The hill tribe people are among some of the poorest of Thailand, and I feel privileged that we get to work with them and they so lovingly and readily bring us into their village family. One of the groups of volunteers had been down building a pavilion school and digging some holes for a couple of community latrines we are putting in next week, so the rest of our group had some downtime before we began teaching. I literally walked around for over an hour with a hoard of Thai babies fighting over who got to hold my hands and pointing out things and saying them in English and then having them say them in Thai. I wish more than anything I could speak Thai and communicate exactly how I want to with all of the wonderful people here, but in all honesty it actually hasn't been as rough as I anticipated it being. Our country directors are great and translate a lot, but there are just so many ways to communicate and show that you love and care about someone with out necessarily saying the words. I think of all the people in my life that love me and serve me and go out of their way to show me that they care instead of only telling me and they are a wonderful example to me. I have loved having the time to reflect on how I show love and how I can do it more fully for the specific people I come into contact with in life. As these Akha children and I walked around pointing out trees and chickens and passing motorcycles, we also learned each others names. Once they learned mine I would point to me and everyone would say mine and then point to one of the kids and everyone would say theirs and then laugh for 5 mins :) Here is a short clip of them working on my name :) Bless them for being a country that can actually say my name. Being Susan abroad is the wooooorst.
I'm falling hard for Thailand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkmokaCS3U4
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