I sit here alone in the staff room listening to the beat of the drums being played along with music and screams of motorcycles and trucks going by outside.  Yes, it’s the Thai New Year once again and I’ve just showered and cleaned off the caked jasmine powder off my hair and face after playing with them for about 3 hours.  This is the first of 3 days of water madness.  Tomorrow I will once again don the pick-up truck with friends and drive around the various buckets of water that feed the hands and water guns of children and adults lining the streets of Thailand.  Hopefully all four wheels will stay on this year!

I’ve been on vacation to Chiang Mai as well as Koh Samed for the past 2 weeks.  I can’t tell you how awesome it was to see my good friends up North.  You know those friends that you can laugh, be serious, and pontificate with all within about 5 minutes.  It was awesome to see their 3 kids growing up and they reminded me of my nieces and nephews.  It was sweet times.

Going back a little…I was sitting in my taxi in traffic not moving for about 30 minutes when I finally told my driver, “Rot Fai ja bai laow tii hok mong na ka.  Dii Chan yaak bai douai ka.”  (The train leaves at 6 Ok.  I want to go too.)  He smiled and said that we should make it.  We did with me walking the last bit due to the traffic.  I bought an ice cream cone in celebration and went to take a like and a piece fell off and landed on my white shirt.  Perfect.  The train was late, of course, and I boarded it with hope of no seat companion and time to write in my journal.  No luck.  There was a 50’ish looking man sitting across from me with his laptop open.  “God, you know I need this quiet time.  Why have him there?”  As he went to close his laptop I told him he didn’t have too.  “No way.  Not everyday do I get to sit with a pretty girl.”  Perfect.

It ended up being one of those conversations I’ll never forget.  He has been traveling the world for 26 years after leaving his wife and 5-year-old son…why?  To study religion and take pictures.  He told me his philosophy and showed me pictures of Indian Guru’s that he respects and why.  “These men get rid of all material things, even their clothes and families, to reach a holy state.  Nothing matters to them.”  It was the most selfish thing I had heard.  To only care about oneself so you can get to Nirvana and not worry about others.

Then he asked me what I believed.  My tiredness went away as I told of how God gets rid of our material stuff inside to then cleanse the outside.  It’s the complete opposite of his thought.  He asked me about people from the Bible (Job, Joseph, Daniel, David, Solomon) and I told him their history and how God uses sinful people.  It was pretty cool.

Neither of us got agitated or annoyed, it was actually a pretty good give and take conversation that opened my eyes to Buddhist thoughts.  I then read a book by Ravi Zacharius that was a conversation between Buddha and Jesus over a Thai prostitute that had aids.  It confirmed what John (train friend) said and helped me understand the culture here better.

God’s timing is always amazing.  He totally loves to use broken pots.