Vanessa Manual is a Youthlinc Service Year Student and Team Blogger on the 2017-18 Southern Utah Thailand Team. For the latest updates, be sure to follow our blog and social media – Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram!
The Southern Utah Thailand team is having quite the experience. We began the third day with a monk becoming ceremony where the kids were able to dance with the villagers around the temple and the newly instated monk. After the monk tradition the students passed so many friendly people on the streets which all said “Sa-wat-dii”, which is hello. The faces went from already excited to jumping for joy as we arrived to the school where we will be volunteering.
At opening ceremonies, we taught the kids the macarena and the cha-cha-slide. The kids definitely enjoyed the swing dancing and the juggling performed by some of the team members. The children were really surprised when we had our team sing a song to them that the Cultural leader Abe wrote; it was so amazing. Dancing with kids was for sure one of the exciting parts of the kids ‘day and seeing everyone smiles. After opening ceremonies, we split in to teams and played ice breaker games getting to know the kids and seeing how much English they already knew. Some taught the kids duck-duck goose and some began construction on the stage which will widen the kitchen and become the mural. The team was sad when the school kids had to go home but knew that they will get to see them every day that we are here In Thailand. The food has been amazing everyone so far is enjoying it, they feed us so well. Tomorrow we will each be given different jobs, like teach English, construction, home visits, and vocational and business lessons.