BEN HERE

Hello,
Ben here.  I just wanted to post a little blurb about my time in Thailand so far.  Coming back to this country as a team leader is a whole new experience.  I took the culture in stride this time, but with so many projects and 6 people depending on me to know what to do in every situation, I felt pretty stretched.  On our first day of playground construction and teaching, there were a lot of questions.  That was my culture shock.  Now I feel that our team is becoming more autonomous and that I am becoming better at having tasks for all of them.  I have found that since we are not a construction team, I have to be pretty specific about the tasks that I assign, or the instructions won't be understood and the task won't get done.  I am super happy with all the progress so far and especially with the work that is getting done on the playground.  When completed, it will be the best thing I have ever built or helped build.  As for teaching, I am seeing progress every day with our students.  I know that our time here is bringing some serious attention to the church in Kranuan and that we are leaving the children with more English than they had before. Kun Prakong has a vision of the next few years that includes building a school and I hope that Aggies can supply the workforce to build it and some of the money needed to help with it for years to come.  Sometimes he tells me "save it for next year" and I think about all the future teams that will come through here and it makes me so happy.  Talk to you again soon.
BEN WILDE