On this current trip there has been one component that has really thrown security agents and has been a real pain and a place of anxiety for me, which is my extra insulin pump. On all previous trips I have not carried an extra insulin pump with me. I may start to now, knowing how easy it is to arrange a loaner pump with Medtronic; however in the past I didn’t realize it was an option. In the pump manual, Medtronic (the maker of my insulin pump) has written “If you are going to have an X-ray, CT scan, MRI or other type of exposure to radiation, take off your pump, meter and remote control before entering a room containing any of this equipment.” BUT then one sentence later it also states, “The Paradigm pump is designed to withstand common electromagnetic interference, including airport security systems.” I have always interpreted this as I can walk through the metal detector just fine, but I should not send my insulin pump through the X-ray machine. I have talked to a Medtronic representative who confirmed this.
So this means that I have to ask for a ‘hand-check’ of my loaner insulin pump. I take it out of my suitcase, send everything else through the X-ray, and then I ask for a hand-check of it before I walk through the metal detector. In the US this goes over fine. They seem used to this concept when I explain that it is an insulin pump because I am diabetic. In other countries this has been a big problem.
Surprisingly the place I had the biggest problem was the Schipol airport in Amsterdam. When returning from South Africa to Seattle our layover was in Amsterdam. Based on a policy created after 9-11 Northwest Airlines (now Delta) has you go through another security check before entering the gate area for flights into the US. Duncan and I had our passports screened by an agent who asked something that prompted me to tell her that I was diabetic and carrying diabetic supplies including an insulin pump. Ironically, she responded that she was also diabetic and had an insulin pump and gave me some encouraging words about how long she had been diabetic and complication free. I thanked her and headed to the last stop on the screening, the X-ray and metal detector machines. Here I did the usual, took off my shoes, and jacket, put all my liquids including insulin separately in their plastic tub, took out my loaner insulin pump and then sent my bag through the X-ray machine. Then, holding my loaner pump, I stood near the metal detector and asked for a hand-check, stating what the pump was.
This greatly confused the agent I asked, who looked at me quizzically and then told me to wait there. After five minutes another agent came and told me that I had to put it through the X-ray. I refused (politely) saying that it could not go through the X-ray. This agent then had his supervisor come over. He explained the situation to her; she told me that I had to put it through the X-ray because this was a flight to the US. I refused (politely). She called her supervisor (located somewhere offsite) and then relayed back to me that I really had to put it through the X-ray. At this point both Duncan and I are getting very frustrated. I asked them to talk to the security agent who had checked my passport. Here’s where the big problem was. This agent, despite being diabetic herself and wearing an insulin pump, believed that the insulin pump would be fine to go through the X-ray machine as long as it didn’t have insulin in it. This logic made no sense whatsoever - that somehow the liquid insulin would be affected by magnetic fields but that the pump which actually has intricate metal parts would not be is beyond me. Her testimony was the kiss of death. Completely defeated and seemingly without any other option, I sent the loaner pump through the X-ray.
Duncan, who is really my advocate when I can no longer be, understood the severity of the situation and made a complaint with the supervisor on site and asked for her name so that we could file a formal complaint. Once we were in Thailand I was able to take some time to write my formal complaint which I sent to Northwest Airlines via email. I had assumed that because they were the ones who mandated another security check before flights going to the US that they were also the ones who mandated the security policy. A month after I sent the email I received a thoughtful email back stating (my summary) that while they were very sorry for this experience, Northwest Airlines did not make the security policy even though the security agents in Amsterdam specifically stated that it was Northwest Policy. They also gave both Duncan and I some air miles and thankfully gave me the name and address of the company that provides security services at Schipol. I’ve sent a letter to this company stating my experience and my concerns and asking that they figure out how to hand-check medical equipment that cannot be send through the X-ray. I have not received a response yet.
The good news is that the loaner pump seems to have not been affected by the X-ray. (Albeit, this is only based on my opinion of using it for a short time after this experience to make sure it was still alive and kicking).
So here’s what I learned from this experience. Hold out! Do not let airport security make you do something that you know could damage your medical supplies and therefore threaten your health. Also I now carry a printout of the page of the manual that states that the insulin pump should not go through X-rays. However, my next task is to let Medtronic know that the way they write this (as quoted above) can be confusing since it states that common airport security systems are okay. This needs to be changed to say that only metal detectors are okay.
While I definitely understand the need for airport security, any organization with a good policy should also know the policy’s limitations and when it is acceptable to make exceptions. I hope in writing the security company for Schipol that this will be acknowledged and that there will be different protocol on handling medical equipment that cannot go through the X-ray machine.
Andrea
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Diabetic Supplies and Airport Security Part 1
As we prepare to be on the road once again, I thought it timely to talk about my experiences as a diabetic carrying diabetic supplies through airport security.
