Cambodia to Kentucky
22 April 2003 (Tuesday)

  • Flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, arriving there at 9:30 PM. I had one big box full of materials for the assembly in New York, and on the x-ray at the airport, something in the box looked like live fish swimming in plastic bags of water. It took a bit of talking to convince the security people that I wasn't illegally exporting fish!
  • Right inside the Bangkok terminal, a nurses station was set up to check people for SARS. They only checked people going through immigration into Thailand, though. If you were going to the transit area, and leaving on another flight, they didn't bother checking. You were going to be someone else's problem!
  • My flight out of Bangkok was 7:00 AM Wednesday morning so I slept all night on the floor in the transfer desk area of the airport. That was a fortunate discovery; usually I have slept upstairs in the transit area but the floors there are terrazo while the transfer desk area had carpeting!
23 April 2003 (Wednesday)

  • At 7:00 AM I flew from Bangkok to Tokyo on United Airlines. About one fourth of the people on the flight were wearing face masks against SARS, but when we changed planes and headed to Chicago only four or five people wore them. Normally I would have flown nonstop from Bangkok to Chicago, but because of the SARS and the poor economy, we had to go through Tokyo wear the flight could pick up enough passengers to earn some money.
  • We left Tokyo in early afternoon on Wednesday, went through evening and night, and then had dawn and a second Wednesday morning over the Pacific as we crossed the International Dateline. Got into Chicago about 3:30 PM and then headed for Louisville where my sister Jane picked me up at the airport at 6:00 PM.

Pewee Valley, Kentucky
24-26 April 2003 (Thursday-Saturday)

  • I was really fortunate with the jetlag on this trip which crossed twelve time zones. I was on the road for 33 hours, but I got enough sleep on the airport floor in Bangkok and then at the right times on the plane to keep my body clock somewhat in order. I woke up the next two nights in Kentucky at 4:00 AM, but each time I was able to get back to sleep.
  • The first day I did a little running around to pick up some clothes I needed and some computer parts. I'm having two problems with my laptop computer: (1) the display is not operating correctly so I had to borrow an external monitor to be able to use the computer; and (2) there is no backup program on the laptop to allow me to Restore the data files I brought with me in backed up form.
  • My brother has a weakened immune system because of chemotherapy treatments he is receiving and he and some of the family were worried that I might be carryiing SARS from Asia, so was able to talk to him on the phone but not to visit face-to-face.  When I return after the NY meetings, it will be after the quarantine period for SARS so I will be able to visit Ray then.
  • I will be in New York on the day of the primary elections in Kentucky in May so I went to the voter registration office and was able to vote in advance.
  • Then I went to lunch with Tony Olges, one of my classmates from the seminary, to get caught up on all the doings in the diocese.  On the way home I stopped to see Norma Lewis, the doyen of the sign language interpreters in Kentucky and a good friend and colleague.
  • Charlie and Mother DittmeierFriday night my brothers and sisters in the Louisville area came out to my mother's house in Pewee Valley where I am staying for a pizza dinner.  It was good to see everyone again.
  • Saturday morning I repacked the suitcase and box I carried from Cambodia, leaving some things in Kentucky, and then I flew to Maryknoll, New York via Washington, DC.  Eileen Charleton and Sheila Matthews, two of our NY-based administration, met me at the Westchester County airport.