9. our home for the next month

OK, I really will get to Bangkok and the lost baggage, later...
So it started raining as we drove home, dodging the many small motorcycles and slow trucks. There are two lanes - but it's more like an elaberate, vertical game of frogger than lines of traffic. We would come with in inches, it seemed, of the truck in front of us, before speeding up to about 90 km/hr to pass it. Actually, the motorcycles just drive on whatever side of the road they please, they are really more like giant gnats zipping this way and that, each one with entirely too many passengers.
We hadn't gotten very far from the airport when we saw a wreck on the side of the road: motorists and a beat up truck hanging off the grassy ravine, and a jumble of Thai people all clumped and milling around. A frazzled man was slowly climbing out of the drivers side (the right side) some blood slowly trickling down his forehead to his cheek. I wondered if we should stop, but I guess they weren't hurt too badly. This must happen all the time. We kept driving through the drizzle.
I was sooo tired. We stopped in a small village on the way home at an ATM. We got 5,000 more bot - we would need to buy plane tickets tomorrow to go back to Bangkok and hopefully find our luggage.
Halfway home it was dark already, at nearly six. I was glad it was dark, maybe this meant I would be sleeping soon. We passed an even smaller village and the road worsened, but overall I was surprised at the good conditions of the roads - later I would find out this was due in large part to their king, who is very reveered here. He is not like a king in Europe, here what he says has power, and people still bow at his presence. We left our shoes at the door (I think I'll adopt this habit at my own home, it's nice) and dropped our backpacks - our only luggage, inside. We met the rest of the family, Anna, 12, the other twin, Luke, and "aunt" Jerry. On the mission field they call all of their elders either aunt or uncle. We sat down to eat some dinner. I was a little hungry, but at that point all I really wanted to do is sleep, not eat. Aunt Jerry had something special for dinner though - hamburgers. Beef is very hard to get around here. All they have is chicken and pork. So, I ate it gratefully, and it was very good. And then they had chocolate cake and brownies - something I was definitely NOT expecting, that was a nice surprise. Like they were saying, Thailand really isn't a third world country, it is a second world country, thanks again to their king, and the succession of good kings before him.
Mary Ashburn showed my the common room, which - again to my surprise - has an air conditioner for when it gets *really* hot. That's where I am right now, it is to the right of the main house, out in front and perpendicular. Everything here has these funny slatted windows that you can open and close, there are tile floors, overhead fans, 2 fridges, a small oven, and even a microwave. There are also a couple of small leather couches, some books, this computer, and a cabinet full of "tribal threads," Bible covers, purses, handbags, etc. made by the hill tribes people that you can buy.

Ewwww! I just saw a huge lizard on the wall! Lizards have never bothered me until we were eating dinner here the first night and Dr. Ashburn got up to kill a black lizard on the wall. They said if they bite you on the finger, you just have to cut your finger off - I thought they were just kidding, yeah - not kidding. Scary. I'll be on the look-out for black lizards - Lord help me! They just won't let go. Kind of like a hermit crab, but much worse. They said one time the saw one lizard bite another, so to try and see if he woul let go they through them in the water. Neither one let go and finally they both just drowned...

Anyways, we finished eating dinner, and then Mary Ashburn showed me around. "You're a little more alert than Zsila, so I'll just let you show her in the morning." Yeah, Zsila was starting to not make too much sense...
We went to our rooms, which are on the bottom of a two story structure next to the common room house. The thai nurse aides live above us. I decided it would be best if we were in 2 different rooms, at least that first night, just so neither one of us would wake each other up - Zsila can be a noise sleeper :)

I poured water on my sheets on the bottom bunk in my room and turned on the fans. It was very hot. I had no trouble falling asleep.

The next thing I remember was a knock at the door. It was Mary, she had our clothes we had given her to wash, all nice and folded. "You are leaving in 15 minutes." Wow. Well, this really did feel like our own personal "Amazing Race." I hurriedly brushed my teeth , washed my face and shoved some stuff in my back pack. We hopped in the truck - They had placed a bag of bananas (theirs are different, they are short and squatty, actually the perfect size for a banana, I usually can't eat a whole one) and some tangerines in the back seat for us to eat.