I’ve been attempting, for a surprisingly long time, to find an organization with which I can volunteer. I’m not particularly specific about the volunteering that I’d like to do, but I want to do something good while I’m over here. After contacting a few organizations and being told they were no longer accepting volunteers, I finally found one that was happy to have me. After a few false starts, I finally got a text message on Saturday morning that I should come visit at 10 am on Sunday.
The rest of saturday was quite efficient with a haircut, windsurfing, and a trip to the dentist. My health insurance doesn’t cover dental, but I was able to get 2 fillings replaced and a cleaning performed in under an hour for $50.
It is clear that a harness is absolutely essential to windsurfing with any speed or efficiency. As you transfer your weight to the sail, the board is able to pull out of the water and cruise along on a plane much easier. It is also clear that windsurfing with a harness is much less fun. Sure you can go faster, but it’s also much less visceral and not nearly as tiring. I feel like I’ve plateaued solidly into “intermediate” windsurfing. I need to stick with it for a while to get some more excitement, or maybe I need to learn how to kiteboard.
But this post isn’t really about that. It’s more about volunteering. After the hour drive north to Ang Sila and the hour or so of attempting to navigate in a country where I can only barely read the road signs, I arrived at the orphanage. I met a couple other volunteers who were there as part of a sixth month mission. We gathered together and chatted for a bit before heading over to nearby Bang Seen to attend a “sports day” and engagement.
The engagement came first, with Thai people coming for quite some distance because they wanted to see what a western style engagement ceremony was like. Never mind, of course, that people in the west don’t have an official engagement ceremony. The best I could tell was that the ceremony comes from Thai Christians as some amalgamation of cultures. It involved a few songs, a few short speeches, a few prayers, and a ring.
Following the ceremony was a prayer session, a speech about the church and all the wonderful things about Christianity, and a bunch of games. The games were surprisingly fun, especially with all the little kids. One game, where we had to stand with 10 or so people on a small piece of paper involved a lot of putting kids on your shoulders and standing on one foot. Others involved quickly eating food and other such silliness.
It really felt great to be doing something that mattered. The kids were incredibly welcoming and warm, instantly willing to be friends. I hope I’m able to continue to help the organization, volunteering is a great thing. Also, it can really help with learning Thai. Kids are relentless in making sure you know what they are trying to say and simple phrases like “I don’t want that, or ไมเอา (mai ao)” become quite apparent.