New Month. New Team. New Continent. New Opportunities.
It’s hard to believe I am nearly a week into my month in Thailand! My squad and I experienced a four-day travel day from Costa Rica to Thailand and some weird culture shock but after feeling rested and acclimated I am so excited for what God has in store these 5 months in Southeast Asia.
The end of Costa Rica my squad and I had a debrief in San Jose, and this debrief yielded the inevitable team changes due to the rising up of new squad leaders from within our squad. Team Awakening is no more…I am now on Team Ovida! (means cannonball in “Greek”)
This new team of 5 other incredible women is a new experience and opportunity for me to live in community and serve God’s people with an all girls team! I’m excited to grow and learn with these ladies and see what God has in store for us.
This month we are serving in Bangkok, about an hour away from the city center in a slum community with Servant’s Partners. Our primary function this month as a team is teaching English in the community. Our team is split in half…3 teaching older kids in the community English Monday-Friday from 5-7 pm and the other half of us have more of a sporadic schedule. Me and two other girls from my team are teaching English twice a week on Wednesday and Friday to the preschoolers in the community, as well as teaching English once a week in another community (on Tuesdays on week and Saturdays the next). We’ll also be serving this community by building relations, participating in prayer meetings and bible studies, babysitting for our host and helping around the house, painting the interns office, and possibly cleaning out the canal filled with trash.
I’m really excited to see the lessons God will teach me this month and the things I will experience!
Coming to Thailand, I didn’t more much about the culture. Our second day here we were given the lowdown on cultural Do’s and Don’ts.
Allow me to share those with you:
Do not touch a monk!!
Head: Holiest part of someone—do not touch!
Feet: Dirtiest part of a person
Always sit cross legged, never with your feet out in front of you
Always take shoes off (nicely) before entering a house, school, office, etc
Respecting people is really important! Especially the elders
There is a king and people love him—don’t step on the money!
Wai- saying hi in passing..it can be hello/goodbye (Sa wat tee kah)
P- someone older than you
Ong- someone younger
Smiling gets one far in Thailand
Don’t touch a man
Be aware of conversations and tones
Don’t throw stuff to each other…be respectful and pass it to each other
When there are groups of people, walk around or make yourself smaller to pass through
They are big on hygiene and looking nice…shower 2x a day at least
Teaching English is a big need and it’s an honor to have a native speaker teaching it to them
Asean: Southeast Asian version of EU: one language…allows people to travel easily through the different countries
Thailand has never been colonized and is proud of that fact, however it means they do speak the least amount of English of the countries. The lack of language skills instills a sense of fear for them.
The street we live on in our community
Nap time at the preschool in our community
A potential clean up project for my team this month..cleaning out the canal next to our community
