Home School Lesson: Thailand
***For those of you who may not know from previous blogs, I have a small group of home school children in South Carolina that are following my blog for lessons in geography, culture, and missionary work. So feel free to read ahead, but the focus, length, and content of this blog is for them!***
Sawatdee Kah from Chiang Mai, Thailand!
To start our home school lesson for this month, I have to tell you that Thailand has been such a different land from Central America! Everything from the countryside to the food to the language to the general lifestyle is different!
A land of tropical heat and paradise destinations, Thailand will leave you dripping in sweat and appreciating air conditioning in a whole new way. Although I personally did not get to experience them, the beaches of Thailand are known as some of the most beautiful in this area of the world, with crystal clear water and towering palm trees. Lush green mountains and lots of agricultural fields are found away from the beach. Currently Thailand is in it’s hottest time of year, and temperatures are normally around 100-105 degrees with high humidity. Trying to sleep inside with no air conditioning was a challenge of its own, and I eventually ended up sleeping on the roof on the nights when I didn’t get rained on! By about June, Thailand will begin to cool down a bit as it enters its rainy season.
As a culture of honor, the Thai people embody a lifestyle of respect for others. The typical greeting is “Sawatdee Kah” for girls or “Sawatdee Krap” for boys, with the hands held together in front of the body and a small bow, which is the Thai way of saying hello and hugging or shaking hands. The service industry is known for valuing customers in a huge way. In America we have the expression “The customer is always right”; in Thailand, they say “The customer is god”, not as a literal god but as one who should be treated with ultimate respect. In general, Thai people do not raise their voices or express emotions in a hugely open way, so sometimes us rowdy Americans had to catch ourselves when calling up and down stairs or talking across the room. Speaking Thai is a hilarious experience, as it is a tonal language. Depending on how high, low, middle, or with what inflection you say a word will change the meaning of it. Very confusing for us Americans!
Within the family, elders are respected and honored in many ways; for example, during the Thai New Year known as Songkran (which is a huge, nation-wide waterfight!), most young people go home to honor their parents and grandparents. A strange paradox to this is the fact that the Thai people do not discipline their children very much at all, as I was told by another missionary couple that has lived here for a number of years and adopted three Thai children. People rarely force their children to do what the child does not want to do, and there is a great deal of free will for children. It is expected and believed that they will learn to respect and honor others as they see done in the culture around them.
Funny side story…part of my ministry this month was caring for three little boys whose mother has finally left working in the bars to pursue a better life. One day I went to a swimming spot with the little boys, and the youngest one refused to wear any clothes for the entire day. He also pitched a fit as I chased his wet, squirmy, naked little self around trying to rub sunscreen on him…I was so worried he would get sunburned! Several middle-aged Thai people watched with stern faces as I wrestle with little Rung, and I later found out it was probably because they disapproved of my insistence with the child. In this culture, if a child refused sunscreen (which they rarely wear anyway, come to find out) they would not force it.
Buddhism is the most commonly practiced religion in Thailand. This religion is very complex and there is much about it I still do not know or understand. For this reason, I am not going to go into the specifics of what and how the Buddhist people believe, but I would encourage you to read into it on your own, as it is a very different set of beliefs than Christianity. One aspect I would like to mention is that the Buddhist faith believes in Karma, or the ability to control your own destiny. They also believe in reincarnation, or that when a person dies they are born into another form of life that is reflective of how one lived in the previous life. In practice, this means that people live and treat others with a level of respect and honor that would ensure a kinder place in the next life. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ must be done with great care, as people are not at all inclined to believe something that is completely different and apart from what they have been immersed in for their entire lives. Building a true friendship and trust with a person is instrumental in being able to share about Jesus in a way that will be openly received.
Let’s talk FOOD! Ahhh, the wonder that is food in Thailand. When I first arrived here, I was not at all warmed up to the idea of Thai food, even if I had been excited about it before arriving. Most Thai food is very rich, flavorful, spicy, and often greasy, and most meals are some form of rice or noodle with chicken or pork, often in soup form. We ate Pad Thai, or rice noodles with bean sprouts, peanuts, brown sauce, baby shrimp, and chicken, most days for around 30 baht, which is the equivalent of $1. We also ate a lot of rice, both steamed and sticky, with various types of curry sauces and other Thai sauces. One of my biggest struggles (aside from the fact that there is little “American” breakfast food, so pork fried rice was breakfast!) with the food was the meat: in the market there were entire pig heads for sale, piles of animal intestines, fried chicken faces, deep fried scorpions and cockroaches, and pretty much any and every other animal product you can think of. The meat was usually swarming with flies, and all I could think about was pork-born worms every time I saw some of it. However, there were also lots of fresh vegetables and fruits for super cheap (usually $0.05-0.75 for a decent bit of produce), and I loved buying fresh fruit smoothies for less than a dollar! I also ate the best thing I have had on the Race: pumpkin curry, which was rich, creamy, spicy, nutty, and delicious!
Education is highly valued in Thailand, but it is not free, so the poorest people struggle to educate their children at all. Luckily, the education is quite affordable, and almost everyone of means (particularly in the city) goes to college. One interesting tidbit…Thai students rarely change their major. Once a focus of study is chosen, it is fully expected that it will be followed through with until completion, even if the student decides they don’t like it. In America, we change our course of study or career plans regularly.
The biggest focus for most missionaries in Thailand, in addition to sharing about Jesus, is fighting human trafficking. Human trafficking is like modern-day slavery, which means that men, women, and children are forced to live and work in ways they do not want to against their will. There is a huge and scary amount of people forced to live a sad and self-destructive lifestyle for lack of intervention from those who can help. The ministry we worked with this month works on fighting human trafficking from several angles: prevention, building relationship, and rebuilding lives after people are rescued out of it. Lighthouse in Action is doing incredible work over here through daily investments in the Thai people.
My month in Thailand has been mostly a time of growing into the role as a team leader and understanding how God is having me do this, and I do not feel a particular call to ministry here in the future here at this point. Thailand is a beautiful and exciting land, and I would suggest visiting it to anyone who is looking for a fun adventure (cliff jumping, elephant riding, and waterfall swimming were my favorites this month!), beautiful souvenirs for a fraction of the cost of what they would be in the US, delicious food, and kind people. On to Cambodia today! Month FIVE is already here, can’t believe it!
