Last week I had an amazing time as our team got to spend a morning teaching about 30 kids (ages 5-12) some English and songs. One of these kids was named, "Fern." She was about six years old, wore a bright pink shirt, ears pierced, and had the most beautiful dark black hair. When we first entered the small building where we were to teach the children I saw Fern sitting by herself on a chair near one of the staff. I asked our translator what was wrong with her. The translator had a short conversation with a staff member and then returned to me. She looked over at Fern and told me that her mother had died of Aids. I shivered and she continued to tell me that Fern was aware of her infection. I started to cry and told the translator to tell Fern in Thai that I thought she was very beautiful. When Fern heard this she smiled and started to play with the other children. It was heart breaking but excellent to see her smile. Later I discovered that almost all of the children we were working with were HIV+. I'll never forget that girl. She played with me, sang with me, and to my eyes seemed perfectly health. It was really eye opening as were the slums.
The slums are disgusting. There is garbage everywhere and the smell of rotting fish, veggies, and even sometimes dead dogs. The air is really thick from all of the pollution and 5 of our 7 team members are currently sick (including me but I'm fine I just have a cold :D).
I love the people here. The other day we worked with a ministry that helps women get out of prostitution and gives them jobs (making jewelry, bags, skirts, etc.) and they were so lovely. We had to teach them a dance on the spot (haha because you know we're a performing arts DTS and that's what we do :S) so that was a new experience but they were so fun/funny and we just had a blast with them.
Tomorrow we get to see the beaches of Bangkok (suppose to be GORGEOUS) so I'm really looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing nature, wildlife, and CLEAN water. I also discovered that I got here two months late. If I had come a couple of months ago I would have been able to see elephants walking the streets (they just outlawed it apparently).
Christmas:
Two nights ago our team went to dinner at a house. A house! I haven't been inside of a house in like almost four months haha. Anyways, it was lovely. They were from Canada and made us a home cooked meal and had a tree up and all this stuff. In the cab on the way home me and two of the other students held hands trying to hold back tears (we just miss home a little bit). About twenty minutes into the hr. ride home the cab drivers glances in the rear view mirror at us and then he puts in a CD. I prayed in my head, "please don't be a sad song please don't be a sad song." What was the first song? Oh ya know... "I don't wanna miss a thing" by Aerosmith. Everything went down hill from there. The following songs were by Celine Dion and I don't remember what else but oh man... Eilidh (18- Scotland), Jennelle (18- Canada), and I just bawled our eyes out. Our leader (Gerry) was sitting in the front seat and just glanced back at us once awkwardly. The poor cab driver just kept saying, "sorrrrrry Sorryyyy" in broken English. We replied "mi cop-coon-ka" or "No, Thank you." We laughed and cried for the next hr. or so too embarrassed to do anything else. It was pretty pathetic but pretty funny.
Please pray for:
-continual growth in our team (I'm learning so much about leadership and stepping up it has been soo challenging but good)
-health
-safe travel to South Africa (we leave Dec. 9th at 1 a.m.)
I love you all and if I don't write again on here Merry Christmas!!!
God Bless,
-Shanna
No comments:
Post a Comment