"Thailand? Well, young man, now you've seen and know not to take America for granted, right?" the Customs officer said to Sennen who didn't understand what the man meant.
"He means do you appreciate America?" I said, knowing it was an easy pitch to get a "yes" out of Sennen.
He produced the right answer and we went on our way – but our kids had no clue what the officer was getting at. Emily and I chose not to explain. Only an hour prior, Ailyn was crying that she wanted the plane to turnaround and take us back to Thailand – she didn't want to go home. Our kids may appreciate America – but not in contrast to other places. If anything, they see other places as deeply interesting and fun. Sure, we haven't taken them anywhere with abject poverty and squalor. We'll get to that in time. But Sennen recognizes Thailand isn't as wealthy as America – but I don't think he or his sister see anything there as lesser or unfortunate.
America is a great country – and we are fortunate to enjoy our innumerable rights, general prosperity, strength, democracy and our working system of checks and balances (even the most ardent Trump haters, I hope can admit we have a well functioning, independent judiciary that has been doing its job). I am proud to be a citizen and whatever our challenges, wouldn't want to carry any other passport. That said, we aren't the only great country and there are things to be learned almost everywhere. Today's CBP officer was the first ethnocentric, America-first view our globalist kids have heard.
Only 15 minutes later, we could see the difference in Sennen's perspective.
"This seems like a really different country. What are all these people doing here? And are they on business or vacation? Why are they all here? And this doesn't look like the airport…."
After hanging out at airports like Changi in Singapore or Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok (which isn't even the nicest of Asian airports), it's easy to see why Sennen was sufficiently unimpressed with LAX as we pulled away in our shuttle van. And of course, we had the customary lamenting of our Bangkok shuttle van driver, Mr. Panya – who Emily and I did not particularly like and who Sennen and Ailyn absolutely love. Mr. Panya did something right in another life to earn their adoration….
But no matter what, coming home is coming home. Within 15 minutes of arriving home, Sennen was playing his guitar and both kids were singing at the top of their lungs – mostly Shabbat services. It had been three weeks without their instruments and microphones – and in the comfort of their playroom, suited up in doctor and firefighter uniforms, they were happy to be home, giving a concert as they do most days.
For Emily and me, the end of vacation is sad. This year was particularly good and we didn't feel a particular need to come home. As I have said before, I would love to have kept traveling to other destinations in the region – Malaysia, Laos, Singapore…. see what we felt like and go. But alas, all good things have to come to an end.
It helps that we know that in only six months, we'll be back in the air and on the road in Israel followed by Greece. It's not that far away – and it's definitely something to look forward to.
But what made this year so great? Aside from the usual stepping out of life, not having plans, making meals, grocery shopping, doing laundry, etc and all the fun things we did. – it was a year our family seemed to all enjoy deeply. Clearly, the kids' ages and maturity are working in our favor. No diapers, they weren't at all dusty on the flights, no nap-time. But also their intellectual and emotional sophistication has grown. Sennen can contemplate ideas like economic disparity, constitutional monarchy, succession, democracy, republicanism, religious diversity, basic Buddhism, cultural diversity and more. Ailyn has an innate respect for the beauty and practices of other religions. Her interest in Buddhist temples and shrines and respect for holiness in a diversity of forms is amazing. So is her interest in reaching across cultural divides and connecting with people of other cultures. And both kids know how to embrace Thai beach parties!
In other words, they were ready for a lot of what Thailand had to offer and were no longer held back by prior constraints that made work of the travel itself. In fact, they were overall delightful on the long flights and adjusted better to foreign places than many adults we know (I know one person who ended up freaked out, shirtless and sweating from a panic attack stuck on the roof of a department store by the end of his first day in Taiwan). Sure, the sometimes constant barrage of questions, particularly the repeat questions can get tiring. And sometimes our kids are just the emotional, irrational creatures they are – at inconvenient moments. But that's them anywhere – they are just three and five and we're doing stuff with them that might be a struggle for much older kids.
Also, Matheus made an excellent travel companion. Having his support with the kids allowed Emily and I to make a trip into a vacation. But also, he was just fun and pleasant throughout which added a lot. We also appreciate how he seems to have converted into wearing Thai pants daily. The chemistry with Matheus makes us very optimistic about our two months in Greece this summer when Emily and I will work and his role watching the kids will be essential to the whole thing working. We're quite confident he's going to rock it and we'll all have fun.
I suppose the bottom line of this trip is that we're growing – as individuals and a family in the right direction. We're becoming a better oiled travel machine and the kids' worldview is growing, expanding and even surprising us at times. We couldn't ask for more or feel any better about how we spend our time and money. All we have is joy and gratitude – leaving this trip not with a goodbye, but a Khap Khun Krup (thank you) and a Deow Pohp Khaan Mai(see you again soon)!
