Home Thoughts From Abroad

Okay, maybe in-laws is jumping the gun. Liz is just dating this guy at the moment. But when your grown daughter invites you to dinner with the parents of the guy that she is dating you know it is getting serious. The Epps are a very nice couple, and their son Greg is a very decent young man. He is studying journalism at the moment, and he has travelled and taught in China, so he has some understanding and appreciation for what we are doing (as opposed to most people who think that we are more than a little strange for livng and working out of Kuala Lumpur).

Dinner was barbequed steak and potato salad, two things that we cannot get in Asia and miss dearly. They were both exceptional, and we had a very fine evening getting to know people that have become important to Liz. In the morning we attended Foothills Alliance Church in Calgary where we heard a good sermon on Ecclesiastes about living and enjoying the life that God has given to you to enjoy. Certainly for Pam and I at the moment that is something that we clearly understand and subscribe to.

In the afternoon we drove downtown to see Liz’s new apartment and take a stroll through the park that borders the river. The park was alive with strollers and cyclists, joggers and lovers, and nobody made strange as I practised my Tai Chi by the river. I was impressed with how multicultural this city has become since I saw it last. I saw and heard a dozen different nationalities and languages, and given that we enjoy the mix of cultures we find in Malaysia, felt very much at home. Calgary is growing to be a cosmopolitan city, and with its wide open spaces and nearness to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, become a desirable place to live.

Saturday broke clean and clear, one of those days that lets you know that you are fortunate to be Canadian. The drive out to Banff, just over an hour from Calgary, solidified that view, as the Rockies grew closer and more impressive. We arrived in Banff at midday and took a leisurely stroll through town so I could buy the obligatory tourist cap. Then we headed down stream along the Bow River, to where it breaks into brisk rapids and an impressive chute. Where the Sarcey joins the Bow we stopped for a late lunch at a patio overlooking the river and the mountains in the near distance. The air was clean and the sun was warm, and it made you happy to be alive in this great country.

After lunch we took a short detour to Miniwaki Lake on the shores of the Palliser Range, another beautiful site. The water looked so inviting, but the glacier fed lake was only one or two degrees above the temperature of ice, and none of us wanted to put our hearts under that kind of excitement.

Dave drove conservatively home through a steady downpour that gathers quickly in this part of the world. I must confess that the steady drone of the tires was too much for my jetlagged body and I napped a good part of the way home, which is why I am posting at 3 in the morning. I’ll get some pictures up at daybreak, but they won’t do the country around here justice.

Well it has been a long couple of days, but we are back in Canada, staying with two of our grown children in Calgary until Tuesday. Last night we went out to have a meal and watch the Penguins pull out a sqeaker against the Red Wings. Watching that cheap shot against Sidney Crosby made Pittsbug’s eventual victory all the sweeter. This has all the markings of an historic rivalry, as the Penguins lost the Cup last year to Detroit. I also lost by a sqeaker. losing the office pool to my buddy Dave St. Germain by one point. Next year, buddy!

It is so great being back in Canada again and wonderful to see Dave and Liz, who are both doing well and still working steady out here, despite an iffy economy. Hopefully with the oil prices on a rebound and things picking up again south of the border, they will be able to ride out this current financial storm and come out of it alright. Tomorrow we are hoping to do a little sightseeing and possibly get out to Banff if it is a nice day.

It is 3:30 here in Calgary at the moment, but that doesn’t mean a lot to my internal clock. We did manage about six hours sleep in Hong Kong and a few cat naps on the plane, but it has been 48 hours since we left for the airport in KL and my circadian rhythm doesn’t know what to think. We are just glad to be back in the true north strong and free and breathing some clean Canadian air. When we left KL the air pollution index was 139, on a scale where anything over 50 is starting to cause respiratory problems. When the sun is dull red disc in the sky through the pollution haze, it is time for a couple of weeks holiday.

Two years ago we flew through Hong Kong on our way to Malaysia and that one brief glimse was enough to convince us that we wanted to have a closer look. Today we got that chance. True it wasn’t the most favourable time of day: we arrived in Hong Kong at midnight, and our flight leaves shortly now at noon. But we did find a nice little hotel in the Wan Chi district at a reasonable rate, and after coffee and a muffin negotiated with a very nice cabbie for a one hour tour that took in some of the sights such as Victoria Peak and Recluse Bay. This is enough to ensure that we simply must get back for a a more extended say. Sorry we can’t post a picture now as the airport wifi is slow. We’ll try again in Vancouver.

Our best friends the first year we were here were Bill and Kim McNamara, an older couple from the Toronto area. Bill had retired as principal some years back, but Kim worked right up until practically the day they got on the plane. They moved into the Boulevard into a very nice apartment that we now enjoy, and immediately set to work to tranform this place for the better.

