YenL

Only 2 more days until I leave Thailand. I can hardly believe that my year here has come to an end. I know I am going to miss everything about Thailand when I leave - even the dirty streets. But as for right now, I'm just so busy packing up my things and my life here that I haven't really thought about it.

So here it is, my year in review. I came to Thailand looking to escape the frustrations of work. My attempt was to purge my life of everything to help me see what it was that was truly important to me. I lived for a year without television, radio, hot water and many other things I thought I needed back home.  In the end, all of it helped me to find what I was looking for.

My work with disable children has helped me to focus on other's needs before my own. I changed diapers, I wiped snot from kid's noses and I bathe kids every day for the past year. I came thinking that I would be this great help to the children. I was humbled by my first diaper and continued to be humbled everyday after that. I have to admit, there is something gratifying about doing something for others with a pure motive.

This year, however, was not about what I did for the children. To sound like a cliche, it was about what the children did for me. Seeing them so happy even though they live in such simple conditions and with such disadvantages in life blew me away. It was hard for me to understand how it was possible. In the end, they have it right. They have also helped me to change. The real question is, will these changes be permanent?

Final Stats:

Weight (before/after) = 175lbs / 145lbs

Career = engineering / unemployed (but hopefully consulting)

Location = San Francisco / Washington, D.C.

Languages spoken poorly = 2 (English, Chinese) / 3 (English, Chinese, Thai)

Diapers changed = 0 / 1239048392853424+

I started to read the bible from beginning to end when I first got here. It was something I've always wanted to do because I didn't think that it was right for me to have grown up calling myself a Christian but have never read the entire bible.

On April 18, I finished reading the bible from beginning to end. The entire process took me 8 months. I'm glad I did it. I feel like I have a better understanding of the big picture and a better understanding of what it is that my faith is built on. This is not to say that I know everything there is to know about Christianity. In fact, I think I have more questions after reading the bible all the way through than I did before I started.

I do not have all the answers yet but what I do know is that my life has changed after my year in Thailand. I am happy now. This may sound simple but it was a condition that has eluded me for a number of years. Those of you who knew me just before I came here may have sensed that I was not very happy. I couldn't identify the cause of my unhappiness. I had a good salary, a nice car and good friends around. These things did not prevent me from hating my job and arguing with my boss and my colleagues. I felt like my life had no purpose and I was completely bored with daily routines.

What changed in Thailand? Here, I was forced to focus on other people's needs before my own materialistic desires. But the main factor for me was coming back to God. I gave up control of my life and allowed Him to direct me. God has shown me that it was my own pride that made me so unhappy before. I thought I could do everything on my own and didn't need help from anyone. And when life didn't go my way, I would become angry at the people I thought were responsible. I would get upset and then I would leave a company, for example, because I thought my manager was hampering my "growth." I went around this self defeating cycle a couple times. This is why I felt like my life had no purpose and wasn't going anywhere. The fact of the matter was that my life had no purpose and I wasn't going anywhere.

By giving control to God, He showed me where I needed to change. It was a difficult and long process but I stubbornly gave in. I'm not saying that I'm a perfect person now - I'm the furtherest thing from that - but I know who is in charge now. And that my purpose is to serve God in everything that I do. That is the only way I can keep myself from trying to take control and screwing up my life again.

YenL

A couple weekends ago, I went on a trip with my church here to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. Through generous donations from our friends and family, the church was able to raise the money to pay for 4 houses. This meant that 4 needy Thai families would have homes. 

Instead of just giving Habitat the money for the houses, we wanted to give of ourselves as well - we volunteered to help build the houses. Altogether, 120 people from my church went to help build houses. I was quite impressed by the turnout.

The first day was great! The sun was shining and people were excited to work. It was hot but it didn't matter because we were here to build houses for the homeless! Habitat requires that the recepients of the houses has to work on building their own homes. So there we were digging these massives holes in the ground (for septic tanks) along with the families. At the end of the first day, we had 3 holes for septic tanks dug was was feeling pretty good about ourselves.

That night it rained like I had never experienced in Thailand. At the sound of rain, everyone's thoughts turned to the building site. What will become of those 3 holes we worked so hard to cig today? The next day was overcast but it wasn't raining. The decision was made to get back to work. Arriving at the site, our worst fears were realized. The entire site was muddy and the holes we dug were completely filled with water. Motivated by the deflated looks of the families standing next to us, we jumped into the 3 muddy "swimming pools" we dugged and started to empty them.

