An Adventurous Start to the Thailand Trip!

What happens when you have a lot adventure-bound people on multiple flights with disappearing passports, swollen plane feet, diverging plans, long layovers and transfers galore? Team Thailand on the go, ready for action!

Parents and loved ones can rest assured that all of Youthlinc’s ambitious future leaders have arrived in Thailand safe and sound! With the delays of the recent and unfortunate San Francisco airplane incident, it wasn’t easy to coordinate getting the team to where we needed to be, but we did it with red-eye flights and over-night airport nights.

Whether it’s a first for humanitarian work or even first-time overseas, the gungho team is ready to make a difference. Soon the team will be meeting up with the Moken community to help teach lessons, assist in improving medical conditions and give the community the attention it needs.

In the mean time, while we all try to quickly get past this jet-lag, it’s been a whirlwind and culture shock for the team. For many of us it was a first in breathing the hot and sticky humid air of Thailand. It was also interesting to note the immediate things that were different in Thailand, such as opposite lanes for driving, really spicy seafood, giant toads, becoming a minority (our tall blondes of the group are quite the rarity here) and wild monkeys hitching rides on the back of trucks (true story).

Our adventure began with visiting a very recent Youthlinc site – the Home and Life Orphanage. This charming site is home to many happy and smiling children who’ve had the chance to work with Youthlinc before. They were ecstatic to have us visit and gave us a warm welcome with delicious food and fruits. We immediately jumped into action to help with building a rock wall and see what past Youthlinc groups have done with the orphanage. We’ve also had the chance to visit a tsunami memorial, a mangrove tree forest and the Mercy Center where we employed the many available hands we had waiting to help clean out a future basketball court for children.

The first couple of days have eventful, but there’s plenty more where that came from… After a long night of practicing our welcoming ceremony and organizing our massive piles of donations, ranging from medical to educational supplies, we’re tuckered out and will be getting ready for another busy day.

Please feel free to watch out for continuous updates from Team Thailand, and hope you enjoy watching your loves ones and children continue to make long-lasting impacts and friendships.

Team Thailand Bloggers – Itzak Lefler, Eleanor Johnson & Emily Kwok