Sunday evening thoughts

Its 8pm Sunday evening. It's raining. An unexpected storm blew up quite suddenly, and for a while the rain was blowing in sheets, the wind banging shutters and gate doors wildly. Almost the sort of storm we get at home. It has slowed now, and the gentle rain and accompanying breeze are cooling down the heat of the afternoon in a very relaxing and delicious way.

Sunday afternoon Jade and I have Burmese lessons. My tutor spent about 10 minutes in frustration (again) because I can't differentiate between 't' and 't'. There are about 4 't's in Burmese, and I'm pretty happy I can even get three of them... As much as I look forward to my lessons, I also dread them, knowing that it will be another hour in which I struggle to make sounds that are so unknown to my tongue. I feel like my progress is slowing - everything in Burmese rhymes, and I keep mixing up the endings (using '-leh' instead of '-la', or '-'beh', etc....).

After our lessons, Jade and I went house hunting again. We rode around a couple of neighborhoods that we hadn't been to before, lovely neighborhoods with narrow winding streets crossing canals and twisting between old but well loved wooden houses surrounded by private jungles. Really beautiful, tucked away areas, assuring passersby that it would be a very peaceful place to live. We didn't see any houses for rent, and tried to ask at a few shops, but this was a Thai part of town, and whatever progress I have made in Burmese does not apply to Thai - we can only get so far as to ask 'house for rent, where?', without being able to understand most replies...

We stopped to get fruit on the way home. Lovely fresh papaya, bananas, kiwi, and melons. We have a refrigerator full of leftovers from the potluck we hosted last night, and so were just trying to supplement what fare we could scavenge from there. We had about 20 folks over, for a meal whose dishes spanned several continents. It was my favorite kind of party, cooking and eating together, good people, a lovely evening to relax on the porch, and eat and meet and talk. Unfortunately, most of the folks who attended are summer folk, and leaving withing the next month. There was only one person, other than folks from my org, that will be here after Aug. I just got here, and already the goodbyes begin. I sometimes feel that I've already said a lifetime's worth, but this is part of the life I have chosen. To say more goodbyes than you would ever want to is the price for the privilege of so many hellos, and I know my life is all the richer for it.

I really do love being here. I love the place, the work, the people I meet, the simplicity of life here. I love that I'm able to be here, and still be in touch with my friends and family - to hear them, and even to see them. I love that this place will be a part of me. As the people I love are with me while I'm here, Mae Sot will be with me when I leave.