My Global Family

I think it is a common experience to find instant close friends when you work overseas. My Thai friends stand beside me with strong support as I learn about their home. Nearly all of my foreign friends are far from their families, and so we become like family to each other. Added is the galvanization of shared passions and convictions. 

In Thailand you use the words P' and Nong ('older brother/sister' and 'younger brother/sister') in many situations, from friends to coworkers to waitresses or waiters. I have many siblings.

It is also true that Chiang Mai is notorious for it's revolving door. People come and go frequently.

4 little sisters left last week. My heart is encouraged by their drawings that I've hung by my desk. I am touched to read, "I will miss you Katie." I miss you too, little one. I worry about your adjustment to America. I  am praying for you all.

A dear, dear friend is here for the weekend after moving several hours away. It felt so natural to see her walk into The Nest tonight. I almost forgot the geographic distance between us.

My first friends in Chiang Mai (Facebook friends before I even arrived) will leave next week. I will miss their wisdom. I will miss heartfelt conversations with her. I will miss laughing when he jokes, and gleaning wisdom when he is serious.

This afternoon my big sister and brother left for 2 months in America, as many friends have for this season. Maybe it won't seem long from the other end, but from here it seems an eternity without the love and support of my dear sister.

And now the one that makes me cry; I don't know how to envision life without my two little sisters. I haven't lived here without them. Will The Nest feel like home without them? Will Thailand feel like home without them? I can never treasure enough the time I have had with my sisters, the shared movies, meals, homework, school dance prep, markets, cooking, sports, and all the rest. They have grown into my heart and given me a bigger capacity to love. For the first time in my life I have had younger siblings, and what a blessing it has been. God is good to give me such amazing girls for my family. I will look at grad schools in southern California.

We talk about it all the time. It's as much a part of our lives as breathing or paying our bills at 7-11. Saying 'goodbye' is really, really hard. But, as I read in a fellow Chiang Mai-ian's blog recently, "the relationship is ALWAYS worth the goodbye."

I am blessed. My family is ever growing, and ever spreading out in the world. My family is global.

Kevin from Bangkok

There is nothing that tests one's patience and sanity like a broken computer. I generally pride myself on keeping a pretty level head in intense situations. I can keep cool through yelling in my face, intense physical pain, or emergencies, but I might fall apart if my computer freezes while I'm trying to load my e-mail.

Thailand is hard on computers. Several of my friends have had to get repairs or new computers since coming last year. Only months into my stint I'd lost my 'b' key and acquired two lines of dead pixels up my screen.

The last several months my computer has been slowing down, like a wind-up toy that you painfully watch get slower...and slower...and slower.........

And then 3 weeks ago it got worse. A blob of dead screen appeared at the bottom of my screen. Small at first, but the successive time has seen a slow, creeping progression of dead space up my screen. As of last week it completely covers the typing area for Facebook chat, making it a guessing game of what will actually show up once I hit enter. The growing blackness of my screen is fittingly analogous to the growing anxious blackness of my soul as I watch my computer, my dear and beloved companion these 4 years, slowly, painfully, and irrecoverably die.

For a while I've had my eye on the Asus eee Pad Transformer Prime. This baby packs a powerful punch of awesomeness. If Tolstoy's War and Peace were a computer (i.e. the most amazing creation of all time) it would be THIS computer. So I Craigslisted it.

And I found Kevin from Bangkok.

Kevin got into some kind of accident a month ago, and to pay his medical bills he's selling all his stuff, including his almost new eee Pad Transformer Prime. And selling it for $200 under new! I wanted it. But it had already been posted for 3 weeks.

Wednesday, June 6th:  Me - "Is your computer still available?" (summarized for brevity)

20 hours later: Kevin - "Yes it's still available."

I spend the rest of the day making arrangements for a friend to pick it up in Bangkok.

10 hours later: Me - "I'd like it! I have a friend in Bangkok right now who can come look at it."

The next night, (Friday): Kevin - "There's a guy coming to get it tomorrow."

My disappointment is deep, but with a persistence that is a genetic trait from my father, I persevere. I search, I seek, I browse Craigslist. Kevin's add is still up.

Sunday, June 10th: Me - "Hey, I noticed that your add is still up on CL. Did that guy pick it up? I'd love to send my friend over to buy it if he didn't."

Nothing from Kevin. Silence. So I enlist my friend Caitlin to e-mail Kevin an inquiry. She uses a childhood e-mail address and a fake name. Nothing. Silence. Add is still up on Craigslist.

Thursday night, June 14th: Kevin - "That guy never showed! You still want it?"

Kevin sends a similar e-mail to Caitlin, who politely declines, leaving the door wide open for me!

Friday morning: Me - "YES! Please get me your contact info so my friend can come get it. He's there until Monday, or I can hop on a bus tonight!"

Nothing from Kevin. Silence.

Friday night: Me - "Hey Kevin, can I get your phone number so we can arrange a pickup?"

Silence.

By now I'm annoyed. I've spent two weekends wondering each day if I need to get on an all night bus so I can snag this awesome deal in Bangkok.

Saturday night: Me - "Hey dude, please tell me what is going on. I'm trying to make arrangements to pick up the computer, but I haven't heard from you. My friend is headed back to Chiang Mai on Monday, can he come pick it up? If you've sold it that's fine, just PLEASE tell me either way."

Sunday night (that's 3 days after he offered it to me): Kevin - "Hey dudette, sorry you know I have a life I am not online 24hours a day! That guy said he'd come back to get it. His phone and e-mail aren't working. If he doesn't show in a couple of days whoever comes to my office first gets it."

Me: - "If you want cash in hand by tomorrow morning, let me know, I'll have it to you."

I haven't heard from him.

Whatever Kevin, I don't want your computer anyway. You probably left crumbs in the keyboard.

One More Birthday Memory

I have many birthday memories with Melissa from our childhood, both her birthdays and mine. When I was not older than 6 I tried to cancel my party when I found out that Melissa couldn't come, but mom wouldn't let me and Melissa sent some horse figurines that were favorite childhood toys from then forward.

For my 9th birthday Melissa, Joy, my mom and theirs packed us up with the horses to go riding at my family's property on Eagle Island. After enjoying ridding for a while our moms went to visit a neighbor while we played in the field.

We found a creek running around the property, and discovered that there was a cement gate we could block with old boards, and sat happily watching the water spill over our homemade dame or playing in the pool created upstream.

The next day, in the middle of my homework, my mom called me over. Apparently she got a phone call from some neighbors downstream who were not getting any water from the irrigation canal. Little did I know that ancestral wars were fought over water rights for farming! *

This birthday, this 26th birthday, Melissa and I had no such youthful  and innocent shenanigans up our sleeves. After a week long mini-tour of Thailand (Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Ko Tao) we spent my birthday in the ancient capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. The capital was moved further south after the Burmen sacked Ayutthaya about 350 years ago (if my memory serves).

My favorite was this iconic Thai site, this limestone Buddha head that is now part of nature. 

The novelty of elephants hasn't worn off for Melissa, although we were both charmed by their clever antics.

No words can express how wonderful it is to spend time with a friend who I have known literally as long as I can remember. In a place where everything is new, where I am new to everyone, a strong, happy and loving connection to my deepest roots is a great blessing. Thanks, Melissa, for sharing a little of my life in Thailand and adding such wonderful memories to those we already have.

* This story is subject to  my  9 year old memory. Any corrections or modifications by parents involved would be taken into advisement.