I was filled with gratitude, as I made my list that just keeps growing.
I have realized I am thankful for parents that have showed me that hard work pays off. If it wasn't for me working so hard to go to China, I wouldn't be here in Thailand. I was grateful for the hard work that I do every day here with my teachers and my children. I am grateful that I get to serve them here.
Nothing is a free-bee here, just like life in general. My dad has always said, "Nothing is free. You want it, you earn it."It is the truth.. I have always tried to find something that isn't free and I still can't come up with anything that doesn't require me to do something for it to be "free."
When I want to go into town, I have to work and ride my bike 20 minutes into town so I can get what I need. It makes me grateful for my truck and my ways of transportation back at home.
I am grateful that I get to serve the people of Thailand. I was in awe of the hard working people here. Everyday I see elderly people who shouldn't be working, working. I see them carry their heavy supplies on their backs to sell to others, just to make a living for themselves and for their family.
I have been able to witness the true love and joy of people. People here have hope in their eyes. They have pure happiness and have absolutely nothing.
I was talking on the phone with a friend of mine, and he said, "Don't you want to come back to America and get out of that crappy poor place?"
I asked him, "Didn't you love your mission? Didn't you love the people you served because they were truly happy and didn't have anything?
He replied with, "Yes, I loved it, but I love America because we have everything."
I said, "Well, this "crappy, poor" place is what makes me love it. The people here have nothing and are genuinely happy. I have everything I could ever imagine, and I don't feel this happy at home."
I feel that I have experienced having nothing, but having everything here. I love it and I am not ready to say goodbye to it.
I have loved how open and loving the people are. They are the type that will accept you for who you are, what you do or don't have and will trust you from the second they see you. I have never seen someone with such an open heart as these people have. It has made me want to strive for that.
I love the level of respect I see for the people themselves and for each other here. I love the way that they all treat each other openly. They genuinely care for each other.
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| The Massage Group took us to Phitsanulok for a day of fun. This a picture with them. |
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| Kate, Orn and I |
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| Samran, Arissya, and Orn |
I have become really close with a group of ladies here who work at a massage shop. They give the best massages hands down. A 2 hour massage for $12..you really can't beat it. These massages are better than anything I have ever had.
..Anyways.. Kate and I have become really close with a lady named Orn (pronounced On). She speaks English, but cannot read or write in English. We became close with her by reading emails in English to her from a dating website from others. Then responding back to them for her. She has the biggest heart of gold. I love just being around her. She has the most trustworthy, honest, and loving heart I have ever met.
Here is her story: Orn has an 18 year old son, from her first marriage. She went to go work in Korea when her boss there wanted her to have an affair with him. He knew she had a family back at home and he had a family as well. Orn kept telling him no, she told her husband of the situation and he left her. She never did anything with her boss, but her husband said that he didn't want to deal with it. So she raised her boy by herself. She had met a man from the Netherlands and they owned a bar and a rice farm together and were together for 10 years. She continued to raise her son, but he got into trouble a lot growing up. He has not worked at all or finished high school.
Earlier this year, in February, her husband from the Netherlands passed away from lung cancer. She has been on dating websites wanting to find a white man, because they will treat her better than a Thai man will. As I have been in Thailand.. Her son has caused much more trouble. He was doing drugs, got put in Thai jail, Orn made him stay there for a while before she bailed him out because she said he hadn't learned his lesson. Side note: I am so glad! She knows what she is doing to teach her son a lesson. Her son said that he would go back to school instead of work. So he has gone back to school then Orn got a phone call from his teacher saying that he wasn't on time or obeying the school rules. Poor Orn got frustrated and told her son that if he continued to do so, she wouldn't help him any more. He has finally put his act together and gone to school to finish his high school education.
While all of this has been going on, the workers of her rice farm called her and told her that they weren't getting paid enough to work in the rice farm, so they weren't going to finish the season. She had already negotiated on a contract price. She paid them half the amount of money then, and the rest of the money she would pay them at the end of the season to harvest the rice. She had to leave town to go back to her home town and harvest the rice herself.
In the middle of everything...Orn wants to find love somewhere. She just wants a man to take care of her and love her. She has been talking to men from everywhere trying to get in a relationship. Kate and I have been helping her, translate for her, write emails and try to find a white man who will love her. She is willing to do anything and just wants to find the right person for her.
She hasn't given up. She has showed me that life can get frustrating and hard, but there is always a light to look forward to. She loves people unconditionally. She trusts others, more than I have seen anyone trust. She is a honest, hard working lady. She has showed me that the heart in people is what life comes down to. She loves. I want to love like she does. She has taken care of Kate and I from day one. We have gotten close with the whole massage crew..but I will always have a special place in my heart for Orn.
Helen Keller once said,
"True happiness..is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
The simplicity of life it beautiful. Live it. Love it. Enjoy it.
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