First of all, you have to know that I never, ever put any of my supplies in a checked bag. This is because one missing checked bag, if holding my diabetic supplies, could easily end a trip, not to mention that the small amount of money that the airline gives you if they’ve truly lost your bag pales in comparison to the actual cost of supplies. My suitcase (carry-on size) packed for these last five months in Asia carried about $8000 USD worth of supplies ($4000 of this was an extra insulin pump). Too valuable to simply trust to the system of destination city stickers and conveyer belts!
For the non-diabetic reader, you should also know that this suitcase carries a lot of needles and a lot of plastic accessories. All of the needles are small and nothing that could actually do any real damage to anyone, so they should not be perceived as a threat. In all of the US airports I have ever been through, this is precisely the reaction I get. My suitcase goes through the X-ray machine and almost never gets another look. A few times in smaller airports the conveyer belt backs up and moves my suitcase through again for another look but usually all it takes is a friendly, “That’s my suitcase, and I’m diabetic” from me to end the scrutiny. Sadly, I think this is a reflection on how common diabetes has become in the US.
Previous to this big trip the only place I’ve ever had more than a look at my belongings is in Thailand. On return flights to the US (specifically on Northwest Airlines (now Delta)) passengers have to go through another security screening before being allowed into the gate area for the flight. After placing your baggage through another X-ray, each passenger must also open each piece of luggage for a physical inspection. One look at all of my needles usually gets me some special attention. This results in my bag being carried to the gate for me (with me in tow) and a security agent presenting me and my bag to the gate agent. My Thai has never been good enough to know what is said about me, but whatever is said doesn’t elicit much of a reaction from the gate agent who looks at me once and then resumes whatever work they are doing. I take my bag and sit down and board as normal later.
On this current trip I’ve had a few curious interactions and one horrible one (coming up in the next post). Going through Amsterdam on the way to Paris the security agents were intrigued by my pack of AAA batteries which I use to power my insulin pump. The quantity of the pack (16 batteries) seemed to be the concern. My bag was initially run through the X-ray and then it was taken off the conveyer belt by a security agent who asked me if I had batteries. When I said yes, I was asked to locate them. Once found (at the bottom of my bag, of course) they were taken, visually inspected and then run through the X-ray machine again, nothing more. We were then free to run for our plane to Paris.
This April, in the Bangkok airport on our way to Manila I made it through the first security check point without a problem but was stopped at a second security point that allowed you into the gate area. After my bag went through the X-ray I was told to take it to another agent for a physical inspection. I told this agent that I was diabetic in English, which she didn’t understand. So then I tried in Thai, which elicited an understanding that I had said ‘diabetic’ but not any other sort of understanding. As I pulled things out of my bag she realized that I had some syringes (they are backup-backup, in case the loaner insulin pump fails). She went away, found a scrap of paper and then came back, wrote down my passport number and asked me how many syringes I had. I told her 7, she wrote ‘7’ down next to my passport number on her scrap of paper and I went on my merry way.
I find it a little troublesome that I never know what I’m going to encounter at the airport with regard to security and my diabetic supplies. Usually internationally, I encounter a few extra hoops that I have to jump through, which while frustrating especially when you’re literally running to catch a flight, are not horrible. Unfortunately the next post will tell of one experience that I had on this trip that was a great example of how systems and policies can sometimes do harm to innocent travelers – even those who aren’t involved in politically sensitive activities.
Andrea
First of all, you have to know that I never, ever put any of my supplies in a checked bag. This is because one missing checked bag, if holding my diabetic supplies, could easily end a trip, not to mention that the small amount of money that the airline gives you if they’ve truly lost your bag pales in comparison to the actual cost of supplies. My suitcase (carry-on size) packed for these last five months in Asia carried about $8000 USD worth of supplies ($4000 of this was an extra insulin pump). Too valuable to simply trust to the system of destination city stickers and conveyer belts!
For the non-diabetic reader, you should also know that this suitcase carries a lot of needles and a lot of plastic accessories. All of the needles are small and nothing that could actually do any real damage to anyone, so they should not be perceived as a threat. In all of the US airports I have ever been through, this is precisely the reaction I get. My suitcase goes through the X-ray machine and almost never gets another look. A few times in smaller airports the conveyer belt backs up and moves my suitcase through again for another look but usually all it takes is a friendly, “That’s my suitcase, and I’m diabetic” from me to end the scrutiny. Sadly, I think this is a reflection on how common diabetes has become in the US.
