My team is now in Bangkok, Thailand! When we left Guatemala, we had debrief which is where we all met together to process what had happened over the last few months and also to allow us to relax and rest.
After debrief we flew from Guatemala City to LAX. Spent a day in LA, then flew to the Philippines, after a couple of hours, flew to Thailand. Spent two and a half days traveling. It was quite the experience. We didn’t even have a chance to change our clothes.
The whole squad arrives together and settle at a YWAM base located in Bangkok. All of the squad’s ministry involves YWAM. We spend two days at the base to catch up on jet lag and go over the culture. Then we all have to split off again throughout the country.
In Guatemala, we had three teams living in a house (my team included), two teams living in another house, and one team living by themselves.
This time, all the teams are by themselves. Some of the teams were a little nervous by this because this is when you really have to face each other and your differences. I personally was quite excited to be alone with just my team because i wanted to grow in new ways and become a real family.
So we are all departing out into the country and our team is the only team that stays in Bangkok. It took us a half an hour to get to our location and we were still in Bangkok. Just shows how massive Bangkok is.
Our team works at A-mane, a Christian business that teaches English. Our host owns the business and are an amazing, loving family. Golf and Benz and their three adorable children, Bam, Kamp, and Asher. They are Thai but they speak English. They believe in ministry in business.
Our team stays in an apartment building. We were given three rooms each consisted of one full bed, mini fridge, TV, little chair with two chairs, cabinet for clothes (Jess and I do not have one ): ), and a bathroom. Fun fact about the bathrooms in Thailand, its a shower and toilet and sink all in one area. The shower is just a movable shower head so you can use the toilet and shower at the same time. Its pretty awesome and quite the experience!
The three boys share a room, and two girls each in the other two rooms. The rooms are kind of dull but we have managed to make them homey.
Our ministry:
The building is only about a 15 minute walk from our apartments. Since it is an after school program, we teach from 3-8 pm. The classes are made up of all different ages.
However, we are not the only teachers. There are four other teachers already at A-mane. Krista, she is from the US and has been teaching at A-mane for 3 years. Emily, she is also from the US and has been teaching for 8 months. She originally came with a YWAM team and taught for a week then later decided to move to Thailand for a while and teach on her own. Rachel, she is from the US and has been teaching for 3 months now. And then Belle who is the sister of Benz and goes around the check all the classes to see if they need any translations. All the teachers are in their 20 so they are a little older than us.
What our typical day looks like:
We wake up, do our own thing until lunch time, eat lunch then head over to A-mane where we are given a schedule and placements of which classroom we need to be in. We switch off every week. Two of us are hosts who open the door and welcome the kids. Two of us are in the library and we just play with the kids when they arrive early or have to wait to be picked up. then the last three are assigned a teacher. Either help teacher Emily on the first floor, teacher Krista on the second floor, or teacher Rachel on the third floor. (Each floor only consist of one room so the building is very small.) So those who are in the classrooms assist the main teachers. They run a very professional business that is very well run.
It’s pretty fun getting to know the kids and watch how much they are learning! It’s definitely a whole new way of ministry since everything was so laid back in Guatemala. Here in Thailand, things move so quickly. All in all, I love where I am at and that I have a chance to teach English with my team in a new country.
Blogging is hard. That is all i have to say. Thank you all for your patience, I know it has been a while since I last blogged.
