If I Have to do ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes’ One More Time…

This week we visited some of the partnerships that the Help International Thailand Team had joined up with last year to volunteer. On Monday we took a tour of the Chiang Rai hospital. The hospital resembles the Arizona DMV on a Saturday afternoon. It is a big facility, and it is always VERY crowded, with awaiting patients holding a number. (Let's hear it for socialized medicine- thanks Obama!;)) They have sick patients sprawled out on stretchers lining the outside halls connecting each department. Aside from the overcrowding and lack of privacy, the public relations lady who took us around, Mapoon, told us that diabetes, back pains from working, cancer, high blood pressure, and scooter accidents are some of the main causes for the patients in the hospital. You would never believe how crazy of drivers they are here. Sunrise Mountain High school parking lot at lunchtime: Nothing compared to this. And, aside from the speedy maneuverings of motor bikes and taxis, they fit 1-4 people per scooter. With no helmets. And no baby seats. As in, they just tell the two year old to hold on and then they drive. It is disturbing to see. Especially while they are balancing bags of fruit from the fruit market and holding an umbrella.

The hospital has requested that we make some sort of exercise video, and has asked for help in holding/caring for sick children. We have also been brainstorming pro-helmet/scooter acdcident awareness projects…. Christopher is excited to serve in the different areas of the hospital.

On Tuesday we drove an hour and a half to Mae Sai, a smaller village of northern Thailand on the border of Burma. We met with the owner of the DEPDC, a children’s trafficking shelter where orphans, stateless, or poverty stricken children are educated and cared for. The school is located in the center of the golden triangle, where illegal activities and trafficking are rampant. The program focuses on trafficking prevention by offering a free education and opportunities for the at-risk children.

After debriefing us on the actual program, they asked us what skills we had to offer the center. I was the first one around the table who was supposed to list their special skills and talents.

“Um….”, the director could tell I was hesitating and said, “Don’t worry- it can be anything, like… Do you sing? The kids have loved to have voice instruction in the past from a volunteer who could sing opera.”
“No, I can’t really sing”.
“Can you play soccer? Last year we got two teams together- and they became really good-“
“No; not very good at soccer”.
“Arts and crafts?”
(I hate "crafts")
-no response-
“How about internet, we could really use a web master to update our information”.

I told the director I could teach English? (at least I have something going for me). We won’t return to the school until Wednesday because of the 5-day holiday celebrating Buddha’s birthday. We’ll keep you posted…

I never thought the years of song time in primary or leading the cheers of nonsense at Girls camp would pay off. This is a shout-out to all the primary teachers, the primary children, the primary chorister, the YW leaders, and the Girls Camp organizers. Thank you. With out knowing songs such as “Do as I’m Doing” and “The Princess Patt”, teaching English to 500 Thai children would be dull and un-effective.
On Wednesday and Thursday we participated in an English camp for kids from 1st-6th grade. So much fun!!!! Chris and I volunteered to teach the “Song and Dance” workshop for 12 different rotations.The kids at the Thai prep school now have a better understanding of the English terms for human anatomy, English commands, general vocabulary, greetings, and animal names. In other words, 500 children of Chiangraijaroonrat school can now sing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, If you’re Happy and You Know It, Old McDonald, Atutitat, A Great Big Moose, Sharks, Row Row Row Your Boat, Nice to Meet you, Hello-Hello, Do as I’m doing, and Mylee Cyrus’s Party in the USA. (I thought it was needful to work that one in).
I am 100% sure that life would be complete in entertaining and teaching others to overcome the challenge of learning another language and culture. I told Chris, it’s a good thing we got married before this experience, or there would have been a good chance that I would never make it home. The schools need native English speakers to help teach English. A life of fruit right off the tree (in season all year long), mango sticky rice, and Pocky sticks does not seem all that bad. I would, however, need to look into shipping some diet coke over from the U.S.; If the Thai people only knew what they are missing. I could get used to the no-toilet-paper- un-hygienic-bathrooms, the mosquitos, the humidity, driving on the left side of the road, the lack of granola and bread (replaced with Muesli and white rice), and even the mounds of salt they seem to prefer in any fruit smoothie.

It has been such a great experience to lead the kids at the Thai prep school, and even the English Teachers of the school and other volunteers in teaching/learning English. I hope that Chris and I can spend the rest of our lives having such experiences. True- I don’t have a lot of skills to serve/teach others right off, but teaching what I do know with creativity, adapting to new cultures and customs, and making new friends are talents I can share!

Today was the first day of the five-day holiday/festival to celebrate Buddha’s Birthday (which is next Tuesday). Most places have all closed down, and so we are taking the weekend to travel south to Chiang Mai. We heard about some different cool hikes and Wats that we are excited to visit. We are also planning on visiting one Wat to “learn how to mediate with some of the Monks” for an evening. Chris and I plan to bike around to some of the different Wats of Chiang Rai tomorrow morning to see if they are in need of any English instructors for the summer before we leave for Chiang Mai.

We were all EXHAUSTED from running the English camp and slept in this morning. (So..., past 7 A.M. for all us jet laggers). Last night we had gone into town to have some legit American pizza, to get a massage, and to walk around the Night Bazaar. The night life is apparently the thing to experience in Chiang Rai.

Today piled into a taxi truck and rode about 45 minutes out into a mountainess jungle area where we hiked up to a waterfall. It was fun to swim in the water and cool off. Giab, one of the English teachers at the thai school, came with us; she wore a long sleeve shirt and long pants while we wore swimsuits and coverups. At first I thought we should have been more covered up for the hike as well, but then I learned that Giab was doing so to prevent any kind of a new tan. The Thai's hate dark skin, and instead of skin toners and skin bronzers, the grocery stores have skin whiteners.

We were planning to stop by a white temple on the way back, but our country director, Dave, stepped on a sharp rock that left a pretty deep gash in his foot. We figured it would be cheaper to drive back out in the country another day to see the white temple, than it would be to amputate. So we drove about fifteen minutes to what was a type of ranger station, but no one was there as it was a holiday. We all sat around Dave, arguing about whether or not it was good to apply instant antibacterial sanitizer to a deep open wound, when our driver came over with some kind of plant and started rubbing it on Dave’s foot. None of us knew what the plant was, but we watched him continue to cut off leaves/stems from the plant and apply the juice to his foot. We thought it was a wound we could just super glue back-up, so we had the driver take us home. Chris had fun playing doctor, and cleaned out Dave’s wound, applied some superglue, and wrapped it up real good. When we got home from dinner tonight, Chris unwrapped Dave’s foot- just to check on it. The wound, sealed with super glue, had blown up with puss and blood- it didn’t look good. So they asked our neighbor Pmay, to borrow her scooters, and took Dave to the hospital. Chris just showed me the video he took of the nurse cutting the infected blood pocket off. It was just as gross as it sounds.

We are loving our opportunities to serve others and try new things in Chiang Rai. We are making some great new friends, and looovvvveeee eating and learning to make the legit Thai food from a lady we pay for meals. We found another woman who said she would do our laundry for 2 baht a garment. (One U.S. dollar is roughly 30 baht). We love you guys and miss you!!!