The last week and a half our family has spent being even more overseas than we usually are! Ha! If
that’s even possible….
We’ve added 3 more stamps to our passports, and realized in
the process that we need to add more pages to them before any more
international travel (so a trip to the US Embassy in Beijing looks to be in our
future; one more first for the Joseph family).
I decided to try a slightly alternate flying route than we’ve taken
before, largely for the sake of curiosity.
But it seems like no matter where we go, the travel always just seems to
be LONG and exhausting.
So last week on Wednesday, our family rode the bus to school
(rather than driving our car, as we didn’t want to leave the vehicle at school
for 2 weeks), I taught my English class for 1 hour while the kids made an
appearance in their respective classes, then we threw on our travel clothes (it
was China Day at school, so we were all wearing our most Chinese-ee outfits,
which were not my first choice to show up at the airport in) and waited for our
driver to give us the ride to the airport, who was 45 minutes late! Ahh!
We managed to make it to our flight on time, largely due to the fact
that it was delayed a good hour and a half.
We then eventually made the final destination (at least for the first
day of travel), which was Bangkok, 13 hours later, after passing through Korea
on the way. Here are a few of the
highlights from the travel:
·
Karis asking the flight attendant for “cha”
during the beverage service (this is Chinese for tea); this was not even being
served at the time, but the flight attendant was so tickled that she went to
the back of the plane to bring her a steaming cup of it
·
Hudson overhearing 2 restaurant workers at the
airport in Seoul speaking Korean; upon hearing their speech, he
enthusiastically informed me that they were speaking Korean (which he hears a
lot of from his classmates at school); I then continued by explaining to him
that them speaking Korean made sense, as we were actually in Korea; the look on his face as this realization sunk in was
pretty priceless
·
Quizno’s sandwiches—discovered in the Seoul
airport and purchased (and eaten!) in spite of not being hungry AT ALL, but
rather just thrilled to make such a splendid serendipity
The second day of travel was MUCH easier. It only required a 20-minute ride to the
airport and a 1-hour flight before we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We had another family traveling with us, and
we made it through that leg of the journey as painlessly as could be
expected. I guess I should add that the
van that picked us up from the airport was a not what I’d call the latest
model, and we ended up stalling on the side of the road before reaching our
hotel. We all sat in the van, sweating,
for about 5 minutes while the driver tried to cool the engine by pouring a
bottle of water over it, with us laughing that whole time about how there was a
time when that sort of minor inconvenience would have rattled us all a
bit. As it was, we ended up getting to
ride in several open-air tuk-tuks, which are basically motorcycles with bench
seats and a cover over them on the back; this also happens to be the kids most
preferred mode of transportation while we are in Thailand (and now Cambodia,
too!), so it ended up being a win-win (almost!). We spent the next several days getting to
learn more about Cambodia culture and visiting with friends. It was informative and refreshing in many
ways.
I had one afternoon of down time that I used to go on a
quick walk through the neighborhood of our hotel, and I discovered a charming
(if quite muddy and polluted-looking) river that was nearby. On my walk I was struck by how little I
understand of the Cambodian culture. As
I walked, men regularly called out greetings to me. My immediate reaction was to avert my eyes
and pretend I hadn’t heard them; in Chinese culture this would never
happen. If a man was so bold to make eye
contact, much less call out any sort of boisterous greeting, you could safely
assume he was either drunk or being inappropriate to some degree. But what if the Cambodian culture is much
more like the Latin American one, where it is common and even polite to greet
anyone passing by with enthusiasm? I
found myself laughing at the quandary I was in, and even more amused at how
uncomfortable I was with my lack of understanding and ignorance of how to
handle such a simple inter-personal interaction that is so seemingly innocuous
as a greeting. I guess the good news is
that I have definitely grown in the area of cultural sensitivity! I no longer am content to live in oblivion about
how what I’m communicating both verbally and non-verbally might be being received
based upon the culture and context I am in.
We had one afternoon off to go explore the city, so we had
an absolute blast letting the kids help in setting the agenda. They had discovered several tanks filled with
small fish; the tanks were designed with benches on top of them so that you
would sit and dangle your feet into the tanks, allowing the small fish to
literally eat the dead skin off of your feet.
We’ve seen this before on previous trips to Thailand, and the kids have
always wanted to participate in this obviously touristy activity, but on this
trip we finally agreed that the price was right (less than a dollar) and that
it would constitute a fun family activity.
So we all fed the fish for a full 10 minutes, with quite differing
reactions, depending on the family member!
