Serving through meal prep, meal handout, and teaching!

Just wanted to give a quick update as I've recently started volunteering with a group that prepares and hands out free meals to needy communities. Meal prep means taking the food that has already been prepared, bagging it up, boxing it up, rubber banding each box, and putting it in large plastic tubs to be taken to hand out. I have really enjoyed helping with this group the past 2 and a half weeks. I've met some super kind people and have enjoyed volunteering with them to help the needy communities within Bangkok. It's a great place to make new friends, whether with the volunteers or the Thai community you're helping. It truly is a blessing to be involved. I'm meeting people from many different countries, but several from America! Tomorrow's meal prep team was already full, so I've signed up to help with just the hand out, but even that's still a great thing! Then you get to see the folks you're helping! I've also been teaching my same students. It's been fun seeing them again after my trip back to Texas. Fun seeing how much they've grown and learned in the time I've been gone. For some, it's been 2 and a half months. The younger ones learn so much so quickly, so it's always surprising seeing that! They have all been happy to see me as well. Today, I get to go teach Ocean for the first time since being back. Always a blessing to love and be loved by my students! Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Other news, I thought of a few more differences between Texas and Thailand. Hot water. I miss being able to wash dishes in hot water. Or take warm showers. Although, sometimes due to the heat, the showers are warm anyway. During winter, it's still not cold, but there's sometimes less sun causing the water to be colder. Those can be pretty cold showers! Thailand does not use water heaters. So even if you have the water hearter box in the bathroom for the shower, it does not provide hot water for dishes. Do you know how hard it is to wash greasy food off dishes without hot water?! Usually, it requires 2 rounds of washing. Also, most houses or condos do not have dish washers. Everyone handwashes dishes. I'm blessed to have a sink to wash dishes in and a washer to wash clothes in at my home. I've lived for a short period without both and I do not enjoy squatting to wash dishes or clothes in a big round bowl sitting on the ground. My legs were not made for squatting long periods of time, which is why I ended up buying a little stool to sit on while doing that. A second difference is toilet paper. Yes, we have toilet paper here. But you're not allowed to flush it. It took like 2 weeks for me to remember to flush the paper when I was back in Texas! It only took 1 day once being back to start throwing it away again. I covered a lot of differences with driving and cars, but I didn't mention that when traffic is bad, we use the shoulder as an extra lane. There's traffic every day bewteen 7:00-10:30am and 4:30pm-8:00pm, so I drive on the shoulder most days. Turns the 3 lane toll road into 4 lanes. Very helpful. I'm readjusting to spending a majority of my time at home without air. In Texas, everyone uses air all the time, unless it's cold. In Thailand, it's hot all the time, but I try to only use air at nights to sleep in order to keep the electricity bill down. Occasionally, when I teach at home and use the air for classes, I'll leave it on for a few hours after to exercise with air. Those are nice days. Thai food can also be quite a bit different from American food. I sometimes get bored with Thai food because it can often be very similar flavors between each dish and it gets to where you just don't know what to eat because it all started to taste the same. Thais say American food is very plain and they'd bore of it super fast. But the difference for me with American food is there's so much more variety! You've got pastas, pizzas, seafood, Mexican food, every other country's type of food, and every type of pastry, dessert, or candy you can think of with so many varying flavors. That's just not the same for Thai food. I LOVE Thai food. Don't get me wrong. I love the spicy stuff. I love the semi-sweet stuff. And I love the non-spicy foods. But because they use a lot of the same herbs in the food, it can end up having simlar flavors across the board. That's why I can get bored with Thai food and not know what to eat, even though I love it. Last subject, different from the rest. When do children start recognizing how much time has passed by? It's funny. I tell my students I haven't seen them in a long time and they agree. Then I ask them how long they think it's been. Most of them only say a week or two. But for most of them, it has been almost 3 months! Maybe it's a language thing. They may not understand the full concept of time of a week or month because they can't remember how long either of them are. Have you noticed this with other young children? Is it just me and a language issue, or do other children around the world not understand the concept of time and how long something is? Anyway, time for me to get ready to go teach Ocean so that's all for today. Hope you enjoyed my random musings.

