bali && back

Once again, I have left too much time between the last blog post. Thus, making it simply impossible to remember all that has happened over the course of the past few weeks. But as always, I will do my best to recount those details that stand out most!

DEPDC

I don’t know how it’s possible to love these kids even more with each additional day that I go there, but somehow, I always leave that place with an even greater love for those sweet kids. Recently, we were finally able to teach in an actual classroom instead of in the gated area we usually teach where the kids feel free to run around instead of sitting in one spot, behind desks. But now, thanks to the help of another NGO, a classroom has been restored where we can now teach with desks for the kids to sit at on the floor. It’s amazing how much structure those pieces of wood have instilled in the classroom. The kids love the room. One thing that I’ve come to love about these kids, as well as the majority of Thai people, is there constant effort to keep their surroundings clean. Without ever being asked, these kids are constantly sweeping up the dirt and filth left behind to leave the floor clean. The students at DEPDC are always sweeping up the mess they have left behind; always in better condition than when they entered the room. They do this multiple times throughout the day in the classroom.

Along with the desks, we have also developed the infamous star chart. On the chart is each student’s name with a red/yellow card next to it. If they misbehave, we have the authority (so official, right?) to give them a yellow card, as a warning. If they continue to misbehave, we flip it to red. The students who go throughout the day without receiving a red card are able to put a sticker next to their name at the end of the day. Once they reach three stickers, they get a prize. The kids have come to love this. I must admit, though, it’s often hard giving out red cards to those sweet faces.

We have taught them so much already, and it’s amazing how well they retain all the information. Especially the songs we teach them. (Days of the week to the Adam’s Family tune is an all time fav, thanks to Coco) We have covered lessons on geography, transportation, directions, colors, days, months, occupations, family, the list goes on. I love reviewing what we’ve taught in the past at the beginning of each lesson.  They love showing what they remember and I think it’s a good confident boost for them to see how much progress they are making with each day.

even the girls loved playing american football w/ us:]

Recovery School

I love these girls. I love this school. I only wish I could speak more Thai.

These girls are so sweet. I admire each and everyone as they carry themselves so well, always with such a positive attitude; never without a smile. However, I wish more than anything that I could connect with them more. The language barrier that I’ve experienced since my arrival in May has, by far, been most difficult for me at this school because I so badly want to openly communicate with these girls. I want to talk with them and learn about their life, their concerns, their worries, their hopes, their future, but to be simply honest, I cannot. That has been really hard for me, and I try, instead, to focus on what I can do. I can teach them basic English. I can teach them how to make a bracelet, draw a picture, sing a song, play a game. Or what I’m especially good at, sing Justin Bieber with them.

Those things may seem so mundane, but I really have come to believe that these simple things are the things that can make a difference. I really feel like they have come to enjoy learning a little more. They enjoy working and gardening a little more. And doesn’t that enjoyment bring about a greater desire to continue working? Continue gaining an education?

We have been teaching our weekly English class and our weekly creativity class. We have also begun helping with anything else they may need a hand with: digging trenches, helping with construction, moving a huge pile of dirt one bucket at a time… My biggest goal with these girls and with this school is to be there, every day that I initially said that I would. Even if something comes up and the girls can’t come to class, I ask what we can do instead—what manual work do they need help with? Anything. And so, we really have been doing a little of everything around there. And I really think they love us just being there. The last week there was a holiday and the teacher told us that a good portion of the girls would be gone (some girls still do have a family that they are permitted to visit on special occasions) and, therefore, only some would be able to come to class. She told us that we didn’t need to teach. I replied by telling her that we would do whatever the girls wanted. I assumed the girls would want the day off and thought that we could help out with grounds work instead. To my surprise, when the teacher asked the girls if they wanted us to come the next morning for class, every single girl’s head nodded as they excitingly said, “yes!”.  And so we did.

their awesome lily pond serves as these girls' pool

every time they swim, without fail, they pick me one of those flowers

I love the schools I am working with and love their goals and aims to help these kids. DEPDC is such a great organization and is truly effective in their prevention against human trafficking. Monsaengdao school is amazing in their protection program, teaching these girls who have been victims of trafficking and abuse an alternative lifestyle as they gain an education and learn new life skills. They both help so much in improving these kids lives in all areas, and instilling a greater confidence in each one’s heart. I love this and I love that I am able to be a small part of all that they do.

But I still worry about all those who don’t have the opportunity to be a part of such organizations. The kids who don’t have an opportunity to go to school. Or the kids who haven’t been rescued and are still suffering from all forms of abuse and exploitation.

