Mom in Thailand

Recently, I have not felt very inclined to blog. I spoke to my mother on the phone about this a few weeks ago and she reminded me that there are a lot of people at home who are reading my blog and vicariously experiencing Thailand through it. So put that way, it’s pretty selfish for me to ignore blogging just because “I don’t feel like it.”

 

I have gotten comments that my recent blogs aren’t as entertaining as the older ones, which is true. It’s weird to have experienced so much; in a lot of ways, I have a hard time finding the quirks of “Thai-ness” to be funny. In a way, I’ve reached a point where either everything is funny or nothing is. It’s hard to find the middle ground between feeling completely overwhelmed by extreme world problems and being consumed by trivial drama. Nevertheless, I blog on. That being said, my mother is probably the biggest fan of my blog and enjoys emailing me encouragement/praise.

 

Here are a few gems:

 

“I just read your ant blog – how hilarious!!!  Bathing with ants – I guess you get rid of all the small microscopic bugs on your body that way – LOL.”

 

“Reading the pig blog now – what a maturing experience!!”

 

“This sentence is making me laugh.  Re-read it – it sounds like you stayed in Lisu for 6 years: ‘Adjan Otome, who lived in the Lisu village we stayed at for 6 years…’ “

 

In addition to reading my blog, she also emails it out to an extensive list of “adoring fans”

 

“I sent your blogs out – getting comments back about how well you write and how mature you sound.  People are very impressed – I think this has been an amazing experience for you – life altering.”

 

She also lets me know when new members have been added to the mailing list:

 

“And another fan!!”

 

I emailed her once and got this as a reply:

 

“Please don’t interrupt me – I am in the middle of your Tutoring II blog.”

 

And then afterwards: “Katie – that blog was so cute!!!”

Especially as we are getting close to Thanksgiving (tomorrow!), I am really starting to be ready to come home. It’s great to get such wonderful emails, but I think I am starting to miss the “real life” Mom and other members of my family.