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Saturday, 21 June, Day 4 of this trip started off with a 4:00 AM taxi ride to the airport in Bangkok. Here a United Airlines B777, seen through reflections in the curved windows of the new Bangkok airport, stands ready to receive us for the trip to Tokyo at 6:00 AM. |
| Saturday was one of those days that is hard to imagine time-wise unless you have experienced crossing the International Date Line from west to east. I left Bangkok at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning, crossed the International Date Line, and arrived in White Plains, New York at 7:30 PM, Saturday evening--after flying for almost twenty-six hours. My trip this time took me from Phnom Penh to Bangkok to Tokyo to Washington, DC to White Plains, NY which is 30 miles north of New York City and the home of the Maryknoll headquarters. |
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After arriving in White Plains, I took a taxi to Maryknoll and arrived in time for a cookout arranged to celebrate the beginning of a week-long workshop for lay missionaries returning from overseas, either to renew for another contract or to make the transition from Maryknoll back to the secular working world. As part of the cookout a group of musicians from the Andes Mountain area of Latin America were performing. |
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One of the returned families dressed their children in indigenous outfits and then danced to the music they knew in their Bolivian home. |
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Latin American cultures tend to be exuberant in their greetings and celebrations, and soon many of the group joined the dance. |
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The returning lay missionaries are from African, Asian, and Latin American mission sites. They were joined by the Maryknoll Lay Missioners who work at the MLM headquarters, called Bethany, in New York. |
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