Kindness

Hi,

The weekend was so dry we got the car washed.  Still have to look out for puddles, but it’s very clean.  No rain is expected until next week. 

The ‘Old School Friday’ song was “Stop, In the Name of Love” by The Supremes.  Hopefully, the ‘Easy Monday’ song will be just as easy.  “__ __ __ when she’s gone.  It’s not warm when she’s away.  __ __ __ when she’s gone and she’s always gone too long, anytime she goes away.”  Hint:  The title is an English teacher’s nightmare.  If you’re having trouble remembering, lean on me for more clues (555).  

We had what you might call a ‘Wanderer Weekend’.  Saturday we had lunch there with a couple who are visiting Chiang Rai from the States.  It’s always fun to tell people all the reasons we love living here and to show off our favorite place to hang out.  While we were there we saw two of the largest moths ever.  Apparently the had just flown in and were just resting up in the trees.  There was also a monkey sighting at The Wanderer.  Monkeys are abundant in the south of Thailand, but one hardly hears of them up north.  They gave it some bananas and it took a bite and then threw the rest back at them.  Hmm.  Today’s photo is one of the giant moths.

Sunday, after my morning meeting, Lisa, Cat and I went to The Wanderer for lunch.  Then we went to Art Bridge to get a canvas for the next project.  All of the artists have been invited to paint something related to The King.  This will be a very interesting exhibit.  It opens while we will be in America, but we’ll get to see it when we return.

While we were getting the van washed this morning, we had a fun visit with Katai and Thowan at Work@Home.   We hadn’t seen Thowan since the Singapore experience, so he wanted to know about the F1 Grand Prix.  Their big question was whether I had seen K.C. & the Sunshine Band perform.  It turns out they are big fans of some 70s music from the States.  He also told us that there is a Mustang on the showroom at one of the exclusive car dealers.  We’ve never seen a Mustang in Chiang Rai, and we spotted it later in the day - bright red.  

Another Thai lesson happened today.  We’re learning some interesting things about the cultural aspects of the language.  Hard to explain, but as an example, there is a word that relates to the heart and emotional state when used with other words.  Our new book also has 5 pages of Thai words taken from English, like ‘futbon’ is football, and ‘gee-taa’ is guitar.  Fascinating, seeing the roots of English words placed into the pronunciation patterns of Thai.  We’ve been told that the CIA ranks it as one of the hardest languages to learn.  

Neetchanon continues to expand her vocabulary and carries on conversations as if we understand.  It was great hearing her little voice from downstairs while she played with her cousin, Gop.  It won’t be long before real words will have us answering questions like ‘what’s that?’.

Have a Great Week.

                      Peace,

                                Danny

“Kindness is the language

which the deaf can hear and 

the blind can see.”

~Mark Twain