Previous to this big trip the only place I’ve ever had more than a look at my belongings is in Thailand. On return flights to the US (specifically on Northwest Airlines (now Delta)) passengers have to go through another security screening before being allowed into the gate area for the flight. After placing your baggage through another X-ray, each passenger must also open each piece of luggage for a physical inspection. One look at all of my needles usually gets me some special attention. This results in my bag being carried to the gate for me (with me in tow) and a security agent presenting me and my bag to the gate agent. My Thai has never been good enough to know what is said about me, but whatever is said doesn’t elicit much of a reaction from the gate agent who looks at me once and then resumes whatever work they are doing. I take my bag and sit down and board as normal later.
On this current trip I’ve had a few curious interactions and one horrible one (coming up in the next post). Going through Amsterdam on the way to Paris the security agents were intrigued by my pack of AAA batteries which I use to power my insulin pump. The quantity of the pack (16 batteries) seemed to be the concern. My bag was initially run through the X-ray and then it was taken off the conveyer belt by a security agent who asked me if I had batteries. When I said yes, I was asked to locate them. Once found (at the bottom of my bag, of course) they were taken, visually inspected and then run through the X-ray machine again, nothing more. We were then free to run for our plane to Paris.
This April, in the Bangkok airport on our way to Manila I made it through the first security check point without a problem but was stopped at a second security point that allowed you into the gate area. After my bag went through the X-ray I was told to take it to another agent for a physical inspection. I told this agent that I was diabetic in English, which she didn’t understand. So then I tried in Thai, which elicited an understanding that I had said ‘diabetic’ but not any other sort of understanding. As I pulled things out of my bag she realized that I had some syringes (they are backup-backup, in case the loaner insulin pump fails). She went away, found a scrap of paper and then came back, wrote down my passport number and asked me how many syringes I had. I told her 7, she wrote ‘7’ down next to my passport number on her scrap of paper and I went on my merry way.
I find it a little troublesome that I never know what I’m going to encounter at the airport with regard to security and my diabetic supplies. Usually internationally, I encounter a few extra hoops that I have to jump through, which while frustrating especially when you’re literally running to catch a flight, are not horrible. Unfortunately the next post will tell of one experience that I had on this trip that was a great example of how systems and policies can sometimes do harm to innocent travelers – even those who aren’t involved in politically sensitive activities.
Andrea
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Final Days in Bangkok and Looking Ahead…
It is hard to believe that it was three months ago that we literally stumbled upon our apartment 
in Union Tower that has been our home here in Bangkok. It has been a wonderful place for us to study and accomplish one of our main goals of this part of the trip – learning and/or improving our Thai. But on Monday we will check out and begin the last month of this nine month sojourn that we have been on. We have begun to say our goodbyes this week to the people we have spent the most time with here – Pii Oo, our Thai teacher for the past four months, Pii Fai the receptionist/manager at the front desk and Eak, one of the security guards for the building who has become much more than that to us. We have also had some great hang out time with Iven and Kashmira and Roy and Bonita, our friends who have greatly encouraged and walked with us during the past four months. Each of these people and many others have left their mark on us and we are so grateful. They have helped fill our lives while we were leaning into the studying and language learning. (Photos are in order mentioned.)
We are acutely aware of how much we haven’t done over the past four months. I think we had grand but somewhat unrealistic expectations that we would study during the week and then go explore and visit beaches and national parks outside of Bangkok on the weekends. But apart from our week in Manila and my trip to Maehongson, we really haven’t done much other than study. We decided this was ok as goal number one was language acquisition.
We know there are some who probably think we have been just taking it easy and having a very long extended vacation, but the reality is, life carries on. Studying has been our full time occupation for the past four months, interrupted by various medical maladies and illness, having to deal with our credit card numbers (not our cards!) being stolen from the ten days we were in
the US in January, Andrea having to take an online Statistics course (which we haven’t written about yet - we are waiting to get her final grade!), and even making decisions about where we will be and what we will be doing after we return to the US in July. However we still realize it is a grand adventure and one that we are so privileged and blessed and grateful to be on! We’re just hoping no one comes up to us and asks how our nine month vacation was!
And as mentioned, the journey continues for our last month beginning on Monday so we want to give a little itinerary of sorts. On Monday we catch the train from Bangkok down to Penang (another wonderful 24 hour journey!) where we will spend the night before going to the Cameron Highlands, where I went to school in the Jungle…at Chefoo for five or six days. (By the way, for all who have read the book ‘I went to school in the Jungle,’ I had dinner with the brother of the main character the other week –without knowing his family was the inspiration for the book until halfway through the evening! How cool is that? He and his wife are currently working here in Thailand. Another great couple!)
