Because we are staying at a place 15 minutes from the main facility, the program team has arranged for truck drivers to pick up and drop off there at certain times of the day. We were picked up at 7:15am and taken to the Sunshine Center for breakfast. We met a few of the people who are also staying in the Paradee – two older men (one from Maryland, the other from Austria), a girl from Germany & two from Norway, and a young man from New Jersey. The back of the truck isn’t big enough to hold all of us, so the driver (who salutes everytime we see him and says the same thing in Thai that we cannot figure out) put the “babies” in the back row of the cab and NixiRay in the passenger seat.
After breakfast we were told that today was orientation day for all the newbies. We were so ready to jump right in and get to work with the construction and renovation team, but instead we sat and did paperwork and listened to the rules and policies all morning (which, by the way, we had already read through, agreed to & signed online several months ago).่กรทฟฏ?ฉฯฆ?ฤฎฏฯณฆ?์ษศษ์์
The head coordinator, Penny, said the funniest thing. She was explaining that weould not rent motorcycles and why. She said “We Thai, we don’t know the rules of driving, we just drive with the feeling.” That explains A LOT!!
An hour of that & they gave us a break for half an hour… Then had us sit back down. We all introduced ourselves and said how old we are and where we are from. We are DEFINITELY not the norm for this program…. 99% of the other people are either barely graduated high school students taking a gap year, or college-age students that either haven’t figured out their major yet, or are taking a gap year after graduation so they can travel and play before settling into a career. We feel very out of place being 40 something parent with our kids here… But that’s okay.
During a break we explored the garden area of the center– we found tiny oranges (sour!), rose apples, mango trees, and flowers.
Next we had about an hour for a cultural lesson. This part was more interesting since they had us learn some Thai phrases, how to properly bow, and how to count in Thai. Littlest girl really loved that and was trying to say everything and had me write down all of the number words for her.
After that we were fed lunch and given some free time…. Only we were stuck there at the Sunshine Center and all of our stuff was at our room. The little kids were dying to get in the pool. We were dying to do anything but sit around. We would have left on a walk or to go to our place to swim, or go to the beach except they told us we had a meeting with our project coordinator at 1pm and it would be brief…
At 1:15 we were told our meeting would be at 1:30 instead. At 1:45 we were told 2. We about died of boredom just waiting around. Spud & Littlest found a millipede and had a blast making it a little habitat in a bowl. Thank goodness for that millipede. Normally I detest them!
Finally our program coordinator came back from the morning of work and explained that this week we would be helping to renovate a rural Thai school. Each morning we will be taken by truck about 40 minutes away, work for 3 hours, take a box lunch with us to eat there, work for another 1 1/2 hours, then be brought back.
We will be cleaning, scraping, priming and painting the concrete fence at the front of the school. There may also be a chance for NixiRay to paint a mural or animal picture. She’s excited about that!
The project sounds great and we’re excited to help with it… Even though today was deathly boring sitting around (maybe it felt so torturous because we’re used to go-go-go, do & see everything?), we decided to let tomorrow be a fresh start and see how much we can accomplish this week. We also decided to try to get to know as many of the people as possible even though we don’t fit in to the demographic and just be friendly with everyone. We’ll make it a great week and a great experience for the kids.
Finally at 2:45 they got us a ride back to our room and we had fun at the pool. Littlest was even brave enough to go down the little waterslide! It felt so good to cool off and play.
We got a ride back to the Sunshine Center for dinner and sat around relaxing and enjoying the cool evening air and beautiful sunset. NixiRay brought her drawing stuff and drew some amazing pictures!
We also got to chat with our missionary in South Africa. Always love hearing his stories!
Back at our room, Littlest got dressed in her pink Thai dress and had me take her picture. Then she stole my phone and took pictures of all of her stuffed animals. She didn’t know I was watching her from the doorway. She told her animals “I am posting these on Instagram!” So cute.
Here’s hoping it’s a great week….
