Dī māk dī, which describes how I am feeling today.. very very good! Not only did I have a pretty good, but busy, day teaching the kids all about Christmas (which again included pictures of Teacher Chelsea celebrating Christmas in America, Teacher Chelsea in the snow, and of course Milo dressed up as an elf.. which they LOVED!), I received not one but TWO care packages in the mail! Beside the fact that carrying two large packages home from school and on the songtell was a little challenging (I fell out of my seat on the songtell and into the woman next to me.. opps!), I was ecstatic! One from my mom which included the necessary magazines to give me my celebrity gossip fix and cosmo advice as well as spaghetti os, chicken flavored top ramon (Thailand has something like top ramon but it is all fish flavored), peanut butter, McDonalds sweet and sour sauce (only have plum sauce here at McDonalds.. anyone who knows me knows that along with ketchup, I LOVE sweet and sour and can’t eat nuggets without it), microwavable easy mac, and best of all homemade oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate fudge! Nothing says Christmas like my moms homemade fudge. Thanks Mom!!
My second package came from someone special, my fifth grade teacher Mr. Harney! Mr. Harney is my most favorite teacher I have had in my entire educational career. He has always been a creative teacher with a great sense of humor, encouraging to students and a wonderful role model (Mr. Harney, you tell your students they don’t know how good they have it! J ) In fifth grade, I learned how to follow the stock market, follow baseball stats (also learned to love the San Diego Padres), how to write a check, how to balance a checkbook (well, I could still work on budgeting my money), and basics of traveling around the United States (maybe that is what sparked my travel bug!). We have kept in contact and he has been so supportive of me over the years, including my decision to come teach in Thailand. In my box sent by Mr. Harney, which his awesome daughter Julianna helped with, were ritz crackers, four different types of cookies (you know me too well), almond snacks, and my new favorite candy Peanut Butter M&Ms. Also included were Christmas candy to coerce my kids to behave, such as candy canes and sponge bob gummy krabby patties. Julianna, wonderful job with the treats! So wonderful in fact, that it’ll be hard for me to share with the kids.. Thank you SO much Mr. Harney and Julianna!
Yesterday was a special day for me too. Last weekend, my school coordinator took me to the local orphanage to look into volunteering there. Khaen Thong Childrens Home, the only orphanage in Khon Kaen has about 200 children aged newborn to six years old. Yesterday was my first volunteering day! A few weeks ago, I decided that I really wanted to volunteer while in Thailand. From all my involvement with the Wellness program at UCSB, I had learned giving to your community and volunteering in general doesn’t just benefit the give-y, but greatly affects the quality of life and overall happiness of the giver.. and boy is that true. I showed up at 9am Sunday morning, ready to just play with some babies. When I went last weekend with my coordinator, they were very excited that I wanted to help out and even said they wanted me to be around the 2 – 3 year olds that are in the process of being adopted by foreign families in hopes that the children would get more used to the foreign face. They just needed me to fill out a quick application with my information to be approved by the supervisor and when I called on Wednesday to check up on it, they said I was good to come on Sunday morning. But when I showed up yesterday morning, there was only one woman there in the office and she happened to speak not a word of English. But even so, she encouraged me to sit down and began trying to communicate with one another, very awkwardly and unsuccessfully. She then pulled up google translator on her computer, and we began to communicate that way.. thank goodness for technology! She asked if I were here “to visit children” and I typed that I was here “to volunteer. Application already finish” (keeping English simple is a good idea here). She immediately lit up and was so excited that I was here to volunteer. She grabbed another woman who was maybe from a side office who grabbed her phone to call a friend who could interpret for us. The woman on the phone asked all about what I’m doing in Thailand, volunteering here, etc. Then, the ladies hung up the phone and asked if I could wait about 15 minutes until the 2 – 3 year olds were done with snack time. Then with google translator, the women asked all about me.. What is my name? exchange student? University? What do I do here? How long been in Thailand? For how long? Do I like the weather? Where I come from? Where do I live? Do I have teacher for Thai? How did I get there today? How old I am? Do I have friends? Basically, a million questions. To answer the questions, I tried to use my new Thai phrase book, which thankfully has a glossary in the book with English, Thai pronunciation, and Thai symbol. And with every answer, they smiled bigger and bigger.
Then, the woman with the phone took me to the kids. It was just around the corner from the office and the kids were still eating snack, so she took me inside the building and told me to sit on a grass mat on the floor in a very empty room, except for cots stacked up in the corner and a television set in front of me. She turned on the TV, maybe to avoid the silence, and we watched some Thai dance for a few minutes. Then, a little boy and girl both in some sort of cat pajama set, came running into the room like little tornados. The Thai woman greeted the children and they immediately stopped for about ten seconds and stared at me. Of course I sat smiling, saying “Hello!” in about has high pitched as I can get, and said “Sa wat dee ka”, and like a flip of a switch back on again, the children both came barreling at me and both crashed into my lap. They wanted hugs, to be held, and love. For the next 2 hours, I played with this group of 15 toddlers. They have a set schedule which I couldn’t read because its in Thai, but I was there at the play outside time from 9:30 to 11. The caretakers which are two older women put a grassmat outside for the children to sit and play on with toys. The toys they played with while I was there were more of flat plastic fruit and food cutouts and plastic plates, forks, and knives. The children didn’t really seem to pay much attention to the toys though, many of them were more focused on getting my attention. I was often sitting on the ground trying to balance one kid on each of my legs and as soon as one stood up, another child would plop down. I held one little boy in my lap for at least 30 minutes and he completely stole my heart. He was so sweet and wouldn’t take his eyes off me for the rest of the time I was there. I spent this time hugging, tickling, and playing with these beautiful children and I think this very moment was the happiest I’ve been in Thailand so far. I feel a little selfish when saying that because it completely breaks my heart to see these amazing children, many too small to be 2 or 3 years old, have no family and no toys but it made me so happy to be with them.. I feel like just for a short time, I can make a difference in their day. I am already in love with these babies! (bringing my camera next time)
I walked the 30 minutes back to my house with a smile, picked up some fresh pineapple, finished the day with a Starbucks session and finished the book “Eat, Pray, Love”. I like it here. Feeling very very good.
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