Snowboarding down the pool slope with her kickboard
Looking forward to my Dad & Darlene visiting this week, our first visitors from home! Staying the next 3 weeks, they'll be coming & going a lot, but I'm excited for good food, beaching, and whatever else suits our fancy... together. I just adore my Dad & can't wait to see him.
Girls, too, though I think Allie is equally excited for the Gap order I sent to my Dad's for hand delivering to her. It's been tough finding clothes here that fit her & are age appropriate. Must stock up when home this summer. Rob's needing new running shoes, again, 4th pair since return from France. Can't find a pair here that are nice to his feet. Most models from home are here, but a good $100 mark-up per pair, x 4 people, 2 with weed-like feet interested in trying new sports = woe is us. Dress clothes for Rob here are kind of impossible. His L/XL back home is a double or triple XL here and, well... the fit is not the same. We're shaped so differently from Asians, our bodies too. Even my aging eyes can always spot a Western silhouette from a hundred meters away. Haven't yet checked out the custom tailoring they do here, and I've heard mixed reviews.
Going through t-shirts like I never would have imagined. Even though it's cool season now, shirts get wet with sweat after just 15 minutes outside... even at 8am. It's really gross, and being this close to the sun is harder on clothing than I'd previously given any thought. Yet another form of culture shock.
Our life is good and our problems mundane. Not so for the man we saw yesterday. Girls & I stopped at nearby Sunday open market to pick up dinner of mango, pork & pineapple skewers, and sticky rice. It was raining lightly and people were packed into market aisles much like a Tokyo subway, except more smiling & fewer hurried agendas. We nearly stepped on a muddy man pulling himself on his belly through the people & puddles. He was missing one leg, and part of the other. He had a mostly empty basket for money. I pray nobody ran off with it like we saw once in Paris. Sadly interesting to think about how we hardly see any begging here in "poor" Thailand compared to "wealthy" France where beggars abound. No cold weather here? More looking out for one's neighbor here, so no need to beg?
Peace to him and a world full of those who will never know the likes of education, tennis lessons, foot pain from choosing to run, or joy from jetting across the earth.
