Ricefields Monks and Smiling Children

Honestly I have never been a sleep away kid who has ever wanted to go away from my family for more than a day. It took every ounce of courage for myself to explain and convince my parents why it was necessary for me to travel 29 hours around the world to do service that could have been done within the United States. For me Thailand had always been on my bucket list and I needed to have an extremely that I could keep to myself. As open as everything is now I have so little that I can do and not have everyone knowing exactly what I'm doing. But when I first got on the plane to Thailand I was already starting to feel homesick from my parents and I convinced myself that this was the worst idea ever to go on a trip with a bunch of people I didn't know completely across the world. Everyone told me that I needed to go alone but I regretted it so much as I was sitting on the 29 hour plane. After we got there we got our room assignments and thats when my whole perspective changed. Everything started to fit in place and I finally started making friends but never would I have ever guessed that I would form closer bonds with these people that I had gotten to know for two weeks than my friends from home that I had known for 13 years. I cannot tell you enough GO WITH NO ONE YOU KNOW. It lets you form the relationships for yourself and have something that you can always cherish and keep to yourself. These kids were so amazing and I feel so blessed to have gotten to know so many amazing people in such a short span of time. Additionally Rustic pathways completely changed my perspective on countries seen as inferior to Americans. I very much saw my culture as above other culture but as I began to actually emerse myself I began to realize their culture is not better nor worst than ours; its just different. I always thought that not having running water is so horrible, not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet, and using "bum guns" was such a horrible idea but as I began to really look at the cold hard fact if their was of living were so awful, then why are so many Americans (many of which are my best friends) struggling with depression, yet these people who had so little were always smiling? One experience that really struck me was bringing food to the hospital. American hospitals can be busy but I can guarantee there is no hospital as busy as the one we brought food to. The line was out the door and when I asked how people were in line to get food or to get inside the hospital someone said about 500 people. The reason we brought food to it was because many of the Thai family members could not work while their family members were in the hospital, so as a result they were losing money while trying to pay expensive hospital bills. This stressful situation leaves many hospital experience starving because they don't have the money to buy food. As one can imagine this is an extremely stressful situation, yet when they came in lines to get food they were very patient and everyone always said thank you in english and we responded in Thai. Everyone gave me a smile and most either shook my hand or hugged me. This relatives opened my eyes because it showed me how appreciative they are even when they are in appreciative tough situations.