Nam Teum=Flood

Naturally, it's always been regretably easy to ignore another country's crisis when it's on the other side of the world.  Recent weeks of flooding throught the central region of Thailand have caught the attention of every single Thai citizen.  Even where we are located currently (Rayong--South Eastern) we happened to be down town the other day and came across this:

Although the Thais were splashing light-heartedly through the few flooded streets, for me there was still an underlying air of general fear for this country. Only 2.5 hours away in BKK big-scale factories have been flooded, the news shows people carrying their few belongings above their heads in neck deep water, a historic capital north of BKK has been absolutely submerged and a significant drop in their annual GDP this year has been forecasted.

We feel as if the timing of our arrival couldn't be more significant and have put ourselves up for all forms of helping with the flood through a few different sources.   Now we wait.  We are also waiting to hear back from Partners Relief and Development about volunteering with refugees later in our time here.

For now, the days have mostly been spent unsticking our legs and arms due to sticky humidity and slow strolls through the city while the evenings are spent under the roofs of my incredibly hospitableThai families.  Despite all our un-hungry honesty, food is bought and kindly forced upon us multiple times a day. Blame it on these sweet smiling mothers of mine: 



We couldn't be happier and more blessed.  Time is as prevalent as rice is for us in this country and we are thouroughly enjoying such moments.  Corey's Thai phrase book and my stomach grow a little each day in this beloved country. Tomorrow we leave for Ko Chang...island life.  I know what you're thinking, an even slower pace? 

As we sat reclining on the beach at dusk while slowly sipping on a cold beer yesterday, we scanned the ships and fishing boats across the horizon and fully appreciated every detail of our surroundings.  Down to the frail man as our waiter, the pack of three stray cats on the prowel acting like lions, the lean-to fishing boats covered with messes of lines and monkey-like brown boat men, a stray dog sprawled eagly style in beach grass, lost shoes scattered along the beach, men leaving the ocean with well worn spear fishing supplies, the presence of a spouse, the rusted camo-beach umbrellas above us, the calm ambiance of the ocean lulling us away from the ever busy downtown streets.............breathing in such a life all at once is truely remarkable. 

M