't much work I can do from home except to cancel all of the refugee interviews both caseworkers and US government officials planned to conduct. So, I'll work on scheduling interviews in other areas in our region hoping they will actually happen.

My house is a couple of miles from the main action and I have no windows looking over the area of unrest so I think I'm safe where I am. But I am near a major street and just about an hour ago heard cars driving down the street shouting and honking horns, headed in the direction of the protests. The skytrains and metros are shut down and rumor has it several stations are under control of the Red Shirts.

I have enough food in the house to last me awhile in case I can't get out but I'll run to the grocery store tomorrow to pick up a few more things. I'm not sure what I'll do with my time the next few days but I have a few movies and books around. :-) Oh, and I learned today that what I though were the effects of a bad sunburn on my leg from last week's beach run is actually jellyfish stings! So, I'll head to the pharmacy to see what they can give me for the itch and to help it heal (how do these things happen to me?).

I'm sad it has come to this and hope peace will be restored. I love Thailand and its people. I pray peace will soon be restored and life will return to normal. Until then, I promise not to do anything stupid as my curiosity often gets me in trouble. I'll do all I can to stay safe.

What My $35 Can Buy

2010-04-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-25T02:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

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

Heroes Among Us

2010-03-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a sad day. I met a man who carried 2 abandoned children he'd never met before over land to "safety" despite the risk to his own safety. What a heroic thing to do. I hope I adequately expressed to him my gratitude and respect. I continue to be amazed at the people I encounter and the work I am engaged in.

I believe there is a God and that he is acutely aware of each of us. I believe it brings tears to his eyes to see how inhumane we are to each other at times. I believe that there will be justice.

I also believe that there are angels among us. I believe each one of us can be those angels if we do what's right...if we listen to that still, small voice within us, whispering so softly that we have to be listening in order to hear it. Sometimes we don't understand why it's telling us to do the things it does but if we follow the instructions we are given it will soon become clear that someone needed our help. Today I am particularly grateful to all those who listened and reached out to helped me at very critical moments and throughout my life.

Today I pray for the abandoned children throughout the world. May there be someone to love them and care for each one. And if there is no one may there be an angel assigned to watch over and comfort them.

Life's a Beach

2010-03-07T05:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was the wedding of one of my coworkers (American) and her fiancee (Thai). In Thai Buddhist culture a wedding begins before the sun rises with the blessing of the monks. This part wedding ceremony is most commonly attended by family (perhaps the only ones who love you enough to get up that early!) I took off a half day of work with a number of other people in the office to make the 2.5 hour drive to Rayong where the reception was being held Friday evening. But, because we also had monday off for a local holiday and since we were so close to the beach I decided to make it a beach weekend!

The reception was nice, taking place in a dirt lot next to the home of groom's relative. They set up a stage where a band, singers and dancers performed in Thai and next to it was a screen with Thai boxing showing :-). The guests were feed an amazing 5 or 6 course meal while enjoying the entertainment. It was a very cultural night.

The next day I headed to the Island of Ko Samet with Miro, Jenny and Mateo. We were driven to the pier where we took a speed boat to the island. After the 20 minute ride across the amazingly clear, aqua water the boat backed up as close it could to the beach and we jumped into the water, grabbed our bags and walked ashore. It was great. We walked along the white sandy beach lined with hotels, restaurants and sun bathers until we found our resort. It was more beautiful than I expected.

Immediately we checked in and found lunch. Then we switched into our swim suits, smothered ourselves in sunscreen and headed to the beach! The sun was high and hot. We found refuge under the umbrellas where I basked in the beautiful scenery and took a nap. Then it was into the water which was surprisingly warm. It was so nice to be in the water, feel the sand on my feet. There is something therapeutic about the beach. Cares seem to wash away and life seems so manageable. What is it about the beach that is so refreshing?

Our stomachs told us it was dinner time so off we went in search of food. I had one desire all weekend...Seafood! Luckily it was plentiful and cheap. Most of the restaurants seat out in the open air on traditional Thai triangle cushions on the ground. We chose one of the many restaurant options and ordered our food. A live band started performing and we found ourselves on the front row. Miro and Jenny's 2 year old son danced to the music and invited himself on stage with a few other little people. The singer let him shake the shaker to the music and encouraged his enthusiasm. What a cute child he is.

After dinner Miro and Jenny headed to put the performer to bed and i decided to wander through what looked like a popular shopping street to see what more the island had to offer. I found a studio of an artist from Sri Lanka and talked to him about his work. After admiring his work but not finding anything I wanted to purchase I thanked him and began walking out when a man across the street says, "you mean to tell me you're walking out without buying anything?" After a bit of friendly harassment he introduced me to Aaron, the owner of the bar next door to the studio. Aaron showed me the picture he purchased from the studio and then invited me to stay and celebrate his birthday. I thanked him for the invite but told him I was on a self-guided tour. He let me go and told me that he expected to see me back later. I continued my walk and found nothing real interesting so I decided to head back to the resort but knew that would require a walk by the bar again. I tried to make it past unnoticed but was caught. Aaron insisted that I join him so I stepped in and became engaged in conversation with some other patrons. No one seemed to understand that not only do I not drink but I have honestly never tasted alcohol in my life! That was beyond comprehension. One man tried so hard to get me to share his concoction of pepsi, rum and something else that was being drunk out of a small sand pail. I politely declined and he wanted to know why I was so afraid. I ensured him I had no fear but he insisted that I was afraid. I asked him what he thought I was afraid of. Germs was his answer. I tried to convince him that I was not afraid of germs but he was beyond reason. It was becoming uncomfortable and lucky for me his friend jumped in and told him to knock it off, that if I hadn't given in to drinking at age 16 I probably wasn't going to give in now.

