Weekend in Reyong, etc.

Oct. 17

This weekend was pretty good I think. We went to some army base with a group called Friendship Foundation. They do a lot with children and want to do some joint things with CCD I think. I’m not too sure about everything that’s going on with it. It’s tough to sit through meetings when the person speaking has a difficult accent. I found myself last Tuesday sitting in some meeting that I had no idea what it was about, with the other volunteers and some of the Thai people from this foundation. As I started to space out a tad, the head guy here at CCD suddenly looked at me and said “Jeff, do you have any ideas for this, since you already have been here and know a little more?” That woke me up pretty quick, though I didn’t have much of an idea of what was going on. Next thing I know, me and the other volunteers here are on some army base 3 hours from Bangkok, getting to know a bunch of Thai college age students who also volunteer with this Friendship Foundation.
The other organization is not Christian, so I think that Koon Wasan (the founder of CCD) wanted us to be there so we could share with them why we would come from all around the world to volunteer our time with these kids. I think it went well. I still don’t have much of an idea about what we were doing there. Visit, who is the president of the other foundation, keeps talking about the three phases of his plan. I’m not sure what phase we’re in, but I think that we are supposed to meet up on the 13th of November with them again to give a presentation of what volunteering looks like in our own countries.
It was great though to be able to meet some other people from Bangkok and develop some friendships with some Thai people here in Thailand. It was a pretty interesting trip though, since there was about 24 Thai people, 4 Belgiums, 2 Americans, 2 Swedes, and 2 Brits from England. It makes me glad that my native language is English because I am always able to express fully what I want to say, even if the others don’t fully understand it! I am picking up more of the Thai language though. I find that I am able to understand more and more of what people are saying. I’m pretty bad at speaking it though as I tend to ignore the tones of words when I talk. I’m also getting faster at reading the language. TakTan, the Thai lady who lives here is really good at helping me out, though I think my unending questions about things might be overwhelming to her at times!
Good night.