Does It Matter?

(Note to Reader: This is another in our series of “River Crossings” blogs, written while we were inThailand (2009-2011). Enjoy!) 

I’m getting more confused. Today I asked in flawlessThai where there was an air-conditioned cafe, followed their directions in Thai, found it, went in, sat down, wiped off some of the sweat and very politely… ordered a SKIRT!(It’s that tone thing again; never mind).We were visiting the world’s largest (who’s measuring?) outdoor market. I really don’t like the place because as soon as you step ‘in’ you’re lost. I had a list. I wanted to find seeds to grow some mint (OK, maybe I’m a little bit homesick) and maybe some fresh vegetables. Instead, we walked thru millions of fish, dead, alive, or struggling.Then there were the deep-fried bugs, a real treat for the gourmand, I’m told, the illegal endangered birds who aren’t being taken care of well a tall, and of course all the temple furnishings, tourist frip frap and enough jeans to cover all the legs in the world.Add to that so many people you can’t believe it and about 110 degrees. 

You can see why my brain was addled.I think we’ve been here about three months now. Our Thai is  definitely better  than  when we  arrived.  It’s easy to be ‘better’ when you start at ZERO. It’s still so frustrating, though. I’m talking to anything that will move, using my limited vocabulary and grammar to say things like “it how long?”  or “me have no… uh, uh…”Of course, Tony’s much more reserved, so he’s adapting the ’strong silent’ look and only occasionally opens his mouth to pontificate something like “With Diarrhea like that you better cancel your holiday!” (Yes, he meant to say that. Didn’t apply to anybody, but it’s just so much fun to roll it off your tongue… the words, I mean).

On a happy note, we had coffee with our ‘ruu jack’ (see the blog about kangaroos)from Hong Kong this week. We chatted away in Japanese for two hours and really felt ‘at home’. So different from our normal day! She talked with tears in her eyes about being all alone for a year before we came, and how her son was sick and in the hospital and because she was new and knew no one, didn’t know how to find a church that spoke Japanese... basically she had no one to turn to.Then she got the letter from me, saying that we’d arrived, she came to a Japanese concert that we invited her to, made some Christian friends who live in HER building and has now been to church as well as a Bible study on Wednesday!

That day when she left I had a true feeling of actually MATTERING for the first time in a long time!Hopefully, some day we can help make a difference to some Thai people as well. Only God knows. I

n the meantime, they’ll just get a chuckle out of me and move on.

Have a good week! 

Tony and Marsha  

"You hear,O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry". (Psalms 10:17)  


 


 

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