Guys!!! I am officially in Thailand! Saying goodbye to Malaysia was so hard. I had made so many connections with the people and places there. Our last week consisted of the last days of school, going away parties, goodbyes, and lots of tears. The hardest goodbye was saying goodbye to my student. She is so smart, beautiful, and determined, and I am proud of her beyond words. Last Thursday was the last time I saw the kids. We spent the day in their village and played lots of games. We had so much fun and then it was time to leave. I told myself I wouldn’t cry but then my girl came over in tears and hugged me and then my tears just came pouring out. I pray that the Lord waters all the seeds of faith planted in the kids. My friend Aliya and I then went to a lady’s house and learned to make Masala Tea which is truly delicious. The next day, Friday, was our last food court visit and last church service. I got chicken clay pot (my fav food there) for the last time and we went to our favorite bakery. Church was so fun. We celebrated the birthday of Uncle Pauls, one of our hosts, and had cake. 4 of our squad shared testimonies for the church and it was amazing. Saturday was our free day and packing day. I went to my favorite coffee shop and a movie theater with my friends. I packed and then I was all ready to go. Sunday morning we woke up at 4 am, finished packing, and said our last goodbyes. I will miss Jess, one of our hosts, the most. I love her so much and she was always like a close friend. She always seeks the Lord and follows him anywhere. I love and miss you, Jess.
We said all our goodbyes to our hosts and then we headed out! We took a bus to cross the borders of Malaysia and Thailand. To sum it up here were the travel stats; Bus-6 hours, train-28 hours, layovers/waiting- 16 hours, in total we traveled 50 hours and 16 minutes to get from Sungai Petani to Chiang Dao Thailand. The travel was long but BEAUTIFUL. The train rides were gorgeous and full of beautiful views. The downside of the train was the windows open the entire time. It was so fun for the views but boy did we feel nasty. We separated teams in Bangkok. One team has ministry there and then two are in Chiang Mai and my team, Team Radiant, is in Chiang Dao. We arrive at the Chiang Mai train station at 4 am. We say goodbye to our squadmates and then take a truck to get to a bus station. We take an hour and 15 minutes bus ride to the bus station to meet our host Wanida.
She arrives on a little motorbike and we instantly love her. Her husband Aaron picks us up in their truck and we drive to our new home! We arrive and let me just tell you it’s perfect. We are surrounded by nature and the house is beautiful. It instantly feels more like a home. There is a kitchen, showers, gardens, pigs, chickens, geese, flowers, and everything amazing. We all share a room with bunk beds so we all have a bed! We all showered and Wanida made us food and holy cow all the meals she makes are SO GOOD. There is a coffee shop a ten-minute walk away and the walk there is truly amazing. It feels like I am in Hawaii. There are huge beautiful mountains everywhere and it’s so amazing to be surrounded by God’s creation.
Our ministry will be teaching English as well as some manual labor. We will be going to 3 different schools; a kindergarten school, a secondary school, and a monk school. Our manual labor will include helping them on their farm and chopping bamboo! Wanida will teach us how to make Thai food and Tea and she has already taught us some Thai phrases! Sawadee Ka means Hello, Dee Jai Ti Dai Phop Kun means nice to meet you, and Khup Kun Ka means thank you. We also found out that Chaing Dao means the “City of Stars” and our team is the Radiant Stars so the Lord knew what he was doing. I can’t wait to start our new life here in Thailand and what the Lord has to teach me here.
