Monday, May 30, 2011

Sex Trafficking...Big Problem

Here in Thailand sex trafficking has been/ become a serious issue! We have been working closely with DEPDC trying to help prevent this issue.. some people in this world are seriously SO sick.. The demand for little boys has been increasing over the years and it's not just the girls being trafficked anymore... Watch this

Even the little boys are at risk...

Friday, May 27, 2011

"Hello Class! Hello CoCo!"






Things here in Thailand have been running very smoothly especially now since we have all of our projects rolling and we, as a team, are extremely busy very day! I have been spending most of my time over at DEPDC like I have mentioned before. I'm working on filming and putting together a video for their website. The video will also be used in presentations when visiting English speaking countries helping to spread awareness of human trafficking and also to better inform the world what it is that DEPDC is all about.
I am also team teaching a Kindergarten class there once a week with Jamie.. (one of my roommates I love her)

We leave every morning at 6:30 am and ride on this bad boy for two hours to get to our little kindergartners.. but it's worth it! 


These kids are absolute DOLLS. I love them all  so much and they are so stinkin smart! Their ages range from 6 to 15 in this kindergarten class because some speak Burmese and some speak Thai..They are all learning Thai and whatever English we teach them. Sometimes I feel bad for the little kiddos as they stare up at me and have NO idea what I'm trying to say but as soon as we start activities and we lead by example, they all quickly catch on. 

Sometimes though, I think the people here in Thailand are little backwards.. Jamie and I were in the middle of our lesson this last Tuesday when out of the middle of NO WHERE SMOKE EVERYWHERE!
They decided that it was a good idea to shoot deet EVERYWHERE to fumigate for mosquitoes.. don't worry about our lungs or the the little lungs of our kindergartners.. 

I think I probably scared the kids even more than they were already were.. My country director Dave and I were like "RUN!" We were the first ones out followed by the children.. 

The kids here in Thailand.. well i guess I shouldn't say kids.. EVERYONE here in Thailand has a hard time saying my name. 
I say "CourT-NEY" 
they say "COR-Y" or "CorN-y" 
I try again "COURT-NEY"
They say "Co Co"
So it's official my name here in Thailand has become Coco. haha

But with all the work we do we still find time to go see cool things on the weekends and usually end the week with a little American food.. ;)

This last week we had a chance to go visit the white temple here in Chiang Rai! SO COOL!



The Girls!!




  



After visiting the white temple we headed over to the black temple to do a little compare and contrast and tap into our sophisticated philosophical sides. 















This guy was the designer of the black temple..when he spoke I felt like I needed to listen.. He looked very wise.














 








The Snake!
                                 
                       We thought we were being so brave climbing in the snake cage..
(even though we were still like 5 feet away haha)



I hate snakes.. this was terrifying. Some of the people in my group picked up the snake but this is as close as I would get!


We also celebrated Rachel Rick's birthday! We walked around the night walking street, got 2 hour massages, AND  had our own real life "Tangled" moment and lit off lanterns!!!






That's my little lantern all the way up there! 



I'm so grateful for my opportunity to be here in Thailand! I'm loving every minute of it!!




Thursday, May 19, 2011

Buddha's Birthday Bash







So this last Tuesday was the beloved Buddha's birthday here in Thailand! Since there were no opportunities for us to serve here in Chiang Rai with all the businesses and schools being closed.. We traveled to Chiang Mai for the four day weekend! 
We stayed in a hostel there and it was actually fairly nice! 



We each shared a room but had our own bathroom AND it had the toilet separate from the shower! :)

Our first day there we got up early and traveled up into the mountains to go to this place called Flight of the Jungle. That was by far, hands down, no questions asked, one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life! It was this zip line through the jungle.. I thought it would be one or maybe two zips and would be done.. but I was wrong!! We were there for hours zipping, hiking, repelling, all through the most beautiful lush green jungle I have ever seen! There were times when we were so high we were above the tallest trees and you had to literally fly through the clouds in order to get to the next platform! 
Don't mind our lunch lady hair nets.. 













Later that night we walked through the Chiang Mai walking street which they light up every night and sell just about everything by little vendors on the sides of the roads. Perfect place for souvenirs and just about everything else! 
 We stopped by a Tailor there and a few of us had a few things made..






The next day we went to a place called Tiger Kingdom where we were able to play with baby tigers and even pet the big tigers! I thought the big tigers were going to be sedated but after taking to the leaders we found that they are not! Everything is so different over here in Thailand than in America, everyone is so chill here and not even worried about law suits. 
I asked the Thai man, "what happens if the tiger attacks me?!" 
He replied, "Then you die. You choose to go in cage." 
I thought the same thing when we were zip lining standing on the rickety bridges on top of 200 foot trees. The things you can so easily do here would never fly in the USA. 


I loved these little ones so much! They were only 8 weeks old!




Monday night we got to go to this monastery and take a meditating lesson from monks. That was pretty cool to meditate with real monks!


We left Tuesday morning back home to Chiang Rai! I thought Chiang Mai was so fun and a cool city to visit but I love it here in Chiang Rai much more. Here NO ONE speaks any English AT ALL. The restaurants here are all in Thai and everything is so cheap not marked up for tourists. In Chiang Mai most everywhere I went they spoke some English and they had hamburger joints, mexican food places, and there were tons of tourists everywhere. We are the only white people in our city haha

We got here just in time to walk walk over to the local Buddah temple down the street and participate in the birthday ceremonies. We all went into the main room and bowed down making sure our feet were pointing towards the back door and never the big Buddah statue. We were each given flowers, candles, and incense to light. After the ceremony we walked around the temple three times with the monks as they chanted some ritual chant. We lit our candles and incense and walked once mourned for Buddah, once for our present/past lives, and once for our future lives. The young monks then let off fire works which were huge and I'm pretty sure we all got a little burned!