Despite hail, wind, snow, and sleet, members of the 2013 Thailand team surged ahead to accomplish the daunting task of preparing for our upcoming adventure in July. In order to wade past the first name basis and swim into "deeper" waters we started out with a little a game of question ball, the questions either varied from outlandish to simple and we had a blast learning that team leader Carson would like to name her fictitious yacht, "My Yacht". Team leader Bobby then gave us all a much needed reminder about finding a main service site, if you haven't found one yet, please do!
After breaking up into our committees, members dug deep in order to learn more about Thailand and plan ahead for upcoming jobs and activities. Ken, the team mentor over the cultural committee introduced several Thai novelties to his group, the list included a bamboo instrument, several sarongs, and most importantly his own personal pair of Muay Thai shorts. Nothing speaks Thai more than a pair of kickboxing shorts! Members of the vocational group discussed the idea of hanging gardens that would protect crops from floods that regularly devastated the area. The education and medical committees both diligently debated over ideas to better serve the Moken community, and as the collaboration went on, one could feel the excitement levels in the building rise a few notches just by talking about it. All in all, it seems like everything is coming together quite nicely.
Team mentor Ken said, "We need to stop thinking in a state of mind of wanting to be at Thailand and serving, but in a state of mind where we realize we ARE going to Thailand." I agree, and can't think of a better way to say it other than that. We ARE going to Thailand!
Until we write again about our team retreat on February 8-9,
Thailand team bloggers Emily Kwok and Itzak Leifler are signing out.
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