Last Day

Well I'm very sad to say that today is that last official day that I will be in Thailand. I am deeply going to miss all the kids that I have worked with in Thailand and I hope to be able to come back soon. I closed out all my projects and I'm going to write them all off as a success.

Yesterday was the last day teaching the leadership course at DEPDC and I was pleasantly surprised with the kids. We completed the last lesson and then gave them time to write their own biographies. We were worried that it would be hard for the students to open up, but they all decided to share their stories which pretty much brought me to tears. These kids are so remarkable and have been through so much. I'm proud of the young men and women that they have become. We gave each of them a certificate of completion in the course and then they gave each of the four teachers, Matt, Ryleigh, Dave, and myself a letter signed by each of them. The point of the course was to get them thinking about the future in ways that they hadn't before and to examine themselves. I really feel like we accomplished that. I would like to go back to the states and raise money to provide scholarships for these kids to continue their education after DEPDC. Thank you to all my team members who helped make this project happen.

What a way to leave Thailand, my last weekend was spent on top of an elephant's head, holding on to dear life to an ostrich's wings, at a Thai BBQ(which was really hard to actually get food), oh and I got bit by a dog. I love this place. Goodbye sweet sweet Thailand.

I survived

I can officially say that I have seen most of the far reaches of Thailand. I have been all the way from Burma to the southern tip of Phuket. It took nine days and I used all of my vacation days, but I did it. It only took 7 buses, 7 mini-buses, 8 moto's, 7 taxi's, 5 sky trains, 4 boats, 6 tuk tuk's, and 1 airplane. It was an exhausting trip, but I met some really great Thai people along the way and they reinforced my love for Thailand. But I'm back now and getting down to work for my last week here.

The week before I left, we had a great anti-drug presentation in a distant Hmong village. We taught kids that were around the ages 13-16. I'm really not sure how much they got out of it because much of it was probably lost in translation, but I'm writing it off as success.