We've only been here a little more than a week? Really? It seems like so much longer.
In this week I've
- Discovered a love of Thai pants and bought 4 pairs (they are just so comfy)
- Met some awesome Thai friends who are my age and gotten to hang out with them a lot
- Suffered from dehydration and learned that the cure for that is to actually drink enough water
- Spent almost all of my money buying the delicious smoothies here at Zion (living above a cafe is not good for my wallet)
- Gotten closer to a group of strangers than I ever thought was possible in such a short time
- Learned so much about myself and about God that I can't even process it all right now.
- Visited Buddhist temples that broke my heart (and killed my legs. we had to climb like hundreds of stairs!)
- Gone to this awesome waterfall which I got to play in and where I also got to witness three of my team mates get baptized.
- And SO much more
One more thing we got to do was go to the slums. I was surprised to see how close they were to where we are staying. There is all of this city life and right down the street there is this extremely poor neighborhood that lays forgotten and where not many people go.
It broke my heart (God keeps doing that to me) to see how these people lived. Especially when I compared it to how I live back home. It was so dirty and some the homes were missing walls to protect them from the outside. I looked in one and saw a woman laying on a blanket on the ground with her baby as a giant rat ran by them.
But what broke my heart about it most of all was how happy they all looked. The children were happily playing a game they made up with nothing but a couple of marbles and some dirt. They are so thankful for the little bit they have when I often complain and take for granted all that I have. I'm glad God allowed me to experience that because it opened my eyes to a lot. That's why I've decided to be a part of the group that is going to go there regularly. I hope I can touch those children's lives like they've already touched mine, just by playing a game of marbles with giant smiles on their faces.
