Team Thailand's January Overnight Retreat!

Last Friday (and Saturday) Pete Frost's home was teeming with hyper teenagers, and some hyper adults! The Thailand-bound camaraderie thronged into the warmth of his home, immediately migrating toward the kitchen to the Massaman curry made by Pete's Thai friend. We were lucky to have an authentic meal, and I can safely say most of us slurped it up eagerly. After eating, the team split off into smaller groups to play cards, video games, and some pretty extreme around-the-world ping pong. We mingled around--introducing ourselves and memorizing names-- as we entertained ourselves, and then were called together for a huge game of Famous-Person Catch Phrase. After the Michael-Jackson-Taylor-Swift-Jared-Fogle (haha) intensity died down, we watched a slide show of pictures from last year's trip to Thailand. Seeing pictures made the fact that we are all going to be in Thailand in about 6 months seem like reality! Right now, we're all focused on clocking in our hours and raising money for our cause, and it's easy to forget that we'll all actually be in Thailand for two weeks this summer! I'm so amazed by the amount of service that Youthlincers are responsible for in our area! When the slideshow was over, Vayla made an announcement to not just the cultural committee, but the entire team. As part of our cultural meshing at the school, we will be dancing the Cupid Shuffle for the kids in Thailand. We watched this video, which would also serve as a VERY loud alarm clock for us come morning. I wonder what the kids in Phang Nga will think of our silly moves :) We played a few more games, including McKay's favorite, Mafia. After a long evening of silly games and becoming familiar with our team, we were exhausted, and it wasn't long before we were dead asleep. We awoke pretty early, rolled up our sleeping bags, and ate a breakfast made by our team leaders and mentors :) Fairly soon afterwards, we headed to Kids on the Move, a child development and family resource center in Orem. There, we cleaned the playrooms. The brightly colored plastic balls in their ball-pit get pretty grimy, as you would imagine, and some of us wiped them down, one by one. It's important for these youngsters to have a clean place to play! Others of us put together informative binders for families of Kids on the Move and cut shapes from cardstock for art projects the center will be doing. After a fun-filled night and a morning of service, Team Thailand took a group picture with Kami's popular hot pink camera, said "Goodbye, until February!", and parted ways. Our retreat was successful-- the perfect combination of team-bonding and service!