Month Seven: Bangkok, Thailand
March 2016
This month we worked with refugees in a community center. Most of the refugees were from Vietnam, Laos, and one family was from Sudan.
In the community center we taught preschool to about 30 students five days a week. We would teach the kids the alphabet, phonic sounds, and practice writing. After we would have an art class filled with nothing short of paint, glue, and crayons, and on the rare occasion scissors. To get rid of some of their never ending supply of energy we would have a “gym” class. Filled with games, songs, workouts, and lots of jumping.
Several times a week we would host a tutoring night for the students to get extra help with their English. We would bring about twenty-five students in for extra help, from the ages of five to over forty years old!
Every Saturday we would assit teaching an English class to about fifty people from only a few years old, to adults. We would sing, play matching games, color, assist the teacher during her lesson. The older students would all go downstairs to prepare a new recipe for everyone to eat for lunch. Each student would learn how to cook without MSG and with fresh fruits and vegetables. While the older kids would be cooking, we would take the younger kids outside to play. After we would finish lunch, everyone would pile back upstairs to continue learning English by playing games.
Top Eleven Moments from Thailand:
1. Seeing Death Cab for Cutie, in Bangkok. That entire night was completely unforgettable
“You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down”
2. The first day of preschool when we felt we had all 30 kids under control. I give a lot of respect to all teachers, you truly are a gift from heaven.
3. Daily walks around the Wal-Mart of Thailand “Big C” to escape the heat. There was a dairy queen in front of Big C, so, for about a dollar, I would get a chocolate dipped vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles on it.
4. Sleeping in the storage closet next to my teammates Lupita and Carson. Late night talks, laughs, and always asking each other “are you still awake?”
5. Ashmira, my sweet sweet friend from Sudan. She was so loving, such a wonderful mother and wife. We conquered the public bus to go to the craft store so I could get crocheting materials. We would sit and just talk and laugh. She would show me new patterns, tricks, tips. Her husband also made delicious coffee. 
6. Every Saturday the Community center was filled to the brim with people of different backgrounds, history, and representatives of different countries. They would all pile in one room to learn English, by this sweet British woman. After class, the younger ones would begin playing, and the teenagers and adults would learn how to prepare different types of food. We would all eat together laughing. After lunch and cleaning up, we would go back to teaching English, playing a game, or exercise.
7. Eating dinner with Mr. Hao and his family.
8. Getting to go wandering and exploring the city of Bangkok with Lupita and our new friend Norah. From rooftop views, riding the subway, finding different restaurants, exploring markets. It was absolutely wonderful.
9. Attending a four year olds birthday party. We ended up at the kids table, and were brought into a giant food fight.
10. Getting to cut three of the boys hair in the community!!
11. One of our final nights, the men of the community all prepared a traditional Vietnamese meal for us all to share. There were over 35 people all sitting on the floor, laughing, sharing food, singing, and sharing conversation.
