Nathan's surgery

After traveling for 3 days straight from Thailand to LA to Lima to Cusco, Jeff & the boys picked me up at the airport in Cusco. It was sooo amazing to see my husband and boys again after being gone for 3 weeks. There were many comments directed towards my growing belly--like, "wow, your belly is HUGE", etc. It was a wonderful reunion.

What the boys did NOT know, however, was that they would be dropping Nathan and I off at the missionary hospital about an hour and half from home where we would stay the night and Nathan would have a minor reparation surgery the next day. It was a tearful goodbye again when Jeff and the oldest boys had to get in the car again, knowing that I still hadn't made it home yet. Nathan and I spent the evening doing homework and just "catching up" from my being gone.

The next morning Nathan and I went to the hospital around 8am, the doctors were expecting us and guided us to one of the rooms where Nathan got to experience the lovely hospital gown. He thought it felt funny to have it on and nothing else underneath! :o) The thing that gave me the most laughs though, was when the anesthesiologist gave Nathan a pill to swallow that would make him sleepy. She was out of the other anesthetic that is easier to take, but he was a trooper and swallowed that thing right down. So the funny part was when it started to take effect...I had kept asking him if he was getting sleepy yet, but he kept saying, "nope, not yet". All of a sudden he looked at me with these glazed-over eyes and in a slurred voice said, "Mommy, you have four mouths and four noses!" I just started laughing and told the nurse that I thought the meds had kicked in.

They came in a got him, he was asleep by then, and rolled him into surgery. The surgery was to repair a "not so well done" circumcision, but since it was so minor, it only took about 45 minutes. Then I was allowed to come in and sit with him, I got to don a gown, fancy green crocs and an elastic head covering. He continued sleeping while they monitored him, and finally, though he hadn't woke up, his oxygen levels were good enough to take him off the oxygen and send him back to his room. It took him a good 2 hours to wake up.

I was so proud of him, he was so brave and didn't complain even one time. When he woke up, all he wanted to do was get on his clothes and eat something (he couldn't eat from dinner the night before and was SO hungry). They told me to wait a bit to let him eat, that he could drink some tea, but nothing else for awhile to make sure it stayed down. I had thought we would be taking a taxi back to Abancay, but when I talked with Jeff he told me to stay put and that him and the boys would drive to get us! I was so glad, it's an hour and a half to get to the hospital on yucky roads, so I thought this was a very sacrificial thing to do--and I appreciate it so much as it gave me more time to catch up with everyone.

Anyhow, Nathan has healed fine and you'd never know he had any sort of surgery. I am so thankful for such sweet boys!

Bangkok

After leaving Chiang Mai, Jen and I flew to Bangkok where we were amazed at the sprawling skyline and the heat of the city! Not only was it hot, but it rained like crazy and was so humid that walking down the street caused me to sweat like I had been at the gym!

The first thing we did was visit a snake farm and watch a snake show full of venomous snakes! It was wild to see the handlers showing off the snakes, snakes like King Cobras and poisonous vipers--the announcer mentioned that the handlers get bitten by venomous snakes a couple times a year!! I think I'd look for a new job.

We also enjoyed walking around Lumphini Park, a large park located in the middle of the city--probably similar to Central Park. It's a beautiful park with a couple large lakes, in which we discovered live some very large lizards! I was certain they were komodo dragons, but Jen says they are water monitors which is probably more realistic than what I thought. Nonetheless, it was a bit creepy walking along the lake and seeing these large things swimming through the middle of the lake and resting on the shore!














We stayed in a great location, right off of a main street and near a Mexican restaurant, an Irish Pub, a French bakery and a Starbucks! We did some great shopping and I even learned that Ronald McDonald does the "Wai", the traditional Thai greeting.

