aOne of the reasons I added this sidetrip to my Thailand trip was to see  friends from my years in Beijing. The last time I was here was fall 2018, and I wasn't able to get up here when we were doing our packing up last summer. We have kept in touch through Zoom and WeChat, but it isn't the same. With my China years (most likely) behind me, it felt off to not have a chance to see them again.

Sunday... I spent a wonderful, and I do mean wonderful, afternoon with my dear friend, Helen. We were neighbors and our daughters were best friends for the four years I volunteered at New Day. We have kept in touch since then, helping each other in various ways from college applications to deliveries of fan bien mian (noodles) and contact lenses, and sharing the ups and downs of parenting teenage girls. Helen knows very well my picky eating habits so she chose a Peking Duck restaurant for us to have lunch. Yummmm. We ate duck, shared stories, and laughed a lot. But no, not done yet. We then found a Starbucks with outdoor seating to enjoy the beautiful day and talk and talk some more...the past, the future, life's joys and worries. Our lives could not be more different in so many ways, and maybe the bond we share is more precious because of it. I don't know when our paths will cross again, but I know we will continue to keep in touch until they do.

Monday...Another chance to walk down memory lane, this time with the staff of New Day Foster Home. I have kept in touch with a couple of these ladies, and when I said I would like to get together, they told the rest of the team and they all invited me down for homemade jiaozi. I did not say no!
While we laughed and chatted about old memories, we also shared the work we have been doing, me with older orphans and them managing enrichment programs inside a few orphanages. They are doing really hard and important work and seeing the difference that staff training and care makes. We also shared the hard stuff, and the ways we wish we could do more. Again it is so evident that life's circumstances, culture, and language are not the barriers we think they are when our hearts and minds are so in sync. Okay, it helps that most of them speak much better English than I do Chinese.

Beijing must have realized I was a bit ambivalent about being back, so it upped its game...three astoundingly beautiful spring like days. Bright sunshine and temperatures around 70. No, this is not typical, but no one was complaining.

Friday...basically a lazy day of resting, reading, and soaking up the sunshine on the balcony (I adore balconies). The view is not astounding, just the back of some buildings and the tops of some high rises, but it began to make me feel like I was really here. We topped it off with happy hour with my friend's work friends where I met the most friendly and interesting people followed by homemade pizza at the home of a young couple with two children who are here in Beijing after living in SE Asia and Africa. I haven't had to use my (very poor and half forgotten) Chinese yet except to the taxi driver who had a lot of trouble figuring out the address I gave him and required frequent reassurance.

Saturday...my friends are very adventurous and have seen far more of both China and Beijing than I have. They love exploring new corners of the city, but they were kind to humor me and spend the day at Houhai Lake as I took a trip down memory lane. The girls and I spent many, many Sunday afternoons here, browsing through shops and riding paddle boats in the summer, browsing through shops and skating on the lake in winter. There was definitely a familiar feel about it all though there were also many changes. The main restaurant row that runs the length of the lake has been renovated and no longer has any stalls selling fried insects and  sea creatures or candied fruit. Too bad. The main shopping alley seems pretty similar though, and while I went into several familiar shops to soak up the ambiance and sigh over the merchandise I resisted making any purchases. We ate at a new burger place called ??? which was very good. I recommend it if you find yourself in Houhai anytime soon. We were also treated to a drumming exhibition which I enjoyed very much. Very China. 
While we took a Didi (Uber) to the lake I wanted to take the subway home so I could reacclimate to that since there are a lot of subway rides in my future and also be sure I knew how to get from the subway to their home and vice versa when I am on my own. It's as easy as I remembered so I am ready to go.

Lots of bittersweet goodbyes to the wonderful staff at the Juniper Tree today. They loaded me up with yummy snacks for the trip, so many kind words, hugs, and of course photos. 

After a slightly less than four hour flight, it was wheels down in China again, this time Beijing. Such mixed feelings as we landed...smoggy skies which I don't really miss and wondering how I would feel about being back in this country that has changed quite dramatically from when I lived here, yet still holds some of my very best memories and a piece of my heart.

Once again using the wheelchair service I whisked through immigration and customs, my helper grabbed my luggage and got me into a taxi in record time. I would rather my knee was back to 100%, but I can't say I am not appreciating this.