From the Cameron Highlands we travel to Pangkor Island for a couple days and then down to Kuala Lumpur for a two nights before we fly to Cambodia for about a week. We will be hanging out with Dave and Fifi Rickards and also hoping to connect with Steve Hyde who also works there. Fifi and I started at Chefoo together in first grade and went all the way through Faith Academy and Steve is also a former Faith classmate! From Cambodia we fly back to Bangkok and then directly up to Chiang Mai in N. Thailand for a couple days before going out to Maehongson from June 13-21. Then we will make our way back down to Bangkok and head down to the beach at Huahin and one of our favorite places to stay, Veranda Lodge before returning to Bangkok for a couple nights. We fly to Singapore on June 29 and leave for the US on July 1.
We will be in the Seattle-Tacoma area for about a month before moving to North Carolina where Andrea will begin graduate school in August. As with any journey there are still many unknowns in front of us but having the experience of the past eight months gives us much faith for what lies ahead.
If you have wandered and kept up with us via the blog over the course of the past eight months, please know how grateful we are for your emails and prayers as we have wandered the globe. Thank you for following along!
We aren’t sure how much internet/email contact we will have during the next month but we will update the blog as we can and certainly when we reach the US if not before. We also have a few posts scheduled over the next few days including the Khlong Boat (promised long ago), navigating airport security as a diabetic, and why President Obama is good for African Americans and Thailand.
Duncan
in Union Tower that has been our home here in Bangkok. It has been a wonderful place for us to study and accomplish one of our main goals of this part of the trip – learning and/or improving our Thai. But on Monday we will check out and begin the last month of this nine month sojourn that we have been on. We have begun to say our goodbyes this week to the people we have spent the most time with here – Pii Oo, our Thai teacher for the past four months, Pii Fai the receptionist/manager at the front desk and Eak, one of the security guards for the building who has become much more than that to us. We have also had some great hang out time with Iven and Kashmira and Roy and Bonita, our friends who have greatly encouraged and walked with us during the past four months. Each of these people and many others have left their mark on us and we are so grateful. They have helped fill our lives while we were leaning into the studying and language learning. (Photos are in order mentioned.)
We are acutely aware of how much we haven’t done over the past four months. I think we had grand but somewhat unrealistic expectations that we would study during the week and then go explore and visit beaches and national parks outside of Bangkok on the weekends. But apart from our week in Manila and my trip to Maehongson, we really haven’t done much other than study. We decided this was ok as goal number one was language acquisition.
We know there are some who probably think we have been just taking it easy and having a very long extended vacation, but the reality is, life carries on. Studying has been our full time occupation for the past four months, interrupted by various medical maladies and illness, having to deal with our credit card numbers (not our cards!) being stolen from the ten days we were in
the US in January, Andrea having to take an online Statistics course (which we haven’t written about yet - we are waiting to get her final grade!), and even making decisions about where we will be and what we will be doing after we return to the US in July. However we still realize it is a grand adventure and one that we are so privileged and blessed and grateful to be on! We’re just hoping no one comes up to us and asks how our nine month vacation was!And as mentioned, the journey continues for our last month beginning on Monday so we want to give a little itinerary of sorts. On Monday we catch the train from Bangkok down to Penang (another wonderful 24 hour journey!) where we will spend the night before going to the Cameron Highlands, where I went to school in the Jungle…at Chefoo for five or six days. (By the way, for all who have read the book ‘I went to school in the Jungle,’ I had dinner with the brother of the main character the other week –without knowing his family was the inspiration for the book until halfway through the evening! How cool is that? He and his wife are currently working here in Thailand. Another great couple!)
From the Cameron Highlands we travel to Pangkor Island for a couple days and then down to Kuala Lumpur for a two nights before we fly to Cambodia for about a week. We will be hanging out with Dave and Fifi Rickards and also hoping to connect with Steve Hyde who also works there. Fifi and I started at Chefoo together in first grade and went all the way through Faith Academy and Steve is also a former Faith classmate! From Cambodia we fly back to Bangkok and then directly up to Chiang Mai in N. Thailand for a couple days before going out to Maehongson from June 13-21. Then we will make our way back down to Bangkok and head down to the beach at Huahin and one of our favorite places to stay, Veranda Lodge before returning to Bangkok for a couple nights. We fly to Singapore on June 29 and leave for the US on July 1.
We will be in the Seattle-Tacoma area for about a month before moving to North Carolina where Andrea will begin graduate school in August. As with any journey there are still many unknowns in front of us but having the experience of the past eight months gives us much faith for what lies ahead.
If you have wandered and kept up with us via the blog over the course of the past eight months, please know how grateful we are for your emails and prayers as we have wandered the globe. Thank you for following along!
We aren’t sure how much internet/email contact we will have during the next month but we will update the blog as we can and certainly when we reach the US if not before. We also have a few posts scheduled over the next few days including the Khlong Boat (promised long ago), navigating airport security as a diabetic, and why President Obama is good for African Americans and Thailand.