The other day, as I was doing some research, I randomly turned to look out the window and saw a truck packed with children. Literally, packed. I wondered what all these kids were doing as this was not a typical bus or car for school children or anything of the sort. My eyes fell to the words written on the truck, ‘Destiny Rescue.’ I immediately pulled up the website to learn about this organization. Only to find out that this organization goes into areas and brothels to rescue children being trafficked. My heart stopped and I just stared into the faces of these innocent children. I silently prayed for their safety and thanked God, from the bottom of my heart, that these kids were on the way to a better life.
Two minutes didn’t pass before I began composing an email to this organization, inquiring more, and thanking them for their effort in helping children like this.

And now, I selfishly end with my recent adventures. It’s scary to think that I am coming to my last weeks, my last days, here. I don’t want it to end. I’m not ready to leave. Had I been following my initial plans, I would be gone by now, for good. Traveling to other countries. But I wanted to prolong my stay here in Chiang Rai as long as possible and, instead, decided to take just a few days off (along with the days off I received from another Buddhist holiday) to spend a week in Bali, Indonesia. It was amazing. I loved it. And I’m completely satisfied with my decision to come back to Chiang Rai instead of traveling elsewhere. Because there was nothing better than coming back to this town and to my rock hard mat on the ground. And there will be nothing better than seeing my kid’s faces at DEPDC and Monsaengdao when I go to teach some of my last classes.

But for now, a little recap…

before leaving for bali, i was able to spend a few priceless days in phuket with these two wonderful people.

sonny & sharmila

i had the best time with them. they were far too kind to me. they let me stay w/ them at their nice hotel (i practically went into shock after showering in a bathroom that is separated from the toilet, with hot water-can you believe it?) and took me along on all their fun excursions they had planned on the island. we went to phi phi island, snorkeled, saw a monkey show, kissed an elephant, had italian food, played at the beach, and went to a cashew factory to fill up on endless samples of every different flavored cashew and dried fruit. sharmila & i indulged in the fresh fruit as we were never capable of passing up a fresh fruit stand anywhere we went.

words cannot express how much i love these two && how thankful i was to be able to meet them here in thailand. they have been so kind and loving to me throughout the years and also supported me so much when i told them i was planning on volunteering here this summer. it was one of my favorite weekends here, by far. can't wait to see them again when i get home.

ohh && did i mention harry potter?

yes, this is me. seeing harry potter. alone. in phuket. vip theater. after taking a taxi across town with some strange man requesting to be my 'thailand daddy'? long story...
all you need to know is that it was amazing. && to all you in america, keep in mind i saw it one whole day before you:]

and then comes bali...

padang padang. complete surfer town.

balangan bay

this was our hostel, directly on the beach. our floors where nothing but wood boards and our walls were weaved leaves. so sketch, but so fun.

and then to ubud!

monkey forest

our favorite hostel of all!

the rice fields built upon the hill of the mountains were indescribable

breakfast by batur volcano

me & my holland friends

biking ubud!

did you know poinsettias grow in bali, year round? it's like christmas all year long!

got rice?

lembongan island

which means diving, of course

manta point--where i saw giant manta rays :]

and then to sanur

and then we made our way back home to chiang rai on endless taxis, flights, and buses.

i had subway twice at the phuket airport while waiting for our next flight. it was a necessary fix.

krystal & i were unsure of if our bus would make it back to chiang rai as it stalled and stopped going up the hill.

once again. unable to pass up that fresh cold fruit.

happy to be back home in chiang rai!

across the border

This weekend I had to leave the country in order to re-enter and renew my visa here in Thailand. So, Krystal, Jordan, and I decided to head to the border. We didn’t want to do a quick in and out trip, but really wanted to see more of Burma. We have heard so much about it since we arrived here in Thailand. I wanted to see what it was like. Many of the students we teach at DEPDC are from Burma and, each day, cross the border to Mae Sai to come to school and obtain an education that they otherwise would not have the privilege of getting. It’s these children in Burma that are so at risk of being trafficked because they have such limited access to education and work opportunities. I wanted to see this place. So, we decided to spend out Saturday exploring Burma. Luckily, our friend, Rachel, had obtained the number of a Burmese man who gave day tours in Burma from a couple they had met while traveling. We called up Saimon and told him we would meet him at the border Saturday morning.

[Burma is now under the name of Myanmar as it was renamed by the military when the miltary took over the country]

The bus was especially crowded. It was my first time taking it on the weekend. Luckily, we somehow managed to get a seat. I ended up right next to the bus driver, turned sideways and facing him with my legs wedged between his seat and the stick shift. I had to move my legs each time he shifted gears. After the two hour bus drive, we hopped in a song taew and headed to the border. Right when I stepped out, a tall dark man came up to me and said “Hello, I am Saimon-are you the ones doing the tour?” Easy enough, right? Saimon was great. He walked us through the procedure of getting through the border. It was a $10 entry fee. He immediately warned us about the procedure. “If they ask for 500 BHT, say no. Say that you will only pay what the law says, $10. Just say that you will not.” Fortunately, the three of us didn’t run into this problem while entering and managed to get through just fine. They printed out a temporary passport and withhold your passport while in the country. I didn’t know that would be the case and began to slightly panic when I put out my hand to collect my passport and he shook his head. I’ve been told to never leave my passport as collateral. But, in this case, there wasn’t much that I could do. So I trusted it would be okay and headed on through the border.

