First day out and about

Hello everyone in internet land!

Our second day here in Chiang Mai was a bit more eventful than the day before. (Wouldn't take much excitement to beat a day of napping and eating, I suppose.) Our friends the Sheahans treated us to lunch (never would have thought to put pork and mint leaves together, but it was quite tasty) and then took us out to a large market area in the heart of the city. While Mandi and Anne headed deep into the bowels of the market (okay, so that's not really accurate, but I have a daily quota of semi-gross words to meet, and "bowel" always seems borderline-crude) Dave and I went and met Andy, a man who's been doing media in Chiang Mai for a couple years. Andy is certainly a great contact to have here, and it was great for Dave to arrange this meeting.

We met up with the ladies at the market, where I WAS HIT BY AN SUV!!!

Okay, I don't often take the chance to play with a bit of sensationalism. The fact is that on a crowded market street, as an SUV tried to get by me from behind, its mirror nicked my elbow. It was surprising, but not painful in the least. And now I'm done exaggerating. Well, we'll see.

Mandi and Anne

Fruit and the feet of a monk.

People and things.

Getting coffee in the market.

The markets were not quite what I was expecting. Last time I was in a market like that was in Nairobi with Daylan, and the sales people could be pretty aggressive. The people here weren't aggressive in the slightest, at least not the ones we saw. We did a bit more perusing and then Anne, Mandi, and I headed to an eatery close to where we're staying. Anne explained how to get back to our lodging, marked it on the map we had, and we promptly got lost (to no fault of Anne's), despite being within easy walking distance.

Certain signs seemed to look familiar, but most places are written in the Thai script, and as much as I wish I could read the stuff, it all looks like a bunch of unintelligible squiggles. Being lost can have its charms, the whole adventure of it all, but after about a half hour I was pretty irritated that I couldn't find this place. It seemed so easy early on, and the fact that I couldn't find something easy to find annoyed me greatly. (I'm not fun at all when I'm irritated. Mandi can back me up on that.) So eventually we got in contact with Dave via the cellphone they loaned us (thank God for that!) and he asked for a landmark. I told him we were by the temple near the place we're staying. I knew it was a stupid answer because there are a bajillion temples in Chiang Mai. He asked me if there were any locals around, and told me to hand the phone to someone. The nearest person to me was guy with motorbike grease on his hands, and in English I asked him to talk on the phone, despite him not knowing any English at all. It was really awkward for me, and really confusing for him. Anyway, he talked to Dave a bit, explained where we were, and handed the phone back with a smile. I don't even know how to say thank you. That's gotta change. Anyway, within five minutes of getting directions from Dave, we made it back. The nice part is that we won't be getting lost, at least not in the same place, like that again. That was our adventure for the day. The rest of the evening is too boring to mention. That is all. Cheers.

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Chiang Mai, safe and sound

Still extraordinarily tired, but thought I'd let y'all know we made it safe and sound. Our friends have provided a wonderful place to stay and we're ready to commence resting and getting our internal clocks 14 hours ahead of where they normally are. We shall see how that goes. Ta for now.

Bangkok, nearly there...

Tokyo, not quite there...

Despite being a 12+ hour flight, the journey from Portland to Tokyo wasn’t all that bad. It was the first time I have been on a flight that served two full meals, the second one being breakfast despite the fact that it was not morning in either Portland or Japan, so I’m still a little fuzzy on that one.

Being on a flight with a significant number of Japanese people brought a whole new mindset for me. Being nearly 6’5”, I just don’t think about boarding a plane and getting my bag in the overhead compartment. As we were boarding I didn’t really notice anyone else getting their belongings properly stowed, but mid-flight I couldn’t help but notice what would be a bit of an issue for a smaller people. I watched as a man got up out of his seat and proceeded to climb onto the arm of his seat and blindly dig through a bag he couldn’t properly see in the overhead compartment. I wonder if this is just normal fare for smaller people groups, or whether planes designed with smaller people in mind have more readily accessible storage. A silly thing to occupy my thoughts, but many of you know I often think long and hard about things of little or no real importance.

I was thinking on the plane how long flights are a bit like some sort of odd, dysfunctional surrogate family. People can’t choose their family members, and on a plane you can’t choose your flight-mates. You’re all in it together and you all are experiencing the same basic things: turbulence, bad food, good food, foul odors (some experience more of these than others, depending on whether they had the chicken or beef), cranky flight attendants. And yet, there are still individual experiences to be had: the older man who feels obligated to tell his entire life story in order to explain why he has two carry-ons, the choir of colicky babies, the reading light right next to you still illuminated as its user fell asleep. It’s a bit of a microcosm of life, a mobile eco-dome of sorts. Strange, if you think about it.

So far I’m doing well staying up in a potentially fruitless attempt to quickly reset my internal clock. My computer clock says it’s 1:35am, but local time is most definitely 16 hours ahead of that. Once we arrive in Bangkok, I’m sure we’ll be ready to just conk out. Just have to stay up another nine hours, which isn’t too much of a problem for someone my size. Hard to curl up into a ball and just sleep the flights away. Hopefully I won’t give Mandi too many stories to tell about how grumpy I can get when I’m sleep-deprived. We shall see...