This man who had saved me told his wife it was about time to go but she wanted to stay..."Can I stay and hang out with the girls for a bit" she asked. He could see that she had already had enough to drink that she was pretty comfortable with the single men in the bar and told her that he didn't think that was a good idea. She complained and he said he'd come back to get her in 30 minutes. He looked at me and and I promised to keep my eye out for her. During the next 30 minutes, Aaron jumped on one of the picnic tables dancing to the music and then broke the table and the woman I was supposed to keep my eye on was becoming very flirtatious as she danced with a couple of the guys. I was becoming nervous wondering what I would do if she went any further. Luckily, her husband showed up and things cooled down. Phew! It was time for me to leave. I excused myself but the old man who had tried to get me to drink held my hand, kissed it gently and asked if he could continue the evening with me. I thanked him for the offer, told him I was flattered (left out the part about being repulsed as he was twice my age) and declined despite his attempts. Aaron thanked me for celebrating and commented that while i'm very innocent I'm also very true. I was grateful to have met some interesting people and glad to be back in my hotel room. :-)

Sunday was a religious day on the beach! As I headed to the beach I saw several faces the I recognized from the night before...the man and his wife I was supposed to keep an eye on as well as the old man who kept hitting on me were all staying at the same resort! I snuck by unnoticed. phew! Back on the beach I'm afraid I absorbed too much sun and became quite burnt. I decided that before the pain set in I should get a massage listening to the sound of the waves rolling in. Very relaxing!...very cheap...$10 for an hour massage on the beach. :-) Lunch and dinner involved seafood... after dinner I made the wise decision of returning back to the hotel with Jenny, Miro and Mateo instead of venturing out on my own again.

Monday was check out day. I got up early and went to a rocky beach in search of sea glass. I found a nice stash of pretty pieces. Then I enjoyed the delicious buffet breakfast included with the room and headed back to the beach for a final swim before we checked out and headed back to the Big Mango. Unfortunately, the time came too quickly to say goodbye to the white, sandy beach, the crisp, aqua waters and the relaxing feeling of the beach. The good news is that the beach is really only about 2.5 hours from me so I can go ANYTIME! A coworker who has now returned to her Canadian home gave me her emergency beach bag filled with all the beach emergencies so that at a moments notice I can now grab the bag and head to paradise!

A week later, my tan is now pealing off and I will soon be back to my pasty color...but my freckles have found their way back to the surface of my skin. :-) Life is good.

My New Office

2010-02-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

I recently moved into my permanent office at work. I've been in a temporary location as more office space has been built. As of October 2009 IRC-OPE was granted the contract to provide Cultural Orientation to refugees in our region prior to their departure to the US. We are in the process of adapting the current orientation inherited from IOM who held the contract before us. The new orientation will focus on information the refugee needs during their first 30 days in the US with a section focused solely on the airplane ride since this will be most refugees first experience on a plane.

The new grant has required us to acquire more space and build offices within that space for the Cultural Orientation staff. The space is now finished and it has freed up an office for me as opposed to the cubical type situation I've been in for the last 4 months (can you believe I've been here 4 months now?).

The office, while fairly large, has no window and very strong air conditioning which I have no control over so I've placed a wrap in the office to keep me warm. The AC air intake vents are located in my office so it creates a wind tunnel sound effect, very similar to what we experienced in the IRC-SLC office.

You can see from the photos that my office sports some treasures of which I am very proud! One of those treasures is a photo taken by a friend of mine of a little girl in Mongolia. This is a piece I fell in love with immediately and which attracts the attention of everyone who enters my office. Another of my treasures is the IRC yellow "PORTAL Passport" which was developed in our SLC office. This passport is given to each adult refugee arriving with IRC to SLC. Inside they can collect the contact information of each organization that provides services to them and includes a calendar for them to keep track of their appointments. My passport has been signed by my former coworkers in SLC and has many well wishes which I like to read on occasion to remember the amazing people who carry on the work of resettlement in the US.

Another treasure is my Statue of Liberty presented to me by my former boss and mentor. It is a symbol which reminds me of why I do the work I do.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It brings me great joy that America remains a country that welcomes those that no one else claims, stateless citizens who have endured decades of mistreatment, who have been passed back and forth between unwelcoming countries, people who aren't free to practice their traditions or religion without worry of persecution, just as many of my own ancestors who came to the US seeking freedom. Sadly my mormon ancestors further experienced this persecution within the US and were forced to flee their homes on several occasions. It makes me think of the Somali Bantu, the Karen, the Lost Boys of Sudan and many other groups who have found refuge in the US.

The last of my treasures comes once again from my friends in Salt Lake City. It is a quilt that hangs on my wall. Each square was decorated by IRC team members with memories and well wishes. The significance of this piece needs no explanation. This is another piece that captures the attention of those who enter my office. It is a piece that puts a smile on my face and reminds me of the honor I had to work with an amazing team of dedicated, hard working, caring individuals. These are people who work above and beyond what many people do in their jobs. Their work inspires me. From, Leah who locates and orchestrates housing, to Zaw who picks them up from the airport at midnight and provides an orientation upon arrival so he doesn't get home to his family until the wee hours of the morning and then shows up to work the next morning. Valentine and the other caseworkers who provide services and guidance for 2 years and Josh and Robert who conduct employment orientations and then engage refugees in employment searching...a frustrating task these days. There is Tanya who provides immigration assistance, the health team, numerous other staff, countless volunteers, interns, managers and many others who provide vital services to refugees.

Finally, you will notice my office is filled with files. They represent those families who are engaged in the struggle to become approved to start a new life in the US. Families who are struggling daily in their current situations hoping for a brighter future. Again I am blessed to work with a team of tireless staff who take their jobs seriously; their job to collect data and information to be presented to the US government who will decide if they will be accepted into the US. I am proud to be a part of this new team and to have the opportunity to be engaged in such an amazing cause.

Anyway, here are the photos of my new office! :-) And just a reminder that the views expressed here are my own and in no way reflect the views of the IRC. :-)

You can see the photo of the Mongolian girl hanging on the wall

Yes, there is a couch in my office! I haven't used it for a nap yet.

Would that not bring a smile to your face everyday?!

All in a days work

2010-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

This past week I got a chance to travel for work to a city located about 2 hours from Bangkok. We had several refugees we planned to meet there to interview and begin gathering their information. Normally I don't go on these trips as we have plenty of very capable staff who are far better than me at interviewing and completing the necessary paperwork but I volunteered to go as an effort to improve these skills that I don't get to use very often stuck behind the desk reading over files, compiling and sending reports, and ensuring the work in the field is progressing.

The original plan was for me and one coworker to go with 2 interpreters. We had 4 families to interview, one family of 7, one of 2 and 2 single individuals. My coworker volunteered to take the family of 7 since they typically take longer (bless him). I was to take the family of 2 and one of the singles. Two days before our trip it became apparent that we would need to take a side trip to a nearby location to take fingerprints of 2 individuals who had already had their interview. It was already going to take us all day just to conduct the interviews we had originally planned and I didn't know how we would also have time to make this side trip so I recruited another coworker to come with us who had fingerprinting expertise. I figured we could send her to the second location while 2 of us were conducting interviews. Then she could return to our location to do the fingerprinting and take photos of those we were interviewing there. With her help we were sure to be done by 4.