In the taxi, I loaded AliPay on my phone with the hope that I could actually use it to pay for things, like the taxi. (Update: It's never going to happen.) Here in China, paying with phone apps was ubiquitous before the US even had tap and pay credit cards and cash is quickly becoming obsolete. After 45 minutes or so of smog and traffic, I arrived at the home of friends from the adoption community. While I got AliPay loaded and kind of set up it wouldn't give me the QR code to pay for the taxi, so I just used cash and since he didn't carry change he received a generous tip (where tipping isn't expected any tip is generous). I will keep working on the AliPay.

My friends met me at the gate to their housing complex. The last time I saw them was at their house in D.C. about five years ago. We spent the evening catching up and not eating Chinese food. Perfection. After a while I realized my words were getting sluggish, and it dawned on me that since I had stayed up until 2 am to get my ride to the Bangkok airport, didn't sleep in the car, and caught about an hour nap on the plane...I had essentially been up for 36+ hours. Definitely time for bed. 

​I know this is going to make you roll your eyes. I am rolling my eyes just thinking about typing it. Work you say? After reading about your typical day? Catered meals and reading on the beach? 
I can't help rehashing that tired and overused quote about doing what you love means you'll never work a day in your life. (Not to be too Pollyanna, because heaven knows that's not me, it doesn't mean that doing work you enjoy doesn't come with difficulties and challenges. I have certainly experienced a lot of both even doing jobs that I really, really loved.)
However... more please!  I absolutely adore what I am doing and even more the people that I get to work side by side with. 
My purpose in coming here was somewhat vaguely defined as "professional organizer." Since that sounds exactly like me, it seemed like a good fit, and it has been! More specifically (though still a little vague) the managers were looking for someone to help improve organization and processes in the kitchen and housekeeping areas. Both actually function very well, but the idea was to find opportunities for better organization and professionalism. 
My first week was primarily spent with the kitichen staff, observating and asking questions. There is nothing quite as "helpful" as rushing in and fixing something that isn't broken just because you don't understand how it  works. I also introduced the Stop/Start/Continue process to try to spark communication with the staff. This can be a real challenge cross-culturally, and I was treading very lightly at first.  I am happy to say that once I was able to build some rapport and get them talking -- they kept talking! So in addition to improvements that I saw, I began a list of improvements that THEY saw and helped them solve some problems. I think that's the accomplishment I feel best about. I hope that this communication continues after I am gone, building collaboration and reinforcing the sense of ownership and pride that the staff clearly has. 😀 
More tangible activities in the kitchen include clearing out unused items from the storage cabinet and moving things around to make them more accessible and easier to keep clean; finding ways to repurpose wasted space and get clutter off of countertops; create a cleaning schedule that is easy for the staff to implement; making a few sanitation improvements in the prep area.
In the housekeeping area, my primary task was to inventory the current supply of linens, assess the condition, and recommend appropriate counts for future purchases. This sounds like a perfect task for a spreadsheet...which it is...putting me right in my happy place. It also involved physically counting and measuring all the beds on the property, counting all the sheets, pillowcases, and towels, and checking them for stains, tears, and general wear. Physically this was not particularly demanding, but did I mention that it is over 95 degrees here? And while all the rooms have a/c, they aren't running when they are unoccupied so it was almost always hotter inside than out. The laundry room where the linens are kept is also not air conditioned. I quickly learned to wear my swimsuit under my clothes and head for the pool as soon as I was finished. <Insert eye roll here; yes, there are great perks to this "job."> All that counting sent me back to my spreadsheet to build a linen "calculator" to estimate their needs based on occupancy, bed size, and laundry turn around. Can you see the smile on my face?
Probably the best part of this task has been sitting down with the housekeeping staff and hearing their perspective on what needs updating and what the priorities should be. They care so much about their contribution to this beautiful place. I didn't find much to change about the housekeeping process itself, but I hope I was able in a small way to help the housekeepers find their voice and know that what they are valued not just for what they do but what they know.
A final area I was asked to help with was in updating the "guest information system," previously known as the in-room guest book. The managers feel that the content needs some updating but also that they way guests get their information needs to be more in sync with how we access information generally. What a great vision! I can't say that I am leaving with a whole new system in place, but I took the managers through a short ideation session (one of my favorite things in the world) and other discussions about how to build on their ideas to design a creative and manageable way to not just inform but also inspire guests during their time here. We'll see where this goes!
And that's what I did on my workation in Thailand.