Duncan
Friday, May 15, 2009
April 30 - May 3, Maehongson
Two weekends ago I took a quick trip up to Maehongson, the province I grew up in in North Thailand, right next to the Burma border. It was mainly a scouting trip for when Andrea and I go spend ten days there in June. We didn’t want to just show up and hope former neighbors and friends would take us in for a week! I stayed two nights in the village of Napajat (Fish Fields) which was the last village my parents lived in before they returned to the US and also a night in Pa Tyng where we lived for about eight years before my parents moved to Napajat. Here are some musings from my brief time back in Shan land. (The people we lived with are called the Shan or Thai Yai.)
7AM Friday morning.
The sky is cloudy and overcast bringing blessed relief from the heat. It’s a cool 80 degrees. Breakfast consists of rice, fried fish, freshly caught from the river that runs through the valley where Napajat (Fish Fields) is located and a stew/stirfry of forest greens. As we eat the neighbor who caught the fish shows up. Another neighbor drops off a bottle of honey recently gathered out of the forest. So many things are provided for this family that aims to live very differently than many of their peers and neighbors. (Pii Lee is the shepherd and acknowledged leader of the little church which is flourishing. Pii Toi, his wife, is the dynamic innovator. Together they allow each other to lead with their strengths, supporting each other when they need to, stepping back when that is needed. Neither want fancy titles like ‘Teacher’ or ‘Pastor. Both say there is only one teacher and everyone else is level on the playing field).
Throughout the kitchen (and the whole house actually) as we eat, I see traces and reminders of my former life here – a knife holder I made for my parents in elementary or middle school, our old screen cupboard, maybe an old kettle of ours, now blackened with use. (Photo to the left, Lee, Toi and their daughter Honey. Pii Toi loves to do something silly whenever a picture is taken!)
Outside the fruit trees close in around their house. Lychees are just coming into season, cascading and tumbling down the branches. Peak mango season is still a few weeks away. Ten to twelve pound jackfruit are hanging high up in the trees. The fish pond teems with fish. Chickens scratch around. Creepers and vines run tangled up the trees. The real rainy season hasn’t arrived yet but there have been a few rains to bring new growth to some trees including the mighty teak trees whose young leaves will soon span a foot and a half. The undergrowth isn’t yet the jungle that it will be in a couple months. When someone mentions Shangri la, I think of this valley that Napajat is in. The scenery from the road into the village is one of the most picturesque and pastoral anywhere!
Out on the porch, neighbors talk. A young twenty five year old mother whose baby died of AIDS in the night sits impervious and seemingly unaffected by her loss or by the future that she faces as she lives with this disease as well. Did she become HIV+ from her “work” in Chiang Mai? Maybe. Pii Toi has a dynamic but very down to earth ministry working with those who are HIV/AIDS affected. She doesn’t want a house to care for those who are dying. She wants to train and empower volunteers and family members to care for their own. This way she and other volunteers are able to have greater access to other family members as she is invited into their homes to share good news and truth in spite of the circumstances the family is in.
Pii Toi is one of the most perceptive and honest people I have ever met. My Thai still leaves a lot to be desired but she is able to intuitively know what I am talking about all the time.
Friday 9PM
My reality…My world is so big. My world is so small.
My reality is this... I have never been to a huge family reunion that you read about or see portrayed in movies. My family isn’t that big. But returning to the village of Pa Tyng where my parents lived for eight years and where I spent significant amount of time growing up from eighth grade well into my college years feels like a huge family reunion.
My reality is this....I have a great picture of a skinny white boy surrounded by a gaggle of wizened village grandmothers. When I walked into the temple grounds with one of my friends several of them leaped to their feet, eyes alive, mouths, many with missing teeth opened in huge smiles. These are some of the old generation that I grew up with. So many stories to share. Ladies whose gardens and fields I visited, whose buffalo I helped bring in from the fields and forests every evening.
My reality is this... I have a 20 year old ‘little brother’ whom I last saw for an hour or so ago eight or nine years ago when Andrea and I shared a meal with his parents and him when he was twelve. Prior to that who knows how old he was when I last saw him. Gop didn’t really register on my radar and I’m sure I didn’t register on his. But today when I knocked on his parent’s door, and after the briefest of moments of not recognizing me, he has been by my side (along with his sweet girlfriend of five years) taking me places on the back of his motorcycle, making sure I am well fed and being a very gracious host. He is gentle and has a good heart. He wants to be a PE teacher. Like many of my friends scattered around the world – super athletic and super into sports of all kinds. (Photo below- Gop, his girlfriend and a neighbor visiting over some Shan tea.)
So here’s this kid who barely knows me yet treats me like an older brother. His parents are somehow uncle and aunt to me. Again, ones with whom I have plowed the fields, drank much salty Shan tea when younger and probably provided much amusement for. Tonight I am in their bed which they vacated for me despite my protests.