Elephant Conservation Center

Jen and I visited the Elephant Conservation Center that was located outside of Chiang Mai. Instead of paying for a guided tour, we decided to venture out on our own, take a local/public bus and try to get off at the right spot.
It was actually really easy, and not only did we get off at the right spot, but we were able to flag down a bus (thanks to a Thai couple who stood by the side of the road with us) and get back to Chiang Mai as well! It was fascinating how the "mahouts" (elephant trainers) trained and guided the elephants. We got to watch the elephants perform various tasks, follow directions and even paint! After the show we took a 1/2 hour elephant ride through the forest/jungle--all the while trying to communicate with the mahout in his broken English and our non-existent Thai. It was great fun!

A look into the Thai markets

I loved visiting the markets in Chiang Mai! During my 2 cooking classes, we were taken to 2 different markets to see the ingredients we would be using in our class. I thought that

overall they were similar to the Peruvian markets I visit here, but one thing that was really different, was the presentation of their produce. The Thai love to make things look pretty & appealing, and it was fun to see some of the ways they "market" their goods. I enjoyed seeing dragon fruit, the hot chili peppers, the many types of fish sauce, and I won't soon forget the "frog kabobs"...frogs on a stick--all prepared and ready to put into soup!

Doi Suthep-temple in Chiang Mai

The temples in Chiang Mai are the result of influences from its immediate neighbours Laos and Myanmar, and farther afield places like Sri Lanka and China. Doi Suthep is the temple that I visited in Chiang Mai, though Doi Suthep is actually the name of the mountain where the temple is located, so this is what they call it. The temple is said to be founded in 1383 when the first chedi was built; a chedi is a mound-like structure that contains Buddhist relics, once thought to be places of Buddhist worship, it typically houses the remains of a Buddha or saint. When we arrived at the temple, we had to climb the 309 steps to reach the pagodas at the top. Aspects of the Wat draw from both Buddhism and Hinduism. We saw various Buddha imagines, but apparently in most temples the Buddha image will be at the far end of the hall and face east, for that is the direction that Buddha achieved Enlightenment. The buddhas have different looks, some of them have their hands open upward, some have their hands on their laps, some have their hands in a meditating position, and each of these positions mean something different. At Doi Suthep there were many bells situated all around. Large Buddhist bells are usually heard in isolation, and their sound is complex and varied. However smaller untuned bells are arrayed in large sets around temples in Thailand. Devotees strike each bell for the forgiveness of a sin as they ascend the temple; we saw many people walking along striking each bell in the line, how sad they think that ringing a bell will grant them forgiveness.

What's a Wat?

A Wat (Temple) is the Buddhist compound for religious functions. Ordination of monks, housing important relics, performing everyday ceremonies, holding festivals - all these happen in the wat. All villages have at least one temple; towns and cities have several. Bangkok has more than 500 temples. The purpose of many wats is to house an important Buddha relic, for which they build a chedi (relic chamber), a bell-shaped, golden or white structure. Like religious buildings of other cultures, the Buddhist temples of Thailand have a set of strictly enforced rules for correct dress code and behavior on the sacred grounds. Tank-tops, short-sleeved shirts, shorts, open-heeled sandals are considered improper wear; visitors dressed in such manner are prohibited from entering the wat; we actually saw guards turning some of the tourists away because of their dress. Most carried extra sarongs or shirts with them to throw on over their tank tops. It's funny they say you can't wear sandals because at all of the temples we visited, you had to remove your shoes, so it really doesn't matter what footwear one has. Temples that are frequented by tourists may have proper clothes and footwear for rent, but smaller temples may not. Women cannot touch monks. Do not sit cross-legged on the floor! Buddha and the monks may do it, but laypeople don't.

Thai cooking class!!

