I am leaving in less than two days!
The reality of this is starting to sink in, after a long conversation with a friend of mine who is going to Thailand with me and another conversation with a dear friend I made in Thailand this summer. I am really so excited about this rare opportunity to revisit the country I quickly learned to love this summer.
All that separates me and Chiang Mai University is one more day of packing and planning, a few more quick goodbyes, a twenty hour flight to China, a night in Tai Pei, and a four hour flight the following morning. It's going to be amazing.
To give you a snapshot of what my next weeks will look like, here is a list of the components of my program:
January 10 - 23: Orientation/Language classes and internship scouting
January 24 - 27: Trip to the Karen village (indigenous people group in Northern Thailand)
January 28 - March 13: Language, writing, and culture classes in the morning, internship in the afternoon, different weekend trips.
March 14 - 19: Group traveling
March 20 - 17: Spring Break
March 28 - May 1st: Village stay in the mountains!
My program officially ends on May 3rd, but I will be staying for a week after that to revisit some places I worked at this summer (ChonBuri, Phanat Nikom, Bangkok, etc). Some of my friends (Jon Bert, Kara Skarda, and Kaitlin Wheeler) will be going with me and I just found out a few minutes ago that a good friend who was on my team this summer will be teaching English in Thailand this spring! It will be so good to see her again. She lives in California and I haven't seen her since our debrief in August.
I am also hoping to visit the Tamar Center in Pattya, Thailand (which is a city known for its sex tourism). This center provides aftercare programs and counseling and job training for women who choose to leave prostitution. When I started making my jewelry last year for the Not For Sale Campaign (which helps fund abolitionist groups working against slavery and oppression worldwide), I developed a burden to pray for and learn more about people who are made victims through the sex trade. It seems like this particular program is really meeting the needs of women and children in Pattya and I hope I can witness the things they are doing firsthand when I'm in Thailand.
Thank you so much, to each of you, who have been such sources of encouragement to me as I've been preparing to leave! Your prayers mean a lot.
Next time you'll hear from me, I'll be in THAILAND :) Stay tuned for more updates!
