June 28, 2009

June 28, Sunday

Today I tried to get to church. I went to 2 internet cafes to write down the address to the church. It took 3 motorbike taxis to finally find the church building. I was 30 minutes late! Ouch. So after Sacrament I walked up to a lady and asked her who the bishop was, so I could introduce myself to him. She said he is out of town, but asked if I would like to come to her house for dinner after church. I was like... um... sure I guess! Then she asked my name. ha ha. I saw a guy in Priesthood quorum who was one of my TA's in a political science class at BYU. He left after church too quickly for me to talk to him. I got my picture taken and filled out a records request form. So I'm going to be officially in a Bangkok Thailand Ward.

After church was a hoot. They lady's name was M and her husband is T. Turns out they invited a lot of people over for dinner. I think they do it every, or most Sundays. Actually it was funny because in Sunday school the teacher wanted to begin the class with introductions, so I thought it would just be me and maybe someone else. Half the room ended up standing up and introducing themselves. Someone in town from Hanoi, or Singapore or Korea. So at dinner there were...10 people. All seem to have never eaten at this house. Oh, I forgot to mention, it so happens that T works for the state department. Me and this girl B both got in the car with M and T at church and they drove us to their house. We had some more in depth introductions and then stopped in front of this big armored gate. This guy got on a radio and then the gate opened. We drove through, then some guards came and opened the hood and trunk of the car and then ran a mirror on a pole under the car. Then we had to get authorized to enter the compound. It was the US embassy worker's compound. So we drive through this beautiful field area until we get to their house. This thing was immaculate. A big green lawn with white picket fence and pet peacocks. Did you just hear a record screech? That's right I said pet peacocks, ever so plain amid a backdrop of ponds and fountains and gorgeous giant weeping trees. The house wasn't a castle, but if it was mine, I'd brag about it.

Only B and I were with them preparing dinner waiting for others to arrive. B is from USA and is now working as a science teacher in the Marshal Islands. She had some fun stories to tell about the bikini islands and how small her island is. It is 30 miles long and 1/10 of a mile wide. She said there are 7 church branches there, and of a populations of about 25,000, 7,000 are church members. She invited me to come visit, but a round trip ticket from Manila to the Marshal islands is about $1600.

There was a couple who consisted of a former sister missionary and a Thai guy who met and married in the states and now live in Thailand. The guy is now a famous writer in Thailand. He wrote a book about creating your own luck and success. I talked to him about serendipity. Seems like a really energetic and congenial guy. He started off as a director of classical music and has become so oddly successful in a now obscure profession that he decided to write books about it. He gets invited by a lot of famous and wealthy people to conduct orchestras for them.

One of the guys whose name escapes me told a story about being at the US citizen services at the US Embassy and he overheard a guy at the counter yelling to the service officer about how this lady he was going to marry conned him and took off with tons of his money and belongings and he helped her get a visa and all this stuff and he wants them to stop her and arrest her as soon as she lands in USA. Apparently the embassy said there wasn't much they could do. So this guy says, well, anyway, I have a new girlfriend now, what do I do to get her a visa? ha ha. How ridiculous is that?!

T had some pretty hilarious stories as well being an employee of the state department in Columbia, Taiwan and China. They told me just for fun I should go to the citizen services office and just sit in for about an hour and listen in on people, I should hear some good stories.

One of the girls is a Thai girl, born and raised in Patthaya but married to a Canadian guy. She organized this big event for all the heads of state who were coming to Patthaya in February. She worked at the hotel that was hosting the event, so she was in charge of every aspect of organizing the event. Well the day the event was supposed to happen, everything was in place, a few heads of state were in the hotel and then red shirt protestors rushed the hotel. The police did nothing as these activists stormed the building and made a mess of everything. Mostly she said they made a mad dash for the buffet and then for the bathroom. Her event was ruined and the hotel did not get remunerated. They lost half a million dollars and she ended up losing her job because they could no longer afford her, and they hotel lost its appeal and good name because it is the location where this important incident went down.

After most left and it was just B and I and the family we ended up talking about Myanmar. B is going there on July 26th. I'm thinking of joining her. She is on a 10 week vacation before going back to the Marshal Islands. After Cambodia, on the 15th of July, I'm either coming back to Thailand, going to Bali, or going to Vietnam. ha ha, so we shall see what I end up doing. When we went to leave the family's house it was raining so hard. They let me borrow an umbrella to get to the metro, but the wind her is no friend either. I was soaked by the time I got to the train. So I got to ride the sky train home... soaking wet. And it's not so bad to be soaking wet, when you're in a t-shirt and shorts. I was in full church gear. ha ha.