THAILAND
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Geography: Thailand borders Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. Fun fact number one: Thailand is the only Asian country not colonized by Europeans. (There aren’t too many of those in the world, actually!) Fun fact number two: The official ceremonial spelling of the Capitol, Bangkok, is actually (get ready for this, I can’t make this up!)
Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit
8 words. 169 characters.2 Yeah. Don’t even think about telling me to learn how to pronounce that.
Fun fact number three: it’s also the most visited country in the world. In the world. That’s crazy.
This blog could just be called fun facts about Thailand. Fun fact number four: Every year there is an annual monkey buffet. Not a buffet where people eat monkeys, a buffet where monkeys are invited to eat OVER FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS of food. Ice cream, fruit, sausage, etc. How is a monkey supposed to eat better than I do?? I’m just gonna hope if they treat their monkeys to this kind of special treatment I’ll be eating pretty well 😉 2
Size and Climate: Thailand is about the size of two Wyomings, or this:
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That space contains more than 67 million people, making it the world’s 20th most populous country. For some context, all the human beings in California – the most populous state in the U.S. – isn’t even half of that. It’s tropical, so rainy and warm. We will be getting there the tail end of monsoon season so we are expecting hot and humid. Yay for more longs skirts and shoulder coverings!
Language and People: The official language is Thai, spoken by 90% of the people. Fortunately for us, English is a common second language of the elite – oh wait, we won’t be hanging out with the elite. Never mind! 🙂 I’ll be rapidly expanding my ability to communicate in other languages by this point.
You knew it was coming! Check this out:
Fascinating, hu? This is the first time we’ve seen a country where the majority of the population wasn’t children. They had a population boom and now their birth rate has declined substantially within the past generation. Thailand has the oldest median age of any of the countries we’ve looked at so far (just trust me on that. I’ve spared you all the explicit details.) Thailand also has the highest maternal age we’ve seen and fewest births per mother. 23 and 1.5 kids, respectively.
GDP per capita is a pretty large step away from what we saw in Malaysia. It’s $14,000 per person, per year. To accentuate this, 13% of the population lives below the poverty line, however only 1% of the country is unemployed – that’s one of the best rates in the world. They are also dominantly a service based economy. Now we get into the depressing stuff.
“Service based economy” usually means tourism, financial services, or distribution primarily affect GDP. Black market activities are not included in GDP and aren’t regulated by the government. Thailand has a huge red light district, and Thailand is known as the sex tourism capitol of the world. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but that doesn’t stop North Americans from being 25% of sex tourists in the world. Let that one sting for a second…
“Thailand is often called “Disneyland for pedophiles” and has up to 600,000 AIDS cases. The number of prostitutes in Thailand ranges from 800,000 to 2 million, 20% of whom are 18 or younger.”4 Needless to say Thailand is in the top 20 in the world for the most people living with HIV/AIDS as well as the most people in the country dying from HIV/AIDS. This is a problem.
It goes without saying that it’s quite likely our ministry this month will be in bars ministering to and loving on girls in this industry. AIM does this really really well. I’ve read blogs about a team of World Race girls going into a bar, ordering coke, bringing a card game, and playing with girls in the afternoon when there are fewer customers just to get a chance to love on them and talk to them. One team was playing worship music outside a bar and got invited to come in and play on the stage! However there is also a coffee house in Thailand that AIM works with where World Racers volunteer with and minister through as well as the opportunity to teach English in one of the villages with a pastor and his family. Ministry opportunities will be varied wherever we go and we will not always have an option, but sometimes they let teams choose where they would rather serve if there are multiple options available.
Why I’m Excited: My heart got wrecked for human trafficking and sexual exploitation with the rest of the world at Passion 2012. I had the opportunity to work with an organization this past year that fought sex trafficking in Atlanta. Being able to work with a grassroots organization like that taught me so much and was an incredible way to live out something I have a heart for. Being able to work the opposite end of that – be on the proactive end of reaching girls in their darkest place – will probably kill me but be really close to my heart.
This will be a hard month, but I’m excited to get to serve and love in a way I wouldn’t ever get to unless I go with a team like this. There will probably be a lot of spiritual warfare this month. There will probably be a lot of tension and strain on our team as we deal with these heartbreaking, emotionally draining scenarios. I’m asking for your prayers. I’m asking for it for every month, but especially as we spend this month loving on those in bondage that we would convey the power of the King to break every chain and that he would free the chains in our own lives as we serve Him.
1 – http://www.trailsofindochina.com/thailand/map
4 – http://pulitzercenter.org/blog/untold-stories/thailand-worlds-sex-tourism-capital (Do yourself a favor, don’t read this. I read it for you and extrapolated the important things and left out the gruesome. Your stomach isn’t strong enough. Don’t read it.)
5 – All other information from the CIA World Factbook for Thailand
