A change in the winds

Please plant faster so we can see all these rice fields filled in!

It's hard to swallow the idea of leaving Thailand! In some ways it feels like we've been here forever, and yet our crazy ride into Thaton at 10 pm during a rainstorm pulling up to our house for the first time feels like just yesterday. There's a lot of reflection that comes with knowing we have less than a month here, and we're definitely prioritizing on what needs to happen before we go home.

HELP International sends board members out to each location, and Janet and Shelly have done wonders for our team. They've met with us several times and helped us focus in on exactly why we are here, what we can do, and the steps that can be made to see a project through. This coincides very well with our careful time management of the next three weeks--we wish they had come sooner!

I've mentioned this briefly on our blog, but I'd like to expound on it a little. Justin and I and a few others in our group have had the privilege of working with a very special group of people here in Thailand. There is a reason why our group is located where we are, and it's not so that we can service Thai people. Northern Thailand is home to many hill tribes and migrant worker groups who are severely marginalized. They don't have the same rights and resources as Thai people and some have left their countries due to civil wars and extreme poverty. This is true of various hill tribes here, and with our remaining time we have split into three subteams to try to gather information, come up with solutions, and create partnerships to make a lasting difference.

It's safe to say we will be changed forever based on our experiences with the group we're working with. As a safety precaution, they have asked us to not post anything about them on the internet because of social and political issues. In a day and age where knowledge is readily given and received, it's a little weird for us not to be able to say much about them. We can't even mention people or organization names because of the fear that surrounds these issues. The world can be so cruel, and yet so many miracles have happened that have allowed us to enter these peoples' guarded lives, get to know them, learn 'hello' and 'thank you' in a language that I had never heard of up until a couple months ago, and open our eyes to what real poverty and lack of opportunity are. Sorry to be vague; it's hard to stay general and yet have so much respect and appreciation to express. It really has felt like we've been moved along by an 'invisible hand', as one of the board members of HELP put it last week. So much has fallen into place and we are all anxious to see where it leads us.

We enter our last three weeks with these thoughts in mind. Work to do, people to serve, questions to ask, and solutions to suggest. If there was no such thing as 'the last minute', we'd never get anything done..right? ;)

Not looking forward to leaving this place!