Yeah yeah... not a pity blog here. I just back from dinner which I spent with Jane, a 75 year old volunteer from Canada who's just a peach. Real fun gal and great to talk to over your rice and daal. Anywho, we had our conversation and were drinking our tea and coffee when another staff member came in to have some coffee with us.
Somehow it came up that he was Tibetan and he proceeded to give us his life story. Fleeing over the Himalayas at the age of four. Not seeing his parents for 40 some years. Trying to visit his family only to be turned away at the border. Finally getting to see his family and then bring a niece back only to be caught and thrown in jail for it. Finally getting her here and only to have tragedy strike. Getting threatened to have the Chinese police sent to him and then running into an old classmate who takes him and his family in. Saving a drowning man in a raging mountain river and getting dragged for kilometers. Then he sings a Thai song to a homesick Thai boy.
Cripes...
He just blew me away.
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On a different note, sign up for google talk. Add niftysunburn and we can chat. Free computer to computer calls.
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5 comments:
WOW! that is quite a story! i can't even wrap my head around that, we are so very fortunate.
did you tell him you survived a moose attack and lived to tell about it? that's pretty incredible to me.
You are many things, James. Insignificant doesn't make the list.
I am continually amazed by the people you meet and the lives they have led, and it makes me wonder ... do they blog about you? Do they tell their loved ones about the amazing American they met who is so funny and smart and generous of heart?
I'm pretty sure they do. Love you!
Last I looked, Google chat on a Mac doesn't support voice chat. I'll look into it again though.
He's just one of many people who might teach you something about the person you strive to be. You never know whose mind you might blow just by being you.
I'm speechless, James.
We're not in America anymore.
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