My heart almost broke when my girls started crying as they hugged me goodbye. I never thought I would be sad to finish PST (especially for the second time), but I’ve grown close with my new neighbors and family. To make matters worse, minutes before leaving my home, my Yai (grandma) burst into tears, saying she would miss me so much.
Me and my Yai
She then followed it up in typical Yai fashion by telling me I’d lost weight and that she was worried that I wouldn’t eat well in my new home. Tearing up myself, I promised that I would eat and that I would come back to visit her soon.
As my Ma and Paw drove me back to the hotel in Sing Buri, I thought back to that time when they had picked me up two months before. It was one of the more awkward car rides of my life as they just chatted in incomprehensible Thai and I sat in the back, wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into again. Now, here we were in the opposite situation, joking around about how I would have to marry a Thai man and have lots of babies so that I would have to stay in Thailand. As we pulled up to the hotel, I told my Ma I had to get out to talk to staff about my bike and she teared up as she said, “Molly put passa Thai geng, ja kitun maak maak.” (Molly speaks Thai so well, I will miss you so much.)
Celebrating a job well done after a day of volunteering.
At first, I laughed a little bit as all I said was that I had to get out to talk to the guy and it wasn’t really that impressive, but then I remembered that the last time we were all at the hotel together I barely could say more than my name and that my favorite food was noodles. In two months, I’ve really come a long way.
It’s not just the language—I’ve built some great relationships and really bonded with a group of students that will be hard to rival with at site. Although PST has been frustrating at times (especially the medical and safety sessions, do you hear me?), it has also been rewarding. I’m grateful for the incredible group of 128s that have embraced me and my experiences and who I know I can count on any time. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing my brilliant ajaans are. They taught me Thai, but so much more than that. I miss them already.
My favorite people. Ai, Ai, Peh, and Michele. (Yes, the twins have the same name.)
And of course, my first Thai family. I’ll admit, I was a little apprehensive to pour my soul into another family that I was just going to leave in another few weeks, but I was lucky to have some pretty awesome people taking care of me. Not to mention the best neighbors in the entire world. These little girls honestly made everything better.
The last few weeks have gone by in a blur: we took a trip to see the Peace Corps office in Bangkok (during which I was more excited about the visit of my best friend), held an awesomely successful volunteer day (where we had the greatest banner of all time in our honor, followed by a super fun dance party), finished up technical training, and found out our site placements!
I’ll spare you the details and get to the good stuff: my site is in the south of Thailand in a mostly Muslim community. I had an inkling that’s where I would get sent (my Program Manager dropped some not so subtle hints) and honestly was over the moon when I found out. It’s going to be full of some really interesting cultural comparisons and I feel like I will be able to continue my work from Jordan in some small way.
You can’t go wrong when your school makes a giant banner of your faces. Cheers to the best practicum school ever!
“I can’t believe you did this twice,” one of my fellow volunteers told me in our last days together before leaving for site. I laughed as she was actually the third or fourth person to tell me the exact same thing in as many days. “I don’t think I could have done it again,” she continued.
To be honest, I have no idea how I managed most days and thought I was crazy the rest of the time. But in the end, I really think it’s worth it. Here’s to a fantastic two years (fingers crossed) of growing, learning, and sharing!
Peace and much love.
M.
What Remains to be Done 