Our part and place

As we come to the end of summer, a month left for Kiddo and about 2 more weeks for J, we are just finding our summer flow.  It’s summer, but it’s not boring.  We’ve been feeding Chickpea the chicken and we’ve done some shopping for new shorts and shoes.  Not only is Kiddo growing, but she has a new activity.  She is in a basketball camp.  She loving it and has expressed the want to play on a team, if she can.  It’s something we are open to doing for her and after next week and the last week of camp, we will see if she still has the want and see how that can fit into her life and schedule.  She’s ok at dribbling and shooting, but I gotta give it to the girl… She is a tenacious defender.  She is always on the ball and quick to slap it away from the others when they dribble or go to shoot.  

Besides that, she’s been taking on more responsibility around the house.  She is helping with laundry and folding and putting it away.  She is also helping more with cleaning the turtle tank and feeding them.  It’s fun, watching her do more and become more.  Even in basketball camp, she is always the first to listen, to sit on the ball when coach is talking, to know the drills, and do them correctly the first time.  Same around the house.  She will tidy her room, pick up after herself, or help cleaning her turtle tank without needing multiple explanations.  She is, to be punny, on the ball most days.

As noted earlier, I’ve been working on some things and it’s been going great.  I enjoy the feeling of being productive in a different way.  Not busy with the house and life, but on my own thing.  I’m working on a few other projects and the like.  Maybe they will bear fruit or maybe they will die on the vine, but either way, I’m looking for ways to share our experiences; to give others perspective of this journey and how we approach it.  The main through line is to be open and accepting.  That we see and experience.  The we learn and grow.  I acknowledge that there are things we don’t like, but we don’t dwell on those, we accept them and move past them.  Maybe it’s a place or food, we just don’t go back there.  The culture and celebrations, how they are different than the American experiences of those shared holidays and what we love about the new ones we learn.  As for the place and governments of where we live- I address that we are not locals, so we don’t concern ourselves with it.  We don’t have a say and don’t understand it, even if we did.  It’s not a language thing, it’s a cultural thing that we will never be part of, so we ignore it for the most part.  Yes, we keep an eye on it, but it will never be part of our experience, so besides keeping up on knowing the 0.00001% than might has effects on our status, we can’t say if it’s good or bad, it’s not ours to speak on.  

That’s a freedom in it’s own way, however.  It allows us to know the place, the people, the community of it.  We had that in Thailand, with the markets and Tuk Tuk drivers knowing Kiddo.  We have it hear with the grocery I go to and the cafe where I spoke.  It’s a community for us.  It’s something we can share in and be a part of.  People who know us, smile at us, and come to know us.  They will help us or give us things.  At the produce stand in BKK, I was part of the hide the figurine game, but also, she’d sometimes wave off certain product if I was looking, or hand me something good that day.  Same with the fruit stall.  The other day, at the grocery here, the woman in the produce area snatched an apple out of my hand and pointed to the less expensive apples and gave me a thumbs up.  I took her meaning and got those.  They’re great.  Very sweet and juicy.  Because I am part of their week and days, they know me and Kiddo and have taken us in, helping us, guiding us, and always giving us smiles and waves.  Giving us the local deal and discount.  Because we don’t just order our food.  We don’t hide behind the expat walls.  We eat and shop with the locals.  

That’s scary.  That’s hard.  That’s what we seek, though.  The experience.  Not taking from where we are, but sharing in it with the people who do live there and will continue to live there after we’ve gone.  Being PART of that life for a year or two, not just watching it happen around us.

I speak to that and I’m building presentations around that.  Around not keeping yourself outside of the place you go, but letting it in, no matter how hard, scary, different, and strange it may seem.  Kiddo was asked, during my Q&A time if she could share her thoughts as an American in China.  Her answer was perfect; “I’m not American.  I’m more Thai who was born in America.”  We had to explain that for her a bit, J and I, that she had her formative years in BKK.  She identifies more with that than she does with America.  In that, a lot of her actions are Thai.  Holding hands with friends while walking, she loves the heat and humidity, wanting to go play even on a 38+ (100F) degree day, but hating the cold and winters, even in some of her phrasing… We can hear Beer in that, “Ah, it’s nice to have a day to relaxing and be lazy.”  Or even just holding on to Sabai Sabai and Jai Yen Yen, which she will still use in talking about herself or about kids in her class when they need to just calm down.

It’s been a summer and it’s closing out quicker than we want.  Quicker than we think.  Almost back to school.  Almost back to the routine.  Almost back to alarms in the mornings.  Until then, though, we are living, seeing, experiencing, enjoying, and taking in every day.  Expanding ourselves in the global classroom we are living in and loving every minute of it.

Let’s go, Kiddo… today is another day of seeing and doing and learning.  Yes, it’s all things we’ve done and seen before, but what new thing can we pick up.  What cool thing will we have shared with us.  What small thing will we get a little better at?  We will be there with you to do it all and we can’t wait to have more of it again, tomorrow and the day after and then the next.  Until who knows when, but hopefully it’s forever.