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Coming Up Quickly

Thailand is coming up quickly. We will be leaving this Saturday, early afternoon, flying to Tokyo, a short layover, and moving on to Bangkok. We have an 8 hour layover, overnight, in Bangkok, and are debating whether we'll just try to grab some sleep in the airport that night, or whether we'll be able to get a ride into the city and check things out. The next morning we'll take the puddle-jumper to Chiang Mai, and we'll be picked up at the airport by my family friends the Sheahans. It's going to be a long 35 hours from start to finish, but I'm going to see if I can't hold off sleeping Friday night and catch some sleep during the night of our destination's time-zone. It might make me pretty crabby, so we'll see.

I'm bringing along my computer, still camera, and my small and crappy video camera, and I'm really hoping for a good internet connection at least a couple times during the trip. Hopefully I can keep up my weekly updates, possibly with photos and video if I can work it out. We'll see. It's all very exciting, and I'm glad you guys will get some vicarious living through Mandi and me. Keep praying for us, for safety and that the trip will be productive and enjoyable. Thanks.

Been thinking about what I'm going to do when we get back from our trip. I really feel I need to move back to Portland sometime in the next couple months or so because Mandi, my great friends, and my amazing home church are all there. The thing I've been worried about is whether I can find work there. I was talking with my current boss here in Bend, and we're going to have a conversation, when I return, about helping him operate/sell a particular product we've recently begun selling. If you want details, you can get a hold of me, but the gist of this thing is that it is basically a live-video production set-up in a box, rather than an entire production van to do the same thing. Anyway, his company has recently become Oregon's representative for this product, and there's a chance I could continue to work for this company, but I could live in Portland. Nothing's for sure in all this, but if you guys could keep praying about this opportunity, that things would work out in a way that only God can orchestrate, that would be great.

I'm looking forward to leaving my next post from a yet to be disclosed location in Chiang Mai.

Cheers.

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A Bit Disconnected

So I've been feeling pretty disconnected lately. Perhaps my quasi-restriction to the house (back injury) has gotten me a bit down, despite the daily marked improvement. Maybe it's just one of those periods of time wherein I just feel kind of blah, like some sort of living purgatory. I am increasingly having difficulty being content where I am now. I am at a church with a lot of great people, but I'm the only single person my age there. Hanging out with married people is complicated, as they have other people to be responsible for, and I don't. Nothing against married people, but it's kind of a lonely place. I miss my home church in Portland and all my friends there. I don't have regular work hours and don't get paid very well. And I don't like complaining, but I suppose right now I just want to make my feelings known, to know that a couple people out there will pray for me. Just hard to be satisfied where I'm at.

And yes, I know my trip to Thailand in a week will be incredible, so I have that to look forward to. Just have to try to pick myself up out of this stew of dissatisfaction.

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

So I have another book recommendation, actually from the same author as my last book recommendation. This book was first published in 1985, and is a fascinating collection of stories collected and written by neurologist Oliver Sacks. The stories are well written, showing a real sense of compassion for people whose brains cause them to act oddly, often bizarrely. I'm only halfway through the book at this point, but am finding it absolutely fascinating. I was completely unaware that the abilities to understand the words coming out of someone's mouth and the to understand tonal inflection and body-language are located in totally different places in the brain. So if one hemisphere of your brain is injured you may find yourself able to understand expression but not understand a word anyone says, giving you the gist of what most people are saying, but without absolute certainty. The man whose story is the title of the book can only see details, and cannot construct complete pictures using the details. So a picture of the White House wouldn't be identified as such, rather it would be a pictures of trees, grass, a fence, windows, columns, blue sky, clouds, and would likely not be identified as the White House. Anyway, the whole thing is fascinating to me, and I highly recommend the book. It has been reminding me of the incredible brain that God gave us, so detailed and sensitive. What an astounding creation, the human brain. Check it out. I dare you. Plus you might learn some good words like "proprioception." How cool is that word?!

Back to Normal?

I know, these back puns are getting out of hand. I'll try to back off.

Thanks so much to those of you who have been praying for my back to heal. The good news is that each day I can feel it returning to normal. The bad news is that I'm not well enough to do my normal work, as sitting down is only tolerable for a half hour, if that. So here's what happened...

I've been attempting to get back into a non-round shape over the last couple weeks. I think I may have jumped, yet again, onto the fitness with a bit too much exuberance, and overdid things a bit. That left my vulnerable little spine, well, vulnerable to going out with the slightest twisting movement. So when I kicked that soccer ball, in an attempt to save my spine from injury, my quadratus lumborum (see pic above) muscle seized up. When that muscle seized up, it twisted my back along with it from top to bottom. So when I asked my dad to do what we normally do with my back problems, it didn't fix the entire back, and because that muscle was still seized up, it probably made things worse. (Dad felt horrible to have played a part in causing me excruciating pain, though it wasn't his fault, and I asked him to do it.) So when I went to the osteopath, he cracked my twisted back into place and told me that the quardatus lumborum is a tricky muscle, an uncooperative little bugger. Apparently very little can be done to relax that muscle aside from just letting it fix itself. My back is straight now, but that muscle keeps spasming enough to keep me from sitting or standing for a long time. I've spent the majority of my time for the last week on my back, and it's getting very old. Mandi was here this weekend, and I got out of the house a couple times, which was great. Each day things feel better than the day before. I'm just glad to be able to walk almost normally and not have as much pain to try to block out. Things are improving, but please keep praying, especially as I've got a 12 hour flight coming up in less than two weeks, and they frown on people lying in the aisle.

