Progress Made

Here are just a few photos from the construction project in the slum community...

Construction Brings Exhaustion

Things are in full swing here in Bangkok...Teaching English classes, Hanging out with the children in the slums, Rebuilding the home of an elderly woman, Preparing to work in Pattaya!!! The rain has been pouring almost continuously and with such has come numerous mosquitos and flooding! There is an elderly woman in the slums, named Ye Noit who is quite frail, but full of fire and laughter. Her home is located between two canals; therefore, the rain and flooding has created numerous issues, causing the floor of her home to cave in and the much of the framing to collapse. I have been working with a team from Canada to rebuild her home this week, though little work is actually accomplished most days as she loves to take us on silent walks with the occasional misunderstood outbursts of laughter! She is a dear soul in the community and would like to open her home for childrens bible studies once it has been completed. After working construction in the mornings, I teach English classes at the university in the afternoons...My students do not believe that I am from America and tell me that I must either be English or French, still not exactly sure why that is. I will be going to Pattaya (The Prostitute Capital of the World) on Sunday for 4 days to teach English and Jewelry Making at a Prostitute Rehabilitation Center. I am eager to begin working with the young women, as that is where my passion is found, but I am finding purpose and blessings in my work in the meantime. I have had many meaningful conversations with both students and foreigners throughout the past week and am excited to see where such interactions will lead. Thank you all for the many encouraging emails this week...your words always seem to arrive at the moment they are most needed.

Thai Beginnings

Greetings from Bangkok! I hope that this post finds each of you well and in good spirits. I want to thank you for your continued prayers, support and encouragement. It is almost surreal to be back in this part of the world, despite its long time coming; I felt almost overwhelmed as I stepped off the airplane in Thailand, numerous thoughts/questions/anxieties/excitement and even perhaps, a slight bit of fear ran through my mind. Alas, I am here, 14 hours ahead of the place I left behind and ready for the journey to continue. I have been in Bangkok just a few short days, but already my days are bustling with activity. I returned to the slum community that I had worked at last year and was greeted with many familiar faces and warm smiles; i was also greeted with the grave reality of the poverty that still exists and the ways in which it presents itself in such communities...Drugs, Prostitution, AIDS, Starvation, Illness and even death, as endearing faces once touched were no longer visible, but had become a memory, a picture on a wall. Amidst such a sad and troubling place, one cannot help but smile at the joy in an innocent child's eyes and the laughter that exists in spite of the brokenness that surrounds them. I was able to clean a school in the community that had been shutdown 2 weeks prior due to the Swine Flu epidemic and had many rowdy little helpers to assist me in the task. I was also able to visit some of the elderly women that I had spent so many afternoons with the year before and was grateful to reconnect with them. Apart from my time in the slums, my days have also been filled with teaching English classes to students at a nearby University. I have approximately 30 Thai students total with classes running 2 hours 4 days per week! It is an incredible opportunity to invest in the future leaders of Thailand and to challenge them to something greater.
I will try to keep these posts relatively short, but I want to thank you once again for your thoughts and prayers. I will be updating this blog weekly in attempt to keep you all informed of what is going on throughout my journey. Blessings to you all!