The day before our trip another file landed on my desk of a family in the same area. We made contact with the family and they were told to meet us at our interviewing location. We now had 5 families to interview! It was going to make for a long day. And, as if that weren't enough, when we arrived we found that one of the "singles" was actually married and had 2 children! Our long day just got longer! I had a feeling that not only would I not have time to wander the city to see the monkeys that run wild in the streets and along the roof tops, I was also not going to be back in Bangkok for the plans I had made. I was right.

I sat down with the first family. The questions began. I gathered all the biographical information, dates and places of birth for each person, family tree information, work history, education, etc. Then came the hard part, gathering the information about why they left their country of origin and why they are unable to return. It often feels like cruel and unusual punishment to ask individuals to relive their horrific experiences. But we must capture these stories if they are to be considered for resettlement to the US. Hearing the stories of various individuals has been difficult for me at times. I've spoken to a woman who was gang raped several times, a man who was forced to porter for a military he did not support. I've read of a girl whose father was killed as he saved his 16 year old daughter from being raped by soldiers, and the stories continue. This particular day I heard stories of people who fled into the jungle to hide from the military. The military sprayed chemicals into the jungle which caused their bellies to swell and killed many. Another lost her parents as they were too old to flee and fell into the hands of the military. She was informed by cousins and neighbors that her parents had been killed. You can see why this part of the interview is so difficult.

Well, we finished up our interviews by 6 pm and I got home about 9 pm. Now, lest you be left reading this entry with heavy heart let me lift you spirits with the outcome of one family.

The church I attend is also attended by many families who are fleeing persecution in their countries of origin and have fled to Thailand to seek safety. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a family from Sri Lanka who had finally been approved to resettle in the US. They were being sent to none other than Salt Lake City! You can imagine my excitement for them. I did my best to prep them for what life might be like for them. I told them about the cold, the current economic situation and of course about the wonderful folks in Salt Lake who would assist them through their resettlement experience. They left for the US this week only to get delayed in California due to the snow in Salt Lake. They skyped me from California to let me know of their delay and mentioned how cold it was in California. You think California's cold...oh boy!

I suspect they have made it to Utah by now. My heart is full of many emotions for them. I'm excited and nervous just as I suppose they are feeling as well. Will they be welcomed by their neighbors and school mates? Will the adults be able to secure jobs in a hurting economy? Will they have enough warm clothing and blankets to survive their first winter?

At this point all I can do is pray. I know they are headed into good hands. Hands of well trained individuals who are professional in their ability to help refugee families through the initial stage of resettlement. I tried to forewarn the family that the process they were about to undertake was not an end of their struggles but I fear they didn't understand...afterall, they are going to America!

Please keep your eye out for those who are in need of a little of your support today. A little extra support today will mean a more productive tomorrow, for all of us!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm long overdue for a post! Here is a quick update of the last month!

Thomas' wedding was beautiful! The happy couple were on cloud 9 and the ceremony was very nice. It's crazy to think that my baby brother is now married! What happened to the days of my little brother running around in my high heels, getting into my stuff, picking on me...well, that didn't really ever stop. Thomas is now a man...a married man. If there had been enough time at the luncheon I was going to tell the story about when Thomas was little and how he would never obey me. In fact there were times when i swear he would do just the thing I asked him NOT to do. It got to be a serious problem for me and I complained and complained to my mom until she too finally recognized this. She asked Thomas one night why he didn't listen to me and he simply said "She talks too much"!...WHAT? I talk too much? ok, I admit, I was bossy and a very annoying older, and younger, sibling....but can you get away actually saying "she talks too much?" Well, what could my mom do but look at me and laugh? We both knew it was true. Emily...beware. Don't talk too much! :-)

Anyway, moving along...After the wedding I spent Christmas at older brother Bryce's house. What a fun Christmas it was! Christmas Eve we made goodie bags for the neighbors which the kids delivered. In the evening we all dressed in robes and put on our best shepherd attire. We sat on the family room floor and discussed, as shepherds what it must have been like to see an angel and a bright star and to be led to see the Christ child. We read scripture acted out our parts as shepherds and enjoyed a meal of shepherds pie. It was humble...just as it was the night of Christ's birth. I felt it a very appropriate celebration.

In the morning the kids opened a variety of gifts but I think the highlight was the new pool table for the kids, the canoe for Bryce and the TV for Lynnette (sister-in-law). We played a lot of pool that day! Unfortunately I came down with a cold and kept my tissue box very close!

Overall the trip home was wonderful! I returned with suitcases full of new sheets for my bed, a nice fluffy bath towel, peanut butter, microwave popcorn and taco seasoning! :-) If only I had enough space to pack a few friends and siblings! I returned to Bangkok with mixed emotions after having such a wonderful time but focused on how much I enjoy being here and the sadness quickly dissipated.

I spent New Year's Eve enjoying dinner with my old boss who is working out here and then meet up with some new friends playing games and just hanging out. At midnight we headed to the top level of the apartment complex where we were to enjoy the 360 degrees of fireworks at various places throughout the city. It was a great view! Afterwards we played a few more games and then decided to head home. At 2:30 AM the streets were packed with people and finding an available taxi was impossible! We ended up walking home since the sky train was no longer running... and, as usual, I wore very impractical shoes which i finally decided to take off half way home. Walking barefooted on the streets of Bangkok is not recommended...it's quite disgusting. But it was either amputating my feet after walking home in high heels or risking all manner of diseases by going barefoot. Luckily, I can report that I survived the experience without catching any weird foot diseases! phew!

I finally arrived home at 4 am and fell into bed (forgetting to wash my feet!!) not awaking until after 10 the next day. I ate breakfast and returned to bed to sleep the better part of the day. What a waste of a first day of the year!

Sunday was a much more productive day. I took time to consider what I had accomplished in 2009 and found that it had been a very fulfilling year. It was a very hard year but I had very few regrets. I reconnected with many old friends, enriched my friendships with current friends, tried new things, went outside my comfort zone, felt fulfilled and challenged professionally and in the end I achieved a life long dream...I sold off the majority of my possessions and moved overseas! After looking back over the accomplishments of 2009 I planned for 2010. I listed out my hopes for the new year and prepared mentally for the hard work that I will need to put into this new year. I know it's not going to be an easy year. I need to make new friends, learn a new language and culture, learn a new job and continue to challenge myself to grow and improve. Luckily I have an amazing support system of family and friends who are behind me, praying for my success. And, along with all the challenges that will define this next year I am super excited for all the amazing, wonderful fun stuff I have to look forward to! A trip to visit my sister in Korea in April , a trip to Mongolia in June and that's just scratching the surface! I wonder if there is a world record for the number of massages one has gotten in a years time. I think i'll consider breaking that record. :-) New friends, new experiences...wow! It's gunna be a GREAT year! 2010 is the year of Bangkok...I live in Bangkok!! SWEET!

