Preparing for Thailand

I hate long flights. I really really do. Usually about the 9th hour of a long flight, I've already read all the magazines I brought with me, cleaned out my email box, got up and done some toe touches a few times, planned every move I will make for the next 5 years and eaten enough peanuts to choke an elephant. Then there's the next 8 hours or so; fitful sleep, trying to breathe correctly, shifting and fidgeting about like something trapped. I just don't like them.

However, when I found out that one of the students I'll be teaching rode for 24 hours straight on a bus from the southern part of Thailand - well... I have no right nor desire to complain anymore. Maybe I'll bring some extra magazines this time.

I'm trying to focus on being the kind of teacher that plants concepts and maxims that are so easily recalled that they become second nature almost immediately. I've had teachers like that, and usually it was a sentence or two that would strike the memory region and stick. I'm praying that I am able to communicate in that way, so that each time these students begin an effort to tell an inspiring story or to create some income for themselves that they'll have some ready information that will make them more effective and less frustrated.

As I prep for this trip, I hope you'll put me on your prayer list for communicative skills, favor with the people of Thailand and good health and protection for my family at home. We're in the middle of a lot of changes, as I'm sure many of you are, and this isn't really a good time for this trip for me personally. But whatever awaits, I'll bet it beats 24 hours on a bus.