When I think of a day tour, I think of driving around, making some stops at temples or some good scenery locations. Not with Saimon. Saimon gave us the VIP tour. He took us to places we could have never gone without him. We walked through the local villages, through the alleys between people’s homes made up of cinderblock and a tin roof. He did take us to temples, and he did take us to some awesome views…but we trecked around all day on foot to do so. The only time we sat out of the 8 hours we were with him was when we made a quick stop for lunch at the local market. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. It made the whole experience that much better.

I can’t even begin to describe what it was like. We saw so much, in so little time, and he never took us on a path that we had already walked. He took us to a Buddhist monastery where we were able to see Burmese Monks and Nuns meditate. We happened to come by right when they were about to break for lunch, I was sad to see most of them exiting to go eat because I wanted to watch them a little longer. But then Saimon told us to follow him. He took us downstairs into the hall where they all ate. I couldn’t believe it…there was not a noise made throughout the whole room. Not the cling of a spoon or a whisper of conversation; complete silence. It was incredible to watch. It was as if every single movement made by these individuals was done with some alternative purpose, so carefully and with such thought. I watched as one nun passed the water pitcher to the other, so gently, without even being asked to pass it. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have such patience and concentration, yet I was watching it take place right before me.

One thing that was so cool about being there in Burma, was to see everyone’s excitement of seeing these three white farangs (foreigners) walking through their villages and near their home. I never anticipated the friendliness that we encountered. Every home we stopped at to say hello invited us in for tea or for something to drink. We were met with nothing but smiles throughout the day. However, my favorite encounter was early on in our journey.

As we were hiking up a steep alley way, I noticed a girl from the corner of my eye standing in front of her home that resembled a concrete block. I knew that girl. Before I could even say anything, Krystal had already turned to me and said, “She’s from DEPDC.” Though she wasn’t a student in our class,  we immediately recognized her sharp black eyes on that petite body. At this time, the girl was smiling with her hands held timidly up to her mouth. We told Saimon that we knew her from where we teach. Saimon looked at the girl and, in Burmese, asked, “Do you know these girls?” She smiled even bigger and nodded. At this time her parents had stepped outside and after hearing the conversation, they too had huge smiles on their face. The dad held the girl close to his knee, looked down at her and then towards us and invited us in for tea. We were short on time, so we had to carry on—but we thanked them for the offer. We then looked at this girl and told her we would see her on Monday.

Later on, we passed by some more children and a young boy, playing with his friends, called out to us. He also recognized us from DEPDC. It was so humbling to be able to see where these children live and to see the conditions that they are growing up in. They have so little, yet their smiles are so big. Jordan and I were talking about how refreshing it was to see children out in the streets, simply just playing. It reminded me of when I was young and would just run around in the street with all my neighborhood friends. I feel like this is something we see less and less of in the states as more video games and technological contraptions continue to come out, consuming so much of kids’ play time.

i loved this kid w/ tape tied around his arms, legs, waist, and head; superhero attire

Another cool place we went to was a private Chinese school. I though DEPDC gets out of control sometimes…this school took on a whole new level of chaos. There were kids running around everywhere, yelling and screaming. When we walked on the school grounds, things only escalated. We felt like celebrities walking around. At one point, we turned to look behind us and there were a good 50 kids following. All of them were so excited to see us, and even more excited to use their English to yell out a “HELLO!” Every time that I would say hello to one of the kids, they would turn to their friend and start giggling before they could get out a “hello” in return. Jordan can speak Chinese and was able to talk to some of the students and teachers. The kids loved him. I don’t think they had ever talked to a white man in Chinese before. Some girls even came back up to Jordan and asked if we wanted to eat lunch with them. We kindly declined since we had just eaten. It was so fun to see all of the kids and to see how quickly the news traveled throughout those school grounds that farangs were here as more kids began to follow and pay notice to us.

the pack of kids following behind :]

The day flew by. It was a great day and an amazing experience. I keep trying to relive various moments in my head, in hopes that I won’t forget. I’ve found myself doing a lot of that ever since I arrived in Thailand. Everything about this experience has become so important to me and continues to teach me so much…where’s my harry potter penseive when I need it?

I’ve already written far more than I planned, so I’ll summarize what I left out with some pictures :] …

just a little trash...

i loved this little boy holding the umbrella for his dad

lunch time...

i think the strangest part of this pic is the big smile on her face...

prime.

trekking through some barbed wire & such

oh my heavenly chai

yesss! happy christmas :]

chinese temple

&& i really do.