This month has been absolutely amazing. I wish I could put into words what it is like to be in Thailand. I wish I could capture with a lens the curiosity in the eyes of the children, the vastness of the landscape, the taste of the food, and the hearts of the people. I wish I was a better writer, so you could really understand. I wish you were here alongside me to experience it. I wish.
This month we have been going into schools throughout our province of Samut Songkhram. School structure is not the same here as it is in America. All the students here wear uniforms, in every school. The girls wear white collared shirts with adorable little bow ties, navy blue skirts, and black maryjane type shoes. The boys wear white button down shirts, khaki shorts and brown converse-looking shoes. The students take off their shoes when they enter the classroom, so their halls are littered with black and brown uniform shoes.
We stand in front of students for 6-8 hours a day teaching them how to properly say, “Hello, my name is…”, different ways to answer, “How are you?”, and show them where we live on a US map. We play Pictionary, Charades, 4 Corners, Simon Says, Swords, and Gorilla, Man, Gun. We sing If You’re Happy and you Know It, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Making Melodies, and Every Move I Make. We use skits to show them the parable of the Good Samaritan and David and Goliath. We put them through the ringer; making them come on stage with us in front all of their peers and dance and speak to us in English. We then head home with tired bodies and joy filled hearts.
I don’t know what it is, but for me…seeing those brown uniform shoes every makes me smile. There is something about them that gives me strength on those days where I really just wanted to sleep in. Something about them gives me a rush of joy. Some of my other teammates and I fell in love with these brown shoes immediately, we knew we wanted them. So a few days ago, we made our way to a uniform store where 3 of us bought a pair of boys brown uniform shoes. They may be my favorite thing I have purchased here.
I wonder what they tell their parents when they go home. I wonder what they do with our photos and what the captions are on all their Facebook pages. I wonder what they do with the “Jesus Books” we gave them and then they asked us all to sign (like we are The Beatles or something). I wonder how they will remember us.
See, I don’t know how we will be remembered. I don’t know what they tell their friends and parents about us. My prayer is that they forget completely that 5 girls from America came to their school and played games with them. My prayer is that they remember someone came to their school sometime and they had love that they had never experienced before. My prayer is that they saw Jesus in us.
I know I will never forget their smiles, their laughs, or the way they sing “Making Merrodies”. I will never forget the way the girls looked passed the language barrier, straight into our eyes, and ran up with arms open for a hug. I will not forget thy joy they left in my heart. I have a reminder, I have my brown shoes.
The Superhero’s of Thailand.
Our new kicks.
