Women's Retreat and Flooding

Suan Bua Resort

Me, Donella and Bobbi

This has definitely been a week full of adventure.  Last weekend, I went to a woment's retreat sponsored by the local international church.  The retreat was open to all women in Chiang Mai.  Many of my coworkers were in attendance.  During the weekend, there was a lot of focus on worship, which I love.  We had one talk that focused on studying the word and hearing from God.  The talk that spoke to me the most was done by a woman who runs Full Sail Ministries.  She has such an amazing testimony and she was so interesting to listen to.  I also related on some level to what she was talking about.  A recurring thought on my heart has been whether or not to pray for healing for things that I have lived with my whole life.  All physical.  I notice that when I seek healing, I start struggling to be content with the way I am.  So that's where I found myself once again this weekend.  I was able to seek prayer from a prayer warrior who is also my coworker.  While I don't know the answer to what's on my heart, at least I had peace about it.


This weekend, I also was able to hang out quite a bit with another coworker Donella and her daughter Bobbi.  They are here in Chiang Mai as a family and doing a ministry with a children's home around Doi Saket.  I've discovered that we have a lot in common.


This week has become eventful due to flooding.  We were sent home by lunch time today due to a threat of flooding in the school.  The river has been very high and a dam broke farther up making things even worse.  And to top it off, we had really heavy rains recently.  When it rains here, it rarely sprinkles, it dumps.  I had a scary ride home from choir on Monday where my coworker/friend Yara and I were on a motorbike with her driving.  It was not raining when we started, only lightening.  I found the lightening frightening enough because there was a lot.  But then we drove into a rain storm and when we hit the highway, it was windy.  I prayed a bit on that ride home.  We both made it home safely although quite soaked despite wearing rain ponchos.

But today, the river has flooded the banks.  Some streets have water quite high.  Our street is fine at the moment but we are close to those that are flooding.  I have maintained contact with a coworker who lives nearby because she has been sandbagging her house and talking about the water that is coming down the street.  We went to look at the water near her house.  We didn't have to go far. 

Our school is closed tomorrow as well and we are on standby for Friday.  I may have an extra long weekend as I am scheduled to go to Bangkok for Sunday and Monday for a Professional Development workshop.

Getting Occupied

My new ride-Yamaha Mio

I realized it had been a few more weeks than I had originally thought since my last post.  I'm recovering well from my accident and I am enjoying my new bike.  However I only drive the 5 mins. or so from home to work before traffic.  Eventually I plan to go farther.  But for right now this is good.  My new bike is easier to drive and has less power which for some people would be a drag.  For me its wonderful!  I don't drive with both legs out to the side when I first take off anymore either.  As odd as that sounds, I used to do that like I thought I needed to have my feet out to stop the bike in an emergency.

Dessert at Choir

A reason I don't write as often as I used to is because I'm getting occupied.  I joined a local expat choir this week.  I miss singing and singing at home only doesn't always work for me.  The choir is mostly comprised of people who are probably older than me with the exception of my coworker.  She and I are only a couple years apart.  I'm older.  She introduced me to the choir.  If I make it to salsa class tomorrow, it will also be because of her and ballroom dancing as well.  There is an amazing amount of things to get involved in here. 
I filmed part of a commercial last weekend and will do the voiceover soon.  Its for the local christian counseling center.  The drama teacher at my school told me about it.  I'm so excited to do drama again.  I finally have time to do fun stuff whereas school took up so much of my time and energy prior to coming to Thailand.  You could say that I'm living it up.  I also love getting to know different people.  This weekend I will be going to a women's retreat.  Its sponsored by one of the local churches but open to all women in Chiang Mai.  My coworkers told me about it. My pastor also mentioned another retreat next month for our church denomination.  I hope to go to that too right before I leave for vacation.
I have one week holiday in October so I decided to go explore southern Thailand and relax.  In the cheapest way possible of course but definitely looking for a good massage and a beach.  Its so hard to believe that next month is the end of our first quarter. I feel like I'm really settling in.  I love my students.  Its bizarre to think sometimes that I'm the expert for the elementary dept for special education.  I'm so used to being the person who seeks help from coworkers.  Weirdness!-in a good way.

