The picture on my fridge is real...and his name is Thong!

Meet the guy my family sponsors: Thong (pronounced Dawng...Thai does not have a 'th' sound, so all our family's jokes can promptly go down the drain)

Thong and I having a nice chat!

I made a three hour trek across the Isaan landscape by train last weekend to Grace Ministries, an organization in a neighboring province to see a friend from high school and meet the guy whose picture has been on my fridge at home for years.  I could write a whole blog post about the train ride itself---'free trains' in northeastern Thailand consist of squawking chickens, sweat, enormous bags of rice, people hawking assorted goods, rather friendly Thai men and conductors yelling at you to move to the next car because suddenly the other half of the train decided to go back in the direction we came---but it  was my time at Grace that made the deepest impression on me.

If you know me, you probably would say I'm not a very logical person. I tend to be easily distractible, easily excitable---even the way I write is haphazard as I skip back and forth from paragraph to paragraph. Some people call it being ADD (personally I think so many kids these days are being over-diagnosed). But I will try to breakdown what I learned from visiting my family's sponsor child in two logical parts, mainly in order to help myself understand:

My weekend at Grace had been going by quickly and I hadn't had a good chance to talk with Thong, partly because the boy's house is very separate from the girls, and partially because to be honest, I didn't know if he had any idea who I was and I felt awkward.  Guy-girl interactions in this Buddhist culture are a lot different and I didn't want the poor guy to be weirded out my the American girl trying to chat him up.  But on my last day there, I noticed that Thong hung back from everyone a bit after lunch, and so I thought 'Here's my chance!' and decided to carpe diem.  We struck up a conversation and so here is what I learned about Thong in our brief thirty minutes together: He loves English and he wants to be an English teacher in the future 2) He is from Chiang Mai and he will go to visit his family again in the summer months of March and April 3) He is a Christian 4) He loves to read, sing and play football 5) He has a younger sister- 7, older sister- 20,  an older brother- 23, and a mom and dad. 6) When he saw me for the first time he remembered me from pictures! 'Jam daai, jam daai' (I remembered!)  7) He has a crush on an adorable girl in the same grade who lives at the same organization. Seriously, I don't blame you Thong. Best of luck to you! 8) He knows the name of everyone in my family and how to correctly spell their names, even down to my dog Thor, which he could not pronounce, again given the lack of 'th' sound. Beyond precious.

That boy knows the way into my heart

Things I learned about myself/life: When you support someone financially, whether abroad or even in your own neighborhood, it is real. It is tangible. Although giving money can sometimes feel like a cop-out (or at least it does to me)...it simply ISN'T! Sometimes I hate the nature of this life and the fact that I have things that Thong doesn't. But being there with him made me realize that Thong has many things that I don't.  He has communal living and a sense of caring for family in a way that we Americans rarely experience.

When we finished talking, he raced off on his bicycle to do who-knows-what and I didn't think anything of it.  Next thing I knew, he was walking back through the doors with, such an earnest look on his face. Now I don't how you would feel when an adorable 17 year-old Thai boy buys you a box of chocolates with his own pocket money (which I know he doesn't have much of), but it was one of those moments in life I will never forget. When he wai-ed to me and said in broken English, "I hope that God blesses you", a deep impression was made on my heart...kind of like---hmm, this is part of the reason I am here, this is part of what life is about. He took what little he have and gave it away.  It reminds me about the story in the Bible about the poor woman who gave her one coin.  Man, that's who I want to be right there.  I want to be that woman who drops everything to give whatever I have. I want to be Thong.

Thank you Thailand.  Thank you for continuing to teach and humble me.

View from the Free Train

The flat, dry palm-tree peppered landscape whisks by---
Isaan the mosquitoes whisper.
The region of spice.
Kon Thai puut pet maak
Little faces peek over the rims of bright motorcycles.
It is grandpa's strong brown hands and crinkled eyes that
keep them safe.
From burning trash piles, smoke curls lazily into the buzzing evening sky.
Each baan lek is a tiny picture of life---
the blurring windows that the tracks pass create a collage of existence.
Faster, faster, faster---
Poor and rich, happiness and misery blend into one color.