My family’s former landlady Metow Moon (Gop’s grandmother) died in October. Her house was the first house I went to today in the village. It was all shut up and I knew right away. The man renting the house next door which we used to live in confirmed the news for me. I had to fight back the tears, for this sweet woman who you couldn’t outgive. Many who read this blog knew my Great Aunt Mary who died a year and a half ago. Today I grieve another sainted aunt and am so grateful for the years we had together.
Tomorrow is the Rocket Festival. Gop and I saw different men creating some of the rockets that will be entered into the competition tomorrow. Apparently there are some guys who think it is a good idea to make home made rockets - stuffing gunpowder and who knows what else into a four foot plastic tube - while a little (or a lot) tipsy.
It’s a different world today than twenty, even ten years ago. Everyone, even here in a remote village has a cell phone. Gop has cable in his house. There’s a satellite dish in the back. Solar panels are attached to some of the thatched roofs in the village. Rockets have become a little more high tech also. While they used to be made with a with a 3-4 foot hollowed out bamboo pole about 4-5 inches across packed with some sort of explosive, too many blew up upon ignition, so now they have graduated to plastic pipes of the same dimension, which are attached to a 30-60 foot bamboo pole and then fired high into the sky. (Photo to the left. Rocket being carried to launch site. If you look close you can see the man on the left in the black shirt is carrying the fuse which will be placed into the center of the rocket right before they light it. More pictures coming in a future post!)
The Rocket Festival originally had some religious meaning (and maybe for a few it still does), asking the gods/spirits to bring abundant rain for abundant harvests, now it’s much more about the competition to see whose will go they highest/farthest. And they really do go far. Three years ago when Andrea and I led an Act Six Team here to Thailand, we were flying down from Chiang Rai to Bangkok, when shortly after takeoff we looked out the window and saw a rocket trail outside the window. Assuming that we weren’t fired on by a real rocket, the only explanation is that one of these bamboo rockets had made it some distance in the air right before we passed!
Sunday Afternoon
I didn’t realize how much I missed the hills of Maehongson and North Thailand. Bangkok is just two short flights away this evening but a world apart in so many ways. My head is spinning, my heart is full. My head spins from a million conversations, kids I grew up with now have kids of their own. My heart is full - so good to be back. Tomorrow I might be a bit of a mess when our Thai tutor shows up. I’ve been learning Thai solidly for three months now but was surprised at how much Shan tumbled out from somewhere in the back of my brain. Though similar, there are many differences and I expect many ‘wrong’ words to come out tomorrow. Family reunions can wear you out. Last night I went to bed at 8:30 and didn’t get up until 8 this morning! Longest sleep I have had in…a long time. So looking forward to coming back next month.
Duncan
7AM Friday morning.
The sky is cloudy and overcast bringing blessed relief from the heat. It’s a cool 80 degrees. Breakfast consists of rice, fried fish, freshly caught from the river that runs through the valley where Napajat (Fish Fields) is located and a stew/stirfry of forest greens. As we eat the neighbor who caught the fish shows up. Another neighbor drops off a bottle of honey recently gathered out of the forest. So many things are provided for this family that aims to live very differently than many of their peers and neighbors. (Pii Lee is the shepherd and acknowledged leader of the little church which is flourishing. Pii Toi, his wife, is the dynamic innovator. Together they allow each other to lead with their strengths, supporting each other when they need to, stepping back when that is needed. Neither want fancy titles like ‘Teacher’ or ‘Pastor. Both say there is only one teacher and everyone else is level on the playing field).
Throughout the kitchen (and the whole house actually) as we eat, I see traces and reminders of my former life here – a knife holder I made for my parents in elementary or middle school, our old screen cupboard, maybe an old kettle of ours, now blackened with use. (Photo to the left, Lee, Toi and their daughter Honey. Pii Toi loves to do something silly whenever a picture is taken!)
Outside the fruit trees close in around their house. Lychees are just coming into season, cascading and tumbling down the branches. Peak mango season is still a few weeks away. Ten to twelve pound jackfruit are hanging high up in the trees. The fish pond teems with fish. Chickens scratch around. Creepers and vines run tangled up the trees. The real rainy season hasn’t arrived yet but there have been a few rains to bring new growth to some trees including the mighty teak trees whose young leaves will soon span a foot and a half. The undergrowth isn’t yet the jungle that it will be in a couple months. When someone mentions Shangri la, I think of this valley that Napajat is in. The scenery from the road into the village is one of the most picturesque and pastoral anywhere!