I said I would share more about the work I am doing and now a week has gone by. I guess I can <partly> blame some of my blog free days on the work. Maybe some on the heat, too. A little on the beach?
I thought I would start with what a typical day is like. So, a day in the life of a volunteer at Juniper Tree Dolphin Bay:
​I get up around 8, although I have been waking up a bit earlier than that lately. I have only been getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep.
Breakfast is served (yes, all meals are communal, buffet style), between 8 and 9. Fresh fruit -- papaya, banana, watermelon, pineapple -- which I cut up into smaller pieces and make into a fruit salad. Delicious. Toast and jam. 
After breakfast I usually talk to my absolutely beautiful, sweet, cheerful, amazing, great sense of humor translator, Air, to confirm when I will need her help during the day. Did I mention she is also very flexible? She is a part of the office staff so she is juggling her own work to help me. Did I say gracious? I could not do half of what I do without her.
From 9:30 to 12:30 I work on one of my projects, sometimes on my own (observing, planning, writing to do lists and recommendations) and sometimes with Air (asking questions, listening to staff concerns, and  discussing possible solutions). The past week has been more about implementing some ideas; most of the time I can do that on my own, but sometimes I need Air's help if I think the staff may not understand what I am doing.

I know it has been a few days. Mostly I have been working on my projects (more about that another day) as well as spending some time in the pool trying to get this knee more flexible. Not sure that that is working, but no complaints about time spent in the pool.

Today, being Saturday, is once again street food day on the beach. Last week I observed from across the street, but today I ventured out to explore the various booths and see if there was anything I could get for dinner. Although there were many things unique to Thailand, there were also many offerings that reminded me of China. There was not too much I was willing to actually try (picky, picky, picky), but I really enjoyed the people and the happy, relaxed atmosphere. 
Click on the photos to see captions.

It was a fun evening, and I am glad I ventured out. My knee held up just fine, which is progress that I am very thankful for. Maybe I will be more adventurous in choosing my dinner next Saturday night...but probably not. 😀 

While the exact reason is still vague, today there was a 5K race that went right down the road in front of Juniper Tree and then back up the beach on the other side of the road. The team here set up tables with water and muffins for the runners. Although my unofficial role was photographer I couldn't resist handing out water and probably bouncing around a little more than my knee appreciated but... I'm here so if it slows me down a little it was worth it.
In addition to teams that seemed to represent companies, social groups, and families (?), there were at least two young ladies dressed as brides which none of us quite understood, but it definitely added to the fun. There was a very VERY wide range of ages and competitiveness, and just a lovely cross section of peope all heading in the same direction, and who can complain about that?

Sunday morning several of the foreigners staying at Juniper Tree walked to a local Baptist Church. Since Juniper Tree serves a truly international community, most of our group this morning were German, but they all speak English. There was also a Canadian couple who are staying nearby. The pastor (Thai) and his wife (Filipino) also speak English and were happy to make the service bilingual for us. Interestingly (to me anyway), we sang an old missionary hymn, To The Regions Beyond. It's funny how music stays with you buried in a very special part of your brain. I remember singing this hymn growing up, and although I probably haven't sung it in more than 50 years, every word was there just waiting to be sung again. I wasn't sure if I knew it from growing up in the C&MA church or from my grandparents' Baptist church. It turns out it may have been both, but the hymn was written by A.B. Simpson (1843-1919), founder of the C&MA, so it's no surprise that I knew it. 

Opportunities to worship with believers from all over the world is something I truly love, appreciate, and miss. It highlights how much we have in common compared to differences of language, culture, and even denonimation. In fact, I doubt any of us are Baptist but it doesn't matter at all, and you realize that very quickly when you are in a country without a church on every corner. And even in a small country church on the other side of the world, I was able to connect again with my earliest roots in the church and reflect on the words that impacted the trajectory of my life... "To the regions beyond I must go, I must go..."

Something new from my visit here in 2017 is that there is a night market on the beach on Saturday nights. It's really a big food court filled with street food. It's bright and colorful and noisy -- there is also live music all night. Sadly for me, it is also VERY SPICY so not many options to actually try the food, and with my knee still a bit wobbly I viewed the fun from the porch of the Juniper Tree. I hope before I leave I will feel stable enough walking on the sand to venture into the stalls and soak up more of the atmosphere. I will leave the hot chilies and fried insects for braver souls. 

Truly one of the greatest treasures and delights of being in Thailand is the sweet, soft, delicate, perfect mango. Surprisingly (and sadly) mango was not served at any of our meals the first week I was here. I could not resist asking the kitchen staff WHY?????  Okay, I didn't actually say it like that, but perhaps the desperation showed in my face?
I learned that the staff try to use as much produce that they grow onsite both for cost and quality (no chemicals) reasons. Makes great sense and demonstrates good stewardship, but....mango? It turns out that the mangoes were just about ready to pick, and I was invited to come help.  Yes, please!!!