I'm wondering when my heating pad is going to go out, as it's been almost constantly on for days now...

All things painful aside, things are going well. I was able to finish a video while I was flat on my back, making me so thankful for having a laptop, as a desktop and monitor might not be as easy to balance on my lap while lying down. The video is for a group called Transitions Global a non-profit organization whose goal it to save people out of slavery, specifically young girls out of sex-slavery in SE Asia. My friends Seth and Fritz went to Cambodia and Thailand back in December, and Fritz shot a bunch of footage of a girl who has gone through the Transitions program, and is now rehabilitated and living on her own. She has a powerful testimony, and Fritz's footage is beautiful. I edited the video footage into a story and recorded original music for it. The project took longer than expected because I volunteered my time for this, and I have other responsibilities that kept me from getting it done sooner. But it's finally done, and I'm quite pleased with it. It will be debuted for viewing at my church's group, The Well Global, Tuesday evening. Due to the sensitive nature of the footage, it won't be posted online, but if I see you in person I can show it to you, or if you happen to catch a Transitions Global presentation, there's a good chance you'll see it there.

I really can't believe I'm going to be in Thailand in a couple weeks. Crazy. I think most of the details are taken care of. Please continue to pray that things go smoothly and that this time will answer a lot of the questions I have about living and working in Chiang Mai.

And now, I have to get back to lying around playing Super Nintendo, reading, and watching movies. It sounds nice, I know, but I'm itching to get back to normal life. It drives me crazy being stuck on my back much of the time. Soon things will return to normal. At least that's what I'm praying for.

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Back on track?

Hello friends!

So I'm going to skip my usual pre-substance pleasantries and skip straight to a prayer request (with a bit of an explanation.)

For years I've had periodic low-back problems, and about a year and a half ago I got a real diagnosis for the problem. I have a shear in my sacrum. In other words, the very bottom of my spine, up against the inside of my pelvis, is off kilter. After regular doctor visits last year when I had medical insurance, I had been without a major back-related injury for more than a year until today. I was working as a substitute assistant this morning, and the simple action of kicking a soccer ball threw my back out. Must have been teetering on the edge of going out. So I drove over to my dad so he could help me pop my back the way my Osteopath told me I could. We did it without much change, so we tried it again, and I think we may have made it worse. Lying down, the pain is manageable, standing and walking is only tolerable for a short time, quickly resulting in excruciating pain like I've never felt. It's quite amazing, really. Until today I had never fallen down out of pure pain, which can't be very good for the old back. My doctor is back in Portland, and since I'm 150 miles from there, I have made an appointment with a local Osteopath. Unfortunately I am without medical insurance, but I don't really have the option to leave this one unchecked, so I'll pay for it with money I don't really have. I've spent a lot of time praying that God would deliver me from this, and I ask that you pray as well. Please pray not only for deliverance for the time being, but that this problem would go away for ever. May as well pray for major deliverance while we're praying at all, eh?

Thailand is sneaking up quickly. Most of the major details have already been taken care of, and the ones that haven't been taken care of are the ones I'm not aware of. We will get to visit with some of my family friends while we're in the area, and then head out to a retreat center outside of Chiang Mai for a week or so. After the retreat we head back to Chiang Mai for another 5 days or so, where we'll have a chance to explore the area. Assuming my back is cooperating by then...

So yeah, please pray for my back. Let me know how I can pray for you!

Cheers.

The Letter is Out!

Hey everybody! (can a "Hi Dr. Nick!" from anyone? Please?)

This should be a short one. Finished the letter and it's in the mail. Thanks so much to the few of you who have given me their addresses lately. I'm discovering that I have a large number of people wanting to pray for me, and a relatively small number of people's addresses. Please, please, please get me your address! If you don't receive a letter within the next week or so, I don't have your address and have therefore not sent you a prayer/support letter. I only plan to send out a couple real physical snail-mail letters per year, but if you want one right away, send me your email address and I'll email you a pdf of the letter. (Though who will deny a full-color paper letter in the mail?)

Other than getting the letter out, not much great news as of late. Spent this weekend in Portland, spent time with friends and family, caught my first Blazer game in 17 years, played on the worship team at my wonderful home church, The Well, and a smattering of other activities of varying degrees of interestingness. Please continue to pray for Mandi and me as we get closer to traveling to Thailand. The trip is in less than four weeks now, creeping up quickly. How can I be praying for you all?

(One more reminder, please get me your address!!!)