in the making...

i am slowly, but surely, starting my preparation for my summer in thailand-and continuing to get more excited about it each and every day. i am currently coordinating with my school to try and earn internship credit through the psychology department. i have submitted a proposal as an individual internship and am just waiting for it to be approved so that i can start planning. i have also began sending out letters for donations which will go straight to the projects that i will be working on. my goal is to reach $4500 by April 1st. though i am not nearly close to reaching this yet, i'm keeping a positive attitude and continuing to send out letters!i have my training with HELP-International the 25th and 26th of this month and can't wait to get some more information on all that we will be doing abroad. i have recently taken the liberty of purchasing these two books on amazon to start learning more about human trafficking and in hopes that it will spark some ideas as to what i can do to make a difference and help those who are brought into such an unfortunate situation.

when i was home one weekend last month, i had the opportunity to have lunch with a very close family friend who is much like a second dad to me. we talked a little about my trip planned this summer and he expressed some concern with me going over there. he has been to thailand several times for business. his wife has always expressed a desire to vacation there, but he refuses to have thailand be a destination for their travel. he told me how appalled he has been with the way the men treat women in the country. he said that he simply cannot stand the way that the men show such little respect towards women, especially men from america. he told me that many men come and abuse their power, as their dollar is worth much more over there, and take advantage of the sex trafficking that is ever present throughout the country. he told me that it isn't even prevalent, it is everywhere. he told me, however, that he thought i was going for the right reason and that he would support me and was also proud of all that i'm doing. he was also so kind as to make a generous donation to the cause. i really appreciated his words and it also really encouraged me to start working now to prepare for my time that i will spend over there. i know that i won't be able to go over there and make some kind of miraculous change that thwarts human trafficking around the globe, but i am just really anxious to reach out to the individuals that i will be encountering and maybe help to prevent even just one individual from a younger generation from entering into that kind of lifestyle.