She’s back.
Our baby girl, age 21, is back from the ends of the earth.
Well, OK, she’s back from Thailand, which is not the end of the earth, but it’s a loooooooong way from Luverne.
She flew to Sioux Falls from Bangkok Tuesday night. (Nothing says “Welcome Home” from a tropical climate like 10 inches of fresh snow.)
And now she’s asleep in her room in the basement.
Eleven months have passed since she left on New Year’s Day. Almost all of 2015 happened without her.
She missed the arrival of two nieces. She missed the demolition of the farmstead on which she was raised. (Including the horse barn. Might be a few tears on that one.) She missed Hot Dog Night and the county fair.
And we missed her.
She went to Thailand to volunteer with a Christian mission that tries to help women get out of the sex industry. She learned there is good money to be made in the sex industry and some women don’t feel a need to leave.
As part of the ministry, she sometimes bought drinks for girls in bars so they didn’t have to “go with” customers. She watched girls younger than she is walk off with customers and disappear into back rooms. She cared for children who were the product of some of these business transactions.
She learned there is an Eastern belief that one’s station in life is not meant to change. There is no notion of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps. There is little concern for one’s neighbor. There is no “American dream.”
She helped the mission open a coffee shop in Bangkok. The shop will employ a few of the women who left the sex industry. She used the baking skills she inherited from her Grandma Jean to develop a homemade bagel that is a coffee shop favorite. Her dad was proud as punch when she discussed with him business planning, marketing options and the ins and outs of cash-flowing a small business.
She traveled.
For breakfast one morning, she ate chopped frogs with rice at the home of a friend in a rural Thai village. She slept in an outdoor hammock near a pack of wild monkeys.
She attended a parade through a small town and wrote home, “I think I may have been the main attraction.” Thin white women nearly six feet tall are not a common sight in rural Thai villages.
Next, she’s off to Nebraska to live with her sister, brother-in-law and baby niece. She’s going to study international business at the community college there. I’m guessing she’s got a pretty good handle on the subject.
Three years ago she lived in London. Two years ago it was Beijing. Then Bangkok and now Norfolk, Nebraska — home of the Johnny Carson Museum, the Aqua-Venture Water Park and Poppy’s Pumpkin Patch!
She’s back, but I’m thinking maybe not for long.