A Wakeup Call

I had my first dose of freaky reality this week.  My principal is not a big fan of motorbikes.  He has made it really clear that we are never to arrive on a motorbike without a helmet.  Not a bad idea actually.  He also tells us newbies many times that we will crash.  One of my coworkers has actually had 3 accidents but she's been driving a while so that didn't actually happen all at once.  Last weekend, I decided to get on the bike and venture out onto the road.  I drove myself less than a mile away to the laundry place.  Then I drove myself home.  I discovered that I drove better when I relaxed.  Feeling confident, I decided to drive a little farther.  So a few days later I drove to the gas station and then to the store.  Had a few freaky moments when I accelerated and it freaked me out so my first instinct was not to use the brake but put my feet out because putting them down didn't really work.  It wasn't until I was headed home that I ran into trouble.  Trouble is good at finding us when we least expect it.  Since we drive on the left here, left turns are a lot easier to navigate than right turns across traffic.  I was approaching a left turn in what should have been an easy navigation.  Instead of turning, I found myself on my side with the bike on my left leg as if I had just tipped over to the left.  It wasn't that easy though.  I hit my head on the bike.  I think my knee hit the bike also and the top of my foot scraped against something.  I shakily put the bike upright, wondered if my teeth were all still intact since my lip felt banged up.  I tried to move the bike out of the way for fear oncoming vehicles would hit me.  The bike apparently turned off in the impact and I couldn't get it to move forward.  A man came out of nowhere, picked up the bike and put it on the cement area between the two roads.  Then he left.  I tried to call the owner of the motorbike but not able to reach him and instead called my housemate.  Normally one might think that that should have been my first call but I was driving the only vehicle of our household.  So it wasn't like she was going to hop in a car and come get me.  She did however make suggestions on what I should do next.  One of which was to wait until I was less shaky to consider driving the bike home or wait until someone could come to me.  I got off the phone, took a deep breath, put my shopping bags back on the bike and slowly drove home.  I was very grateful that the bike did drive.  It turns out however that I altered the alignment and the foot brake in the fall though.  So today, the bike is getting looked at.  I'm praying for an easy fix.   I'm just so grateful that I walked away from the accident with no broken bones and my life still intact.  It was however a reminder of how important helmets are.  I had mind on so the goose egg on my head was not from hitting the road but rather hitting the bike in the impact.  I also realized that I need to not be in such a hurry to be a driver.  I can do slow short driving around my neighborhood in the same way that I used to drive around the parking lot at my apartment.  I also made the decision to get back on the bike even if I only go a few feet, so that I don't become fearful.  It is believe it or not, better to be a motorbike driver here I think than  car driver.  Not because of the type of vehicle but rather because as a motorbike driver, you can fit in smaller areas and everyone is looking out for you more than the cars.  As a car driver, you have to look around constantly because motorbikes are everywhere and on all sides of the car.  It would be really easy not to see one coming.  Some motorbike drivers take a lot of liberties on the road and as I might have mentioned before, the lines on the roads tend to be suggestions of where you should be driving.  Some roads are so narrow, its difficult to stay in one lane especially for cars.  Also some drivers see empty lanes from oncoming traffic as extra passing lanes.  As scary as it all sounds, I have become a much more cautious pedestrian and the occasional driver.

New Things

I had two interesting experiences this weekend.  First was the offering song.  I was asked by my pastor last weekend to play the offering song this weekend.  I had a song on my heart so I was into it except for the part where I didn't have a piano to practice on this week.  So I emailed my pastor let him know where I was at with it all and figured i was off the hook.  Today I came in and one of the women in the church asked me if I was singing a song for offering.  I said no but thought maybe I should check on whether I was playing offering.  Turns out that I was still on the agenda.  We were just waiting for the regular keyboard player to show up with the keyboard so I could practice.  I got a new song on my heart.  Not really new actually but quite old.  I couldnt' get "May the Words of My Heart" out of my head.  I even asked God for a new song because I've played that song for offering years earlier.  Nothing else came to mind so when my opportunity to practice came up, I played that song, shaky fingers and all.  Then I was reminded of all the times in the past when I've been asked to play songs for offering with no practice or even a worship set without practicing.  That's when I knew I could pull off an offering song even if I made it up on the spot.  But I was annoyed with myself for being nervous.  I decided even though I wasn't singing the words for the offering, I was going to keep them in my head and remind myself that I wasn't playing for me or the congregation.  In the end, it was fine with only minor errors.

My other new thing was my driving.  I have plans to go look at a motorbike this week that is completely automatic-much easier for me I think.  So I figured I should practice driving-like on the street.  Until now, I had only driven in a parking lot.  I don't have a parking lot at my new place so I decided I would take the motorbike to the laundry place down the street.  It required me to go down the street and down another street and finally on the street with the laundry.  The getting there was easier especially when I relaxed. I even shifted to the next gear.  The reason it was easier was because it was all left turns.  Keep in mind that we drive on the left side here.  Coming back, I decided to do the shorter more practical route which meant making right turns including one on a busy intersection.  While that freaked me out, I didnt' hit anything or anybody and navigated it ok. I also did this while strattling one of my laundry bags.  My other bag rode in the basket.  I now have the confidence to try driving other places.  I'm not sure I'm ready for the city yet but the other streets aren't so bad.  Now at least when I go to look at the other motorbike, I can drive it without looking like I've never driven before.  Why on earth would I want to drive a motorbike in the first place?  Well, sometimes it is hard to get songthaews and tuk tuks to take me where I need to go.  It took me 3 to 4 tries just to get one to take me to the dentist last week.  The first time was 3 but the 2nd time was more.  Its also much easier to navigate the road on a motorbike than a car since motorbikes can go many places and cars cannot.  Will I still use other transportation?  Most likely as I don't like the idea of driving in a downpour and I do still like walking.