We must really suck!

I have been living overseas for most of the past 5 years and it is a given that most people (especially younger people) hate America. The conversations are always the same... people who have listened to others who have the same beliefs as they do and read the same America hating books. They consider themselves well educated and anyone who disagrees is ill informed and they are pleased to teach you about your country.

Two nights ago I was blessed with a particularly well educated person who made the statement "America is responsible for 95% of the world's problems". With his morally superior tone, he was pleased to tell me what a mess Iraq was. When asked about the 100,000's that were dying due to the "moral" sanction policy (that he supported) before the war he had nothing to say. This is not to say I think the Iraq war was a good idea, I really do not know what will happen but it does not look good right now. He told me what a mess Afganistan is now. When asked if life was measurably better now for women who could now leave their homes unescorted, go to school, work and vote he said (and I loved this), "I could not say that".

It is frustrating to me that people can not see that when their are tough decisions to be made (there are very valid points on both sides) that someone has to make a decision. Right now, the UN will not do it...look at North Korea, Iran...no serious sanctions...just talk. No decisions.

Of course the US makes tons of mistakes (don't get me started on Guantanamo Bay) but these fools who believe that the US does nothing right are jokes. I think I heard enought the other night to last me a while.

Why I stay

I am sitting at dinner tonight with one the girls from the World Challenge group that is volunteering at the home this week and she said to me, "The kids here are great. I never want to leave this place." I told that now she should understand why I enjoy being here (most of the time).

A new playground

This past week we have had a group of high school students from the UK volunteering at the home. They in a program called "World Challenge". They spend a month traveling in a country doing volunteering work and tourning. They have provided the money and much of the labor to build a playground for our kids. A pretty bright group of kids although it may not appear so from the photos.

The veterans

One of the jobs my friend Joyti has is helping veterans from the Burma conflict....way back when the Brits were involved. The old men are slowly dying off, but a group of British officers started sending money to the Burmese veterans 50 years later. Pretty impressive to me.

Oh my god that fruit smells like a butt!

Durian is the most popular fruit that smells like your butt in the world. I like to call it ass fruit. Hotels have signs posted to tell people to not bring the fruit into the hotel because their ass-like smell seems to linger for a long time. This seemed to be quite funny until our landlord harvested his ass fruit and stacked them (I would estimate 200 of those stinkers) under our house for safe keeping. Our house stinks so bad!

Is that a chicken in your pants or are you happy to see me?

Sandy was in class the other day and she heard the sound of a chicken (this sound is almost everywhere here but not in a class). She looked around and finally spots a young girl who brought a chick to class. Sandy asked why and the girl said the mother was missing and she was taking care of it. Later, the girl had put the chick on her shoulder while she was doing her class work. Sandy asked the Principal le if he knew about the girl bringing a chick to class and he said, "You mean the black one?" Now we wonder how many there are at the school.

I am not sure if this would fly in the US or Japan.

Why so few messages

Sorry I have not written much lately. I was sick for a few days (a minor cold) and just got out of the flow. I will start again now.

I hate my skills

I am enjoying my experience here, but I have realized one important thing...I hate the skills I have. Through much of my career I have been managing people in service industries. I have gained a certain number of skills that are very much in need here. It gives me some pleasure to help the home perform its duties better and to help develop people. That said, I realized the other day how much more I enjoyed teaching. I realized most of my career has been spent doing things I do not like doing. I am volunteering here and for a good cause, so I think it has meaning and I am enjoying the experience because of that. The day to day work....not too sure about that right now.

Why I am feeling angst

Last week, a beautiful little girl said to me, "My mom is back from the hospital, she is getting better!" She is bouncing with a big smile on her face like little kids do when they are thrilled with the news they are delivering. Unfortunately, she did not know the truth....neither did her mother. Her mother will die soon.

We sent the woman to the hospital and paid for an exploratory operation. The woman left the hospital before getting any news because she was worried about paying the bill even though we had agreed to. Maybe she knew we had no money to pay the bill either, but hospitals give us credit and we pay them back. Either way, two days after her operation, prior to getting any news nor medicine she left.

It is quite normal to not give people bad news about their health here. Of course in the west we would tell the patient exactly what was happening. I decided on a compromise that we decided to follow, we told the mother she was very, very sick and she needs to take care of herself and we will take care of her children. We do not know what will happen.

So what do you do when the little girl is bouncing in front of you? Gulp, try not to think to much, smile and say,"Good".