Hudson made it maybe 15 seconds before he decided that the fish were
biting him too hard; Eli, on the other hand, would have actually put his face
in the water to let the fish nibble if we’d given him permission to do so! Kevin and I were squirming and squealing for
the first 8 minutes until we finally got accustomed to the snake-like feel of
fish swarming between our toes and all around our ankles. The seemed especially to prefer my heals and
feet, which was good support for me in convincing Kevin that he obviously
needed to be sending me out to get more pedicures than I am currently in the
habit of getting!
After our fish-feed, we took another tuk-tuk to the night
market, which is also the area of town with the majority of restaurants. We LOVED our meal of Mexican food, and
enjoyed doing some souvenir shopping as well.
While we in the market shopping, we ran into an adorable, skinny, probably
8-year old little girl with her 1-year old baby sibling worn in a sling over
her shoulder. The little girl came up to
us, asking me to buy her a bag of expensive chocolates that were at a stand
nearby where we were standing. Looking
at her rotting teeth and skinny arms and legs, the mother in me revolted at the
thought of buying her such a non-nutritious snack. But I couldn’t find anything else that seemed
a healthier option. So as I was looking,
I asked if I could get a picture of her standing with Karis, who was trying to
get her sibling to interact with her.
The little girl immediately responded with, “Picture—one dollar—one
dollar only.” I had no US dollars on me,
and was shocked at how boldly she had answered.
I reached into my wallet and pulled out what little Cambodian cash I
had, but it was obviously LESS than the $1 fee she required; so she forcefully
exclaimed that it was not one dollar and quickly walked away. Karis and I both stood there for several
minutes with shocked looks on our faces.
I still don’t understand why this little girl was not willing to accept
the money I did want to give her; I realized later it was close to $1 (about 75
cents), but I figured she had a story.
Was she keeping the money for her family? Was it for something or someone else? Was the baby she was carrying in the sling
even related to her? Was the whole thing
just a racket? Was there some
significance to US dollars as opposed to the Cambodian money? It was all a mystery—and still is! We did run into the little girl in the same
spot about an hour later, but this time I had found a stand that sold somewhat
healthier food items (like dried fruit).
Karis and I ran back and quickly purchased some to bring to the little
girl, for which she said a curt thank you and stuck in a bag before quickly continuing
on to pursue the next tourist passing by her patch of ground. I couldn’t help but think on His sovereignty
over all things, over all people and situations, over all of the families we
are born into and the lives that we lead, as I walked away thankful for the one
He has blessed me with.
I continued this vein of thankfulness for His blessings
throughout the week—particularly thankfulness for life itself! Eli came up to Kevin and me at the breakfast
table one morning while we were in Cambodia, surrounded by a group of his
friends, and grinning from ear to ear as he held forth his trophy—a large frog
he’d found in the outdoor dining area of our hotel. The kids all had a blast playing with the
frog for the next 10 minutes until it made its fortuitous escape. It was only
after the frog’s escape that we learned, according to one little girl in the
group who spoke Cambodian and happened to hear some of the staff talking
amongst themselves, that apparently that kind of frog has a poisonous coating
on its skin! We of course had the kids
wash their hands thoroughly upon this news, but I still kind of held my breath,
hoping that we wouldn’t see any negative repercussions to the kids’ handling of
their morning toy. So far, so good, as
no one has seemed to be any worse for the poison that may or may not have been
a reality!
I also ended up sick to the point of wishing that my life might just end the day before we had to leave
Cambodia. As far as I could tell, I ate
something that did NOT sit right with my stomach, and I had to spend the last
day of time with our friends in bed all day, feeling like I’d been hit by a
truck. I was sooooo incredibly thankful
that my system finally righted itself, and literally just in time, as we had
another day of travel ahead of us to get to Thailand, and I didn’t even have to
make any trips to hospitals or other medical facilities in the process. My one regret, besides missing time with
friends that final day and feeling so crummy in the process, is that I failed
to check through our laundry bag that Kevin picked up from the Laundromat that
was just around the corner where we had dropped off some of the clothes we
needed to have cleaned; I didn’t discover until our arrival in Thailand that
several of the long-sleeved and long pants clothing items had not been returned,
so I’m actually off on an afternoon adventure of trying to find some suitable
clothes for those who are now missing them so that we can be appropriately
dressed for the sub-freezing temperatures we’ll be hitting upon our return
home! There’s a decent chance I’ll end
up with some boys in sparkly pink sweat pants for our flight back to China…
.
. . . . . . . . . .
So no sparkly pink sweat pants, but I did end up selecting 2
of the only 2 choices for long pants for the boys! Noah will be donning a stylish pair of red
skinny sweatpants (which he loves, because they have a Ben 10 logo on them) and
Hudson will be wearing a pajama shirt (which he loves, because it is Batman). And I actually found tennis shoes for the
boys, as all 3 of them had their current pair splitting at the seams (I think
they have worn them enough out in the snow that it weakened them in places that
normally aren’t a problem!). The
interesting thing to me was that amongst racks of girls’ shoes, they didn’t
sell a single pair of athletic shoes—they were all cheaply-made sandals or flip
flops. I suppose it’s like it used to be
in the US, where girls only have more dressy or casual options for footwear,
rather than the selection of athletic wear we’re accustomed to. 