I hope you've each taken the time to assess 2009 and plan for 2010. It's such a pleasure for me to look back and see how blessed I have been. I'm not sure why I'm so blessed but I hope I never forget to express my gratitude for all that I have.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year! Here's to 2010! Cheers!

Up Above the World so High

2009-12-28T08:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings from above earth! I am currently in flight from SLC to Portland where I have a layover and will then head to Tokyo en route to Bangkok. Delta now provides WiFi on some flights so i thought I'd take advantage of the free trial and blog from a different angle! :-)

I'm flying over the most magnificent snow covered mountains. They look so inviting from way up here! I'm tempted to book a snow trekking excursion to explore the beauties of the earth more closely. Snowshoeing across the powdery, marshmallow like snow or perhaps being pulled in a sled by dogs sounds so exciting!..but then I remember how frigid that would be and so I decide to enjoy the view from the warmth of the plane. How magnificent are God's creations!

I was a little nervous last night as I looked over all my purchases and gifts (a bed cover, new sheets, clothes, peanut butter, instant oatmeal, bath towels, etc.) and wondered if I could really make it all fit into my 2 suitcases! After some very strategic packing I made it work...but had a sick feeling that i was overweight. Upon arrival to the airport my fears were confirmed. I was 6 lbs over. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving behind the peanut butter so I found a way to fit it into the smaller suitcase which I then had to sit on to close and VOILA!!! I get to take all my happy new things!

Well...we are descending into Portland so I need to shut down. How fun to blog from the sky!

Christmas Surprise

2009-12-20T03:53:00.000-08:00

Shortly before I left the US to move to Thailand my little brother, Thomas, announced his engagement to Emily, a sweet, beautiful, talented woman that many of my family members had already had a chance to meet and grow fond of. Emily and Thomas have been friends for several years. Their friendship began before Thomas served as a missionary in Argentina. Emily wrote him letters while he was gone. He returned to the US and they continued their friendship. It was clear that Thomas was developing deep feelings for Emily but she decided that she too desired to serve the Lord as a missionary and Thomas supported her in that, knowing that she would return from the experience an even better woman...if that was possible, in his eyes. He didn't want to be a distraction to her, however, while she was focused on service to the people in the Midwest. Emily returned from her missionary experience earlier this year and the friendship that they had begun several years earlier picked up where they had left off and grew even deeper.

As you can imagine, I was so sad to think that I would not be able to attend my baby brother's wedding to be held on Dec. 22, 2009 in Salt Lake City at the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I would only have been in Thailand for 2 months and knew that the possibilities of being able to return to the US for the event would be slim to none. So, I said good-bye to my sweet little brother, gave him my telescope, my stereo system and my video camera as "wedding gifts" (actually they were just "spoiled baby brother" gifts) and I made the move overseas.

As time passed I heard that my supervisor preferred for people to take time off during the holidays since things in the office are typically slow and it was a great time to give people a much needed break so I approached her and asked if it was at all possible for me to also have some time off, despite being so new in the office. She not only said "yes" but encouraged me to take the time off. I sat down at the computer and began looking for a plane ticket to see if I would even be able to afford the trip. The prices I was seeing were more than I felt I could afford for a short visit. I sought help from a travel agency and the best they could do was to find a $2000 ticket....yikes! My hopes were melted in the reality that I would be unable to afford the luxury of being to Thomas' wedding and spending Christmas with family. With a prayer in my heart I got back on the computer and looked one last time to make sure it really would not be possible. To my surprise and absolute delight I found a ticket at what felt like a reasonable price and although I was unable to discuss this with my parents (as I am prone to do about just about every crazy thing I do in my life) I purchased the ticket and found it difficult to wipe the grin off my face!

It was several days before I was able to make contact with my parents and tell them the news. But I asked them to keep it a secret from my brother so I could surprise him. Keeping a secret in my family is no easy task! There are so many of us that someone is bound to slip up and accidentally leak the information. Knowing this I accepted the fact that Thomas would most likely learn of my intentions before I arrived. And to be sure that no one would accidentally post an "I'm so excited to see you" message on facebook, I also kept the information from my friends. I'm NOT a good secret keeper when it comes to my own news, especially when it comes to such exciting news as I had.

The night before I left I got a full hour of sleep after packing, showering and preparing for a 3:30 am departure! But I was sure I'd be able to sleep on the plane. During the 17 hours in flight sleep did NOT come! My mind was racing and my excitement allowed for no rest. I felt the headache that accompanies sleep deprivation and tried desperately to sleep but to no avail.

When I arrived to my aunt's house Friday evening after making a stop by my old office to say hello to dear friends, my niece, who also knew nothing of my arrival (had she known she would have almost certainly been unable to keep the secret) squealed and jumped on me. What a fun "welcome home!" that was! The Christmas spirit finally filled my soul as family and friends gathered around. And how thankful I was to be in much colder temperatures as are found in Thailand right now!

Last night I finally had the chance to see Thomas. He still knew nothing of my arrival although I was sure that the postings I had made to Facebook dropping slight hints of my upcoming arrival and the information my father sent out with details of the weeks events gave away the secret. Thomas was to arrive at my aunt's house shortly after many of us returned from a Christmas party in them home of my mother's sister. I waited with great anticipation and the excitement built as those of us at the house (my parents, sisters and nieces and nephews) discussed what his reaction might be. Thomas had been so disappointed that I would be unable to be to his wedding. Over the years as siblings we have developed a precious friendship. When he was young I would read to him, we would jump on the trampoline together and despite his declaration at one point that the reason he never obeyed me was because I "talk too much" we maintained our friendship. As the years passed and all the McConkie's married off one by one, it was Thomas and I that were left. There was solace in having each others company at family events where we would sneak off when the crowd became too loud or the discussions of each family's children became just a little boring. :-) As Thomas' relationship with Emily developed and the possibility of marriage became more and more obvious Thomas told me that it would be impossible for him to marry before I did since it just didn't seem right and HE wanted to be the last one! I thanked him for his thoughtfulness and encouraged him to follow his heart and marry the woman who had become his best friend although I knew that my relationship with him would change after his life changing event. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing little brother. He is the kindest, most thoughtful little brother a sister could ask for. Yes, it probably helps that he is my ONLY little brother. I love him so much and have to admit that it would be much harder to watch him move on with his life if I didn't love sweet Emily, his soon-to-be companion for life and eternity.

