I have been getting a lot of questions on what my job is in Thailand. I have been reluctant to answer because well its hard to explain. Here is the by the book explanation that my friend and fellow 126 volunteer Julia wrote. I am a youth and development volunteer. In my village, I will be creating sustainable youth programs that focus on teaching essential life skills. I have four main sectors that I must cover, which I will list and briefly explain below;
1. Healthy life skills: This focuses on promoting healthy life choices, teaching safe sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS
2. World of work: Addresses personal finances, encouraging entrepreneurship and teaching them basic English3. Active Citizen: Teaches the importance of volunteerism, service learning, and peer education
4. Caregiver Engagement: Offers caregiver support and communication
With the help of my Thai counterparts, I will create youth programs and camps to cover these topics (not all at once). I am excited to start working with the kids, but my first three months will be focused on assimilating in my community and working on my Thai.
I work with 3 different organizations in my village:
1) The Tessaban which is basically the local government office
2)The Anami which is the public health center in my village
3)The Rong Rian (School)
My counterparts are government workers, health workers, and teachers!
I don't have a daily schedule right now. Most of my days are spent practicing Thai, riding around on my bike and trying to get to know my community and the people, and not really knowing what is going on. I smile and nod a lot and just try to go with the flow. Letting go of my american urge to have a schedule know what I need to do for the day and when I need to do it. Letting go of deadlines and the rush. Focusing on building genuine relationships and getting to know and become a part of my community. One way I have done this is by playing with kids in the evenings and painting everyones nails. Im Yaya's nail salon. They think it is the best thing in the world and that I should do nails for a living. I like putting a smile on their face and adding more color to this world. Sometimes I feel like I am not doing anything and need to do more, and then I remind myself that I am doing just what I need to be doing. I can't start any project or work with the community until they know me and can share their needs with me.
Thai culture is very Sabai Sabai. Jai yen yen. Im learning to embrace it! I love this process I am going through. Growth. Here is some links and info on those meanings.
The Thai word "Sabai" is usually translated as "happy", but its use is often closer to "comfortable", "relaxed", or "well". Thai offers many ways to itensify an adjective - one way is simply to repeat it. Thus "sabai sabai" can be translated into "everything's chill"... it is almost beyond words, the Thai's heaven on earth. (http://projectsabaisabai.blogspot.com)
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