Our days of rest and relaxation here on the beach in
Thailand can best be summed up, as cheesy as it may sound, as an oasis for our
family, both on the emotional, physical, and spiritual level. Our bodies have time to clear the junk out of
our lungs, and for the first time in months none of us have a nagging cough in
the morning when we awaken. We have a
break from the cultural stress that is to be expected when living
cross-culturally. We have quiet (at least when we take turns
watching the kids and escape for a brief walk on the beach)! I was astounded at how few people I saw as I
took advantage of just such an opportunity a few days ago. I walked for half an hour with only the
sounds of nature buzzing around me: birds chirping (a rare sound to my ears,
indeed!), the ocean waves rolling in; the odd variety of horned cattle and
chickens rustling around in the brush near the dirt road I was on. It was beautiful! And we have the time away from life’s
responsibilities to truly be able to be still and reflect. To be honest, this time of reflecting is not
something we’ve been out of practice on recently. I regularly wonder if our family is unique in
how much time we spend asking questions about where we are and if we’re doing
what we’re supposed to be. Not in a bad
or anxious way, but it feels that we are in a constant state of re-evaluating
if we are being called to move elsewhere, be spending our time doing something
different, or investing in people that we haven’t paid close enough attention
to. I’m thinking there’s a good chance
that a lot of this has to do simply with our lifestyle; the fact that we live
in a place where the needs are so great, the community itself is so transitory,
and even our visa (and therefore ability to stay here) is so unstable. Anyway, Kevin and I have both sensed a sort
of numbness during this last leg of our journey, and I kind of think it might
be because we just need to focus on being still, enjoying Him, and allowing the
questions to be answered on His timeline rather than our own. A good place to be, but not exactly one that
comes naturally to either Kevin or me, who would much rather have all the
answers and the 10-year plan all mapped out!
My solution: early morning time
with Him, an hour-long foot massage during rest time in the afternoon (which
you can get here for under $10 and feels divine!), and enjoying a coconut milk
shake with the kids at the pool after dinner.
Ahhhh. One more day before we
head back to the real world!
To sum it up, some of my favorite moments from our week of
vacation:
·
Taking a 20-minute boat ride to Monkey Island to
feed the wild monkeys there, making it back with none of the kids getting
bitten or mutilated in any other form by the enthusiastic wild things, and
seeing a dolphin on our return trip
·
Finding new discoveries every day on the
beach—everything from a dead baby stingray to tiny jelly fish (which we caught
in our buckets) to countless crabs of all types and varieties
·
Seeing the kids LOVING every minute; Karis
making friends with every other kid in the pool and Eli designing a trap to
catch the school of small minnows on the beach in order to put them in his
bucket to feed his crabs; Hudson laughing and smiling the entire time he was
digging in the sand and going down the pool’s slide; Noah delighting in every
sign of nature that passed by, insisting that any bird with color on it was a
parrot (he only ever sees common sparrows and an occasional Magpie while in
China)
·
The load of fish that the kids and Kevin caught
on an early-morning (5:30am) fishing expedition; we had the restaurant here at
the hotel cook them up and had fish for lunch that day!
·
Eli and Hudson not having any major negative
health side effects after being eaten alive on the beach by these tiny
blood-sucking gnats; I did have to make a run into town to buy another tube of
ointment to put on them to try to stop the itching and I spent a good portion
of 3 days explaining to other concerned-looking parents that my boys did not
have some strange, contagious disease, but had merely been brutally attacked by
an insect I’ve never seen before
·
Noah, after throwing at least 3 fits before noon
at the mere thought of having to take a nap, laying in bed and saying, “Mom,
thanks for making me take a rest. I
really am so tired.” Not what I was
expecting from my three-year old!
Tomorrow we start the return trip home. We leave the beach at 7am for a 3-4 hour
drive to get us to Bangkok, then fly for about 7 hours to Seoul. We’ll spend the night in Seoul, then fly the
next day for about an hour back to Tianjin.
We should arrive around noon on Wednesday, have the afternoon to unpack
some bags and get ready for school that starts up again on Thursday. Hoping we don’t have too many obstacles to
getting back to Tianjin when we’re scheduled, or we might have a tired crew
come Thursday morning when it’s back to the grind! For now, I’m just thankful that Noah at least
can’t wait to hit the road and start the traveling so he can wear his new
clothes!