Finally, Thomas arrived to the house. The lights were low and placed myself on a Lazyboy recliner in the living room where he would enter to give out hugs to all in attendance. Those hugs were given and he walked by me to the fridge. We all giggled that he hadn't seen me. Several minutes went by and he became involved in other greetings and delivering updates to others in the room. "So, how was your day today?" I asked him. He began his reply as he looked in my direction and when he finally made the connection that it was me he was answering and that I wasn't "supposed" to be there his eyes widened and a very excited "HEY! What are you doing here?" belted from his mouth. As I lept up he swept me into his arm and off my feet (for those of you who haven't seen Thomas since his infancy...he is now somewhere around 6' 6"). We embraced and I found it difficult to hold back the tears. He really didn't know that I was coming and was so excited to see me. "I have to tell Emily!" he announced, and the phone call was made.

So, there it is. The surprise took place just as I had envisioned it! And now I can announce to all my friends that "I'm here!!!" I'll only be here a short time and won't have a chance to see you all but this trip is about family. I am so grateful for the tender mercies of a loving God who allowed for me to make this trip. A God who as provided me with so many blessings and wonderful opportunities in my life. This time of year I'm deeply grateful for my wonderful family who is so supportive and who make my life so sweet.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May we remember and focus our activities on the Christ whose birth we celebrate this time of year. The half-man-half-divine who lived his life as an example to us all of what the true meaning of life is and then sacrificed his life for us...for our sins...and made it possible for us to be baptized in his name so that we may be cleansed of sin and enter into his presence and the presence of God after we have proven ourselves worthy through our actions and our thoughts. I am so grateful for His influence in my life. I acknowledge that all I have comes from Him and I am truly blessed.

All my love,
Elissa

The King's Birthday Party

2009-12-06T05:34:00.000-08:00

December 5 was the King's birthday. It is a national holiday. In fact, I get Monday off work since his birthday falls on Saturday...no complaints here! So, I decided to go and see what kind of festivities would be taking place by the Grand Palace. I took off in the early afternoon and decided to walk to the metro station instead of taking the skytrain one stop where it links up with the metro. On my walk I discovered some new shops. My favorite was a fair trade handicrafts fair. I decided to take the detour. I went into the air-conditioned building (always a nice break) and found some very beautiful handicrafts made by a variety of artists ranging from people with disabilities, women who had escaped the sex trade to a variety of Thai ethnic groups . I wandered around and decided this was a great place to purchase some Christmas gifts so I made some purchases (I'm not telling but whoever is getting gifts from here is super lucky!!!) and after my shopping adventure I stopped for an Italian lunch.

With bags now in hand I decided to head back to my apartment to unload and head out again. This time I actually made it to the metro station. I reached the last stop on the metro line and started walking. I had a general idea of the direction I needed to head. After meandering through the less than poetic streets I found myself in a flurry of activity! I kept walking and realized that I had reached a HUGE market in the heart of Chinatown. I started off walking through the meats, fish, veggies and before I knew it I was surrounded by cheesy, plastic, bulk items. You know, the kinds of cheesy things you always wonder "who buys this stuff anyway?" We're talking Hello Kitty items...and worse! wow! I just kept walking. For blocks and blocks this stuff went on and on! Finally I found my way out. Then I'm surrounded by tuk-tuk drivers who want to know where they can take me. "No thanks" I kept telling them as I continued to walk.

My first hint that I was reaching my destination was seeing buses packed full of people wearing pink shirts. You see, the King was born on a tuesday and the color of tuesday is pink so everyone wore pink shirts to show their love for their king. Many Thais only know this one king since he has been reining for over 60 years! Pretty amazing. I just started following the buses and people walking on the streets. Before I knew it I had reached the Grand Palace. The streets outside the palace were packed with people. School bands were marching and playing, street vendors were making a killing but didn't seem to have jacked their prices up as is normally done in the US.

At a major street I saw a huge crowd of people so I thought I'd join them to see what it was all about. We stood around for at least 20 minutes. I figured we must be waiting for the king to drive by. Then people started moving. There was a group of guys near me. One said to me in English, "we must go this way, follow us". Grateful to hear English I did as I was told and followed him. We didn't walk far before the military halted us and barricaded us again. My friend started speaking to me. "Did you come with someone?" I answered that I was alone. "Are you bored?" I told him no, that I was just interested in seeing the celebration. I found out that he was Cambodian. He had come to Thailand 6 months earlier to work. He had been able to get a job at a fine furniture factory where he made $5/day. This is better than he could have done in Cambodia. He lives with his sister and her family. He was so happy to have found someone to practice his English with. He says he learned English during his 4 years as a monk but hadn't had a chance to speak it for a long time. I told him I was happy to let him practice with me. He told me that he now spoke good Thai and that it was not difficult to learn. That gave me hope until he reminded me that Cambodian and Thai have many similarities. Then he grabbed my wrist and we joined the throngs of people crossing the street. You mean to tell me that all that waiting was just to cross the street? Indeed it was. But across the street was where the festivities were. I stuck with my 3 Cambodian friends (only 1 spoke English) and we stood around with the 20,000+ other people in the area. My friend stuck with me while his 2 friends disappeared for a bit and returned with cold drinks for all. How could I allow these guys who earn $5/day to buy me a drink? I offered to pay for mine but they wouldn't hear of it. I learned a lesson in selflessness and hospitality.

At last the festivities began. There were a few speeches, none of which I understood, and then everyone began singing and holding candles. Again, i have no idea what they were singing. I'm assuming one of the songs was the national anthem. Then there was gleeful shouting and then the fireworks began. The fireworks were set off from about 3-4 different locations. They were big and beautiful and numerous! It was all fun and games until the ash started falling and my eyes filled with ash...not conducive to contact lenses. There were lots of "aaahhhh"s and "ooohhh"s.