Out on the porch, neighbors talk. A young twenty five year old mother whose baby died of AIDS in the night sits impervious and seemingly unaffected by her loss or by the future that she faces as she lives with this disease as well. Did she become HIV+ from her “work” in Chiang Mai? Maybe. Pii Toi has a dynamic but very down to earth ministry working with those who are HIV/AIDS affected. She doesn’t want a house to care for those who are dying. She wants to train and empower volunteers and family members to care for their own. This way she and other volunteers are able to have greater access to other family members as she is invited into their homes to share good news and truth in spite of the circumstances the family is in.
Pii Toi is one of the most perceptive and honest people I have ever met. My Thai still leaves a lot to be desired but she is able to intuitively know what I am talking about all the time.
Friday 9PM
My reality…My world is so big. My world is so small.
My reality is this... I have never been to a huge family reunion that you read about or see portrayed in movies. My family isn’t that big. But returning to the village of Pa Tyng where my parents lived for eight years and where I spent significant amount of time growing up from eighth grade well into my college years feels like a huge family reunion.
My reality is this....I have a great picture of a skinny white boy surrounded by a gaggle of wizened village grandmothers. When I walked into the temple grounds with one of my friends several of them leaped to their feet, eyes alive, mouths, many with missing teeth opened in huge smiles. These are some of the old generation that I grew up with. So many stories to share. Ladies whose gardens and fields I visited, whose buffalo I helped bring in from the fields and forests every evening.My reality is this... I have a 20 year old ‘little brother’ whom I last saw for an hour or so ago eight or nine years ago when Andrea and I shared a meal with his parents and him when he was twelve. Prior to that who knows how old he was when I last saw him. Gop didn’t really register on my radar and I’m sure I didn’t register on his. But today when I knocked on his parent’s door, and after the briefest of moments of not recognizing me, he has been by my side (along with his sweet girlfriend of five years) taking me places on the back of his motorcycle, making sure I am well fed and being a very gracious host. He is gentle and has a good heart. He wants to be a PE teacher. Like many of my friends scattered around the world – super athletic and super into sports of all kinds. (Photo below- Gop, his girlfriend and a neighbor visiting over some Shan tea.)
So here’s this kid who barely knows me yet treats me like an older brother. His parents are somehow uncle and aunt to me. Again, ones with whom I have plowed the fields, drank much salty Shan tea when younger and probably provided much amusement for. Tonight I am in their bed which they vacated for me despite my protests.
My family’s former landlady Metow Moon (Gop’s grandmother) died in October. Her house was the first house I went to today in the village. It was all shut up and I knew right away. The man renting the house next door which we used to live in confirmed the news for me. I had to fight back the tears, for this sweet woman who you couldn’t outgive. Many who read this blog knew my Great Aunt Mary who died a year and a half ago. Today I grieve another sainted aunt and am so grateful for the years we had together.
Tomorrow is the Rocket Festival. Gop and I saw different men creating some of the rockets that will be entered into the competition tomorrow. Apparently there are some guys who think it is a good idea to make home made rockets - stuffing gunpowder and who knows what else into a four foot plastic tube - while a little (or a lot) tipsy.
It’s a different world today than twenty, even ten years ago. Everyone, even here in a remote village has a cell phone. Gop has cable in his house. There’s a satellite dish in the back. Solar panels are attached to some of the thatched roofs in the village. Rockets have become a little more high tech also. While they used to be made with a with a 3-4 foot hollowed out bamboo pole about 4-5 inches across packed with some sort of explosive, too many blew up upon ignition, so now they have graduated to plastic pipes of the same dimension, which are attached to a 30-60 foot bamboo pole and then fired high into the sky. (Photo to the left. Rocket being carried to launch site. If you look close you can see the man on the left in the black shirt is carrying the fuse which will be placed into the center of the rocket right before they light it. More pictures coming in a future post!)The Rocket Festival originally had some religious meaning (and maybe for a few it still does), asking the gods/spirits to bring abundant rain for abundant harvests, now it’s much more about the competition to see whose will go they highest/farthest. And they really do go far. Three years ago when Andrea and I led an Act Six Team here to Thailand, we were flying down from Chiang Rai to Bangkok, when shortly after takeoff we looked out the window and saw a rocket trail outside the window. Assuming that we weren’t fired on by a real rocket, the only explanation is that one of these bamboo rockets had made it some distance in the air right before we passed!
Sunday Afternoon
I didn’t realize how much I missed the hills of Maehongson and North Thailand. Bangkok is just two short flights away this evening but a world apart in so many ways. My head is spinning, my heart is full. My head spins from a million conversations, kids I grew up with now have kids of their own. My heart is full - so good to be back. Tomorrow I might be a bit of a mess when our Thai tutor shows up. I’ve been learning Thai solidly for three months now but was surprised at how much Shan tumbled out from somewhere in the back of my brain. Though similar, there are many differences and I expect many ‘wrong’ words to come out tomorrow. Family reunions can wear you out. Last night I went to bed at 8:30 and didn’t get up until 8 this morning! Longest sleep I have had in…a long time. So looking forward to coming back next month.
