Jr is now back in the Twin Cities routing on the Twins. He is working for St. Johns.

My brother Jon was in Thailand in the peace corp.. He wass in a rural area in the North East known as Long Nok Tha.
JR's homestay family (first 3 months)

* Click on an image for a larger View

1) It took a month and a half for a package to arrive.
2) My job is hanging out, talking or eating with anyone.
3) As far as Thai's are concerned...I play in the NBA!

First... Heather and UW staff...thank you so much for all the great gifts! I just got your package yesterday (it only took a month and a half!) and I feel the moon will shine on me for quite a while! Plus, I can now start telling people that I am a member of the caring force ...because they will really understand that!

The third and final reason I know I am in Thailand....

I agreed to play in a basketball game during the Loeng Nok Tha games. Teams from the 5 or so TAO's (my team), the police, hospital, and schools play volleyball, soccer, decau, and basketball. I of course had no idea what I was getting my self into but thought what the heck...THe first game against the police was something I have never before nor will ever again experience.

The game started at 6:15...it gets dark at 6:30 so most of the game was played under the light (no that is not a typo...it was basically one street light...when someone took a shot you couldn't see the ball until it hit the rim...which to be perfectly honest did not happen much when someone took an outside shot or even a layup! If you worry about me or anyone not being able to see where out of bounds was...no worries...there was about 200 people the first game and I would guess close to 350 - 400 for the second (word got around there was a huge Pharong playing basketball at the school). THey were all seated or as the game was close, standing on the sidelines or on the court as happened quite often (remeber if you are with friends you are drinking... its a law!).

Here is what happened in the game against team police.The final score was 30 - 23. I had a chance to win the game with 3 seconds left but only made 1 of 2 foul shots after recovering from laughing so hard as the refs tried to get a drunk fan off the basketball
stantion (sp?)...he figured out you could shake the hoop back and forth! That and the announcer screaming over the loud speaker..."the Pharong Jon Rui from the NBA" and then screaming "Jon rui, jon rui" while I was trying to shoot (Thais do not use "S" on the end of words). A little surreal but at least we were going to overtime! Well, overtime consisted of my team passing it into me and dribbiling towards the hoop where the police would foul me. Overtime saw me go to the line 6 times and I was 5-6 from there to make up for my earlier mistake...I scored 24 points...9 of them during overtime (all the points are team scored).

After the game, my fans tried to carry me off the court on their shoulders...but since I am a huge white guy...did not really happen!

The fans were the best...it was so funny watching people run onto the floor after a foul or when I would go to the free throw line they would run out to slap my hand or hug me as happened a few times. They was never any yelling at the ref or anything mean said to
the other team but they were so into the game and loved to make more noise than the other teams fans. Well, I think the whole town showed up for the game on Thursday night after hearing about the huge white pharong who had beat the Police team...I come to find out that they have never lost in this little tournament! Guess I wont be speeding on my bike anytime soon! (oh by the way...we won on Thursday as well against the hospitable. First time the TAO team has ever been the champions of basketball!)

Just three small reminders that I live in Thailand.
Hope this wasn't to long! Love to hear from you!

jon