Bangkok

How great and scary it is to step into the unknown. Into a completely strange and foreign land. We live in such a beautifully diverse world and though I knew that before, I am strongly reminded of it now. 

When I was younger I had no desire to travel. I was fine with just staying in my home town forever. It is a great place after all and I had no problems with the thought of never leaving. 

But our Papa had other plans. Plans I could never have imagined. Ones I didn’t even realize that I would like. He showed me the taste for adventure that I never knew I had. The hunger to meet new people and see the complexity of the world outside of the box I was living in. 

There is nothing wrong with staying put, but that was not what he had for me, and for that I am grateful, because through it I have learned so much about myself and about others. 

Stepping into Bangkok was that indeed, another world. It’s a city, like any other, with high rises and wealth, yet streets lined with poverty, beggars and people just trying to make a buck or a baht in their case. 

Chaos bustling all around, mopeds flying by, pink taxis, tuk-tuks, sweaty muggy heat, dark skies one direction sunny skies the other. Tourists caught up in the mix, short shorts, flowing dresses, sandals, backpacks, cameras dangling, iphones at the ready, backpackers, serious travelers. 

Vendors selling flowers in bunches, strands and rings for temple gods, smell of incense lingers in the air. Women carrying baskets of flowers on their heads into the temple. 

Stepping outside I become part of the chaos. Vendors selling ripoffs, good ones and bad ones. Everything is so cheap. Sweat. Always. On everyone who isn’t sitting in an air conditioned vehicle. 

Exotic fruits. Some I’ve only seen in photos before. Fresh squeezed juice, ice cold and refreshing. Coconut juice served fresh, watch the lady chop of the top in seconds when you order it. impressive. Not my favorite, but interesting. 

Hungry for lunch. Local lady leads us to some plastic tables and serves us a noodle dish. Air condition = fan blowing in your face. 

After lunch they offer a boat tour. Air condition = locals fanning us with plastic boating expedition advertisements. We take the tour. 

Cruising and sometimes roaring down the river sipping on fresh squeezed mango juice. 

Feels a bit like a tropical Venice with houses built on stilts lining the water, bunches of leaves gathered up along the edges of the canal, giant coconuts in the water looking like floating heads. Our driver grunting every so often to get our attention as he points out something interesting. 

Yeah, our time in Bangkok went something like that littered with trips to temples, amazing and exotic food, souvenir shopping and the occasional Starbucks run. Sometime soon I'll tell you about our surprising time in Dolphin Bay. 

Just Keep Swimming...

So, you know how I said in my last post, hopefully I won't need the pool in the winter time. I lied...

I need the pool EVERY day! In the past few weeks, swimming has become like an addiction, a passion that has enveloped me and I just can't stop thinking about. I feel like I belong in the water. It's a feeling that I have longed for. I have always wanted to have a sport that I was this passionate about. I didn't think it would happen at 30. But it has. It has shown me that it's never to late to fall in love with something new.

I have absolutely fallen in love with swimming and not JUST as a summer sport. It has transformed my body and my whole perspective on life! I have been doing it for probably about eight weeks now, regularly about six weeks and the past two weeks, since I have been on vacation, I have been at the pool practically every day and you couldn't convince me to do otherwise!

I haven't felt forced to swim because I feel a strong urge to lose weight quickly or anything like that. I did however set my mind to swimming and counting calories about five weeks ago and have lost a happy amount of weight in that time. I am very pleased with the results and the absence of feeling deprived or forced to work out. But that is just an added plus to this newfound passion!

Swimming really has a way of clearing my mind like nothing else. When I first started I liked going with friends, but now I really prefer doing it alone. I can swim at my own pace and it just feels good to do something on my own.

Now that I have fallen in love with swimming I started to look into the benefits and I have realized that it is actually the healthiest form of exercise! Check out these benefits:

If you want to read more about the benefits of swimming check this article out! I found it on pinterest ;)

I guess I may have heard some of these things before, but there isn't really as much buzz about swimming as I feel there should be. In one article it says that “habitual swimmers are biologically up to 20 years younger than their actual age.” 

The idea of getting into your bathing suit and showering up at the gym every time can be intimidating, but now that I am in the routine of doing it, I just don't feel like it's worth it to stop and do something that's not as good for my body or worse, do nothing...

The funny thing is at first when I was starting out, I would get discouraged about not making much progress and I would say to myself "just keep swimming, just keep swimming." Of course I thought of Finding Nemo. But now I hope that it's something that I can continue to say through the years about life  and that my love for swimming would grow and develop over the years.

Summer Favorites

Swimming as a Summer Sport

This is the pool we went to yesterday just to relax

I have never been a good swimmer. But this summer I was forced to use swimming as my form of exercise because of an injury that happened this Spring. 

I have completely fallen in love with swimming as a sport! Though I love the sweat of a good workout, I love the feeling of getting in the water and working hard and not even breaking a sweat ;)  Swimming is a great choice for summer sport, it cools you down for several hours and makes you forget about the heat and the pool I go to is outdoors which is a plus in the summer time, doesn't sound too fun for the winter, but hopefully I won't need it by then. 

