Hey
So, I’m back. Thanks to Aunt Mary for the email title. Thanks so much to all or you for your prayers and for the many notes of update from home and words of encouragement. Feel free to continue praying for me and for God’s guidance in my life. I had a good time. It is good to be back.
In closing I’d like to offer a few more quick stories from my final days in Thailand. The first story actually took place before email 9 but didn’t get included. One of my readers recommended that I go out and look at the stars and had asked if I could see the Southern Cross. Having gone out on my own early one morning I realized I wouldn’t really know if I saw the Southern Cross, not having ever learned to identify it. So I did a little Google research and found that at this time of year around 9:00 stargazers in Thailand can see both the North Star and the Southern Cross. So Joe and I tried this for a few nights but kept encountering clouds in the North or South. We finally saw both in one sky in one night. Pretty cool.
Next Story: My last day in Ubon, because Lynn was sick and neither of us had first period classes to teach at Benjama, we waited to leave until it was time for (little) Micah and Abby to go to school. We took them on the motor scooter (all four of us at one time). I was on the back and didn’t even hold on. I felt pretty Thai.
I (on the night train) arrived in Bangkok at 5:00AM from Ubon. Some Tuk Tuk driver was waiting at the platform so I went ahead and let him help me in to his Tuk Tuk rather than waiting for a taxi. A tuk tuk is a little like a three wheeled motorcycle with a little roofed place for people to sit in the back. It turns out a metered taxi (the meter tells the customer what they owe the driver) would have been a good deal cheaper. The driver realizing I didn’t really have any ability to argue with him, charged me rather exorbitantly. Oh well. It was still pretty cheep by American standards. He dropped me off at the gate of the church where I was staying. I waited there at the gate for an hour and twenty minutes for the gate to open. I then went in and took a nap.
During my time in Bangkok I went to the temple complex that houses the Emerald Buddha (made out of Jade not Emerald). I think I’ve said this before about other things, but I’ll say it again with apologies, I can’t really describe it. It was big. There was a lot of gold. There was fascinating architecture. There were beautiful murals. At the end of the time the heavens let loose and dumped a ton of rain on us (Randy and I). Randy, if I have not introduced him before, is one of the people I went to visit. He is in language school in Bangkok with his wife Jodi. Their two children, Levi (2?) and Julia (less than 1?), are also in Bangkok, but are not in (formal) language school.
The return flight was long, yet somehow I landed in DC earlier than I took off from Tokyo.
Again thanks
Peace
Micah
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