Michael and Summer in Thailand: August 2008

It’s amazing how fast things can happen. One minute you’re standing erect and confident and the next you are flat on your hind end thinking, “How in the world did I get here?”
This weekend was full of adventure for Michael and me. It started Sabbath morning after Sabbath school. When we got done teaching we plodded up the hill to our house and set about making a picnic lunch. We had decided earlier that morning to have our own church out in nature at a waterfall that Jackie and I discovered when she was here. The sun was radiant as we set out on our adventure. It was a perfect day for a picnic.
We reached our destination without mishap and started exploring the area to find a good spot for lunch. Our wanderings brought us around a bend further up the falls and into a cove that was absolutely breathtaking. I was excited to get there so I started making my way with some haste over the water covered rocks. I was walking gingerly, and doing pretty well at it, when all of a sudden my legs came out from underneath me and I was reclining on the rocks like a clumsy princess. I was so stunned that I just sat there for a moment looking around for the culprit that pushed me over. He was nowhere to be seen. I had a flashback to last week when David had a similar experience at a different waterfall. “I really should have had more sympathy for him.” I thought, “That really hurt!” Thankfully Michael didn’t see my spill. I imagine if he had he might have laughed like certain members of our party did at David last week. When I called his attention to the fact that I was on the ground when I wasn’t supposed to be he was appropriately sympathetic and we spent the remainder of the afternoon (until the rains came) eating, reading, repairing my pride and enjoying God’s nature.
(I will skip the rest of Sabbath only to interject that when the rain came it made all the rocks very slippery and produced 3 more falls from me, though they were less painful than the first.)
And now comes Sunday. Oh that fateful day. I have cleverly hid this story deep in the middle of another less interesting story in hopes that fewer people will read it and thus be less concerned for our well being. That said here is the scoop. On Sunday we got into another motorcycle accident! –Grins- Yes, it is true. I will answer the important questions first and then tell the rest of the story. Were people hurt? Yes. Did anyone have stitches? Yes. Is anything broken? No. Are you still alive? Clearly.
So here’s the story. Sunday dawned bright and cheery and begged us to come out and play. So after a lazy morning of pancakes and cartoons we headed out on Wing-Jammer (our motorbike) for an adventure. It was brilliant! Everything was going well: The wind in our hair, the sun on our backs, freedom at our finger tips…and we missed our turn. So Michael turned the bike around and we went back. We waited patiently for a bike to pass before we turned and began our journey across the lane and down the avenue that promised adventure. And then BAM! In the blink of an eye we were down on the ground. Now I don’t actually remember being down on the ground. It’s like I somehow levitated. The next thing I remember I was next to Michael checking him over for injuries. He was holding his knee and moaning slightly but his hands were okay, he wasn’t bleeding out of any part of his body so that was good. We were both in the middle of the road so my first instinct was to pick him up and carry him out of the way. –Grins- I would have done it too, but as I was lifting him off the ground he was like, “Sum, Sum I got it. I’m okay.”
It was then that I looked around. We had been hit from behind which meant that there was probably someone else lying in the road as well. And indeed there was. Two girls were staggering off the road one with a HUGE gash in her chin. It was gaping open and disgusting. It was about 2 inches wide and coagulated blood just hung out of it. I looked away remembering how well I did at the sight of Michael’s first injury and went about gathering our stuff and getting bikes off the road.
The next hour and a half found us driving the girls to and from the Mae Taeng hospital to get sewn up. We had our road rash cleaned and got to take pictures of yet another Thai emergency room, which was fun. Praise God we are no worse for wear. Michael and I both have some scrapes on our feet and bruises on our knees but really, it could have been a lot worse. It is a testament of Gods intervention that we were hit as we were. When we looked at our bike later, the best we could figure was that they hit us on the back of our back tire. It was crazy! If we had been just a breath slower on our turn, they could have hit us broadside and who knows what we would have looked like then. J Praise God that we are in the hands of a loving and protective creator and Father.

I don't know if we have written about this event before but it's so good that I bears repeating. This morning as Michael and I came up from staff worship and looked out over the masses of students we were surprised to find that today was a "Hair inspection day." Let me explain.
In Thai schools there is a strictly enforced dress code. It dictates what one must wear each day of the week and also how long your hair is allowed to be. Periodically throughout the term they will have an "inspection day" to insure that boy's hair isn't getting too long and out of control. On the day of the inspection a male teacher walks up and down the line of boys with a pair of school scissors in one hand and hand fulls of hair in the other. If the boy's hair is too long he takes his scissors and whacks huge chunks out of it leaving the student no choice but to get their hair cut to the appropriate length. The real joy of the situation is that the student has to walk around all day long with a horrid haircut and his friends teasing him.
A bit mean? Perhaps. But they are warned. A week before the inspection they let the kids know that it's coming up so they can go and get their hairs cut if need be. So really if they choose to blow it off it's their fault.
As Michael and I watched in stunned fascination as black hair fell to the ground I could imagine the outcry from students in America if something like this were ever to take place in their schools. Way to go Thailand.