Octember -- The end has begun

My service in Thailand is winding down way too quickly! At this point, I have about 90 days of service remaining, and just reflecting on the past 90 days, it's so crazy and surreal, and almost scary  how quickly time has been flying! October and November seemed to be a blurry whirlwind of events.

The highlights of the past couple of months included assisting a friend with a Youth Leadership Camp in a nearby province, participating in Camp GLOW/BROS with six of my students and two of my teachers, along with several other volunteers and their students and teachers, and finally, the Close of Service Conference with all of the volunteers in my group. All this following the mid-year break for my schools. It is so good to be back to my routine, back in my community, and back in my schools with my students.

Here are just a few highlights of some of the recent highlights.

Youth Leadership Camp: I met with a few volunteers to help facilitate a Youth Mentorship and Leadership Camp where we led high school students in activities to help them to identify and develop their leadership skills. The highlight of the camp was tasking the highschoolers to plan a camp on their own camp and then bringing in elementary school students to participate in this camp, which was planned entirely by the high school students. As volunteers, we continued to lend support to the older students whenever needed, but they did a wonderful job. It was really impressive to see how their teamwork and leadership skills emerged over the course of a few days and how they were able to handle the task of planning and facilitating a two-day camp so exceptionally well. It was a tremendous experience for all involved.

Camp GLOW/BROS: Girls Leading Our World, (GLOW) is an event led by Peace Corps Volunteers in various countries around the world that promotes gender equality and challenges gender stereotypes, it is designed as an empowerment tool for girls to tap into and explore their great leadership potential. We realize that in order for girls to reach their potential, it is just as important for boys to receive this education so that they can be supportive of their female counterparts. Boys Respecting Others and Self (BROS) is designed to do just that. I'm really glad that I had an opportunity to participate in the first Camp GLOW/BROS hosted in Thailand along with six of my students and two teachers from my community.

Close of Service: The US Ambassador to Thailand, Glyn Davies, hosted all of the volunteers in my group for an early Thanksgiving Dinner at his residence to thank us for our two years of service. It was a lovely traditional meal with all of the fixings, and I felt incredibly blessed to be sharing it with my amazing family of volunteers. I was given the honor of representing my group in addressing the ambassador and I shared some of my thoughts and reflections of my volunteer experience and how thankful I am for the opportunity to serve in this capacity and all that it has meant to me. I was glad when other volunteers expressed that they shared similar sentiments, it reaffirmed our bond and the experience for me in so many ways. The next few days were a bit more solemn as staff prepared us for the inevitable end of our time here as volunteers in Thailand.

It has truly been a bitter sweet time. See more snapshots of my every day life in the videos below.