Ministry for Thailand has been teaching. We are living at the school we are teaching at. Living at a school has been kind of a weird experience, especially because I thought that for 9 months I wouldn’t be going to school, kind of ironic, but it has definitely been a good experience. My team is staying at a primary school called Ban Don Chai School that has around 120 kids. I teach 5th graders English for an hour every weekday, except for Thursday, on Thursdays they teach me how to play the flute because they have music class all day.
A Day in My life at Ban Don Chai School:
First, I wake up at around 7 or 7:30. Then, I eat breakfast and get ready for school. At 8, we have a devotional for around 30 minutes with the team. After that, we spend an hour getting ready and making a lesson plan for that day of class. At 9:30 we start our class. In my class, we usually start with vocabulary and their name, age, grade and I ask them other general, conversational questions. Then we usually do an activity having to do with what I teach them (whether it’s a song or a game that goes along with the lesson). At 10:30, I tell my students Goodbye and go out and hang out with some of the kids that don’t have class, or talk to my teammates about how class went, or do thai homework.
At 11:15 we eat lunch with the teachers and talk with them. At around 12 or 12:30, every other day, we get Thai lessons from one of the teachers, Auntie Chinda. Fun fact: Thai is a very hard language to learn. After Thai Lessons, we have an hour of break where we either get to relax, pray, spend time with Jesus or nap.
At around 2:30 we go outside and do sports with the kids. This looks different every day, but usually, if there is soccer practice, my teammate, Hannah, and I will go join the soccer team and play with them and cheer them on and try to make them laugh. If there is no soccer practice, we just do our best to love on the kids, to play with them, and to just make them feel seen. This can vary from letting them play with our hair to being a Jungle Gym for them.
At 4, the students go home, most go home by a little school bus, or their parents pick them, or some bike home if they live close enough. On some days, 2 of us get to go on the school bus with the kids and take them home. I love this part of the day, because we get to see where these kids come from (most of them come from poorer communities), but also, how much they don’t let their home situations affect them, but rather, they are striving for a better life. If we don’t drop off the kids that day, we will usually spend time with the kids that stay after for a little bit and play volleyball soccer, catch, or just hang out for with them.
At around 4:30-5, depending on the day, we will usually work out or rest for a little bit. After that, we will usually go out to eat (eating out in Thailand is usually actually cheaper than making your own food). We have three places that we like to go to, one is right by our house that sells noodles and rice with veggies or meat; then there’s a place we like to call the living room (because it is a restaurant that is based in the living room of the house). Last, but not least, we have a place that we call Ton’s place, Ton is the name of the server there, but this is where we go when we’re feeling a little bit fancy, it’s a nicer restaurant and looks like a restaurant that you would see in California that sells Thai food; the food is also delicious, and they make amazing smoothies there, and it’s just a nice environment, with good, cheap food :). After we eat dinner, we will usually have team time, which is different every day; we have Worship on Mondays, Journey Markers on Tuesdays, Storytelling on Wednesdays, Feedback on Thursdays, Free for all (we get to do whatever we want) on Fridays, Teaching on Saturdays, and Sabbath on Sundays.
After Team Time, which is usually done by around 8, it’s my bedtime and I go to sleep :).
This is what a day in my life looks like in the week.
It has been kind of a challenge teaching kids because I like to have fun with them and not have to discipline them or make them listen to a boring lesson, but God has been teaching me the fun in teaching, and how to make teaching fun for the kids, through different activities and games. Also, the best feeling is when the kids understand something that you’re trying to teach them, and you see that it just clicks in their brain and they’re excited about learning. Another difficult part has been the language barrier, we don’t have translators and we are alone in the classroom with kids that barely speak any English, but there’s always google translate and God has been showing me that even when things don’t go the way as I planned, he has a plan for it all. I’ve learned that there are things that can mean so much more than words, like spending time with people and playing a game with them and making them feel seen, or even just simply smiling and giving high fives. Also, God is so much greater than any language barrier!
Update:
I’m sorry for not being very good about updating you guys lately, life can be pretty busy, but I promise, I’m back and will be posting as much as I can. Also, I have two blogs posted before this about my time in Ecuador, which was amazing. Thank you guys for being patient with me and supporting me through this journey!!
