Many people have asked us, “So what exactly have you been doing in Thailand?” and I hope to answer that question with this post. The easiest answer is ‘learning,’ of course. But what are we learning? How to farm rice? How to weave beautiful skirts? How to give an entertaining English lesson to rambunctious six year-olds? We did do all those things, but we definitely are not masters at any of them (though Jarek and I do give a riveting performance of “Little Bunny Foo Foo”).

Many times, we worked with an organization called Raks Thai, a sub-group of C.A.R.E. International headed by an awesome lady we call Pii Nat. The first week she had us help with an anti-bullying campaign they put on for all the elementary schools in the area. Later on we went with her to meetings in smaller villages where they would work with the people of each village to brainstorm ways to use agriculture to help their development. She took us to a couple places where we helped pick and plant rice. The amazing thing about all of those experiences was watching Pii Nat interact with everyone around her. She was always concerned about people. It was clear that she knew everyone she worked with and everyone she was trying to help. She was always helping others think through new solutions while telling jokes and making them smile. On top of that, she went out of her way to let us “help out” at these meetings and things where we did not understand anything. We went in thinking we might have a lot to offer and quickly realized we have a lot to learn. Pii Nat is one of the most caring people we have met here in Thailand.

Our first week in the village, we visited the Tambon – the level of government that looks over several villages around the area. Raks Thai did not always have things for us to do so Pii Tok, a man we met at the government building, often set up activities for us which usually included teaching English. We went to a bunch of schools and met with hundreds of kids of all ages. We liked to have a game plan before going to the schools, but so many times we had no idea what we were doing so we were just thrown into a group of kids and expected to entertain them for an hour or two. There were a couple times when we were told we were only going to teach for an hour, but the real teacher left and didn’t come back until two hours later…the Hokey Pokey can only go so far! Jarek and I loved to teach the littlest ones and, well, my hat goes off to you, elementary school teachers… that’s tiring stuff! Sheesh!

What was super awesome about going to so many schools was seeing the different ways education was provided to children from such difficult circumstances. One of the most interesting schools was a school for Karen children. They are a minority group in Thailand and this particular school goes around to nine different provinces to seek those children out and offer them a useful education. The kids live at the school and do everything themselves – clean, cook, and even grow their own food. They wake up at 4am to exercise, then clean and shower and head to morning classes. In the afternoon they work on the farm, have music and dance classes, and work some more. It was at that school that I realized how much effort is being put into education here. There are so many people willing to give all their time so that the younger generation can have a better education. We can all take a lesson from that.

This post would not be complete if I didn’t talk about the church we visited every night. Our host dad is a Christian man and took us to church with him our first Sunday there. Right next to the church is a home for children. Many of the kids’ parents live too far away for them to go to school, so they live at this home so they can get to school every day. The lady who runs the home asked if we would teach English to the kids every night because there is only one English teacher at their school so they aren’t given many opportunities to use English. We agreed and quickly fell in love with those kids! Jarek and I took the little ones again and had a blast. We taught for half an hour then played games for the rest of the time. We also visited the kids a couple Saturdays to play volleyball and badminton since there isn’t a whole lot to do in the little town. I’m not sure if their English really improved or if they learned many new words, but we learned a lot from them. Despite their difficulties – the biggest being that they live so far away from their parents at such a young age – they were always smiling. And they have the most beautiful smiles! They worked so hard and wanted to learn English so badly so even though it was 8:45 at night, they were still taking notes. If that’s not diligence, I don’t know what is.

So if you asked us to grow our own rice, we might get a few good grains out of it. And if you asked us to teach English for a year, we would at least be good entertainers. But I can tell you where to find the most hard working kids I’ve ever met and I can tell you the qualities I’ve seen in really amazing leaders who take what their given and create something amazing. I’ve been humbled and learned from some amazing people that the effort it takes to make the world even a little bit better for someone is totally and completely worth it.