School Visits

Peace Corps volunteers have 3 goals. I won't go into it too much, but today I want to talk about the third goal. The third goal is teaching American's about our host country. While I was in Thailand I had many people that I wrote letters to and I had a blog that I sent to people's e-mail addresses instead of a public one like this. I also wrote letters to several classrooms and had classroom exchanges with some where the students were pen pals back and forth.

It was always so much fun to see my student's excitement when they got letters from their pen pals. My students couldn't read them on their own, so I would spend a class period with the students gathered at my feet to hear their letters read and we would translate them together as a class. THEY LOVED IT!!!!!!!

Apparently, so did the classes in America. Yesterday I had the chance to go and speak to a class near where I live that wrote back and forth to me. I dressed in my Northern Thai outfit and headed to the school. It was so much fun to be able to share my experience and to see their excitement as they looked and held things from Thailand and were able to ask me questions.

Last night I got in the car and drove 2 hours to Allegan to spend the night with my uncle. This morning I got up and headed to the school where he's the principle and had the opportunity to talk to two classes at the school. One of which had been pen pals with my fifth grade class. Both classes were such good listeners and had a lot of good questions.

I feel very fortunate to be able to talk to groups, especially students. I'm able to share with them that the children in Thailand are kids just like they are. I enjoy questions like do they have video games? Do they play? Do you eat bugs? I enjoy the surprised look on their faces when I talk about eating ice cream, oreos, that yes, Thailand does have McDonalds in the big cities and they also have KFC, Dairy Queen and Auntie Annes. Sure, there are differences, but kids are kids no matter where you are and what you do.

So, I welcome you to ask me questions about Thailand. I welcome any and all questions. Some people have said that my filter is broken... OOPS. Sit down with me, invite me to talk to a group. I would love to share my experiences and what God has taught me and done through me. I haven't gotten to this point on my own. It is only through the strength given me by my Father and the encouragement I have received from friends and family.