Hello Kenya!

I said my goodbyes to my new friends of Bangkok and received gifts of food, chocolates, pocky (my favorite snack) and notes of encouragement... Then off to a new land. The travels went nicely. My only scare came when I was sleeping at my terminal in Mumbai, India waiting for the boarding of my flight into Nairobi. I slept two straight hours contorted over arm rests on a row of seats. I woke up as the last few people boarded the Nairobi flight. I grabbed my things and shufled quickly to the attendant. Crisis averted. The plane was huge and there were not many passangers, so I stretched out and slept the whole way to Africa.

I did have more trouble than expected with immigration, but I guess there are some true perks to working with nuns! I got a three month tourist visa after sister linda spoke with the previously unwilling officer over the phone. I wil go to immigration on monday to convert the visa to a one year work permit. Sister Linda and her trusty driver John have been quite the hosts! They set me up with a rom in the Catholic Hostel - which is available to tourists like any hostel, but it is on the grounds of the Nairobi convent and its profits go to support the catholic missions of Kenya. Sister Linda brought me into the convent for a breakfast of toast and delicious Kenyan coffee! Ah, finally! I met lots of sweet, really funny nuns. We traveled to the nursing council and successfully secured my Kenyan nursing license. I feel so exotic! Yes, I hold nursing licenses in Alabama and... Kenya! (dear Chelsey... isn't that cool?!)

Sister Linda has informed me that I wil have my own apartment and will be living in community with the professors at Wamba's nursing school. They are all kenyan and have families with children! She says they helped her set up my apartment and are really excited to be living near an American:) They want to teach me Swahili and how to cook Kenyan food... I'm so lucky! I will work 7 hour shifts, 6 days a week most likely on the regular medical/surgical floor. They say wamba is beautiful. Sister Linda has told me there is a mountain in sights and beacause it's been so dry, they've already had to shoo elephants away from the cultivated compound three times in the past season. She says there's a wildlife park nearby too!

My contact will be quite different from now on. I will no longer have internet access. I will have a phone - so in case of an emergancy I can have contact with the states. But my main communication will be letters. My new address is:

Skye Chambless c/o Wamba Nursing Training
P.O. Box 49
20603 Wamba
Kenya

With much love and hope and excitement!
Skye

Koh Samet

This past weekend was my last in Thailand. I will leave on Thursday for Kenya. So, two of my housemates joined me for a vacation on a beautiful Thai island - Koh Samet. Story for the fridge!... the island is considered a national park. So, like all national parks, Thai nationals get in way cheaper than foreigners, in this case 40 Bhat for Thais and 200 Bhat for foreigners. We are always joking with the girls at The Well that we're Thai and try to prove it by eating hot peppers and other such Thai things. So, when we reached the beach a uniformed fellow approached us to collect our fee. I chuckled as I repeated the well rehearsed line, "Bin con Thai" (I am Thai) and handed him a thousand Bhat note. He responded straight-faced, "Con Thai" (ok, you're Thai). HA! I was chuckling all the while until he asked for a smaller bill because he didn't have enough change for such a big note!!!! He charged us all 40 Bhat each! Amazing! I can't complain about everyone staring and calling me "farang" after I got a break like that from a man in uniform!

We rented a small bungalow on a rocky beach just a short walk from a sandy white beach. It was peaceful and afforded for a quiet and restful weekend. The scenery was incredible! The water was bright hues of blue and green and clear to the bottom. I walked in up to my shoulders and could still see my feet! The three of us went kayaking one afternoon, hiking another, and drank lots of delicious smoothies and ate amazing Thai food, as always. Mostly though, I just sat in a lounge chair and read, relaxed and reflected.

Cultural faux pas number 762:

I went to a new part of town last week. The nature of the location necessitated that I take a form of transportation new to me in this city: the bus. I boarded the great monster just in time to avoid the torrential downpour. I loaded at the back entrance and saw no empty seats. I walked the length of the bus to be sure my eyes weren't tricking my body into the discomfort of standing for the long ride. All the seats were indeed taken. My thoughts drifted toward my lady-ness, secretly hoping one of the men would realize their chivalrous duty and offer... oh... yep... he noticed... he's standing... he's definitely looking at me. I drop my chin and raise my eyes to his shoulder in order to read his face without making eye contact as a woman to an eastern man. He's definitely acknowledging me. He's walking straight towards me, standing next to me and watching me. I give a short bow with my neck and drop my face farther in thanks. I take his seat at the front of the bus. A pause. He's walking toward me again... oh no! he just wants to talk to me because I'm white. He probably wants me to teach his nephew English... What's that? He stretches his arms out and shows me the long sliver tube he's carrying. Wow, quite a coin collection... Oh! Oh my! He's the attendant! I just took the seat of the money collector! I can't help but chuckle. He came to collect my alms and I took the opportunity to snag his seat, never even revealing my change purse. Silly foreigner!

