Thursday evening Ron and Kari joined us for dinner on their final night in Thailand before heading back to the United States.  A very interesting couple whom I never would have expected that we’d become friends with, which just proves why one needs to be open minded and not categorize people when you first meet them.  Let me explain:

Shortly after arriving in Thailand I started classes at Union Language School, operated by the Church of Christ in Thailand for the purpose of training missionaries from overseas in the Thai language.  The school is very reputable but I anticipated that most of the students, being evangelical Christians, would not be be very supportive of me as a gay person.

Sure enough, there were a few occasions when in the course of discussion (the common question being, “what brings you to Thailand?”) I would answer that I was here in Thailand to live with my partner.  The response to which would be, “oh, your business partner?” 

When I clarified that misunderstanding the response would be a bit of an uncertain “oh…” followed by something between avoidance and polite distance for the remainder of the term.

So when Kari and I met in class and went through that exchange, I was pleasantly surprised when she continued to talk with me and to ask questions about Tawn over the following days.  Likewise, her husband Ron was very open as well and when they met Tawn at a class get-together at an Italian restaurant, Ron suggested that we should socialize, which we subsequently have many times.

There are many people I know who are very prejudiced against religious people, especially Christians.  Sometimes I hear some really extreme statements made about them that paints them with the same wide brush with which some fundamentalists tar the gay community.  It strikes me that this “big brush” approach to defining people just results in us not getting to know people as individuals, meaning we miss out on many interesting and valuable relationships, as well as missing out on getting know know and understand the different viewpoints and opinions that people hold and what informs those opinions.

Prejudices on both sides can only be broken down as we have the opportunity to dispel misconceptions, which only happens when we can see the human side of things; when we can see the human beings.

Ron and Kari have been up in Ayutthaya doing missionary work and are now heading back to the United States in preparation of a new assignment in Nairobi, Kenya.  Kari has previously worked in Africa and really looks forward to going back.  They’ll be there in about six months for at least three years, so I think Tawn and I will be looking at taking a trip there to visit at some point.

Above: The beautiful Alpine town of Lugano, Switzerland.  Nikolaus, an airliners.net friend, mentioned that his friend is moving to Lugano.  I didn’t know where it was so googled it and found the tourism authority website that had this beautiful picture.  It reminds me a bit of Lago Como (Lake Como) in northern Italy.  Add that to the list of places to visit.  Question: do you actually keep a list of places where you want to visit, or is it just a list in your head?

Last night Tawn, Tod and I joined Markus and Tam for dinner at their place.  Markus prepared some wonderful German food including the German version of egg drop soup, spaetzle with lentils and sausage, and quark (a type of soft unripened cheese with the texture and flavor of sour cream) with strawberries.  Frankly, I ate too much of the cheese and crackers beforehand and was stuffed after the soup was served.  But since I didn’t want to miss out on this culinary adventure I went ahead and had small servings of the other items. 

Delicious but I have really got to pay more attention to when I’m eating, the habit I have of just nibbling away on things without regards to whether I’m really hungry.  Most of the time I’m conscious of it, but especially when I’m in a social setting I’ll just keep nibbling and nibbling and before you know it, I’m really stuffed.  Yuck.

Interesting read: Tae (aka Sagicaprio) just turned thirty-two and wrote a very profound and insightful entry to his blog on that occasion.  Read his January 4th post here.