This Journal 

(From my Sister Angela)

I love this little thing. I started writing goals in it when I got it and committed to writing at least a little bit everyday. I find that I get more creative when I have a cute journal to write in. That is very true with this one. Thanks for thinking of me and  knowing what I like Fanny! 

Les Miserables and Audio Books

After Grandma Angell (Curtis' Grandma) sent me the movie for my birthday I could not stop watching, listening, obsessing! I naturally was drawn to the novel, but I had a hard time imagining myself sitting through a book like that so I downloaded the audio book from librivox.org. I am on Volume 4 of this incredibly epic novel. But I am LOVING it! You should check out librivox too for a recording of basically any classic you can think of! I will probably continue to keep an audio book on my phone from now on since I love listening to this one any time I get a chance, even on the bus :) 

Friday Nights in the Cafe

The atmosphere is so great! The cafe is always buzzing and I love working behind the register with our amazing cafe staff. It is the one night that I get to put the apron on and work behind the bar and for now, I am loving it! 

Watermelon

It's the perfect summer snack and it is plentiful and cheap here! 

Green Wednesdays (Zelyonaya Creda) 

We spend about half of Wednesday every week doing maintenance work around our site together as a team. This really promotes team work and community which are core values of our organization. I am enjoying getting outside and painting with the different short term volunteers that have come through and also with our long term team members.

The Weather

I never expected to have a summer like this. The other day it was 66 F at noon! I couldn't believe it. It's been cloudy and breezy and perfect lately! I never thought that I would be so happy to have cloudy weather, but when you are expecting a summer of days over 100 degrees, this weather is so preferable! Generally it has stayed in the high 80's and low 90's which is not that hot compared to 100-110, which is the usual weather in June/July. It also cools down a lot at night which makes it super easy to sleep and is usually the biggest problem during these hot parts of the summer. The forecast continues to show these low numbers, I am one happy girl :) 

Our Drive in the Country

It just happened once, but it was amazing! The countryside here is beautiful and we had a view of the tienshan mountains to top it off. We drove out to do one of the life experience games, but it did us good to get out of the city and breath some fresh air and see animals running and playing. We have a creative Papa. 

Espresso

Did I mention that I love coffee? Espresso is so amazingly rich and creamy when it is first made and we roast our coffee fresh at the English Cup. Lately we received a Brazilian roast that is sweet and choclatey and perfect!

Last and definitely not least...

These Kids!

They are gorgeous and precious and such a joy to me! I can't wait to see them again tomorrow when we go back to the Children's Home! 

Leadership

Recently I found myself saying to Curtis that I wish I could just be a person who follows instead of someone who leads...

Leading is one of the hardest things. Leading in a cross-cultural environment can seem impossible at times.

But it's not, especially with Gsus. More specifically because His ways are higher than our ways.

His way says go lower to be lifted higher. His way says to be first you must be last. His way says serve the least of these. His way says if someone slaps you on one cheek turn the other cheek for them slap also. 

I was able to witness some of these truths in my own work. It was so very hard. But I got through it and did it His way and I am so very satisfied.

All glory to the king who makes it possible for me to work and even thrive in this sometimes foreign environment.

Funk

Sorry to be silent for so long. Things have been busy and when they aren't I feel like there are too many things that I want to write about and can't decide on just one. Sometimes when there are so many things going on, I think "I'll just wait until I have time for a complete update." But I never have time for that and who wants to sit and scroll through endless pictures and a list of things that has happened in the past couple of months. 

I would however like to highlight a few things that happened since I wrote last since they were pretty significant events. 

There was a little event called a 'handover.' Basically the organization that was running our site/center handed the work that they were doing over to the local organization that was already overseeing things there. Because of this, and because our good friends who were running the organization under it's old title have left, as well as a change in leadership, we have been going through tons of changes as an organization and as a team. It's all really wonderful and exciting. It was so very difficult to say goodbye to our closest friends in the city. But we have already seen how much this is Papa's plan and it's good. 

Saying goodbye :(

I've also taken charge of the monthly newsletter that we send out as an organization, so if you want to subscribe for that please let me know. It's a really short and sweet monthly update on the things going on at our site. I will let you know when our website is up and running, I will be involved in the blog and photo updates as well. My involvement in the communications part of the work there may have caused me to lose a bit of interest in updating my personal blog as well, but I hope this doesn't continue to be the case.

Okay here comes the quick part with pictures and just a few quick explanations....

Spring came and went along with some very lovely guests :) 

We got some new furniture from our friends that moved away 

and a new barista at the Cafe

We had an amazing time in the village with these wonderful people

Curtis turned 29!

A successful 'staycation' - essentially a vacation without the vacating part :) 

I started going to the Children's home for children with disabilities once a month 

and I think their smiles are contagious :) 

I'm starting to learn this truth

For now we are at home enjoying this unusually cool, rainy, summer day!