Joanne Elizabeth (Hanson) Negstad 4/1/1936-4/12/2018

     There's an interesting story about naming Joanne. Her parents intended to name her Martha Louise. Then Knut Lokken, her maternal grandfather, came to visit her in the hospital and the name changed. Upon meeting the baby grandpa said "How's my little Joanne Elizabeth?" So, that's how she acquired her name.

    The last birthday she celebrated, April 1, 2018, was also Easter Sunday. At home on hospice care she was unable to attend Easter Services. Our congregation, Grace University Lutheran, sang happy birthday to her during the Easter Service. Shown a recording of the congregation singing to her, her response was "I never knew dying could be so glorious!"  She died like she lived, full of gratitude.

   May God bless her memory, good and faithful servant! Rest in peace!

Takk for alt,

Al

Easter Dinner, April 1, 2018, the last time she was at the table with the family.

A book, then...

      Thinking it was time to read some history I went to the OFH library in pursuit of a book. What do you suppose I found?  If you guessed "a book" you're correct. However, it isn't a history book. While there were many of that genre on the shelf none of them spoke to me.

    Wandering over to the fiction section one book immediately stuck out. The cover proclaimed "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER."  Also, "The Good Morning America Book Club; A GMA book club pick." The title was familiar to me becasue I'd given it as a Christmas gift. It had arrived from the Bookshop too near Christmas for me to read before gifting it. Don't you read gift books before giving them? 😀  

   This book was engaging from the get go. In fact a time or two I read beyond my bedtime, my bedtime usually being sacrosanct. Have you guessed that the book in question is Lessons in Chemistry, did you begin to wonder if I was ever going to name it?  Author Bonnie Garmus' debut novel is a very interesting story well told. She also strikes some significant chords for feminism, in fact that's a major thrust of the book. Then there's the ending...

Takk for alt,

Al

 

This is the house in Thailand where I lived with five other teachers in 2009, my first year of teaching there.  One memory: a teacher from Australia went to a hot pot to get some hot water, the kind of pot where you press on a lever and the fluid comes out. When she pressed on the lever a gecko came out of the spout. 😁

Now. then...

     Only two basketball games today, both over now. The first one I had no favorite and in the second my favorite won. Therefore, there's no excuse not to blog now, but that assumes something to say. 😀 That's a shaky assumption.

   When all else fails talk about the weather. The ground is white with new snow that was preceded by a nice rain. Apparently Sinai also received some much needed moisture. The rains and snows that have reached the OFH have largely missed SDak. So March goes out like a lion. Anyone remember how it came in? Too long ago for me.

  Perhaps another time I'll think of something profound but no luck today.

Takk for alt,

Al

 

This is the guesthouse down which steps I fell on one of the ill fated Laos trips.

Too Much Basketball

   Too much basketball to blog tonight. Just want you both to know that I'm alive and well.

Takk for alt,

Al

Laos again...

      Blogging about Laos surfaced another memory about that trip. Travel to Luang Prabang, Laos was by air. Departure was by bus. The guidebook recommended purchasing a bus ticket on the VIP bus. That sounded good but I don't know what the travel writer was smoking. Only in one's imagination was there a VIP bus on that route, which I took to Vientienne. 

    A tuk-tuk delivered me from the guesthouse to the bus depot. A ticket on the only bus secured I clambered aboard. The bus looked ancient and air conditioning was via open windows. Away we went with nary an empty seat. Careening abound the turns on the mountain road we motored south to the capital city.

    Perhaps forty five minutes into the trip the bus sputtered to a stop, clearly not planned. The bus's engine was below the floor between the driver and the front door, an area piled high with luggage. Out went the luggage and off came the cover over the engine. The driver and another crew member went to work on the engine with much pounding and pulling. Eventually it restarted, baggage reloaded and it ran until we reached our destination.

   An hour and a half later the bus pulled to the side of the road while the engine was clearly running. All the passengers disembarked, me included, to use the toilet facilities, which was the road ditch. Necessities met off we went again.

  The road was good and at wide clearings beside the road villages clustered. They were there to avoid the unexploded ordinance that infects Laos. In America's seven year undeclared war on Laos more bombs were dropped than on Germany in WW II.  Laos is about the size of Minnesota.

Takk for alt,

Al

PS Another bus story; While riding in bus in Thailand, seated by an open window, I heard a rooster crow so near I though we must have almost run over it. A hundred yards later it crowed again. Looking behind me I saw a rooster tied to a bus seat. 

