Three days in Bangkok….

I arrived safe and sound Monday night and was greeted cheerily by Sophie and Zack and a drawing they did that said  “Welcome to Thailand Antie”, does it get any better than that?  I was so happy to see them and they me.  Supee, the resident cook made my favorite Thai dish Som Tum and has been spoiling me with delicious food ever since.  It took me a little bit of time to get to sleep that night because I had to adjust to the silence of Nina and Scott’s neighborhood and felt a bit lonely and missing the cockroaches that had shared space with me in India…how ever will I adjust.

The next morning a little person named Zack decided to come and crawl into bed with me about 5:30am despite repeated requests by his mother and sister to let me sleep.  Zack thought it best to take this time of the day to catch me up on his life since he last saw me with subjects ranging from whom he would like as a teacher next year to a rabbit he saw at the beach that was really cute and orange.  Understanding that my time in Bangkok was probably not going to be full of lazy mornings sleeping in, I conceded and Zack and I went downstairs to greet the rest of the family.  I tried to answer the millions of questions directed at me from the kids while Scott, Nina and Supee bustled around getting everyone ready for school.

Later that day I went to their school to meet Nina for lunch and speak to her class (the last time I visited the kids were so distracted by my presence that they couldn’t focus on their schoolwork.)  In the meantime, Sophie asked that I also speak to her class and so I prepared myself to face two second grade classes my first day in Bangkok.  Little hands flew up with fury and questions like “how do you dress yourself” and “how do you drive” came my direction.  I got “how do you read?” a few times, hmmmm….I explained that we use our minds to read not our hands but demonstrated how I held a book while reading to them.   They were all very cute and I was glad to show them that folks with disabilities can be just like anyone else, Thais tend to keep their people with disabilities in institutions or at home.

The last couple of mornings I have been awoken early again, yesterday I was on french braiding duty and today Sophie wanted to give me the valentine she made me   The traveling bug in me has been allayed some now and I am just enjoying relaxing, showering in an actual shower and of course spending time with the family here!!!