What I'm Doing in Thailand

Before leaving it was very unclear what exactly I would be doing in Thailand. People would ask, and they would all get the same answer, "Community service with American high school students."

Today I thought I would clarify just a little.

There are about 40 high school students who stay at the Ricefields Base. Some weeks there are more, some weeks there are less. As a staff, we organize projects for these students to do. Each project runs for all 12 weeks in the summer, and each project is done for two or three hours every morning, or every afternoon.

I'm in charge of running a program called Swing Sets, Kiddies and Coloring Books. My program works with two local schools helping to provide care in their nurseries. We work with about 60 toddlers working on building fine and gross motor skills, and at one school we are painting a mural that will go all around the base of their nursery.

The high school students are given choices as to what they would like to work on every morning and afternoon. One project, Meals on Flip Flops, delivers meals to those who are in need in the village we live in. Welcome Homes is building a house for a woman, very much like Habitat for Humanity. Hands in the Dirt is working to create an organic garden to provide food for the monks at the temple next door. (Monks cannot prepare, grow, or buy their own food. They rely on people to donate it, or they must beg.) The Village Health Project works with the local clinic that has only two nurses to service approximately 7,000 people. Bobbing and Floating teaches kids that are in third and fourth grade who to swim. There rice fields at every turn here, but many of the kids don't know how to swim, so drowning is a serious problem.

And the list goes on. There are about 12 different projects running all the time.

Each project is headed by someone with a really strong background in that area, so we have quite the diverse group of folks here, who are really qualified to be doing what they are doing. Each project also has two Thai staff members with a (usually) pretty solid background in that area, and some serious translation skills.

Overall, we have a really great time. I work every morning with my kids until about 11:30. We eat lunch, and then I either go out on an afternoon project until about 3:30 or I help around the base. No matter what I choose to do, there is always ample time for a solid run in the afternoon, and some serious swimming and book reading. At night we all stay at the base and play games, or go to Udon Thani to check out the local markets, get massages, eat more yummy Thai food, or explore.