Refreshed and Renewed

So I've done a terrible job of keeping up with my blog. I do apologize for that. Sometimes, I just get so caught up in living life, I forget to write about it too. I'm really going to try to do better starting today because I believe it is important to my readers. Each of you deserve to be a part of my story. I've been back in Thailand for a week now after spending almost 2 months in Texas. It was an amazing trip filled with such amazing people, opportunities, and food! The trip was just what I needed to boost my spirits and be refreshed and renewed for further ministry in Thailand. I was overwhelmed with love and appreciation for what I do. I loved doing life with many different people from family, old friends, to even new friends. I loved attending different churches, conferences, and spiritual formation events. Most of all, I loved being in community with everyone. I started my time back in Thailand with a Halloween camp right after arriving back. I had 4 students attend and they were so excited to see me. One couldn't wait to tell me how much he had missed me!

For today's blog subject, I thought I'd touch on similarities and differences between my life in Thailand and my time spent in Texas. First obvious thing is food: I loved all the food in Texas and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it was very hard on me. I had issues with digestion, extreme bloating, and reflux/indigestion. These are not things I struggle with daily while in Thailand. Someone told me it was probably from the amount of processed foods I was eating in Texas. I'm back to eating Thai food now, spicy and all, and no more extreme bloating. Thankfully, I love Thai food, too! Second is driving: Of course, I had to adjust to switching everything from side of car to side of road I drive on. While in Texas, I had to remind myself to keep my body closest to the center line to remind me what side of the road I should be on. Now that I'm back in BKK, I keep turning on my windshield wipers instead of my blinker and grabbing my door looking for the gear shift. I definitely prefer driving in Texas. Way less motorcycles to dodge, folks follow traffic rules for the most part, wider lanes and parking spots, and far less traffic than in Bangkok! But I do prefer my car here in Bangkok as it drives smoother and has AC! I also had to remind myself to get out and pump my own gas in Texas. Thailand always has someone to pump the gas for you. Third, church. I loved getting to be a part of my church's services for a few weeks and also attending my dad's church. Always fun to hear my dad preach, as well as be a part of my church that I was so involved with for many years before moving to Thailand. I even loved having the opportunity to return to my childhood church, the church I grew up in, and share my story with them! I think they were still expecting that quiet gal that avoided public speaking as much as possible, but were pleasantly surprised that I can now speak freely in front of others. Here in BKK, I enjoy bouncing around different churches to see their worship styles. I enjoy going to Thai services, English services, and even blended services. I have not found one I feel called to join in regularly with. Fourth, community and kindness. I loved feeling a part of a bigger community. Y'all, Texas is just a more kind and friendly place. Even just walking around grocery stores, I was randomly greeted with friendly smiles or hellos from strangers and children. It felt so good. Something I never knew I missed until I was experiencing it again. Kindness matters. Smiles impact others' days. I loved being a part of that and feeling welcomed by complete strangers! Here in Thailand, most folks have their heads down taking care of business or looking at their phones. It's not often you're greeted with a smile outside of folks selling things (even then, it's hit or miss). I'm not saying it never happens. It does. Just not nearly as often as I experienced while in Texas! Fifth and final. Many ask about weather here. It's rained several days since I've been back. The news said winter is coming. That means the temps may be in the 80s instead of the 90s or 100s. But it can still be pretty hot with the high humidity. Some days have been nicer and a bit cooler with lower humidity, but many have been hot. I'm having to get used to staying without air during the day. I usually only use air in the evenings to sleep. During the days, I use the fan to keep the electricity bill down. The season breakdown looks like this: Hot season is from March to May. Rainy season is from June to October. And winter is from November to February. Most joke and say the seasons are hot, hotter, and hottest. In Texas, I experienced both hot and cold weather. The most noticeable thing was in Texas, it felt like the sun was setting my skin on fire. Here in Bangkok, I think there's too much polution to experience the sun like that. There are random days, but not daily like in Texas! I know I said that was the final, but last thought: beds are far more soft in Texas compared to the more firm, even hard beds here. That wraps up my first blog since being back in Thailand and maybe even this year! Stay tuned for more stories, musings, and experiences!