Sunset over the Mekong, picture taken from the guesthouse steps where I had the bad fall. On the opposite shore is Nakhon Phanom, Thailand where I went to find an internet. Nakhon in Thai means 'city'.  

Laos Adventure #2, 2008

      In 2008 I went to Thailand planning to teach for the first time. With some days before teaching was scheduled to start I decided to complete the Laos trip mentioned in yesterday's blog. Starting in Vientienne I took the bus south following the Mekong River. At Takhek I left bus intending to spend a couple of days. That's where my previous Laos trip had ended.

    One of the features of the area around Takhek are the karst mountains. "Karst geology refers to landscapes formed by the dissolution of soluble rocks, primarily limestone and dolomite, resulting in features like sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage systems." Internet.  So off I went to visit the local caves transported by a driver in his Tuk-Tuk, so called because that's the sound they make. Entering a cave necessitated wading in a small stream that was flowing out of it. Slipping on the wet rocks and falling I received  a nasty gash on my leg.

    The tuk-tuk driver took me to the local hospital where my leg was sutured. Was there anesthetic? If there was it wasn't effective. So I counted the stitches wishing that at least I had a bullet to bite on. Given a prescription of antibiotics I was sent back to the guesthouse.

   When I awakened the next morning it was clear that the leg was infected. Dilemma...now what?  The guesthouse, with a beautiful view of the Mekong had about six outside steps. As I exited on the top step my foot slipped and I went flying landing on my back on the steps. They were ceramic and the morning dew made them slippery. Now, in addition to and infected leg I had  a six inch gash on my arm and a very sore back. 

   Consultation with L. at home convinced me that I needed to go to Bangkok. A very miserable 24 hour bus ride brought me there. In the emergency room of the Bangkok Nursing Hospital, a world class facility the surgeon who examined me determined I should be admitted. Two days in the hospital with intravenous antibiotic cleared up the infection. Each morning a nurses aide asked me "And how many pee pee and how many poo poo?" Following hospitalization the surgeon changed my dressings every other day for three weeks.

   The total bill for all the medical care including the pharmaceuticals was $2200.00. L. told me to get the medical reports, which were both in Thai and English. She also said get a daily currency exchange rate sheet for the day the bill was paid. Each day banks in Thailand print our a sheet giving the currency exchange rate for that day. This I included with the medical reports and receipts to the insurance company, so they reimbursed me the full amount. 

   Needless to say I didn't teach that year and I never did get to southern Laos past Takhek.

Takk for alt,

Al

PS  In answer to the question about when I'd been in Laos previously, I don't know the year but it was sometime previous to 2008.

Looking out from a cave in Laos.

                           With nurses in the Bangkok hospital.

Memory

    Posting that picture at Vientienne yesterday brought to mind that trip to Laos which ended abruptly. It started with me flying to the former royal capital of Luang Prabang, north of Vientienne. Leaving Luang Prabang by bus I stopped for some days in Vientienne. Again leaving by bus the plan was to follow the Laos side of the Mekong River to the south tip of Laos. 

    Arriving at the city of Takhek got off the bus for short stay. This was before the days of portable laptop internet connection. When I went to the local internet café it was non-operative and they said it wouldn't be fixed for two weeks. They recommended I take the ferry across the river to Nakhon Phanom, Thailand to find an internet. That's what I did with unintended consequences.

   Returning to Laos I was refused reentry because they'd stamped my passport expired. There were only three places to get a visa for Laos, the airport in Luang Prabang, and in Vientienne at the Thai border and at the airport. With an airline ticket from Vientienne I opted to take a bus there. The bus took me to Udon Thani, by the Laos border where we did paperwork for Visa to Laos.

   Another bus took us to the border and dropped us off and we walked across and through customs. Thinking the bus would meet us at the other side I left my bags on it. Only to see it turn around and return to Thailand. There was a European on the bus who spoke Thai who alerted an official who called the bus company and the bus came back with my bags.

  The problem was that I was now legally in Laos. So I walked back across the border to the bus and retrieved my bags. But, now I'm in Thailand and I've already cleared customs in Laos. All of the customs personnel were focused on the road side of the customs house. There was a wide gap between the customs booth and a building. So, looking as nonchalant as possible, I successfully walked the gap to the Laos side and caught a taxi. End of that adventure! 😀

Takk for alt,

Al