Settling In.

I am feeling more and more at home here in Thailand. I am so thankful that God is providing me with students to talk and hang out with. My second week of teaching has shown a more warming response from the students, in that they feel comfortable to talk with me and stay to socialize after class. I hope that the coming weeks will bring more of this!! I have had an extremely busy weekend. I was able to teach my favorite classes saturday and then we all (or almost all of my class) went out to the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha Temple. I was astounded by the beauty and intricacy of these buildings and also saddened by the continuous themes of Buddhist and Hindu gods. Afterwords, we all went to have a dinner full of YUMMY thai and some indian food. Mmmm do I love love love food. :) I should probably begin taking my infamous food pictures (shout out to the Dollhouse). We then headed over to a large market and open field where kite flying/ supposed kite fighting occurs (didn't really see the fighting?). I also saw a native thai game being played; its like extreme hacky sack where they try to kick the ball into a net about 10-20 feet above them. Very interesting... but not particularly exciting like american football, basketball and hockey. We then headed back to our homes by boat, which was fun in itself. Cool, wet breeze and seeing some sights until it got to be dark. I had a great time with my students.
Today, I was able to go to church with some students and then came back to the BSC. Almost the whole afternoon, I chatted with some thai women and got into a more in depth conversation with one. In her limited english she told me about how she once was married to a man who slept around and drank all the time and then would beat her for more money that she herself earned. She has now since left the man and works VERY hard to provide for her two daughters to go to school. I was touched by her story. This unfortunately is not an uncommon story in Thailand. As I said before, I was able to sit in on a presentation by Rahab ministries. The man who gave the presentation spoke of how there are so many single young women. He said he once asked one why they do not marry, to which the reply was, "thai men are lazy, have drinking problems, have gambling problems, and have many women." Now NOT EVERY man is like that here but, like I said, it is not uncommon.
I also learned at Rahab, poverty drives women in the northern villages and other neighboring countries to BKK to send money back to their families. I was able to see first hand tonight what the human trafficking problem looks like. Broke my heart and made me angry at the same time. But I am glad I have seen it for myself. I pray these experiences will allow me to be more vocal in America about these problems here in SE Asia. I can not just do nothing. Check out:
http://www.rahabministriesthailand.org/ for more information. Sorry to end on a somber note....But I hope this blog finds each of you well.