Earlier this month we attended regional meetings in Indonesia and decided to take a few additional days afterwards to fly to Flores island to visit Komodo National Park. It was an experience we never thought we’d be able to have and we decided to go for it when we realized we’d be a little over…
Category: Around Asia
Caleb joining Mennonite Mission Network in Taiwan
No, not our little Caleb. Caleb Schrock-Hurst was the final SALT participant in Việt Nam before MCC Vietnam closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He actually wrote the book on MCC Vietnam for the program’s 65th Anniversary. I met him when I traveled to Hanoi in January 2020 to attend an education conference and then we hosted…
Taiwan Earthquake Update from Mennonite Christian Hospital
Yesterday, a magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck Taiwan killing at least 9 people and injured more than 900 people. The quake was followed by over 100 aftershocks, further damaging infrastructure and buildings as well as causing landslides. I wanted to share an update on the earthquake from the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, near the epicenter. This…
MCC Mistaken Identity
Acronyms are helpful for simplifying a name but they can lead to confusion. Last year, while we were in Nepal, I kept on coming across a message spraypainted along the streets, “No MCC. Go Back America.” I teased the MCC Representatives to Nepal about this – already knowing that it wasn’t our MCC – and…
Myanmar: Saying No To War
In October, the Three Brotherhood Alliance – a partnership of three armed ethnic groups in the north – launched an offensive campaign against the military junta that lead the coup in February 2021 (and which, to varying degrees, has been the dominant force in the country since taking power through a coup in 1962). The…
The year 2080
Every time we travel to Thailand I’m surprised by my phone’s date switching to the current year in the Buddhist Era. It’s still 2566 B.E (Buddhist Era) in Thailand until Songkran or Thai New Year. Songkran lines up with New Year celebrations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam, parts…
Hiking to Pokhara World Peace Stupa in Nepal
During our time in Nepal, we hiked up to the World Peace Stupa located on Anadu ‘hill’ across the lake from Pokhara. The Stupa is at a height of 1,100 meters – which would be absolutely classified as a ‘mountain’ in Cambodia – but is considered a hill in Nepal. Apparently, in Nepal it’s only…
Flowers of Nepal 2023
We have Asia regional meetings in Nepal this week so we decided to come early and have a short family vacation here. I’ll write more about our explorations later but I’ll start with another entry in my flower series. This week is the Dashain festival so there have been marigold garlands everywhere and most Nepalis…
Bangkok’s Sanam Rat park
After our visit to the Cambodian Embassy to submit Caleb’s Visa application we visited the Sanam Rat park in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s a large park with a lot to see including ponds and a small lake, fountains, a beautiful conference pavilion, botanical gardens, and water monitor lizards. Charlotte was – as aways – thrilled just…
Getting around Bangkok
By population, Bangkok is the 33th largest city in the world with around 10,890,660 people living in the metropolitan region as of 2019. To put this in perspective, the entire population of the country of Cambodia is 16.5 million. Bangkok has roughly five times the number of residents as Phnom Penh. It was interesting to…