After the fireworks my friends and I began making our way through the crowds. In a large open field several stages had been set up with different performances. We weaved our way through the packed crowds (not an easy task) to the traditional Thai music stage. That didn't hold my guy friends' interest for long so then we pushed our way back through the crowds to the kickboxing ring. The King's Cup tournament was just getting started with 8 world renown boxers fighting for the cup. Two of the fighters were Thai and, of course, got the loudest cheers. We only endured one match before the noise and the pushy crowds became too much. We, again, made our way back through the crowds where we could see both the kickboxing and the rock band performing at the same time. Boy, does the King know how to throw a party! It was amazing. Unfortunately, i'm not as young as I used to be and the noise was just too intense for me. Besides, I had been on my feet since noon and it was now 10 pm and my feet were KILLING me! So, I said goodbye to my new friends after we exchanged phone numbers and the one who spoke English told me how much he had enjoyed meeting me. I thanked him for keeping me from being bored and we agreed to meet up another time.

I headed away from the throngs of people, the noise and away from the smoke of all the food vendors. There were people everywhere!! Buses headed away from the palace were stuffed, nearly bursting, with people. I figured i'd get away from the crowds a bit and then hail a cab back to the metro station. I figured wrong! By the time i got passed all the crowds all the cabs driving by were already filled with people. So, I had a little talk with my feet and they agreed to forgive me for the torture I was about to continue putting them through. I kept walking in what i hopped was the direction of the metro station. Just when I thought I'd escaped the crowds a new crowd appeared. Ah! Night markets! wow! markets everywhere!! I decided to avoid these markets and continue my journey home. Finally, after a 75 minute walk I reached the metro station. Success!!!

When I reached home I removed my shoes and fell into bed and drifted ever so quickly off to sleep.

So there you have it! The King's birthday celebration. Oh, and as a side note, my feet had not yet forgiven me when I woke up this morning and made them walk to church. And I have a feeling they aren't going to love me tomorrow when I take them for another adventure in a nearby town...sshh, we'll keep it a secret from them!

Laos

2009-11-30T06:12:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine joined me for the Thanksgiving holiday. We decided that while we only had about 4 days we would take a trip to Laos. We determined to make every hour count for 2! We left Bangkok Wednesday at 8 pm and traveled by train to the boarder of Thailand and Laos. After the 13 hour train ride we arrived and made our way across the boarder and into Vientiane, Lao's capitol city. Here we saw several temples, some museums, enjoyed wandering the city and enjoyed a nice long massage. We spent about about 36 hours in Vientiane and then we were off to Vang Vieng known for the variety of outdoor activities from biking, to rafting to climbing. The drive to Vang Vieng we took in an old rickety bus packed with people and a variety of goods being transported to various locations along the way. The drive was spectacular as we headed up into the mountains, passed bamboo homes on stilts and witnessed daily life. The country is so lush with vegetation. The road was shared by vehicles, motor bikes, villagers walking to their destinations and livestock. As we passed villages children were often playing along side the street as homes are built by the road side. As evening set in villagers scrubbed down their children and themselves. The color of red chilies drying out under the sun was a nice contrast against the brown bamboo homes with thatched roofs.

We rose early in the morning to enjoy the sunrise. While I was exhausted it was worth it! The light against the tall mountains and the reflection off the water in the Nam Ngum river was spectacular! As we walked we crossed several swinging bridges from one side of the river to the other. It got a little snug when we had to share the narrow bridge with a motorbike loaded with who-knows-what on all sides. I was unsure the bridge would bear the weight but was gladly mistaken! Along the path we happened upon a small group of monks receiving food gifts from the villagers. Buddhists believe that one way to gain merit is to make such offerings to monks. After receiving their gifts the monks sung a little chant and went on their way wandering through town. There is something about the orange gowns that is very moving. Perhaps it reminds me of my own missionary experience in Spain so many years ago.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to enjoy any of the outdoor activities Vang Vieng had to offer. After our morning speed walk we jumped on a mini bus and enjoyed another beautiful drive to Luang Prabang. Our front row seats were GREAT as we winded our way up the mountain side. Hairpin turns for hours made for an exciting drive. Villagers carried firewood on the shared roads. Clothes were scrubbed down on the road, more bare bottomed children playing gleefully. Older children caring for younger ones. I contemplated how I would do living in such a different world than my own. What did girlfriends do together when there are no malls to shop in? no internet to facebook or blog. It seemed that friendships were made and cemented in working hard side by side attending to the most important tasks...running a family. Farming, collecting fire wood, building fences, washing clothes, cooking...all done together as family and friends. From my own upbringing I know that working together brings families closer together. It deepens friendships. Sharing burdens builds bonds.

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the late afternoon. We found a place to stay and started exploring. We climbed the sacred hill, enjoyed the view of terraced fields along the Mekong River, enjoyed several temples and were mesmerized by the chanting of monks in the temple. There is something so beautiful about people coming together to worship a higher power and express their loyalty and gratitude. I made sure to express my own gratitude to a loving God for the many blessings in my life that night.

We tore ourselves away from the monks and ran to the Royal Theater to enjoy a night of traditional music and dance. The monkey did an excellent job of playing his role as he saved the princess from committing suicide. And the young girl dancing amid all of the much older dancers stole the show with her flawless performance. A nice evening would not be complete without a spectacular dinner! We headed to 3 Nagas for a dining delight! Black, wild, Lao sticky rice, buffalo curry and fish cooked in banana leaves were what we selected from the mouth watering menu. Ah, and creme brulee to polish it all off. Such a wonderful treat! But as all things must come to an end...we had to hurry off and get some shopping done before the night market closed. We only had 30 minutes...or so we thought. As we approached most of the booths had already started breaking down. Normally shopping at markets is a long drawn out process as you go back and forth throwing out prices and making counter offers. I've learned that showing up as people are packing up is a great time to shop! This is when the best bargains are to be found. Let's just say I got a few Christmas gifts! Sorry...i'm not revealing any secrets. You'll have to wait to see what Santa brings you. :-)

Oh! how could I have forgotten to mention the most important detail! While running back and forth from place to place Edgar and I decided that we would spend our last day on an elephant excursion! We booked our adventure for the next day. Riding an elephant has long been on my list of "things to live for". I just didn't realize I'd get the chance so soon after being here!!

Oh, but before we get there...so much more to tell you! :-) We woke early again hoping to enjoy the sunrise and get some good photos. We also wanted to see the procession of monks through the city collecting offerings. We walked outside our hotel door (I think we woke the attendant up to have him let us out of the hotel...oops) and down the street a little ways. We found what we were looking for. It was a sight to behold! A long line of orange robed monks. Their ages ranged from young to old. As we followed them towards the city center the streets became crowded with locals and tourists lined up to make their offerings. The monks bowls were overflowing with rice, bananas and other gifts. My favorite was watching a few monks lined up to make their offerings to other monks. It really was very beautiful.

