A Few Things to Remember

I've been having one of those day.. well.. a few of those days.  I've learned to call them Thai Days.  They are those days when you have about a million things to do.  Literally, your "to do" list is 100 things long and by noon you only have half of number 1 done.  When living in a third world country one must remember a few things:


1) Everyone runs late.  If they are on time they're early.  Get used to it.
2) It rains here.  A lot.  Keeping your laptop only in your backpack during monsoon season is a sure fire way to screw it up.
3) The food is wonderful-- and for weak stomach people (like myself) you can be sure that 20-40% of your time will be spent on the toilet expelling said wonderful food the first few weeks.  If after a few weeks this continues you thank the Lord above for the loss of 5 pounds and then go to the local hospital.
4)  When going to the hospital is runs at one speed. SLOOOOW.  It gives American ERs a good name.  After three hours you get antibiotics that crap out your stomach.. but at least you've stopped crappin every 20 minutes!
5) Government in Thailand also has one speed: SLOOOOOW.  If you expect to walk into immigration and get something accomplished than you are an ignorant foreigner.  If you get there by 8am you might MIGHT get your stuff done by 4pm. If you're lucky. 
6) Internet access (or good internet access) is hard to come by.. if your awesome MacBook gets wasted in a rainstorm it gets exponentially worse.  You might borrow someone's laptop but if you think, for one second, that the password will work... you are wrong.  So you head to the internet cafe where the internet was updated in the early 90's and you hope.. HOPE that your blog that you just typed up will actually load.


In three days I've gotten about 3 hours of REAL work done.  This is frustrating.  But as Schafer says (the owner and operator of Warm Heart) "You just get used to these Thai days.. they happen all the time."  So instead of being my typical American self that would be all up in arms about the lack of things done or the inability to complete what is a seemingly simple task.... I will relax.  I'm powerless and there ain't a bit I can do to fix it.  I chuckle at the frustration and breathe a moment.  I didn't pray for patience... but the Lord is teaching me that growth comes in the long pauses that often have made me uncomfortable in the past.


The past doesn't have much use here.  And frustration doesn't really fit in with the culture.  You twist and turn with the crazy and smile and nod with the delays.  You learn that the driven, insane, push push push of the college experience isn't not only necessary here- its detrimental. You find new ways to find comfort in the uncomfortable and you allow the obsessions from yesterday to pass.  Peace comes in the gratitude that the latest commode you just crapped in not only is a western toilet-- but it had toilet paper.  And then you move on.