I’ve heard it said by many a missionary that “in the old
days, missionaries took boats out to the field where they had a month or so to
transition from home to the field.” They
use it as an excuse to take a vacation on the way to and from the “field.” I now understand why.
I relatively flippantly opted for a 10-day stopover in
Thailand on my way back to the States from Rwanda, but it could not possibly
have been more God-ordained. Less than a
week before the trip, I was moping around, dreading spending 10 days by myself
in Thailand. Where would I stay? What would I do? How lonely would I get? And then, Janelle came along and introduced
me to Juniper Tree, essentially a retreat center for Christian cross-cultural
workers. There are two locations: one in Chiang Mai and one in Dolphin
Bay. Suddenly I was excited to venture
off to Thailand, and boy, was it worth being excited over.
I went straight to Natalie’s cousin’s house in Bangkok and
slept a lot. You don’t realize how tired
you are from living cross-culturally until you give yourself a chance to
rest. The next morning I went and got a
head, shoulder, and foot massage and then flew off to Chiang Mai.
The best part of Juniper Tree: family style meals. You get assigned to a table full of fascinating
people and eat together. I met
missionaries to China, Cambodia, India, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. The conversations were so refreshing, talking
about things that matter with like-minded people… bliss! After dinner the first night I was invited to
a “Girls Night” at the Night Bazaar complete with foot massages and street food
dessert. That’s right, I got two
massages in one day, so sue me.
I spent the majority of the next day sleeping, but ventured
out on my last day in Chiang Mai to a butterfly garden (where I saw a whopping
TWO butterflies) and orchid farm where I spotted my favorite color combination:
And continuing on that theme ventured to Tiger Kingdom and
hung out with some tigers. If only I had
a Tiger Rag or at least some bit of orange clothing with me…
I spent the rest of the morning at Queen Sirikit Botanic
Gardens where I got to traipse through the woods and look at pretty flowers and
move my body a bit after all that sitting on planes and sleeping in beds.
The following day, I flew back to Bangkok where I happened
upon a mission trip group headed in the same direction as me. (And yes, friends from Rwanda, they did
fulfill every stereotype you’re thinking of.)
They let me come along for the ride and decided they wanted to bless me
by not making me pay. I thought it was a
pretty sweet deal until I ended up at their final destination and ended up
having to pay twice what I would have had to pay for a bus to get the 40 extra
minutes to my final destination: Juniper
Tree Dolphin Bay. Schwoops!
My view for most of the week was about like this:
I read the entire New Testament, mostly in my hammock.
I also completed a 494 piece puzzle from a plastic bag. That’s right, no box to show me what it was
and six missing pieces to add to the challenge:
I kayaked near to this island:
which I later found out was Monkey Island. I didn’t need to go there to see the monkeys
though, as one made its way into the hallway on which I was staying. Sick.
And scary.
I got a traditional Thai massage in my room. It’s kind of like a cross between a massage, physical
therapy, and yoga. For those of you who
know just how flexible I am, you can imagine how comfortable it was for me…
I rode a nice sea foam green single speed bicycle (I didn't wear a helmet because they only had kid-sized ones; don't tell my mom!) an hour to
the national park where I then hiked for much longer than the 1km advertised to
get to Phraya Nakhon cave. It was quite
the adventure in 100-degree heat. The
cave’s roof has caved in and inside is a king’s throne. It’s pretty cool:
On the way back, I wished I had rented a scooter instead of
a bicycle, and my legs got super sunburnt, as they saw more sun in 3 hours than
they had in the 3 years prior. Oops!
I got my nails painted by a local girl who refused to leave
them a solid color.
I had many lovely conversations with some lovely people and
rode back in a minibus to Bangkok. It
wasn’t much fun as the following things were all prohibited:
Don't worry; I didn't pass gas even once. I am a rule-follower, after all!
Now, I’m back at Natalie’s cousin’s house and flying out
tomorrow morning. After 28 hours of travel,
I will land in the good ol’ US of A late tomorrow night.
I couldn’t ask for a better way to transition to a season in
the States. I highly recommend a
stopover to unwind and re-wind when moving cross-culturally. I’m sure it will make the transition 10x
easier at least!