After that our wanderings continued through the city and we found the fruit and vegetable market. We wandered through, purchased mangosteen and mandarin oranges but declined the insects and river weed. Then it was off to breakfast. We found a great restaurant overlooking the river. An amazing view made breakfast so delicious! We gobbled it down, ran to the hotel, packed, checked out, dropped our luggage and ran to the meeting place for our ELEPHANT ADVENTURE!

The excitement inside me was hardly containable! We drove several kilometers outside the city where the elephants are kept. These are retired logging elephants who can't be returned to the wild as they no longer know how to live in the wild and would not survive. So, they "earn their keep" giving tourists like me an opportunity to live their life long dreams! If you know me pretty well you are aware that I own a chair that sits atop an elephant. Well, I finally got to sit in one of those chairs ON an elephant!!! And then I got off the chair and sat on the neck of my sweet elephant and off we went! She was hungry so she kept getting side tracked which I didn't mind cuz I could totally relate! ;-) It was fun to feel her shoulder blades underneath me, shifting her weight as we went along. Our elephant guide enriched the experience by singing all along and teaching us how to guide the elephant with Laotian phrases (forward, right, left). I savored every moment, the touch of her course hairs and thick dry skin. The feel of her ears flapping and hitting my legs and feet...It was beautiful! We walked down a very steep hill and I felt like I was going to fall out of my seat! Luckily Edgar did a great job of keeping her on track and our sweet elephant maintained her balance. Then we waded through the river and then back up a hill and home. All along I couldn't think of any elephant songs to sing! Sad.

After the amazing elephant ride we took a boat up the river to some beautiful waterfalls. I wasn't prepared for a swim but I soaked my feet in the water after a small hike. We got back into the boat and headed back. The river was dotted with different people fishing, gathering river weed, snails and who knows what else, presumably to be sold at the market the next day. It was fun to watch them.

We got back to town at 2:00 and our flight left at 3:40. We had just enough time to make a run to the Royal Palace Museum. We toured the museum in a record 10 minutes. I don't recommend doing the tour that fast but I highly recommend the museum. There just wasn't enough time to see it all slowly but we had to pack it in!

Off we rushed to the airport...fell fast asleep on the plane and returned to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. WOW! There you have it! My long winded summary of a short but spectacular trip! It's bed time so I'll post photos tomorrow. And in case you had any doubt...I LOVE living out here! it is a dream come true. Thanks to all of you for your support as I've made this transition! I love you all!!!

I've attached some photos taken by Edgar and some video of our ride on an elephant and the monks chanting...enjoy!

Learning Thai

2009-11-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

The other day I needed to find a store called Carrefour. It's basically like Super Wal-Mart (or whatever you call the Wal-Mart with a food section). It was too far for walking so my friend told me to take a taxi. He explained that I should tell the driver to take me to "Callafo" since they wouldn't understand if I pronounced the store "careafor". So, I flagged a cab and told the driver I wanted to go to "Callafo". He didn't understand, so I said it again, a little differently knowing that asians sometimes confuse l's and r's. "Carrafo", I said. Still nothing..."careafor?" nope not that either. Back to "callafo". He looked at me and said "caw-fo?" ummm...Yes? maybe? So I told him in Thai the street it was on and he laughed and took off driving. I wasn't sure I was going to end up in the right place but he kept laughing and repeating my pronunciation of "callafo". He then taught me that the correct pronunciation of "carrefour" is "caw-fo" and continued repeating my pathetic version of the store name and laughing! It made me laugh. But I still didn't know if he knew where I was hoping to end up.

It wasn't until we pulled in front of the store that it was confirmed to me that he did indeed understand where I wanted to go...phew! I entered the store and began my shopping. As I was wandering around I listened and laughed to myself as the advertisement playing over the loud speaker repeated over and over again "caw-fo". Who knew that "carrefour" should be pronounced "caw-fo"? That's one thai word i'll NEVER forget! :-)

Bangkok Life

2009-11-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd try to summarize my first impressions and experiences in Bangkok as a new resident. They say that the population of Bangkok, with outlying areas totals around 10 million people. The largest city I've lived in is Salt Lake City with a population of about 1 million if you count the whole valley! While I knew that Bangkok was big I really couldn't imagine how bit that was. I've been to big cities before but to live in one is another story. But I like a new adventure so off I went to the Big Mango!

After a very long flight I arrived at the airport, found my luggage and made my way to the taxi stand. This was supposed to be where I could find a "fair" taxi who would use the meter and not overcharge me. I had so much luggage I was swimming in it! My taxi driver spoke no English. He took me to my hotel which was about a 30 minute drive and then came the price. He charged me 600 Baht or about $18. I was pretty sure I was being overcharged but what could I do? I paid the money and entered the hotel. I was given a key card for my room on the 28th floor. The view from my hotel room reveals a numerous sky scrapers, lots of construction and a view of the sky train. A thin layer of heat and humidity blankets the city.

Thailand is a Buddhist country. They believe the spirits of their ancestors live and that it's important to keep them cared for. For this reason there are shrines and spirit houses everywhere...outside homes, construction sites, on corners. One day as I was walking down the street I noticed a crowd of people and some music. I looked to see a large shrine and people kneeling around it making various offerings. Some offered flowers, others food and others let loose birds in cages. Off to the side there was traditional music and dancing to add to the spiritual atmosphere. I sat and watched as people came, made their offerings, prayed and went on their way. At one point a mother came in with her son. She showed him how to make his offering and pray. It was quite beautiful to watch a mother pass her tradition on to her son.

Walking through the city fills your nostrils with a variety of smells. Some of them pleasant...others more on the unpleasant side. There are street vendors crammed side by side along sidewalks selling foods of various types. Many of them are barbecued meats and fried fish which I haven't been brave enough to try. Some of them are fruit vendors who will cut up watermelon, mangos, pineapple and numerous fruits i don't know in English (or in Thai!) and put them in a plastic bag with a wooden skewer for your eating pleasure. mmmmmm.... my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Lyn, I think of you every time I eat the pineapple (Cheri, i think of you every time I see a rat run across the sidewalk!! eeewwww!!). And there are the vendors with the deserts...again, most of them I haven't tried but the barbecued bananas drowned in condensed milk....mmm.mmmm.mmmm! And the ice cream with sticky rice swimming in coconut milk? Yes, i've tried that too. Most of smells along your walk through the city come from the various meats and fish being fried or barbecued right there on the street. It's a smell i haven't yet fallen in love with.

