Thailand Letter
September 23, 1997
Bangkok, Thailand
Dearest Family,
Thanks SO much for your letter Bob and GUESS WHAT!!! I was able to print your picture of the cabin - I haven't been able to print the others for some reason and I feel bad because I would SO love to have them. I AM GOING TO PUT THIS ON MY WALL - it is just gorgeous - a beautiful view of the lake from the cabin deck. The lake is so much fuller and that's great!!!
Thank you too for your remarks about my ring. I worried all night about spending that much money and got up early this morning and wrote a note to John - I would never have done that except that I was REALLY put on the spot!!! I know it was from a reputable jeweler though and "MAYBE" it is a good investment. I found out more information at school today about the jeweler and I know it was a fair price - maybe not a good deal but a fair deal. I tell people that I am helping the economy in Thailand - Ha!!! I had a man at school today take a picture of me with the principal and she is holding my finger with the ring on it - I am going to hurry to take these down to our little photo shop on Sai Mai road to see if I can get them developed by tomorrow. I am going to ask Bishop Patch if he will take my pictures home with him and give them to John so you can all see them if you get together for conference. He may not have room for them and especially if he is not going directly home.
You should see our apartment. The Branch President's wife sent us home with a beautiful bouquet of pink roses on Sunday - her husband had brought them to her from Chaing Mai. Today was our last day at this school and you should have seen what they did for us. They had a huge party with pizza, fried chicken, French bread and lots and lots of fruit. THEN, they had this ceremony where each teacher presented us with two long stemmed white roses so now we have thirty white roses to go with our pink ones. THEN they gave us each a beautiful Thai silk glass case and a matching "bill" purse. THEN they formed a circle and did Thai dancing and sang around us for about 15 minutes. It is quite embarrassing because we don't deserve all this attention - it is like we are royalty!!!
We taught in Patom (grade) 1 and Patom 4 today. Virginia read them stories from the books she got from home and I taught them a little song about a hammer, a saw and a drill and I had made visual aids for them to use as they sang the song. They LOVE to perform in front of their class. I have little pictures of trees with apples on them (1 through 10) and I pass them out to the children and then have them come to the front and we sing "One little apple, two little..... and 10 little apples in a tree" to the tune of 1 little 2 little Indians. They liked it. Sometimes I have success and sometimes I don't!!!
Virginia is finally receiving some e-mail messages from her family. She hasn't received any and I have worried so much about that. She had some wrong addresses.
Bob - we do have Windows 95 and there are pictures of all kinds of things on the bottom: hammer, clips, magnifying glass, file, calculator, house, book - and others I can't tell what they are. We are doing fine and we're satisfied with what we can get so don't worry about it.
THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH FOR EVERYTHING. I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY CAREFUL AS YOU TRAVEL AROUND. Grandma B