Duncan
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Wilsons Published...
Two interesting things to note with regard to this blog and our travels so far. As you know Andrea really wanted this to be a resource for others with Type 1 Diabetes who want to travel internationally. This past week The Wilson's Wanderings and specifically Andrea's diabetes supply packing list was highlighted among many other resources on www.sixuntilme.com . Sixuntilme is a blog read by many around the world written by Kerri Morrone Sparling who writes daily about her experience with diabetes. Andrea has found Kerri's words encouraging and entertaining. Because of this exposure over 100 people checked out Andrea's packing list and our blog on the first day it was listed!
Here's the link to the specific post: http://sixuntilme.com/blog2/2009/04/grand_rounds.html
Then we also learned that a letter I wrote to the editors of Go! magazine is featured in the May 2009 edition. Go! is one of the two premier travel magazines in South Africa. The letter highlights the story of my encounter with the lifeguards back in December. What is really cool is that though much was edited, the magazine left in the main point of the story and published a photo of the lifeguards along with all their names. I had told the lifeguards that I would write their story and am really glad and grateful that Go! picked it up as an acknowledgement of their hard work! I am excited that so many will read about them.
To read Go! Magazine's Letters to the editor click on the following link:
http://sites.google.com/site/thewilsonswanderings/Home/LetterstotheEditorMay2009-Go!mag.pdf?attredirects=0
To read the original story, click here: http://thewilsonswanderings.blogspot.com/2008/12/luthando-bonginkosi-and-patrick-three.html
Duncan
Here's the link to the specific post: http://sixuntilme.com/blog2/2009/04/grand_rounds.html
Then we also learned that a letter I wrote to the editors of Go! magazine is featured in the May 2009 edition. Go! is one of the two premier travel magazines in South Africa. The letter highlights the story of my encounter with the lifeguards back in December. What is really cool is that though much was edited, the magazine left in the main point of the story and published a photo of the lifeguards along with all their names. I had told the lifeguards that I would write their story and am really glad and grateful that Go! picked it up as an acknowledgement of their hard work! I am excited that so many will read about them.
To read Go! Magazine's Letters to the editor click on the following link:
http://sites.google.com/site/thewilsonswanderings/Home/LetterstotheEditorMay2009-Go!mag.pdf?attredirects=0
To read the original story, click here: http://thewilsonswanderings.blogspot.com/2008/12/luthando-bonginkosi-and-patrick-three.html
Duncan
Saturday, May 2, 2009
And a few more Songkran Photos...
During Songkran many wear loud, colorful, floral print shirts. One word: Fun!
One word: Joy.
One Word: Trouble! These kids were great! They walked by me and I could see them contemplating getting me, but they also saw I had a camera so as they turned around and walked past me again, the oldest one came up to me and gently poured his bucket of water on my feet. One more word: Grace.
Have Super Soaker backpack attachment...Will travel. Even in Thailands infamous Tuk-Tuks!
The only reason you would want to travel in these open to all sides Tuk-Tuks during Songkran is if you wanted to get a little wet!
Duncan
Friday, May 1, 2009
Songkran Shots...
We are wishing Songkran days were still here. Ever since then the temperature has been rising. Our apartment which has remained at 86 F/30 C degrees inside now creeps up to 92 F/ 33 C by the end of the day before we turn the aircon on. Outside it has been up to 100 F/ 38 C. As in S. Africa, I put our thermometer on our window sill in the sun and it quickly popped up to 121 F / 49 C. Thus we would love a little water sprayed at us as we walk along the hot sidewalks of Bangkok.
The other day we were in a taxi and the person on the radio was saying it had been Bangkok's hottest day so far this year - which means two things: 1 - It's Hot and 2 - Our thai (though it has a long way to go) is getting a little better since we can understand some things on the radio! The hot and supposedly dry season continues until the monsoon rains come in late May or June. This year however has not been a normal year weather wise. For the past two months there have been ferocious thunder storms - definitely the loudest and most terrifying thunder either of
us have experienced. One day a very fast storm came up - it blew iron piping off our building, a satellite dish from the roof, as well as other random debris! Not what you want raining down on you from 20 stories up!Anyway, here are a few more pictures illustrating the basic facts of Songkran: Fill up whatever container is at hand with water. Either drag that container out to the side of the street or put it in the back of a pickup truck. Begin water fight. Wave people down to let them know you want to soak them (or run into the street and don't let them pass you). Douse passersby with a hose or your Super Soaker. And don't forget to smear white paste on their faces as well. No one is safe!
I love this picture: Bucket of water flying through the air. No one holding on to it!
Duncan
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