Down South!

Hello from the coastal city of Trang!

Thanks so much for your prayers! It means so much to my heart to hear from some of you and to know that you're praying for me as well as the impact this trip can have in the lives of others.

It's been great being in Trang so far. I arrived Saturday afternoon. At baggage claim in the one-gate airport of Trang, the other 3 volunteers & I figured out who we each were & got our introductions underway. Cha, the driver for Cross Cultural Solutions, & Jack, the assistant director, met us at the airport. The CCS base is only about 15 minutes from the airport (and about 15 minutes outside of the downtown part of Trang). After we got a little settled-in, we were introduced to the rest of the staff: Khem, the program director; On, the business/finances person and Jiew (aka Mama T for Mama Thailand) & Jia, our cooks/housekeepers. I felt right at home by how much they wanted to answer our questions, were concerned about jetlag/being tired & made sure we weren't hungry. CCS has a nice homebase - capacity for about 24 volunteers they say (though we can't quite imagine that many in the house) - so we have plenty of room with just 4 of us. From about 6pm (unless we have a special evening activity) until 6am only the 4 of us are in the house - though there's a night watchman, Miaw, on guard out at the end of our driveway (I'm not sure if Miaw is there more for our security & the threat of theft or more b/c this is another way that CCS is providing a job for the local enconomy?). Here's a picture of the living room where we've met for our orientation & Thai language lessons.

Saturday evening we went on our own little version of "The Amazing Race" which was really fun. We were divided into pairs, dropped off in the downtown of Trang and given 5 tasks to complete in 90 minutes + returning to the homebase. Our tasks were focused around helpful information for our stay - finding the train station & getting schedules & costs of fares, finding a store where we could get digital photos developed, locating a travel agency & researching a weekend destination that we'd like to go to, buying an order of Ro Tee (a local dessert that the city Trang's known for) and purchasing 1 kg of dragonfruit. With limited Thai vocabulary we depended on our smiles and the graciousness of the folks we encountered. There was only one gentleman who seemed genuinely disinterested in our concerns - the rest were super helpful and friendly though not familiar with much english (which we expected for Trang). But, my teammate, James, & I got 'er done & we made it back to the home base 1st. (yeah, that is 1st out of 2 teams - guess we didn't need to be too competitive!).

I've enjoyed getting to know the other volunteers - in the photo, clockwise from bottom: Evan (19 from Vermont), Dana (19 from Massachusetts), me, James (32 from Yorkshire, England) & Khem, the program director. If you look closely, you can see Cha, our driver, in the back. The clocktower in the background is a landmark for Trang (makes me think of Back to the Future...). I'll get to spend a bunch of time with James & Evan as the three of us will be going to the Boys Juvenile Detention Home together. More on that below...

Sunday & Monday consistented of orientation time to get to know the area & more about CCS's background in Trang as well as some R&R time to get to know each other. Sunday the staff took us to an island off the coast of Trang for a grilled lunch & some time in the water & sun. It was about a 40 minute van ride to the coast from which we took a boat about 20 minutes to this little secluted spot. Absolutely beautiful!

Today was my first day volunteering at the Juvenile Detention Home. Everyday James, Evan & I will be expected to have games, lessons, something prepared to get the boys interested in practicing their English. The boys can stay at this facility for up to 90 days while they wait to hear the outcome of their case - most are in for theft. The facility has a tall chain linked fence with barbed wire surrounding the boys' grounds; guard houses watch the perimeter of the property. Currently there's about 35 boys at the

Home, mostly 14 to 17.

Today seemed to go well. We were armed with some ideas from past volunteers & spent our time doing introductions, competitive team Pictionary & a worksheet on basic body parts - we went over the English words & then had them teach us the Thai words. The boys can attend their time with us at their own will - i.e. if they get bored they can simply get up and walk away. Past volunteers left a lot of comments telling us not to be discouraged if they left - sometimes the group started at 25 and dropped to 5 by the end of the 2 hour morning period. We were encouraged. We started with 11 and kept adding on through our time - up to about 20. This is definitely a chance for me to [try to!] fit myself into the mind of a teenage boy. We rewarded them with candy & are trying to make learning a little bit of a game to keep their interest up. Looking at their faces, it hard for me to imagine them needing to be at the Home. Almost all of them look so young - and have a sense of innocence - I'm reminded of our director's consistent affirmation of the value of what we're doing - seeking to help these boys make better decisions for their futures as we invest time in them today. I keep telling them "dee mai" (very good) when they get something right and trying to catch their eyes to give them a smile. I'm ask the Lord to help each one of them see all that they can be in the future and to turn to Him. I'm glad that 80% of communication is non-verbal, I'm trying to shove a whole lot into each smile :) far more than I know in Thai at this point!

Overall the boys have some comprehension of English and seem to have a willingness to learn. I'm grateful for the opportunity of tag-teaming with James & Evan, too, as we can multiple our efforts, cut down on lesson planning and divide & conquer!

As for photos - they don't want us to take cameras to take photos :( i can towards the end of my volunteer time but even then I will need to distort the boys' faces for anything I print.

We returned to the homebase this afternoon later than planned and then had another Thai language lesson - practice, practice, practice!

That's it for now - time to head to bed!

Thinking of you! Love, Becky