Sunday, May 8, 2011

sawadee ka

after over 31 hours of traveling (LAX-->Hong Kong-->Bangkok-->Chaing Rai), it is so good to settle into my new home in Chiang Rai. I am still thoroughly jetlagged, so we have been taking the last two days pretty easy. this includes...
riding on the back of elephants through my pretty new surroundings!
this will be our standard means of transportation--lucky our group of 12 fits nice && snug just perfectly.
visiting our clock tower and watching the little night show!

we have also been been enjoying the delish thai food that lines every street, checked out the local night market, and enjoyed a thai massage. working hard, right?
the real work starts this week! we have been asked to help teach at an english camp that will be held at an elementary school to help assist in teaching english to 500 kids-we are all so excited about it! it will be a fun and challenging experience. i am already realizing what a struggle this journey will be with the language barrier. i'm very grateful that three of the guys in our group fluently speak thai.
tuesday i get to meet with DEPCD (which is the non-profit community based NGO that works to prevent human trafficking) where we can start interacting and coming up with ideas and projects to be worked on this summer. i am really looking forward to this and have been preparing by keeping up w/ my readings that i talked about in a previous post.
friday is a major holiday here in thailand--happy birthday buddha! this means a day off for us as the whole city kind of shuts down for a religious celebration. i'm hoping to visit the white temple and maybe do some meditating!
loving this already and looking forward to start interacting and working with these amazing people.


1 comment:

  1. jamie! this all looks amaazing. such a cool project you're doing, too--truly an inspiration. keep on keeping us updated with your adventures!

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