Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Weather-why's

According to the weather forecast, the next half a month will have no sunshine, and we will have rain about half the time and just dreary clouds the other half of the time.  I have it in the back of my mind that this type of weather has a purpose.  Doesn't it help crops grow better or something?  I want there to be a profound reason for this if I have to endure it for so long.  I want to understand God's purpose for overcast skies.


Thursday, February 05, 2009

Trip to Thailand

I was recently on a 10-day trip to Thailand.  My hotel was on the beach, but the only time I saw the ocean or a palm tree was a 30-minute time frame when I skipped part of a meeting.  I was too tired to be in the meeting at that time, because I was only getting 5 hours of sleep per night.  My view out of the hotel was a corrugated roof.   It wasn't exactly a dream vacation at a dream destination.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't a dream.

It was hard to find a dog sitter for Mimi back in the big country, because it was Chinese New Year.  The dog sitters I had trained and had an agreement with backed out on me five hours before I left town.  The only person I knew that was still in town is someone who doesn't like dogs but felt sorry for me and helped.  You don't even want to hear this nightmare story.  But Mimi made nice by week's end, and she is healthy, happy, and catching up on sleep since I got back.

I just got back to Bamboo Forest last night.  When I get unpacked and caught up on work, I'll try to post more often.   :-)

Sick in Bangkok

On Monday, I got a thorough physical exam.   I get them annually, but every 3-4 years, we are required to get these MAJOR physical exams.  I had every conceivable medical exam short of a MRI (they did a regular x-ray on my head instead...yeah, really).  I was screened for cancer of every kind.  I had blood tests, hearing tests, lead level tests, and all sorts of things.  The various doctors told me I was the picture of health, no problems.  I felt a twinge of pride at my healthy condition.  A doctor once told me that these exams are a "snapshot," an indication of your health at that one particular moment in time.   He wasn't kidding.

About 10 p.m. that night, in my Bangkok hotel, I got violently ill, sick as a dog.  I don't know if it was food poisoning or something going around.  It was really, really bad.   I was by myself. For six hours this went on and on and on.  Finally, when I thought I could do so safely, in the middle of the night, I threw on my clothes and dragged myself like someone in a drunken stupor to the hospital emergency room.  It was not too far from my hotel...only the Pakistan Embassy was between my hotel and the hospital.  

I told them what was wrong (they speak English, I do not speak Thai).  They sat me on the side of the gurney as they gave me various injections in an I.V. stent, and when they turned their back, I laid down on the bed, curled up and took a long nap in the ER...I don't think they expected me to camp out there for a long time, but that's when they realized how bad I really was, so they were amused and left me alone.

Later I told them I wanted to go back to my hotel, so they got me a wheelchair and a taxi (we agreed that the Pakistan Embassy was too much territory to traverse by foot in my condition), and I went back and slept all day, woke up to send my parents an e-mail, and then slept all night.

All in all, it could have been worse.  I'm 90% better now.