Thailand Letter
September 14, 1997
Bangkok, Thailand
Dearest Family,
We just came home from church and had our usual Sunday feast - today it was tomato soup and tuna sandwiches. It really tastes good though after SO much rice. I made some of those no-bake chocolate, oatmeal and peanut butter cookies to take to church and saved some for us and they are delicious. I remember when people used to bring those to our church potluck dinners and it made me mad because they were SO easy - we would spend hours making chocolate chip and other kinds and they would bring the easy ones. Now I am enjoying them so I have learned a lesson.
Roy - I loved the message from you when I came to the computer. I laughed about Jesse crashing the computer - I have felt like crashing it many times - Ha!!! Emily, I hope your "Hurricane" soccer team wins a few games - you don't have to win them all. Did I tell you that when we went to the elephant show they had the elephants playing soccer? It was fun and I was amazed at how agile they were because they are SO huge!!! I think soccer is the best "exercise" game I know of and they didn't play it when my children were your age.
Bob - I was SO thrilled to have your message from the cabin. You are REALLY computer smart when you can write a letter at the cabin and then include replies to my messages when you get home. I kinda' felt like I got a breath of the fresh air in Scofield. Did you do it on a laptop computer? Where is Fishcreek? I hope they don't start building more cabins at Scofield. Ron mentioned that you let them use your four-wheeler while they were there and they enjoyed it. I think you should take it home during the Winter too. Byrd has been very concerned that the water pipe under the driveway at the cabin would freeze and break and we would have to tear up the cement driveway SO I guess it would be a good idea to get that fixed. Do what you can do. Michael, I am SO proud of you for making the finals in the "Bagging Contest" put on by Smiths - you have surely learned a lot at that job, haven't you??? Bob - when will you put on the fireside of the "Mormon Handcart Rescue Trail Highlights"? Did I understand that you went by plane to take the pictures in Wyoming? That scares me. I hope your video and fireside turn out great - let me know. I also am interested in your new Stake Presidency - are you pleased with those who were chosen? I REALLY liked your Stake President too - I heard him speak. I was happy to hear some news about John - I haven't heard from him - you and my neighbors keep me informed about what they are doing. They are impressed that they don't let their dogs bark at night. Tar is a very special dog.
This has been a busy week. We went to the church distribution offices on Wednesday when we had that unexpected holiday. They really don't have many supplies but they did fix us a song book with the "Romanized Thai words" so we can sing at church. We also went shopping at "Big C" - equivalent of our WalMart stores. It takes all day to go any place so we didn't get a lot done at our apartment that we needed to do.
Saturday morning we went to the "Safari World" in Bangkok with one of the schools where we teach - the "WATRADNIYOMTUM" school. I was wrong - it wasn't the 1st and 2nd graders - only the 3rd and 4th graders went. There were 444 students and they were so well behaved you wouldn't believe it. Two of our teachers picked us up at 8 o'clock in the morning and we didn't get home until about 6 o'clock in the evening. It was a full but wonderful day and we loved it. It is a combination of Disneyworld, Sea World, Lagoon, and the San Diego Zoo. When we first got there we all got on air conditioned buses and road through the jungle - it was SO exciting. There were lions, tigers, giraffes, hippopotamuses, reindeer, moose, bear and all kinds of gorgeous birds. There were signs all over that said, "If your car breaks down, honk your horn but don't get out of your car until help arrives". I took a lot of pictures out of the windows. THEN we went to seven shows: monkeys boxing, water skiing that was spectacular, trained birds, wild Western, Star Wars, dolphins, seals and as we walked all over we saw crocodiles and lots & lots of parrots, etc. They took us to a buffet Thai lunch that was delicious!!!
When we drove up to our place we saw a car waiting for us that was filled with teachers from one of the schools where we had taught last week. They had called to see if we would be home and we said to call first but they didn't do that. They had brought us dinner - fried chicken, pork patties fried in soy bean wrappers, and three different kinds of cakes. They stayed until about 8:30 and both Virginia and I were exhausted when they left. They like to come and practice conversational skills with us in English.
Our director, Marc Hall, just called and told us to reserve October 1st and 2nd. The BMA has planned a "retreat" for us. They are going to take us to the "Ancient Sukhothai" - it was the first capital of Thailand and was founded in the early 13th century. There are a lot of ruined temples of what was once a large and glorious city - I copied that from a book we have about Thailand. I am especially excited because Oct. 1st would have been our 50th wedding anniversary if Daddy had lived.
All the schools in Bangkok have a vacation in October. I still haven't figured out if they are all out at the same time or not. They have asked us if we would conduct workshops during that time so we hadn't expected to have any time off. We can't figure out why teachers would want to come to our workshops during their vacation times but we will do what they want us to do.
When we were at the Mission Offices on Wednesday we saw a car load of new missionaries come - the Mission President had just picked them up. WOW - did that ever bring back memories!!! It also made me think of my grandchildren going on missions. One of the new Elders was in our Branch this morning and he looked so lost and forlorn. I felt sorry for him. There were two sisters.
I am going to try to make some "popsicle stick puppets" tonight. One of the teachers in our last school was able to get me some popsicle sticks. She told me I was asking for the wrong thing - she said, they are "ice cream sticks".
It has REALLY rained a lot here lately - our street was flooded when we came home one day last week. It was raining when we came home from church today so we had to take a taxi instead of our little faithful Sai Mai bus - we took the big bus to the market and then a taxi.
JOHN - DON'T FORGET TO CALL SEARS TO WINTERIZE THE COOLER!!! It will freeze during the Winter if you don't have it done and then leak in the house when it thaws. I'm not sure if my contract has expired or not but if it has you can renew it. I left the phone number there for you with the other instructions - Ha!!! Please tell me if you are not getting my letters - I cc to ann, jean, roy and john from Bob's letter. I forgot to capitalize the first letters and now I don't know how to access it!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH - PLEASE BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL!!!