Kim and I shared a love for English, but she brought administrative competence to bear as well, writing what has become the manual for assessment here at Taylor’s. Bill was no slouch either, carrying the load in business studies and organizing volunteer activities. Bill and I shared a love for music, and he is the first person that I’ve met whose knowledge of the arcane minutiae of that era exceeded my own. Pam and Kim’s eyes would roll when we’d get going about Roy Orbison or the Moody Blues, or how Billy Preston ended up working for The Beatles.

Bill was an absolute brick when it came to building the set for the school play. There is nothing I could ask for that he wouldn’t have a solution to, and then would be willing to try. And if it didn’t work, he’d try something else. I delighted to hear of how he would handle difficult situations as a principal, always taking the shortest route between problem and solution, even if it meant bending protocol to get there.

He was a straight shooter, and I valued his advice. He was a man that you could instantly trust, and know he would never fail you. Both Pam and I did everything we could to convince the two of them to stay in Malaysia, we valued both of them so highly. But we also knew that their love for their children ran so close to their heart, that staying here was just too much for them to bear.

Bill was on his way to a baseball game yesterday when an aneurysm caused him to black out, leading to a fatal car crash. The news has stunned us all in Malaysia. Bill was not only well-respected, but well loved. We were due to meet him in just two weeks and our colleague Yen Sen has only just returned from visiting with them and our friends Ken and Susan. I almost cannot believe the news, my heart is having trouble catching up with my head. Bill, my friend, you will be sorely missed.

We you live overseas you don’t get to see your regular doctor that often. We are fortunate in that the school I work for flies us home once a year, otherwise we would be more or less stuck out here. So last year at this time we scheduled a visit with our doctor in St. Thomas that we have had since we moved there in 1979. A week before we boarded the plane to come home he cancelled on us, and closed his office for a month. No physicals for us that year.

This year, once again, Pam booked our physicals back in March so we could fit them in during my two weeks in Ontario. Last week his office let us know that our appointments had been cancelled. Those of you who live in Ontario know that this is all too common anymore, and none of us dare complain because doctors are so rare that you are fortunate if you have one at all.

So we had the work done here, and really what is the fuss all about? We went to a clinic, paid forty bucks Canadian and had the work done. For that we got a full work up, including cancer screens and a consult with a doctor on our results. I am, as I suspected, disgustingly healthy, with a BP that men half my age can only wish for and negligible cholesterol.

We really need to get on the same page back home. The model of public health that we have been clinging to doesn’t work. It is just not cost effective. Over here they run it as a business, and given a certain level of competition, that business is efficient and reliable. I’m sure OHIP back home isn’t paying out forty bucks for an annual physical.

Tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. I will leave for the airport to begin what will be two solid months of non-stop travel, visiting and work. It will be richly exciting, fulfilling, challenging and totally exhausting. We have been joyfully anticipating this for several months but I must say that both of us approach it with very mixed emotions. This is compounded by the fact that I will be away at a conference in Thailand for the next week while Steve struggles to finish marking, preparing for the Prom and the Grad and packing for Canada.

Obviously, we can not wait to see our kids and grandkids again. Ben is no longer the toddler we left behind but is very much a little boy now. Abi was a tiny little three month old baby but now is walking and starting to talk. We love to watch them interact with each other on our Skype calls but that is no substitute for holding them. That goes for our own children as well. Although no longer as cuddly, we still love to hug them when they’ll let us. We look forward to talking to them and getting caught up on all their news.

However, we know the emotional upheaval we will face as we visit with friends that we have not seen for a year and get caught up with their news as well, some of which will undoubtedly be painful to share. You can’t be away for a year without some trouble in the lives of those we care about. When you only get one visit per year in you don’t spend much time talking about the weather but go directly to what is emotionally and spiritually important. We are praying for the Lord to give us wisdom and strength, and remind us of the joy and comfort that only Jesus can give.

There is another trouble spot for us as well. Having lived here for over two years, there are some aspects of Canadian culture that we are not proud of, and it would be most comfortable not to have to deal with these aspects again. Here in the East we have seen so much dire human need and yet people here are doing so much for the Lord with none of the resources that we take for granted in the West. We need to rely on God and not to be too harsh on what we once also took for granted.

Ultimately, we will need to say another round of painful good-byes and tear ourselves away from family and friends once again. We will throw ourselves in the work Christ has called us to and that will relieve the heartache for a while, but it is not easy being literally on the other side of the world from virtually all those you love. It is an awesome privilege being here and serving at this point in our lives and we really would not change a thing. But that doesn’t mean it is easy.