Muskrat goes to Thailand: The Journey Begins

Sawadee Khrap (Hello) everyone.

Thanks for reading my blog. I am a little nervous because this is my first blog and I have no idea what I am supposed to say. I have never been a good writer and so I don’t expect to all of a sudden be become one now. So if there are a lot of grammar errors, you will just have to ignore them. If you know me you would expect them any how and would wonder who I paid to write for me if there weren’t any grammar errors.

This blog is going to be about my time here in Thailand as a WorldTeach volunteer. All this started about three years ago when I first got the urge to go abroad and serve. It was just a matter of finding the right program before it finally happened. Once I decided to go with WorldTeach, it was only a matter of fund raising enough to cover my volunteer program fee. Through the love and generosity of all my family and friends, I was able to raise the entire amount. I was even able to raise a little bit extra that will go to buying school supplies for the high school that I will be teaching at for the next year.

After I did all of the fundraising, I moved back to Richmond from Jackson Hole, Wy. Sadly, I was only home for a week before I had to hop on a plane to LA where I met up with the other twelve volunteers. They were all as excited as I was and were just as unprepared. We instantly became great friends and at 1:15 AM on October 1^st, 2010, we began our journey to Thailand.

I know this blog is way too long, but I have not been able to get onto the internet so I have had to combine a couple of blogs. After this first blog, all others will be much shorter. Anyways we landed in Thailand on Saturday around noon after almost 20 hours on a plane (which doesn’t include the whole day of travel just to get to LA). At this point we are all so excited to finally be in Thailand, but… we knew we were not done traveling yet. We still had a ten hour cramped van ride to the host school where we will be for the month during our orientation. We finally get there just after midnight and immediately head to bed after meeting our program director Jesica.

Sunday was a pretty laid back day. We got to go to the market which was pretty cool . It looked exactly like a market you would see on the travel channel. Everyone was staring and pointing at as while saying farrong (white foreigner)! It was really funny. I bought a couple of snacks and was shocked at how cheap everything is here. Pla Plak is the town we are in for the first month. It is a small town but with plenty of cool little restaurants. Each restaurant has its own specialty dish or two and that’s all they serve. So everyone needs to be in the mood for the same thing if you want to go out to eat together.

Everyone in the group is awesome. We get along so well and all we do is laugh. I don't think I could have asked for a better group of people. We are all around the same age, except for Peter who is 50. I came into this program thinking that I was totally unprepared. I thought everyone else would have been studying Thai for months, and would have already been to Thailand multiple times. But I was wrong. I actually knew more Thai than most and only two people had been to Thailand. I was so relieved that we were all on the same page.

Monday was a long long day of all classroom work, but I really enjoy it. I am really excited to learn Thai because I actually get to apply it, unlike French. Learning about their culture is fascinating, but learning how to teach is going to be hard. Lunch on Monday was so good. We went to this out door restaurant, most restaurants here are, but this one felt like it should have been on a white sandy beach. It was a big grass hut with beautiful flora. The food was fantastic. I am making sure to force myself to try everything no matter what it looks like or smells like because you never know what it’s going to taste like.

Tuesday was another long day. We had our usual class then lunch but then we were supposed to meet our school principle, but mine didn't show up. The Engish teacher from my school came instead. He was really nice and he is going to be taking care of me when I'm at my school. There was a long meeting with all the principles and then they had a party for us at their open air auditorium. They fed us these remarkable dishes family style so we got to try a little bit of everything. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like the food or not but I keep trying all types of new food. I am beginning to like the food more and more every meal.

After dinner they did this string tying ceremony which was intriguing. Then, they had a show for us with the traditional Thai dancers. The music was really cool and the dancers were entertaining. Then they made everyone get up and dance including all the volunteers... even me. Can you imagine me doing a Thai dance? Well it wasn't pretty. They made a big circle so people could dance in the middle, and then they made me do it… It was ugly, very ugly, but I survived, and it was actually really fun.

Even though it had only been two days, it felt more like two weeks. It rained everyday pretty much all day for the first couple of days that we were here. It didn’t bother me because I was enjoying myself thoroughly and having too much fun to worry about it. I am so happy here, its overwhelming. Too many new things to do, to try, and to learn. The people here are overwhelmingly nice. They love us, appreciate us, and want us here so they are doing everything they can to make us feel at home.

This year is off to a great start. I can’t wait t see what lies ahead!

Mai Pen Rai

Ben