By the end of our 3 days there, we had managed to clear out the 3 holes and get septic tanks in them. That was the extent of our house building efforts. We were a little discouraged but knew that the houses would still get built - hopefully by more skilled, professional builders.  

It was so great to meet the families that would receive the houses we raised money for and tried to build houses for.  A great big thank you to those who donated to this wonderful cause. 

Disclaimer: In the above story, "we" refers to the church, which does not necessarily include me.  To be honest, I was working on painting a nearby school so I was never in the hot sun or the muddy pits of the building site. hahahha....

YenL

The rest of my time in Phuket was spent at the beach and exploring the nearby islands by boat.

I spent one my days in phuket at the beach. The beach is called Kata Noi beach and it is one of the most amazing beaches I have ever been to in my life. The water was warm, crystal clear and calm. The beach was covered with fine white sand.  There were quite a few people there but the beach was big enough that you could find a spot in the water with no one around. The one unfortunate thing about this and every other beach in phuket is that jet ski rentals operate right from shore. The noise and the thought that some kid on a jet ski could run you over at any minute distracted from the nature beauty just a bit.

I filled another day in phuket by taking a boat trip to 3 different islands near phuket. We first went to Maya Bay, where part of the movie "The Beach" was filmed. I'm going to watch that movie now to see what exactly was in the movie. It's a nice beach except for the 10,000 other tourist there. The boat "parked" offshore for a bit so we could snorkel around for a bit in the crystal clear water. We next headed for Phi Phi Island. Phi Phi is a pretty big island with restaurants and shops all over it. There are also a couple resorts on Ko Phi Phi, as it's called. Lastly, we went to Khai Island. There is really nothing on this island except a restaurant and a few stalls selling the typcial trinkets for tourists. The beach was rocky and little sealife to speak of. I'm not sure why this was part of the tour but it gave me time to sleep on a lounge chair, under an umbrella on the beach. 

Overall, phuket is a beautiful place. It's popularity is obvious but can also be a deterrant. I would definitely recommend going to phuket if you're in Thailand.  

YenL

Song Kran is the Thai New Year's celebration. Along with the rest of the world, Thailand celebrates new year's on January 1st.  But on April 13th, Thailand celebrate their own New Year's with a nationwide water fight.  It is also a long public holiday. I got Friday, Monday and Tuesday off from work.

Taking advantage of the extended weekend, I decided to go to Phuket. I flew down on Thursday night so that I could participate in the festivities on Friday, April 13th. I came to Phuket with one of the other volunteers, Joanne from the Netherlands. Joanne met and befriended a Thai woman named Karn the last time she was in Phuket. So on the morning of Song Kran, Karn came to pick us up to take us to Patong, where most of the Song Kran festivities would occur. Actually, Karn's friend came to pick us up with a pick-up truck. a pick-up truck with 3 large garbage cans full of ice water and 5 of those 5-gallon paint buckets full of regular water. apparently, that is the tradition - all the Thais ride around on the back of trucks and throw water at each other. I forgot to mention, in total, there were 10 people in the back of this truck.

The trip in the back of this truck to Patong was the most frightening experience of my life. I was sitting on the top of the tailgate with my feet in 2 different buckets of water. I was holding on for my life as the truck made it's way up and down curvy mountainous roads. As I said, there were 10 of us in the back of this truck with buckets of water splashing everywhere. It was definitely something I will never forget.

When we got to Patong, I had an awesome time splashing people in other trucks and on the street with water. The best is when I got someone with the ice water and they weren't expecting it. This was such an amazing experience. People were getting splashed with water and laughing about it. This could never happen in the US because there would be fights everywhere and lawsuits galore.

We started at 11am and got off the truck at 3pm. The truck continued without us. I have no idea how they managed. I was so tired and to be honest, kind of fed up with having water splashed on me. Furthermore, after being wet for so long, it got a little chilly even in the Thai heat. So it was pretty miserable when other trucks got me with really cold ice water. I was glad to get off the truck and really glad that this only happens once a year.

I'll post pictures soon.