Ah, how much I love you all... I've been dragging myself out of bed early every single morning of this conference so that I can write to you all (plus Mom and David) from Thailand. It's my way of assuring everyone that I'm safe and sound. But today will be my last blog from the "Land of Happiness" (I think that's what the promotional tourist video we watched at dinner last night called it)-- I head back to the States tomorrow at 6 am Thai time (sometime Sunday evening for the folks back home). I feel like I haven't seen much, but I've certainly gotten a lot to think about. But Ann, Molly and I are going to remedy that this afternoon following the conference, when we visit some of the famous Buddhist temples here in the city. I'm so excited that I even wore close-toed shoes in this heat so that I could go into one.

Yesterday I attended some great workshops, one of which was actually on women and religion. The panel was made up of Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian people of faith talking about their work for women in a faith context. And you know what one of the coolest things about it all was? None of them were Westerners-- even the Christian was from the Phillipines. So we heard about their struggles in the faith community from a different perspective, but at the same time we heard a lot of the issues we face in our work, too. It was particularly fascinating to listen to the Buddhist woman talk about how she frames her discussion of liberation for women in terms of the Buddhist concept of release from suffering through the Eight Noble Truths. We also heard from an awesome Muslim woman about her continual work on behalf of religious women in Malaysian society, and how her persistence has gotten her group a seat at the table in many religious discussions. Given the rather ambivalent feelings overall by many women here about religion, it was great to be in a room with women who understand the importance of integrating faith with our values regarding human rights.

Okay, so it is workshop time, and I'd better get off the 'Net. I hope these blogs from Thailand have been mildly interesting... after my 24 hours on the plane tomorrow, I should have more ruminations about the whole experience, in a more coherent manner. But don't expect a Monday blog-- I think I'm going to crash when I get back.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." --Romans 12:18

Kelsey