Dear Members,
As I write this letter for the September edition of BAMBI News, I am looking out my tiny window from Santorini. It is a challenge to write about something that is not here yet. Here in Greece, I am wondering how my life will be back in my Bangkok home. My friends and family in Greece always are asking me how exotic life is in that far away country of Thailand. Or, they can’t understand how I can be happy so far away from
Greek culture and Greek food. Those are the two main topics of discussion when I visit Greece. This summer we also had the economic crisis in Greece to talk about. It was sad to see so many stores and companies closing this summer. Every other place in Athens had a “For Rent” sign posted. It looked like a ghost town.
Ok, let’s pretend that I am in Bangkok and it is September:
September is here! Welcome back to your home in Thailand, or welcome
to your new home. Welcome back to your familiar routine or welcome to
your new Bangkok routine.
It was another summer of many goodbyes and hellos. As the Chairwoman of BAMBI and as Eleni I had to say some really sad goodbyes. Actually, all were equally sad and tough to do. I found myself so happy for friends moving onto a new life, or excited for those who are going home again, but at the same I felt a bit resentful that I won’t see them ever again and
that we will have to rely on Facebook and other electronic communication. I caught myself pretending that I wasn’t crying only giving big hugs and words of encouragement.
But with every goodbye there was a new hello. With every person who stepped down from our BAMBI community, there was one new person
to fill the spot. Sometimes it happened on the same day or the same week. As much as I was really happy to see a new face and give them a quick orientation to BAMBI it did feel a bit difficult to shake the sadness off and just be in the moment to offer a lighthearted welcome to our community.
The first big change is the editor of BAMBI News. We said a humble
thank you to Ravit Daniel, the editor for nearly five years. We are welcoming two new editors starting with this issue in September, Jennifer Evangelista and Suzanne Nam. How lucky we are! Now we have two editors. Enjoy the ride with BAMBI and the BAMBI News.
Be well,
Eleni Petraki
BAMBI Chairwoman