During my conference, we got to have a break in the morning and experience some of the Thai culture by participating in a Thai cooking class. It was so much fun!! We started out by going to the market to learn about the different ingredients that we were to use in our dishes, then we went to the Thai Cookery School to begin our class. I loved the way they instructed the class, first we went into a room where one of the instructors showed us the dish we were to make, the order of the ingredients, and then we went to our stations and prepared each dish. After cooking the dishes we go to eat what we had made, and then it was back to the main room to see how the next dish was going to be made. We got to make 4 dishes that day, the first one we did was Tom Yum soup, a spicy soup made with prawns, lemon grass, chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves, and a few other yummy ingredients. This is one of my favorite Thai dishes, very spicy, but delicious!! The next dish we did was Pad Thai, another one of my favorites, with egg, fresh bean sprouts, glass noodles, chili peppers, and salty dried shrimp. The third dish (by this time we were stuffed!!) was a banana cake, made with various flours, banana, coconut cream and coconut. We mixed it together by hand (smashing it together-no utensils) and then poured it into small, individual banana leaves that were fashioned into bowls. Each one was steamed in the banana leaves in big pots. It had a different texture, but the taste was really good. The last dish we made was a green papaya salad, it was made with shredded, unripened papaya (green, not orange), chili peppers, lime juice, tomatoes and garlic. It had to be the exact combination of spicy, sour and sweet. We ate this with sticky rice and though our stomachs were begging us to stop eating, it was so delicious we wanted to finish it all up!! Thai food is very spicy, but they use so many fresh ingredients and present it so beautifully, that you can't help but want more.

MCTTW--workshop in Chiang Mai

As I previously mentioned, my conference in Chiang Mai was to learn how to better communicate and work within SIM and the various cultures that we represent as a mission. Much of the workshop was spent presenting specific topics from different points of view. It was a fantastic time of working with 19 other ladies, learning about each of our cultures, and finding solutions to work more constructively together.

There were ladies from every continent (except Antarctica of course--SIM doesn't have a sending office there yet), their specific countries are the UK, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, Korea, the Philippines, Jamaica, the United States, and Canada.

One thing that stands out most are the vast differences between the "East" and the "West"; most of our time spent discussing seemed to be about the Westerners vs. the Asians. I use those terms loosely, as those are the terms we ended up using to make defining things easier. Some of our topics included choices for housing, raising/disciplining of children, finances, and styles of worship/prayer. It was fascinating, really, to discover the ways in which we do things, and how many of these things are misconstrued as we intertwine our cultures and work together on the mission field.

I learned, for example, that when Koreans pray, they all pray together in loud voices at the same time. I can see where the "western" style of prayer, which tends to be one at a time, might be hard for the Koreans to get used to. This was personally important for me since I have taken on the role as Personnel Coordinator for our Peru field, and the fact that we have Korean and other Asian missionaries working here, and it would be good to give them a chance to pray in a way they are comfortable instead of always doing it the western way.

I think it was also good for the Asians to get a bit more of an explanation into “American” or Western culture; many of them work with westerners and really don’t understand why we do what we do.

I had to present 2 different times, the first time was to give the devotional at our first meeting on Monday morning. It went well and I really enjoyed teaching and finding the cultural differences between the Pharaoh's Daughter and Miriam in the story of Moses. My other topic had to do with Spiritual Life Conference, this is a conference that all of the fields have each year, in which we take a break from our various ministries and come together for a week of refreshment, learning and fun. I had to present what it would be like to have a SLC with only people from my culture and in my language. It was interesting because it seems that most fields around the world are doing their SLC's according to the American/Western style, which means that many missionaries from other cultures maybe aren't having their needs met according to the way their cultures are most comfortable doing things.

Not only did we spend time in meetings, though our meetings did take place from 8am-6pm each day, but we did have lots of fun times and fellowship during meals and in the evenings as well.

Another Continent To Add To My List!!

I'm home!! It's amazing for me to think that after 21 days and 51 total hours of flying, I'm back in Abancay. I left Peru on October 15th and arrived back in Abancay on November 5th. It's the longest I've been away from Jeff & the boys, and boy did I miss them! Poor Jonathon even said he had to look at pictures of me because he was forgetting what my face looked like. I could have cried.

Thailand was absolutely amazing, it was a trip I won't forget, one I hope Jeff & the boys get to experience someday. I went for an SIM conference (see post below for details) and then stayed on an extra 10 days to travel around with a friend.

My conference was great, I met such wonderful ladies and learned so much to help me out as I pursue my new role as Personnel Coordinator for our Peru field. I hope to be able to share some of what I learned in the next blog, and then in future blogs share a bit of my trip.

