January Service Project at the Medallion House

We have officially begun our journey to Thailand, well, the preparation at least.  On Saturday the Thailand team gathered for breakfast and a service project.  After some pancakes and getting to each other a little better we traveled to The Medallion House to spend some time with the residents who live there.  The Medallion House is a residential home for people with mental disabilities.  Some people who live there are more functioning than others but all of them had a really great time with us.  It's safe to say that we all had a really good time as well.  After we met everyone we played some board games for the next hour or so.  It was necessary to play in partners because there were so many of us.  Billy was my partner (in the red checkered shirt) and we are absolutely awful at the game of Sorry!  Just bad luck I guess.  But don't worry, once we moved on to the Memory game we really got in to a groove.  It was great to see so many young adults spending their Saturday with people who would otherwise have sat and watched cartoons all morning.  The staff at the Medallion House is amazing but there are just not enough of them to allow undivided time dedicated to each person who lives there.  At one point someone decided to put on a Michael Jackson CD and let me tell you, the party started from there!  I don't know if I have ever seen anyone so ready to dance and shake it to Michael Jackson and that includes some of my friends that are truly obsessed.  Before we knew it all of us were up and dancing.  Board game Saturday quickly turned in to a full-fledged dance party that probably could have rivaled any nightclub in Salt Lake City.  Check out the videos from the YouthLINC Thailand 2010 page to see it for yourself.

Medallion House Videos .  Eventually it was time for lunch and we had to leave.  I couldn't help being surprised by these high school students.  They truly amazed me.  My theory used to be that the college students in this group were involved because service is part of their lifestyle.  They are on their own and make their own choices about how they want to spend their time.  I expected them to be excited about the local service they were doing.  However, I half expected the high school students to be less enthusiastic because I made the undeserving assumption that most of them were participating because their parents made them or possibly that they just want to go on a cool trip and these types of projects are what they have to suffer through in order to go.  But these high school students really astonished me with their willingness to be involved in something that wasn't purely to serve their own needs.  They weren't there only becasue they get to go on a trip later and they didn't just sit and wait until they were allowed to leave.  Everyone was actively involved and really seemed to enjoy spending time with people who really appreciated it.  It was one of the more productive and beneficial Saturday mornings I have had in a long time and I am very thankful that I was able to share it with so many enthusiastic people.

Now that we all know each other fairly well and the students are well on their way to completing their service hours we are getting ready for the actual trip and the projects we will be trying to accomplish while we are there.  In March we will have our travel clinic where we will be getting all the necessary shots we will need in order to travel abroad. :(  The micro-enterprise committee is getting ready to meet this month in order to get everything organized for their projects.  They need to meet more often than the rest of the group because their projects require a lot more planning and resources.  They are hoping to expand the bakery and sewing business they helped set up in past years as well as help start up a new local loan program. I am officially one of the mentors heading the cultural exchange committee so over the next month I will be coming up with some ideas on how to share our culture with the Thai children and their families and ways to let them share their culture with us.  I will also be thinking of some things that we can do as a group to familiarize and educate ourselves about the Thai culture both while was are in country and before we leave.  Other groups will include the education committee, the health committee, the social work committee and the construction committee.  The big construction project for the school will be to address the need for a water source other than the stream that is a few hundred yards away.     

A fun side note, my friend Shea is now coming on this trip as another youth mentor.  She is an elementary school teacher and she will be heading the education committee.  We will be staying in Thailand for an extra week to travel and see more of the country! We are working on those plans as we speak.  Hopefully we will have everything figured out in the next few weeks!

I want to thank everyone again for all of their help and support as I get ready for this trip.  I have received so much help from my family both in the form of monetary donations and words of support which are just as much if not more helpful than money.  My wonderful awesome friends have been really great in helping me raise money by volunteering their time to work at the Outdoor Retailers Show and the the Sundance Film Festival.  I couldn't ask for a better show of support!  Thank you!!!!