I am sitting on the floor in Malaysia and it dawns on me… I haven't written a blog since I went elephant riding in Thailand. That was over a month ago! I am the worst blog writer ever. But hopefully you will extend me grace and will appreciate this blog.
I just want to explain what happened in Thailand.
First of all, the teams got were changed slightly.. My original team, team Life Speakers made up of Jay and Jenn Dannalley, Kent Cranford, Taylor Lawson, Karen Aiello, and Anika Erickson, became just the women. And the women from my team combined with the women of another team because all the men on the squad had a month together away from the women. So my team in Thailand was made up on NINE women! Sara Shoup was our leader, Aimee Luallin, Caity Lewis and Pamela Gessler were added and we called ourselves…. um…. many many names. Like Plays with Squirrels, Verdes, Verde Pioneers…. Lots of things… I just don't remember what else…
Our ministry was going to be living in a village, helping clear out a field for a future training center for women coming out from off the streets, and doing life with the villagers. Sounds good right? A month in a village. That's neat!
So we get to Chiang Mai and spend a week there figuring things out with the culture and the language as well as figuring out our team dynamics. Sara tells us we are leaving for the village on Friday.
Friday comes and the transportation falls through. So we aren't going yet. Then Aimee gets a fever and can't seem to feel better. She takes herself to the hospital where they tell her she has bronchitis and she comes back on medicine. Sara tells our contact we would like to wait until she starts to feel better before we leave. That's fine.
And then Caity gets sick. She is admitted into the hospital and they can't figure out what is wrong with her. So we still don't go out to the village.
And then Aimee gets admitted to the hospital because she is still feeling sick. Now we have two girls in the hospital and we still aren't going to the village because we have one month as a team of nine girls and that's it. We wanted to make the best of it and stay together.
Long story short, we did end up in the village for a week and the end of the month. We left for the village on a Friday or Saturday and Caity joined us there on the following Monday.
In the village, we met a nice older lady who owns a small road side restaurant who enjoyed cooking for us. A meal there was B25 which is about $0.80. We went to our contact's property to help clear that place out for the training center every day. Well, most of the team went every day. I went the first few days and then there was a chance for a few people to go to a pre school, so of course I jumped on that!
I have been able to be around kids in every country so far and have been super blessed by that. I was able to teach English at this pre school, but those kids knew more English than I thought they would! I went to the school the latter few days while in the village and my time there couldn't have been better! There were a few kids that reminded me of some of my kids from back home. They didn't understand that I don't speak Thai and I couldn't understand them.. So I was quite amused when they would ramble off God knows what in Thai. I would just listen and smile and then ramble something, probably completely unrelated, in English… Or Spanish.
Needless to say, I had an incredible time in Thailand. And now I am in Malaysia and am having an amazing time here. I have a few blogs floating around in my head so far. I need to do better at this blog writing thing. But before I finish off here, I have two things I would like to say…
First, I am running low on personal spending money. Not having a job/regular pay check is super hard. I don't need a lot. But remember when I went elephant riding in Thailand? That was $30. Now, granted, I didn't need to go and do that. But who knows when I will ever get to Thailand again? As much ministry as I do, there are a few times every now and then when I will want to go and do fun things with my family… Like rafting the Nile! Or going to a zoo. Also, if I want to have a cup of coffee, that is not covered in my food budget. And personal travel, like to a mall is also not covered. I also need to get my glasses fixed. The lenses got scratched pretty good, they became crooked at some point and if I have to bend over they just about fall off my face! I have a paypal account and if you feel that you would like to send some spending money my way, I would appreciate that so much! My email is [email protected]. If you don't have paypal and you want to send me some money, email me and I will share with you how else you can send me money.
Second, I am homesick. I have been homesick since I left and I will be homesick until I get home. I miss my friends and family from back home. I want to know how you are doing! I want to hear from you! Being away from home for so long is hard. As much as I think everyone else's life is paused while I am away and things will be exactly how they were when I left, I know that is not true. I know that lives are continuing to be lived even though I am not there. I don't want to get home and feel like I missed out on a lot of whatever is going on. I still want to be included! So I want to hear from you. Yes. YOU! We talked all the time before I left? I want to hear from you. We talked a few times a week/month? I want to hear from you. We don't even know each other?? I want to hear from you. I really do. Please email me. I just want to know what is going on in the lives of everyone else too!
Much love!
Malerie