This picture on the elevator door really cracked me up. Those of you who have been to Asia will know why...but apparently Durian is a fruit that, while having a rather good taste, has the most awful smell you can imagine. So most public places (hotels, restaurants, etc.) have banned the fruit from being brought onto the premises. In the supermarket near our hotel, they did sell Durian candy and Durian chips (which were pretty tasty and didn't stink).

Let the Adventures Begin!

Finally, the time has come and it's time for me to head off to Thailand!! This trip has been in the planning stages for so many months and at last, here I am, sitting in the Starbucks in the Lima airport waiting for my plane to depart.

Did I really just say goodbye to the boys this morning? It seems like ages ago. Jeff took me to Cusco to the airport, it's about 4 hours from our house in Abancay. Nathan came with us while the other 2 boys were "forced" to attend school for the day. It was a two-fold mission in getting to Cusco, not only to drop me off, but to pick up Bryce & Pat (Jeff's parents) who flew into Cusco this morning. My family will be getting pampered by the Grandparents while I'm gone and I've got to say, I feel such a relief leaving (er, um...abandoning) my family knowing that Jeff's parents are there to help out!! Thanks "Papa & Ama Krohn"!!!

So you're wondering why I'm flying all the way to the other side of the world, leaving my family behind, missing both Jonathon & Brandon's birthdays, and basically going as far away from Abancay as I can possibly get?? Well, I am going to be attending an SIM workshop on Multi-Cultural Training. It's a workshop designed to help us work together better as an SIM "entity" within the many cultures that we represent. It's going to be fascinating and I'm really looking forward to hearing great insight from the other women who will be there. We were asked to prepare presentations, in light of a certain topic. I was also asked to give the devotional on Monday morning (others will cover the rest of the week)--I can't believe I said I would do it...I mean really, give the devotional the FIRST day of our workshop???? UGH.

So I got up at 5am to leave Abancay at 7am. I arrived in Lima at 3:30pm and have been spending the afternoon/evening with a good friend and now find myself sitting under the full blast of the air conditioning in Starbucks in the Lima airport. My flight to LA leaves at 1:05am, it's now 11:15pm...just 2 more hours to wait. I will wake up on U.S. soil without my family...which is just weird. I get into LA around 7:30am tomorrow morning and a friend will pick me up and we'll spend the day together. Then tomorrow night (Thurs the 16th) I will leave for Bangkok!!! How weird to think I leave LA on the 16th and arrive in Bangkok on the 18th!! What happens to the 17th??? While everyone else is experiencing a Friday, I'll miss it completely. Strange.

I hope to keep you updated as I'm in Thailand, as much as I can. Meanwhile, be praying for safe travels, for my family back in Peru, and for this little baby who gets a free ride to ASIA--in utero!!

Putting on our homework hats

One thing I've loved about this school year is that all the boys are in the same school. It's a small, private Peruvian school where all of their instruction is in Spanish...well, all except for the English classes I teach twice a week. If you don't know about life in the Southern Hemisphere, our school year goes from March through December. March is our fall (though sadly enough we've never seen any leaves changing colors and we miss that), and December is the beginning of the summer. So now that we are into October, our boys only have a couple months left of school, and yes, they are counting down the weeks! Brandon is finishing 2nd grade, Jonathon will finish Kindergarten, and Nathan will finish preschool.

Homework is part of any student's life, and we are not exempt here. When the boys get home from school we eat lunch (at 2pm which is quite late and we are quite hungry by that point), and then we sit down at the table and do homework. They have at least one page of homework every afternoon, sometimes up to 3 pages. Nathan's homework mostly consists of coloring something, gluing something, or tracing something. Jonathon is learning to write in cursive, yes, you read that right, cursive! Here in Peru, they introduce cursive in Kindergarten, so he's learning the strokes and how to move his hand in more of a circular motion. He also gets pages to color or glue or draw. Brandon usually has either math (he's learning multiplication through the 12's) or writing, in which he's given a long sentence in cursive and has to write it over and over until he gets to the end of the page.

