Home Thoughts From Abroad

I am sitting here trying to deal with fact that we have not updated this blog for almost two weeks and I am not sure what to do about it. Recognizing that our stress levels were off the chart, we sat down two evenings ago and made a list of the things that are weighing on our minds so that at least we would know why our guts are in a permanent knot, if that helps.

Steve, on his second course is an old hand at this Master’s thing and there is not much he enjoys more that writing a good research paper and is, of course maintaining his 100%. Nevertheless he is frantically trying to finish out this school year well, and preparing for all three of his classes to present Waiting for Godot at the Drama Fest the first week in May. In the midst of that, all of his students are preparing their final ISU’s for the semester and needing an incredible amount of support. Add to this the almost daily requests for him to take on tasks to support the other staff and students and that is why he is not blogging.

I, on the other hand am frantically trying to come to grips with writing a research paper for a most unhelpful professor and wondering what made me think that I wanted to spend four hours trying to get the punctuation marks in the correct place for a Turabian style citation. Meanwhile, I am attempting to plan for a week long training session in Cambodia amidst a huge number of obstacles that will undoubtedly impact this project over the long term. Praying that somehow my passport will be returned by the Malaysian government in time for that to happen.

We are wrapping up our sixth year here and planning for all of the details of our trip home like buying and insuring a vehicle, and looking after all of the financial staff that always need to be dealt with. Given that Steve will only have four days in Ontario we need to basically schedule them by the hour. We are missing our kids and grandkids and so looking forward to seeing them but already know how hard it will be to say good-bye again and this time to a new little grandbaby. Part of the preparation for going home always involves getting the apartment ready for Steve to manage on his own which means repairs and air con maintenance which is always a battle here. The brightest spot in my day is when I get to suck up thousands of little ants with my vacuum in some kind revenge for them having taken over the entire 27 storey complex.

However the real problem with the blog is that much of what we are dealing with right now is “unbloggable” either due to its sensitive nature or because it is news that just can’t be shared yet because details are still being worked out. We have been busy with meetings and even a trip as part of the planning process and are hoping to be able to share that soon. But… in the meantime there just is not much to blog.

March Break used to be the time that my colleagues in Ontario would take off for the Caribbean for a break from the stress of teaching and a way to shake off the winter blues. We could never afford that ourselves, but I certainly sympathized with the sentiment and would often envy them the leisure time. Teachers over here are no different, and all this week I have been hearing about Australia and China and other neat places my colleagues have gone without many stories of my own to tell.

We are not exactly broke anymore, but we did have a pretty spectacular visit to New Zealand over Christmas and Pam has just got back from an almost uninterrupted month of travel around Southeast Asia. So this March Break we could think of nothing we would rather do than grab our towels and bathing suits and head on down to the pool with a coffee and a good book. So that is what we did all week.

The weather was pretty cooperative and most days we had the pool to ourselves. We swam and sat and chatted and then swam some more until it was too hot to sit outside, and then we took the elevator back to our apartment where we read and sat and chatted and then read some more. Pretty boring week, right?

Well I didn’t think so. I thought it was darn near the nicest holiday I had ever had! The alternating exercise and relaxation was exactly what this old body needed and it was good to get caught up with my partner’s life beyond the mandatory, ‘How was your day?’ We were able to finalize our flights home and get ourselves prepared for a change in our ministry focus in the coming year. All that and we were able to sleep in our beds at night. All in all a nice little holiday.

A little older, a little balder, a little pudgier, but still game to learn. This is me at 63 working on my first course in my Master’s in Intercultural Studies, an endeavor that perhaps optimistically will be finished in four years and a bit. If I’m still around, I’ll be 68 when I’m done. Seems like a bit of a pointless exercise, right?

However, I consider education to be one of life’s greatest joys and privileges. If you reckon that about five percent of the world’s population has a university degree, it is a rare privilege as well. This may sound intuitively false in Canada, a country recently hailed by the UN to be the first in world history to have a majority of its citizens with a post-secondary education. But if you consider the billions in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East with barely any education, it makes our little pocket of the world the exception, rather than the rule.

So what am I going to do with this Master’s, presuming that I survive till then? Well if I consider both my family’s genetic s and world trends in longevity, I am likely to be around into my nineties. Seen in that light, not to get further education now that I can finally afford it would be foolish. Who knows what opportunities the Lord may bring my way for service in the years remaining? I certainly don’t!

But I do know this: whatever the Lord has for me He is going to need me to be better equipped than I am at present. I have gone a long way on a three-year B.A. and a year of teacher’s college. Pam has gone even further on her R.N. For us to go further, we both need to be better educated. Neither of us can think of anything we would rather spend our time, effort, and resources on that to prepare for the road ahead, no matter how long, no matter how short.

Okay, we know that we don’t look the same. But when the days are good – and for all the mileage we still have a lot of good days – we feel the same. Thank you to all who have made the journey worthwhile.

For these two weeks there are about 470 physicians, dentists and other healthcare professionals gathered in the north of Thailand for the International Christian Medical Dental Association-Continuing Education Conference.  We are at a resort located in a very beautiful and quiet area in the hills outside of Chiang Mai where the temperatures are cool and the opportunities to fellowship together, very sweet.

Most of these professionals are working in areas where it is very difficult for them to access the educational opportunities needed to stay current with the changes in their specialties and to maintain the educational credits needed to keep their licenses active  in their home countries. With four educational streams at any given time there are always four or five lectures going on plus hands-on workshops in topics such as ultrasound and Advanced Cardiac Life Support and breakout sessions for interest groups.

I have spent most of my time in the Community Health Stream lectures and it has been fascinating to hear the current strategies in addressing issues such as malnutrition and infectious diseases. Just out of curiosity I attended a lecture in the Medical Stream on depression conducted by a professor of Psychiatry from the Mayo Clinic and was surprised to learn how little has changed in the six years since I retired.  Having spent the last four years of my career dealing with the move to Evidence Based Treatment, I was not surprised to learn that the current understanding is that the evidence is far too flawed to have any reliability.  I am very glad that I will not have to worry about implementing the introduction of the next new direction, whatever that may be.

Our speaker for the spiritual life component is a physician who has served overseas for many years and pastored in the US and he reminded us of the great Biblical truths that help to explain a life of sacrificial service to others.  It has been very humbling to me to hear the stories of the price many of these incredibly gifted and knowledgeable people are paying to serve people in difficult and dangerous situations.

February has been a long month of travel and separation but I am very grateful for the opportunity to be studying again in my field and to be able to network and share ideas with many others who are facing the same issues as we are in our project.