Speaking of food...it's everywhere! And it can be pretty cheap. Most malls have a food court where a meal can cost as little as $1. Of course there are also plenty of opportunities to get international foods at a higher price. I went to a crepes restaurant last weekend that cost me about $7. So, if yer ok with rice and curry (which I am so ok with) there's really no need to cook. :-) no complaints here!

To live in Bangkok I think one is required to be a compulsive shopper. There are massive malls everywhere and shopping all along the streets as well. There are day markets, night markets, weekend markets! One of the highlights for me is the large weekend market. Stall after stall filled with everything and anything you can think of! Housewares, clothing, souvenirs, furniture, you name it! The secret is to go early before the crowds hit or late when the sun won't kill you.

Then there's the traffic. Pretty much yer better off not driving. I can usually take the sky train or the metro within walking distance of where I want to go. There are rare occasions when i'm hauling things that are too awkward or heavy to carry and a taxi is necessary. Just be ready for the trip to take at lease twice as long. Today I took a taxi and it took me an hour for a trip that usually takes me 30 minutes. Luckily the cab ride only cost $5.

Ok, we'll leave it at that for now. Hopefully i'll be able to write about my new apartment next! Keep your fingers crossed!

Mae Hong Son

2009-11-05T02:59:00.000-08:00

I've spent the week in Mae Hong Son in northwestern Thailand. I got to practice my prescreening skills meaning that I interviewed refugee families to verify that we have their correct information and then talked to them about why they fled Burma and why they can't return. It was an interesting process. The process is mostly administrative. Most of the people we met with have been outside their country of origin so long that their children, now adults, were born in the refugee camp and often the children didn't know the stories of why their parents fled in the first place. They know that their people are oppressed and that if they go back they will be mistreated but when asked why their parents fled they aren't always able to provide the details. This is not what i expected. I did meet with one family who said they have a distant relative in Salt Lake and they wanted to join them. You can imagine my joy!

Today I got to go to the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp (the processing in this area takes place outside the camp so this was my first visit to the camp). It was similar in many ways to the Tham Hin camp that I visited on an exchange I participated in through the government several years ago. Here is a link the report I gave to the State Department about my trip in 2006. http://www.cal.org/co/coexchange/McConkieReport.pdf In the camp we did some follow ups. We met with a few families to clarify information or gather further information to process their case. For example, we needed contact information for a spouse that was incorrect, we needed to verify which state one case preferred to resettle in since he said he had a friend in Colorado but he also had family members going to Georgia. It was interesting to meet with families and follow up on their cases. When we had delivered all the bad news and gotten all the updates we needed we went to listen in on a cultural orientation that was being held for refugees who have been approved to go to the US. It was fun to see them learn about education and American culture as well as practice writing their names and saying basic phrases. Several of the photos I am uploading are of the orientation.

Each night after work I went out with one of the caseworkers and did various activities. One day we hiked to the top of a nearby mountain. We rented bikes for the several days we were here and went on bike rides around the town of under 8000 people. We tried new (to me) restaurants and new foods. She introduced me to the most delicious foods and treats. So yummy! The big Loi Kratong festival was celebrated our first night here. You will see photos of people letting go of lanterns. The lanterns are like hot air balloons. You light a fire under them and they heat up and the heat carries it into the sky along with all the regrets of the year. It was beautiful to see the lanterns fill the sky.

Tonight, the whole crew of us (there have been 6 of us here) had dinner together. We fed all of us at a nice restaurant for $30! I just can't get over how inexpensive and delicious the food is! After dinner I went for a nice long massage. 90 minutes of bliss for a cost of only $7. Not bad eh? She was able to work out part of the kink in my neck from this super hard pillow I've been sleeping on. I learned that in Thai when you get a kink in your neck they say that "the pillow bit you". That's exactly what it did!

All in all the trip was educational, both professionally as well as socially and culturally. It was another fabulous Thai adventure! I never did get to see the big temple on the hill...guess I'll have to come back!

Loi Krathong- Lantern Festival

2009-10-31T02:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! Not much halloween activity going on here but it is time for Loi Krathong or the Lantern Festival. According to Wikipedia:

Loy Krathong is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. "Loi" means "to float". "Krathong" is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions use specially made bread 'flowers' and may use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon, many people will release a small raft like this on a river.

Here at my hotel there was a celebration with traditional dancing and wonderful food although the real festival isn't until next week. I will be up north next week where I hear from the locals that the festival is quite beautiful. It was fun to have an introduction to the festival here at the hotel. After all the food and dance we all put our "lanterns" into the water. It was really quite beautiful.

My Job

2009-10-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so i've been in Thailand for just over a week now and it has been an incredible experience so far! I'm living in a hotel in Bangkok (BKK) that is located just a 10 minute walk from my office. The first week of work has been a bit mind boggling. Here is a run down of my job:

I work for an organization that processes refugees. We help refugees in our region (Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, China, and a few more I can't remember) who have been referred to the United States refugee resettlement program by the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This means that the family/individual has fled their country due to persecution they experienced or that they fear will take place based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion. They are so fearful for their lives that they are unable or unwilling to return to their county of origin. So, they have sought asylum in another country. The UNHCR takes a look at thier case and determines what will happen to them. The first and best option is always to help people return to their country of origin. Unfortunately that is not always possible. Next the UNHCR will assess if the individual/family can stay in the country they have sought asylum. Will the host country give them opportunities for work, education and citizenship? Unfortunately is also not always possible. So, the last option is to refer them to another country for resettlement. The US is one of about 10 countries in the world that offers this opportunity to refugees.

So, when a refugee in our region is referred to the US for resettlement we help the refugees put their information together to prepare them for an interveiw with the US governement to see if they qualify for the US program and if they are approved for US entry. Once they are approved we put the refugees through a 3-5 day orientation class to prepare them for life in the US.

I hope all that makes sense. It's hard to explain the process in just a few words and I don't want to bore you too much but i do want to give you a good idea of what i'm involved in. It really is amazing work.

So, this week i've been focusing on learning the details of the process refugees go through in order to come to the US...it's very extensive. Next week I'll head to a refugee camp to interveiw refugees and start their paper trail. I think i'll stop with that for now. Here is a link where you can see the Thai-Burma boarder and where all the refugee camps are. Most of the refugees we work with are from Burma. http://www.tbbc.org/camps/camps.htm

Home for Rent

2009-10-08T21:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of my home for rent in beautiful Sugarhouse, UT. If you know anybody looking to rent, let me know.