Stephanie's Words: Happy Thai New Year!
Since I've been coming to see Mark in Thailand he's been talking about New Years and how fun it is here. I didn't understand it at first, just that it involved a lot of water and water guns... but it was at least as much fun as he had said it would be! I'm staying at a hotel near his place and I took the tuk-tuk over to the soi where the action is set to take place. At noon it's just getting started, but as I get a block from my hotel I get some squirts of water coming through the tuk-tuk. I make it to the soi without too much more water and then I see The Fun: a whole 5 or 6 block street, people everywhere carrying buckets, squirt guns, water cannons, hoses, anything that will carry or toss water. Some folks have large plastic trash bins filled with water and ice! And it's all being tossed out at everyone else.

No one can explain to me exactly why - why water for New Year's, why a water parade (as people file up and down the street tossing water and being tossed at, and why after you've been "wetted" you get a dose of talc on your face, too. About 10 minutes into it I realize it doesn't matter why - it's just a blast. I look at Mark and see this man who really fought to get himself up and goingt oday, who is in great pain, and he has now the most wonderful and sincere smile on his face as he enjoys watching the parade go by. He shoots water occasionally at friends or farang. He's transformed into a little boy, teasing and shooting water and watching the other kids play all around him.

I worry about him this day. He's been feeling feverish lately and there are so many potential germs and viruses all around us. He's having a blast, but he decides he needs to go lay down an hour or so later. In a way I am relieved because he's been thoroughly doused by friends going by (those who don't realize he's hanging back a little because he needs to not be jostled today). He's gone through a round of chemo since I last saw him in March, and he's starting to lose some hair; what's still there has gone from a beautiful chestnut brown to gray. But we all laugh at my mom, who is wearing a shower cap under her hat, in a lame attempt to keep the water at bay.

It was a great New Years.