Thailand Mission and Cultural Trip 2012 - Journal 5

The work in earnest began today! After a fun cultural weekend everybody is ready to get down to the business of “service” – the mission part of the trip. We all went to the High School for the first gathering of the first set of approximately 80 seventh graders for this first day of English Camp. Every day for the next seven school days the teaching team will have a different group each day of about 70-80 seventh graders. Seven members of the team chose to work with this English Camp (tomorrow an eighth will join them). The students were divided into 5 groups, which rotated among our team members every 30 minutes. Each team member chose what they wanted to do to help the students with their English. Much of it was interactive with games, and story-telling (biblical and secular), and many other ways of helping with their language skills.

The other 12 of us went to work on the farm. It was hot; but not as hot as some previous years. I brought enough water and electrolyte juices to keep us refreshed. We are going to replace the shed under which Uncle Presarn spends most of his day. The basic frame will come from the trees on the property. Today we guys lifted them from a distance away to the shed. Some were very heavy and took 4 of us to lift it. The guys then spent the rest of the morning stripping the bark off. All of them got blisters! Ah, the sacrifice!

The girls and I spent the morning weeding the pepper field. The earth was soft, so they rooted the weeds up with their hands. I am a hoe-man; and that was my instrument of choice! We got over 12 rows done. It was hard work in the blazing sun. At least the guys were working in the shade!

The International Culture extravaganza here at the University ended with a Food Fair. Each of the team members got 100 baht (about $3.00) to spend. We were full when we were done, and the food and the variety were very good.

Tonight we began the evening Community English Camp operated by the University Church in their Community Center downtown. We run the first part like a VBS with lots of interactive singing. Then we separate them into 3 groups: the small kids, the intermediate, and the adults and high school. The team helps each group to practice their English in a variety of ways, similar to the morning Camp at the High School. Not many were there tonight as were there last year. In reality there were more in our team than those present. I’m sure it will grow. We had a great time. The kids are so precious!

We ended the evening with a brief stop at the Monday night market, where we drank Fanta out of a plastic bag, many tried durian for the first time, and had fun purchasing CDs. It was a good day!