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

"Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for Him, after all, so great? Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first?" - Elizabeth Elliot

"Relationships develop when people spend time together. Spending time with God ought to be the essence of prayer. However, as it is usually practiced, prayer is more like a series of email or instant messages than hanging out together. Often it involves more talking than listening. It should not be a surprise that the result is a superficial relationship." - David Benner in The Gift of Being Yourself

A Breath of Fresh Air

I got back last night from a four-day visit to the countryside. Jub, Cori, a lovely couple traveling around from the states and I travelled about 8 hours mostly by bus to a northern province called Buriram. P’Prong was born and raised in Buriram. She left for Bangkok when she was a teenager hoping to make good money to support herself and her poor country family. She didn’t start in the bars, but after a failed marriage and two kids to support she ended up working at a bar girl. She was one of the first students of The Well 5 or 6 years ago. She eventually decided she was ready to try to move back out to Buriram and start a children’s ministry. So we were in Buriram visiting with P’Prong and helping with a traveling medical clinic that came through her village. Here’s an excerpt from my journal on Friday:

Today was the second day of a traveling, free, Thai clinic down from Chang Mai. They brought only one foreigner – the physician – and we have four foreigners including myself. I say this because of the importance of Thai involvement in their own healing. It is a very good thing to be in the cultural minority.

So, last night we walked around P’Prong’s village to remind her neighbors that the clinic would be set up at her house today. After the walk we rode out a few miles to an orphanage – 14 kids – run by a sweet Thai couple. They had the whole team there. They fed us dinner and had an info/worship session. This morning, we woke up to the team outside our house. Some of the others were up early to make breakfast for everyone. Pork and rice mush with some veggies – a lot of yummy cilantro! Yumm! “Coffee” too- from a packet – just add water. I will be glad to have that precious Virginia gold back in my morning mug... A little pre-clinic socializing, prayer, prep, set-up, then: day 2! It was much slower than yesterday’s 334 patients.

We took turns going over to the kitchen for lunch, chicken-foot soup, a delicacy. I had a part of one of the feet – it was surprisingly supple; a bit like fat around a bone. Then Jub came out with a bowl of ants and larvae cooked with egg. We saw a man harvesting them yesterday. A long piece of bamboo with a bucket on the end. He found a nest in the top of a tree – maybe 50 feet up. He put the bucket under it and hit up on the nest – “shaking” the ants and larvae right out of the nest. It was tasty, mainly flavorless just absorbing the flavors of the egg and sauces. The larvae did have quite the texture though – pop in your mouth like a series of mini-balloons. The ants were kind of crunchy, like shrimp legs. One of the guys said the ants too were somewhat of a special treat. They can only be harvested about one week of the year. They are a “sign” that the rainy season is coming!

Why did I come to Bangkok?

I know this blog is public domain, which automatically makes it off limits for religious talk... but I don't want to make a liar of myself... God asked me to come. So, I came. He gave me direction and purpose too, which makes the whole process a good bit easier! I believe I am being built up to work with people like these women - specificity scares me, but I will try throwing out the specifics like people who have experienced sexual abuse or been a part of the sex trade.

So, what will I do? The short story is, I would like to have a rehab/retreat center that will take in these people and work through a long process of healing to hopefully and eventually help them to become functional, employable people. This visit to The Well is one of many steps toward making this idea a reality. This step is hopefully getting me closer to understanding the complexities of working in this capacity. For example, what are the initial and long term needs? How do you reach this group of people and find the ones that want/need to be freed from the bondage of their reality? How do you start and run an organization? Etc.

So, I didn't really come to help these girls or even The Well, though I do hope that I am able to do as much of that as I can while I'm here! I am so grateful that the people at The Well have allowed me to get so involved even though I am only here for a short amount of time! In order to preserve these experiences for future use, I have started taking notes on what I would want to emulate or change about The Well's model and way of doing things if I were to start a similar organization. In addition to visiting other organizations and picking the brains of everyone around me, this week I was able to join in on The Well's staff development meeting. What a wonderful surprise that this sort of thing is happening while I'm here with them!

There are four main people who run The Well. Jim and Judy are the original founders and Richard and Bee came along a few years ago. The four of them plus Cori who facilitated the meeting and I, sitting as quietly as I could at the edge of the table, met all day yesterday and talked about The Well: its vision and mission, its strengths and weaknesses, the absolute necessities for success. We will all meet again on wednesday. I am so glad to be able to join them for these amazingly pertinent discussions and am really excited to be learning SO MUCH about exactly what I came here to learn!

Dream World: the world of happiness

Friday was a holiday, so everyone was off work. Three of my housemates and I joined P'Pada and her two boys for a trip to DreamWorld... which is a lot like a small six flags. I'm not very into the crowds and the lines and all the other things associated with theme parks, but I ended up having a blast withthe fun people I went with! The boys were so excited, which was contagious.