Stickywrites

Today Andrew and I had the pleasure of going to see the eye doctor for a yearly checkup. Maybe you do not normally think of going to the eye doctor as particularly comfortable or pleasurable, but the experience here is quite different. We had made appointments together after we heeded the warnings of our eye doctor friends, Lee, Helen, and Angela, who came to visit us from the States a few months ago: “Everyone goes to see their dentist every year, but no one thinks about going to see their eye doctor!! Teeth are replaceable but eyes are not!” Seeing the truth to this we decided it was time.
Anyway, I SHOCKED the nurses when, sitting down for the eye refraction thing-ey (I’m sure there’s a more appropriate name), I boldly claimed that yes, I had my contacts in. They all glanced at each other nervously before breaking the news to me….supposedly I should’ve taken them out THREE days ago for an eye examination, because, as they explained, contacts affect the shape of your eye and clearly an eye appointment requires your eye be at its most natural shape for the most accurate examination. They could not BELIEVE I did not know this, despite claiming to see an eye surgeon every year for the last 15 years of contact-wearing, and never having to do this before, They reconciled the 3 day period of non-contact wearing for 30 minutes sitting in the waiting room, eyeless and sipping cappuccino from the coffee machine that boasts 15 different options at the push of a button – like an automated Starbucks (no Frappucinos I’m afraid). I say eyeless because I’m extremely blind in both eyes. I can’t do much without corrective lenses, besides standing up and sitting down. Which is no form of entertainment at all if you ask me. Undoubtedly, sans-contacts, I will run into something, break something, hurt myself, fall over, or all of the above in a matter of seconds. So anyway, everything was pretty much normal otherwise, like normal eye dr. visits, until the eye dilation part. If you are or ever plan to be in the eye-dilating business, listen up!! Or if you have ever sat through an American eye dilation routine, which usually includes struggling helplessly to read some magazine as your eyes get blurrier and blurrier and your headache gets stronger and stronger, listen up! This is a fantastic idea….
I was led into a dim room. Dazed and still eyeless, I glanced around in my blurry vision and noticed big furry white blobs, one of which held a snoring man (I think it was a man, actually now that I think of it I can’t be sure). These turned out to big lazyboy, sheet-covered chairs, in which people were dozing happily. I was in a massage parlor! Except I was still in the eye doctor suite. I thought, “wow, this eye doctor’s office must have a spa business too, as a sort of all-around health and wellness thing. “ This is not all that strange of a thought, after all, since many places have spas attached to them and massage spas are a dime a dozen here. As it turned out, I too was led to a furry white blob, while another nurse pushed some buttons on a furry black thing and reclined my chair completely horizontal. Then the drops emerged, and next thing I knew, my eyes were happily dilating away while I dozed in the massage chair.
They’ve got my business from now on, that’s for sure!

That’s not an insect. That stands for:

B is for Birthday (I’m 27 as of April 2nd):

I got a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for my birthday (thanks Andrew!), which was a treat since I don’t LOVE Thai cakes. They are rather tasteless, kind of like a shortcake or angel food cake but harder. Mmm. We also treated ourselves to an Italian dinner downtown, which was a fun date for us. Thais are rather unparticular about birthdays – not many people celebrate them like we foreigners do, with big celebrations and cakes and such.

E is for Easter: A huge opportunity for us to invite Thais to our Thai worship service and have the Gospel message preached! We had many of the children and teens from Mahathai come and hear this message, and they come now with regularity to JoyKids on Saturdays and other events we have, so praise God for their presence there on Easter. Continually pray for them as they search out what Jesus means to them, who He is, as they sing these praise songs every week, and hear the Gospel preached. I got to dye Easter eggs with them, which was fun! (Thanks Mrs. Mills for the Christian egg-dying set, as it made it very meaningful to the Mahathai teens to have Christian symbols on their eggs rather than only ducks, chicks and bunnies!) It was encouraging to see them writing with their white crayons, “God Loves You” and “Jesus Lives”. Some of them were amazingly artistic and perfectionistic, in true Thai style. They had all kinds of interesting color combos and intricate designs with their white crayons. Also, here in Thailand, SURPRISE! you don’t have to hard-boil your own eggs, because, Voila! there are salted white duck eggs that are pre-hardened sold at 7-11 or any store. This was a huge relief to me b/c I have a tendency to blow up hard-boiled eggs. We also had a Thanksgivingish feast at the Mills, too, with everyone on the team. The Mills have a yard, so the kids were able to hunt for easter eggs. Kim, who’s been on bedrest since November and hasn’t left her house since then (or her room, really, except for dr.’s appts) even made a cameo appearance. It was thanks to Kim’s bedrest actually, that we got to have a huge turkey on Easter. They had it in their freezer since thanksgiving since she went on bedrest a few days before.

A is for Anniversary (We are 2 years old as of April 16th):

Andrew and I got to spend a whole day together because we had a holiday on our anniversary and the office was closed!! We ate at a great Thai restaurant downtown and traversed the ever-bustling streets of downtown Bangkok during the nighttime hours.

S is for Songkran:

The biggest national Thai holiday, also known as “The-douse-your-neighbor-or -innocent-passersby-in-the-biggest-national-waterfight-known-to-man-week” just passed this last weekend. In the middle of summer, as you can imagine, Bangkok is quite unbearably hot and kids are out for the summer from March to May, so this is the big Thai New Year Holiday where most everyone “tries” to leave Bangkok to get away. I say “tries” because usually flights, buses, and trains are so packed with thousands of people that it takes hours of waiting at any station in the city to get an outgoing ride with the Wonder that is Bangkok traffic. Our friend Yu waited from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. to get on a bus. Fun, right?

Well, we opted on staying in town and watching the Veldhorst children while Dave and Jan took a couple days off. We had alot of fun while really Katy (2nd oldest of 5) was in charge. Most of the time, we said, “Yes, listen to Katy” or “That’s right, you heard Katy” because she is definitely the boss when the parents are away! We went to a water-fight at their friends’ house. I, being the “babysitter,” naively thought I could slip inside the house with the other moms before getting soaked, but the kids had a different idea. I had not finished putting up the kickstand on my bike, when a kid dumped an ice chest full of water on my head. I shouted in despair, “I’m just the babysitter!” as the kid nonchalantly turned on his heels to douse his next victim, but it clearly did not matter who I was – I was dry and that is not acceptable during Songkran! We also went to a nearby apartment complex’s pool on our bikes which turned out to be a big mistake….when we arrived after the 10 minute trip, we were soaked head to toe, our faces chalked with a clayish talcum powder mix. People camp out on the side of the road to spray, shoot, splatter, dump, throw, and do-whatever-they-can-with water to people on or in cars, buses, motorbikes, bikes, pedestrians, etc. No one is safe!

We are gearing up for a busy month of non-stop visitors, so I might take a month-long hiatus. However, I do want to let everyone know that, never fear, we have found a bona fide Mexican restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, called Charly Brown’s, no less. I think it is run by a Brit or Aussie, not sure, but regardless, they have real, honest to goodness corn tortillas, guacamole, enchiladas, salsa, chips and fajitas. It’s no Los Barrios or Mia’s, but it’s something! Here are Dana and I enjoying the aforementioned fare. ¡Olé!