AFCThailand2012

Well HOWDY! It has now been a week since we arrived to Thailand. These last few days we have been working hard in the town of Kranuan. The town is small, laid back and friendly; we almost feel like celebrities by getting many “HELLO!”s and stares as we walk down the street (along with the occasional request to be subjects for photography).

Ben and Morrell teach a class of 30 10-year-olds

In the mornings we teach English at the Kranuan Community School. We are split up into teams of two, and each team teaches three different one hour classes. This has been quite the adventure for me as I do not consider myself particularly graced with the gift of teaching, but fortunately I do have the gift of “winging it” when need be (mostly I just try to remember how I learned Spanish and that seems to work well).  My students range from 13 to 15 years old, and I have really enjoyed getting to know and interacting with them.

Breaking ground! The girls dig holes to set the
playground posts.

After teaching and eating lunch we have been going straight to work on the playground we are constructing at the Kranuan Church of Christ. The church plans to use the playground to help start a ministry for preschool age children in the community with a long-term goal of starting the first Christian school here. The last two days we have made a lot of progress by working until dark and in good fortune we will be finished within about a week. Some of the Thai people playfully call me “boy” because, well, I work like a boy, haha! (They also like to say “you tha man!” every time I drive a nail into the hard wood). I get a pretty big kick out that, and I sure that those of you who know me do also. ;) It has been awesome working together as a team and with members of the church.

I have also become good friends with Jao, who is about my age and the daughter of Kranuan CoC’s minister. She knows good English, and so far I have also taught her words like “Gloves,” “Shorts,” “Shop” and “Sandpaper.” She is very funny, and I have enjoyed talking to her about many things such as culture, music, people and our faith. She has helped me teach in the classroom and buy various fruits at the town market. Another extremely helpful person to our team is Tdon, who came with us to Kranuan from the church in Bangkok. Having him as an interpreter, worker and buddy has been a great blessing to all of us.

Needless to say, it has been a wonderful and abundant time in Thailand so far. God has blessed us and those around us in so many ways, and I am glad we still have five weeks left!


--Darcy Rae Jacoby