I'm leaving on a jet plane

My bags are packed.  I am ready to go.  Don't know when I will be back again (but I do as I am only going for two weeks). So goes the classic John Denver song.

Yes, I am off for two weeks and I sure am ready to go.  I figure that it is only fair to warn any of my regular readers that there will be no entry for the next two weeks but you can hang out for the big one on my return.  That will be in the first week of November. 

It strikes me that my pace of life is constant and has been so since returning from Australia in the middle of last year.  As I approach the end of the week and entry into holiday mode, I thought this week would be an easier one but it did not prove that way at all.  My Tuesday reminded me of my mantra arising from living here ten years - my life in Bangkok can change right around in just 24 hours (or much less).   That is just what happened.  The catalyst once again was my boss, the bishop.  He can just so readily announce his unrelenting and amazing requests or decisions without any great thought and the whole of one's life is radically reoriented, at least at the immediate moment of receiving his message.  That is the initial response but I know him too well and experience tells me to take whatever he says in my stride and let time take its course.  Then what seems initially unreal becomes in time real and doable.  Such was the outcome once again.  Stand back, think through what is presented and then act on it in a logical way.  This is the key to finding a more achievable way ahead in addressing whatever the issue may be at hand.   

That may seem strange to one from outside but it so makes sense to me.  Maybe it is the clash of cultures or maybe it is the way of bishops but that is what happens.  Life does change but it has to maintain a sense of reality.   So it with a sense of reality I take my leave and go to the Holy Land.  I will remember you and pray for you as I take this opportunity to visit the homeland of Jesus.  Thanks for reading.   

Sabai Sabai

There are a few key phrases in Thai that are central to understanding the local culture.  One is "sabai sabai" which basically translates for us to "relax", and the Thais can sure take a relaxed attitude to life. 

In the midst of what I would name as a great crisis this week at my work, I would unreservedly name this as a healthy approach to life in the midst of chaos.  Saying this is easier than actually living it  out, I assure you for someone like me, 'being so western', as I always say here.    

I am surely not alone in the chaos that is part of my week but I am the only westerner caught up in it and I can see our differences in approach.  There has been a shared concern amongst our team about an important, unresolved work matter.  I came in to assume my leadership role in dealing with it.  My way of tackling it has been to make it a team effort as I surely know that I cannot resolve it alone nor is it my responsibility alone.  The others acknowledge the seriousness of the situation but our ways of tackling it as individuals in our work are so different. 

I focus my energies on dealing with the task and do so in a concerted way.   My colleagues act in a way that seems far more relaxed and at times make one wonder whether we really share the same concerns as they seem to sail right on not worried about anything.  I sit back and wonder what is going on.    

It is the Thai way to not go the extra step to achieve or to take a risk in the workplace or to go beyond the boundaries of their strictly and internally prescribed ways of behaviour and limits of personal endeavour.  Then I think that maybe there is a healthy message in this approach for me.  So I acknowledge that I have done my bit and I now step back and relax for a bit. 

Time and again here, I am confronted with this strong shared sense they have of Thai culture but I wonder if it is not just more about being human.  As I experience my week, I would wonder how helpful and effective a work team would prove anywhere in my world.  I can also see how a good westerner can be over consumed by the task and lose sight of what really matters in life and, you know what, in the end it all works out anyway, even in spite of what I do or how concerned I am.  That is what happens time and again.  So sabai, sabai.