Ahhhh, if it wasn't for the river...

So, my last two days "stuck" in Bangkok have flown by. I'm so glad the rest of the trip didn't hurry like this chapter has. But I spent the last two days on THE RIVER.... riding river taxis up and down from pier to pier, visiting temples, exploring different areas of this incredible city. Now to gear up for 29+ hours of my new flight schedule, to Singapore, HongKong, SF (to hopefully see Bryan and Jen the day after they return from their honeymoon in Japan!!! -- GEEZ, Mom!)... and then to RDU by Tuesday night.

The days of "stand by" and "catching the next flight" are over from every reasonable perception I have.

See you all soon.
Thanks for following my blog.
I hope this is my last entry... for this trip.
Maggi

So of course this poem arrives in my INBOX today

Expect Nothing

Expect nothing.
Live frugally
On surprise.
Become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.
Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.
Discover the reason why
So tiny a human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing.
Live frugally
On surprise.


~ Alice Walker ~ (Anything We Love Can Be Saved)

slight delay in plans

One of my students call things like this "hiccups".

I didn't make the connecting flight from Bangkok to Beijing this morning.... they closed the door to the plane, and I had to collect bags, and they wouldn't hold the flight for me. I begged, lied, pleaded and cried (just a little) and no one could do anything. Thinking things always work out, I assumed they could either get me to Beijing another way, or at least reschedule me for tomorrow. But , there were no seats tomorrow. period.

So after many long distance calls to the US later, and a couple hours in Bangkok airport.... I finally got Continental to rebook me on the next flight....which could get me to newark, but I'd have to spend Monday night there. Or they could get me to San Francisco,. but I'd have to spend the night there. So, I opted for that... SF Monday night. I don't even know if Bryan and Jen will be back from their honeymoon yet, (and surely don't expect them to be thrilled that I'm stranded at the SF airport... but I'm hoping this is the silver lining.

So, all is well. I'm just disappointed that I'm not with Thane, and not on my way home either. But as you know, I don't believe this is a mistake, so I'm looking for the good that will come from it. So, for now, I will be home tuesday night. But when you travel like this, I know the journey includes the start and finish. Our bus blew out a tire in the middle of nowhere...and I took pictures of the entire changing of the tire process. We landed in the middle of the 34th annual flower festival in Chiang mai. I will be glad to be home after all of this. But I had a fabulous, unbelievable visit with thane and his friends, saw parts of Thailand I never dreamed of seeing.

Now, for a couple more days of Bangkok!

Hope to see you all soon.

Leaving Mae Sot

My last day in Mae Sot -- hard to imagine it has come so soon, and yet it feels like I've been here for months.

Yesterday I taught 39 children at an orphanage outside of town, from 9 months to 15 years old. What can I say?

Today visited the free clinic where anyone of any nationality is treated for free. Then met a fabulous artist whose work I have admired, who accompanied us to the dump where hundreds of people live. I've heard about dump children in S. American countries, but to actually walk to garbage is one of the most humbling experiences I've had.

I am trying to squeeze in one more Tea Leaf Salad, one more curry, one more Burmese tea shop meal that I will miss incredibly when we leave on the bus tomorrow for Chiang Mai. This is a place I know I will return to, and it will easy to do. And I just learned of the retirement visa, so it's all I can think about!

Can't imagine flying home to ice and snow, but have one more day to get a handle on it. I'd much rather be "stranded" here than in Newark Airport, though. Please tell me immediately if you think I won't make it back Saturday.

Can't wait to see you all. Gotta figure out how to have a slide show!

See you soon

Maggi

Always Water, Always Washing

I join Thane's student where she is washing clothes, and I am washing brushes. Today Thane took me to the National Park to see the waterfall, a longer, taller waterfall than I have ever seen on all my waterfall hunting excursions in NC. Took a picnic of tea leaf salad, sticky rice cooked in bamboo, and fresh cut pineapple on skewers bought at the market before we left. We hiked up, got a new view of more falls, swam in pools of icy water, kept climbing for even more of the waterfall. Tomorrow I will go to the border to see the Friendship Bridge, then to the orphanage I just learned of. New chapter.

"Back home" in Mae Sot-- no snowstorm here

Taught my last art class Friday morning, then jumped in a car Thane rented. Just got back in town after trying to get to a border town and the house boat we reserved. We drove 3 or 4 hours in the mountains on twisty roads, got to Umphang and asked where the road we were on continued on out of town. It didn't. End of road. End of story. We couldn't get where we wanted to go without backtracking and spending another 15 hours on the road. So visited a cave, slept in a hut along the river, and returned today. I have filled up every camera card about 3 times each, and my flash drive with photos. So I need to find a place to download them to CDs or something. Yikes. Who would have guessed?

Got a head massage and shampoo (20 minutes of bliss!) and hair cut (three women combed out my hair!). Met a woman who works in an orphanage and she invited me to teach an art class. Of course! So tomorrow we bike 45 minutes out of town to the orphanage. I can't wait to meet the 26 children. So, I knew something else would make itself known to me, and my last few days here are filling up. The same woman also invited me to the clinic where 2500 Burmese children were born last year. And then there is the circus that is coming to visit lots of orphanages. So I'll have to squeeze that in too.
I've only been here a week, and it seems like a month... I already know how to bicycle all over town, and even say hello to people I know on their bicycles and motobikes as I go thru the streets.

It's so sunny and hot here, it is difficult for me to imagine your snowstorm and power outages. But I do remember. Here's hoping you all are warm and safe and get at least a day off of work.

2 out of 3

I taught my first workshop yesterday, at a school for Burmese students preparing to take their GED. The entire ground was covered with paintings drying by the time we were finished. They had tissue papered, mono-printed, and painted... totally exceeding my expectations.
Today, I taught at the school where Thane teaches -- a class of 30 including the director and a couple of other teachers. It was invigorating, to say the least. They are so resourceful -- laying their wet paintings in bushes and trees to dry, mixing paint colors in a green leaf they picked, gathering delicate stems and leaves from their huge garden to add to their paintings. It was so exciting. I knew I would learn from them, and I am amazed at the magnitude of that possibility.
They have been so enthusiastic, I had to go buy more paper for tomorrow's workshop -- at a new school with 26 students. Thane and I rode his motorbike with backpacks full of art supplies-- on our backs, our fronts, and wedged between us... to deliver them to the school so I can ride my bicycle there first thing in the morning.
Directly after, we are going to a festival some 7 or 8 hours away where we will stay on a houseboat for two nights.

I am so lucky to know people like these students --so eager, talented, and absolutely lovely people. I am resisting the idea that oppression is what creates such a gracious spirit in someone.

More soon. Love to hear from you.