The lighter side of life here

It seems I often complain to friends about the difficulties here and thought I might take a minute to mention the fun things. It's generally the small things that make life more entertaining.

My apartment is run by a Thai couple but there are a few Burmese people who do all the maintenance and run a laundry service. The Thai woman is often not very nice to them. When I left this morning she was complaining to them about something, but in Thai so I didn't understand. A bit later (when she was gone,) I said in Burmese to them, "she's crazy isn't she?" The one who knows the least English (I thought none until this encountery) said "bloody fool," which she had to repeat a few times for me to understand it. Maybe all she knows besides "good morning."

I just had dinner with a few people, one of whom is a German physician who I suspect to be in his 70's. When he arrived, he brought a lot of medicine with him. At the airport the customs guys found out about it and detained him. They basically wanted a bribe, but he refused to give it, so he spent two days in jail for possible drug trafficking. When we asked what it was like, he said, it's just like any jail. We pushed further and it turns out he's been incarcerated a few times, noteably in Moscow in the 60's. They thought he was an American spy.

He lived in Malaysia fora while and took on several kids as psuedo-adoptees. One was desperate to leave and when he turned 18, they got married. Germany accepts gay marriage and so they went through a long process of convincing everyone that they were in love. A year later the kid got a German passport. When whatever time passed that they could get a divorce and his adopted son/spouse could keep his citizenship, the filed for divorce. During the hearing, the judge commented on how well they seemed to get along and, however strange the relationship might seem, maybe they should try to work things out. The Tamil kid is now happily married (to a woman) and quite successful.

A friend is working night shift in the reproductive health inpatient area. The staff there are mostly women in their early 20s. Apparently it would be hard to tell differentiate it from a slumber party. They all pull mats onto the floor of the lobby and chat, giggle, and sleep. I forgot to ask if there was much hair-braiding. Last night she took milk and cookies. Everynow and then they wake up and deliver a baby.

I caught one of the smaller medics standing near enough to the tape-measure attached to the wall. She came in at 4'8". She's on the small side, but not unusually so for around here.

My Muay Thai career is taking off. I got my first black eye two days ago, though it's only a hint of purple around my upper lid. The worst part was trying to find my contact lense that was knocked out as well. Tonight I took a shot to the jaw that made chewing a bit difficult. It's rough enough that I feel like I'm boxing, but not so much that I worry about getting hurt. I think when I come home and people use headgear, mouthguards, and shin pads it will seem like a very tame sport.

This sort of stuff keeps it entertaining amidst the misery.