A Reason

Sometimes, and more often when you are blowing around the globe like a leaf on the wind (free from the commitments, routines, and familiarities of home), life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans. Ironically, and more often than not, what transpires is a very different though far more memorable happenstance than you could ever have planned for or attempted yourself to have "created". What happened to my plans after arriving to Asia is a prime example:  

The general idea was to arrive in Bangkok, spend a few days adjusting to the timezone/climate/culture and then head north into the country en route to the Thai/Laos border crossing. Since I had just come from spending the last 6 weeks in the Middle East (and Mediterranean Europe before that) touching down in the green of the tropics was a welcomed experience and breathing in the humid air was a homecoming of sorts! However, the radical weather change, harsh 32 hour commute, and abrupt timezone shift took it's toll and, for the first time during my travels, I found myself stuck with a headcold!  

My cold forced me to take it easy for a few days and invest some thought in, and gather information (mostly from other travelers) for, the options to set out on the rugged travel loop up thru Northern Thailand, into Laos, down to Cambodia, and across Vietnam and back. I gained a handle on where I aimed to go and the logistics for how to get there, but, I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on making any certain plans. In addition to sniffling and sneezing I had also developed an itch.... The itch had actually been with me since leaving France months before and, no matter how much I tried, no therapy would make it go away! It was the itch to surf!  

For the last decade since graduating from university I have had the pleasure to explore a host of countries and island groups around the Pacific where I've taken my yearly holidays to search out adventure and waves. Planning this trip was a detraction from my surfing addiction and my aim was much more broad than traveling from beach to beach or reef to reef. My itinerary was strategically selected to place me in certain regions of the world during specific times of the year to provide the opportunity to surf but, was surely, not the priority. I knew there was going to be a stretch between France and Indonesia where I would have to be a land dweller and be away from any surf for a stretch of a few months. But, enough was enough... Another couple months out of the water was going to make me crazy, and, I was so close to the waves! To my fortune and surprise airasia.com was advertising a new route from Phuket (in southern Thailand) to Bali, Indonesia for the steal-of-a-deal of only $75! The only problem was that the route didn't start till 17th December... but, I couldn't resist... Northern Thailand and beyond could wait, I was bee-lining it to Bali!  

The change in direction meant I had the opportunity to see the south of Thailand but, because I had not previously planned to pay it a visit, it was an area I had not invested any research in. I was going to be traveling blind... No problem, it's something you get used to after nearly 6 months on the road, but again, as is being proven more and more often and over and over the longer I travel, it's a small world: A call home to my close friends Noah & Becky yielded a connection to a family with Kauai ties (not to be confused with 'thais'), a set of email correspondences back & forth, the discovery that Mark (husband and father) went "way back" with my dad, and suddenly I wasn't traveling blind after-all! As it turns out, the Nakatsukasas are a missionary family and have been so for the last couple decades. Working in Phang Nga (in the interior of southern Thailand), it was the Indonesian tsunami that devastated the region in 2004 that brought them to join relief work along the coast and then, eventually, answer a calling & an opportunity to move to the region. With a heart and vision to establish an orphanage, the Nakatsukasas have been able to slowly build a place that provides a safe haven to as many of the abandoned, orphaned, and abused children in the region as they can comfortably provide care for. I was invited to come meet them and be a guest in their home on the orphanage property for a few days... 

After a few days of tagging along with Mark (and his wife Dorien), meeting the staff, volunteers, and kids, I was certain that I did not find myself here by accident. My short few day visit turned into a week and a week nearly two! The Baan Santisuk Orphanage is a property at the end of gravel road set amongst coconut groves and rubber trees. It is a beautiful place that gives safe haven to the children that 'nobody wanted'. It is one thing to have knowledge of needed children in the world, another to see it depicted in television commercials, and yet a whole new reality when you are surrounded by children that come from such horrible situations as abandonment by drug addicted parents, victims of verbal/physical/sexual abuse, living on the streets, etc. It is impacting to learn their individual stories and know what used to be their realities. Yet, what is amazing, is the transformation you can witness in the lives of these kids as they are cared for, taught, and loved on! You've never seen so many happy faces!  

Mark had some special activities up his sleeve which he, for some time, had hoped to do with the children but had not yet had the time to do. One of the activities was to take a couple of the girls to the beach to try surfing for the first time! Right up my alley :) 

Um and Pan were naturals and we had them standing up in no time! I think they might have the surfers itch now too!?!  

Another activity Mark had been conjuring up was to bring a couple of the boys (you have to do these kinds of things in smaller groups) camping for the first time! Well, at least sleeping in the tent outside (on the property but away from the house) for the first time! Caleb & Pauly could hardly contain their excitement about sleeping in this "funny looking house" after we erected the tent in the afternoon and allowed them to inspect it with curious eyes. They had oodles of fun playing with the flashlight and slept through the night like hardcore trekkers even when we had to wake in the middle of the night to move the leaky tent under an awning and out of the rain... I'm not so sure they wouldn't sleep in a tent every night if they had the choice!?!

If it wasn't already clear their was purpose for me to find myself here, the majority of the rest of my time was dedicated to helping Mark redesign a new building construction project on the property: the creation of office space and volunteer worker dormitories above an existing carport. Though concerned about "putting me to work" helping provide my two cents was fun and we completely redesigned the interior space, room locations, flow, and door/window configurations to maximize the intended purpose of the building! Practicing a little Architectural Design after a few months was refreshing and it felt great to be able to contribute to a project that will have lasting consequences that help Baan Santisuk further it's vision to be a family to the orphaned :) 

Not to be missed, Mark and I were even able to sneak away from the work for a day of fun & sun out fishing with a local fisherman amongst some islands close to the Burmese border! I grew up trolling (motoring along at slow speed dragging lines) at home but his style of fishing was whipping (casting a lure over and over similar to what you see the bass fisherman do on lakes)... We got our fair share of action (landed 10 fish and lost untold numbers of others!), adventure (having to brave the surge along the coast if a lure hook got stuck on a rock), and fun times in the beautiful turquoise waters.

Everything in life happens for reason... at least, we've all said that at one time or another... In the case of my time in southern Thailand, the reasons seemed clearer than most.