Peace And Smiles
My adventures as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand:The Land of Smiles
3/13/2018 1 Comment 14 Months Later“So today I was riding around with my counterpart. We visited a couple of farms and then we turned down this road. Doesn’t it kind of look like America? I almost started crying, I really miss that.”- message to another volunteer, April 2017 I had almost forgotten how hard my first month here was. After ten weeks of new friends, daily debriefs and lessons, plenty of coffee, and home cooked meals, I was thrown into a world of strange faces, Isaan dialect, lots of bpa laa (fermented fish) and spicy food. Everything was new, everything was hard, and I would search endlessly for scenes and activities that would give me a few seconds to breathe before plunging back into the wildly unfamiliar. Groves of rubber trees that I could pretend were maples, books whose stories I first read in my childhood home, and music I first heard in my friends’ cars were all comforts I clung too to keep from drowning in this new world.
Somehow, in the past year, I had forgotten all of that. That is, until I was invited to help with some training sessions for the new group of volunteers. One session on resiliency required me to reflect on that first month, what I felt I could control, and how it had changed in the year since. There is no month in the past year that I can point to and honestly claim “that was easy”, but what this session forced me to recognize was how many challenges I had overcome, and how the things that were challenging in April 2017 are now a regular part of my life. I have friends here now (although most are under the age of 7, we have the best time together), my language has improved (and I’ve learned to nod and smile convincingly when I don’t understand), and everyone knows and is okay with me not liking bpa laa (they know I’ll still try the spicy food). The little comforts I once clung to are now just that- comforts: there if I want them, but not necessary for my existence here. Each month has presented itself with its own hurdles and the next 12 will not be any different, but the thing about hurdles is you get stronger the more you leap over them and each time you clear one, you get closer to a successful finish. After helping at the training I traveled to Udon Thani, a nearby province, with another volunteer and her neighbor. We visited the Red Lotus Lake, and took a boat past some of the most breathtaking scenery I’ve ever seen. “Lol who transported me to Wisconsin? You gotta come visit this place, it’s incredible!”- message to another volunteer, March 2018.
1 Comment
Aunt Loyola and Uncle Rich
3/14/2018 07:09:00 am
Kayla YOU can do ANYTHING! You have learned to adapt and compromise. HAPPY PI day!!! 3.14 We love you!and look forward to you celebrating Loyola and Kyle's wedding
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