Roy and Andrew left on Sunday on their odyssey to get our shipment from Bangkok. It is not as easy as it sounds to run into Bangkok and get anything, especially a shipment from America! They had to leave on Sunday, in order to get to Bangkok early in the morning on Monday, so that they would have plenty of time to try to get the taxi drivers to understand just where it was that they wanted to go! (not easy, let me assure you!) When they finally found the right place, they then had to pay the shipping company some more money, although they had no idea of what it was for or why, then they had to go and pay the customs people more money, then they had to pay the warehouse people more money, and then they had to try to find a taxi driver who could stuff all of it into his car! (and pay him more money!) The taxi drivers did not even want to stop their cars for this poor American guy with the coffin. (Roy had built a wooden box to house the piano and keep it safe from harm and danger, but it ended up looking remarkably like a coffin!) They finally found a taxi driver who would take pity on them, for a small fortune that is, and take them to the bus station.  They arrived at the bus station just after the last bus of the day left, and therefore had to sleep on their mountain of boxes all night. The next morning, they found a bus driver who would take them and their dearly deceased home.

The next day, around noon, the girls told me that they were coming, so I ran to the rail and joined the gawking students. They were looking rather suspiciously at the “coffin”. It did look very strange. Two pall bearers were carrying it carefully across the field towards us. Fortunately, we all believe in the resurrection! So, the piano was brought in and unpacked to be oohed and ahhed over by everyone.With Andrew, Travis and Roy all working on it, we had it put together and functioning properly in short order. I have not seen my students more excited about any other item we have brought! They all insisted that I teach them to play the piano right away. So, we had our first lesson that same afternoon. Our only problem was that in the excitement of packing, Roy forgot to pack our piano books! So, I am teaching beginner piano students from the church hymnal, a second grade dozen a day, and a few other books that are way over their heads! But, that has not discouraged my students at all. They sit in awe as Travis plays that piano, and they want to play just like that real soon.

When I told them that they have to practice at least 30 minutes per day, they didn’t even bat an eye.

The other exciting thing was all the books! There may not be any piano books, but there was every other kind of book that I needed, including an entire set of the Bible Story books! We have a STUFFED bookshelf now, and 3 boxes of books left over that won’t fit! Thank you everyone who contributed!

Hannah and Meme like the piano, but they LOVED the boxes that the books came in! They spent all afternoon playing with the boxes. I wanted to clean up the living room, but they were having too much fun, so now I have a pile of boxes in one corner. I will have to get rid of them when they have had their fill of boxes.

In other news, Lena had a sad MemeWah report for me today. She said that although the doctors took out her breathing and feeding tubes several days ago, MemeWah still has not been able to speak, or hold her head up. The doctor says that she does have some brain damage. But, it seems to have affected her motor function, rather than her intelligence. So, they feel that there is a great deal of hope. They are just anxious to get her home where she will have better care. (the hospitals here are NOT like the ones at home) But just taking her home and figuring out who can take the time to give her full time care is quite the challenge. Also, if there are any physical therapists out there with some wisdom for us as to how to rehabilitate her, please let us know!