It's so cute to see them concentrating on getting their work done, and one thing I've loved watching is Nathan's tongue!! He concentrates so much that his tongue slowly creeps out of his mouth while he's doing his work--I've seen it at home and also at school when I teach English. I didn't capture Jonathon doing his homework the day I took some pictures, he was too quick to get his work done by the time I had decided to take pictures. Enjoy!

How much I save on veggies by living in Peru!

When we were home on furlough a few months ago, I nearly had a heart attack when I went to the store and saw the price of fruits and vegetables!! Granted, in the United States they are MUCH cleaner and look much more appealing to the eye than what I buy at the market here, but I thought some of you would appreciate a look at what I pay for my produce.

Side note: I buy per kilo which is approx 2.2 lbs. Also we pay in soles which is approx 2.9 soles to the dollar-almost 3/1.

Green apples: 3 soles per kilo, or $1 for 2 lbs
Carrots: 1 sol per kilo, or 0.30 for 2 lbs
Tomatoes: 1 sol per kilo, or 0.30 for 2 lbs
Lettuce: 50 centimos for a small head, or 0.15 per head (leafy)
Mandarin oranges: 2.5 soles per kilo, or approx 0.80 for 2 lbs
Bananas: 1 sol for 5 bananas, or 0.30 for 5 bananas
Green onion: 1 sol for a HUGE bunch, or 0.30 for a HUGE bunch
Celery: 50 centimos for a medium bundle, or 0.15 for a medium bundle
Sweet potato (for our dogs): 1.5 soles per kilo, or 0.50 for 2 lbs
Potatoes: 1.2 soles per kilo, or 0.41 for 2 lbs

So those are some of the vegetables I buy in the market and the prices I pay for them. Though honestly, what I wouldn't give most days for a big bag of pre-washed lettuce to just throw a salad together. You see, not only do I have to buy the produce from a market, but I have to bring it home and then wash each piece in an iodine solution to soak all the bugs off and disinfect the produce. It's soooo time consuming, as are most things here, but well, it makes me appreciate the clean, "thunderstorm", softly misted and washed produce in the supermarkets in the U.S.! However, my total market trip, plus the cost of a taxi to bring me home, was 32 soles, or just over $10. Read it and weep.

Godly Protection!!

So as you can imagine, there is always some sort of drama going on in our house. With three boys, life is never dull nor is it ever NOT an adventure. Yesterday afternoon, while Allen & his kids were over playing, we heard a loud "thud" and then a scream. That is never good to hear. Allen & I rushed outside (Jeff was upstairs) and to our horror, Nathan (our 4-year-old) had fallen through the screen and out the window of his 2nd story room!!! It's very high from the window to the ground, and what broke his fall was the screen (and Nathan) falling against a 2-ft high brick retaining wall.

We brought him inside, thankful that Allen was here (he's our colleague/SIM doctor). Immediately there were 2 large bumps on his head and he was complaining of his leg/groin area hurting. He couldn't walk and was very scared. I gave him some Tylenol and Allen kept checking him out. Finally Nathan decided he wanted to go lay in our bed and immediately fell asleep. We woke him up an hour later so Allen to give him another look over and then let him continue sleeping. He slept through the night with me, waking up off and on, but did tell me about 3am that his head hurt, but that his leg was feeling better.

We just feel like God really protected Nathan from more serious injuries; a fall like that could have broken various bones, and he is literally up running around today. Though his head hurts a bit (and with good reason), and his neck is stiff, he is doing fine. I'll post a picture soon of the window/screen so you can get a good visual.

Mama's corner

I've threatened for months to start my own blog. Jeff's posts are always so well done that I don't want to take away from what he is doing. Plus, a mom needs a spot to call her own, especially in a house full of boys who invade every corner with their toys or presence. Of course they invade every corner of my heart as well.
Living overseas isn't always conducive to keeping family and friends updated on what goes on in our daily lives. But blogging is. So...I'll blog. To help you see what you are missing by living so far away! lol No, not to see what you are missing, but to see into our corners. To see these precious boys who mean the world to me and how they are growing, the teeth they are missing, and the silliness they are creating. From my corner...to yours.