Morehead State junior middle blocker Jessie Wachtman is spending several weeks in Thailand with an Athletes in Action Tour. She will periodically chronicle her experiences with the tour.
Chiang Mai, THAILAND - Thainally, WE MADE IT!!! After 40 long hours of traveling and long airplanes rides, we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand this morning! Our morning started early (at 5:30 a.m.), with our last flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
The entire group was so relieved to be done traveling AND relieved that none of our luggage got lost, praise the Lord!!!
The players got to ride to our housing in the local taxi cars. With an open back and windows on each side of us, we were able to look around at the new city we were in. So many new and different things to look at. Billboards that had a language we couldn't read, crazy motorcycle drivers, and smiles all around. We all had our cameras and iPhones out, taking all the pictures we could.
We pulled up to our house to be greeted by our AIA in-country staff, Fai and Soa. They were so welcoming and sweet. I'm looking forward to being around them, hearing their stories, and learning from them on this trip! Once we got situated in our rooms, off to lunch we went!
Lunch was in a restaurant that was brown, I have no idea what the name of it was because it was written in Thai! It had beautiful brown woodwork and unique Thai lanterns hanging from the ceiling. There was so much new food to try, all served buffet style. I ended up eating curry and noodles, chicken stir fry with white rice, two rolls, salad, a piece of tomato pizza (I think), and some mac and cheese! I ended up liking all of it, so sign me up for the clean platter club!!
After the staff took us to a mall/super market. We got to shop around for an hour while the staff bought breakfast food. I particularly enjoyed the mall because it had bubble tea. And if you know me at all, you know I LOVE me some Thai ice tea with bubbles. It was so cool for me to be drinking my favorite drink in Thailand!!
Once we got back to the dorms, we all knocked out for a short and much needed nap before we headed to the gym to do some body weight circuits and stretching. We all felt better after a little bit more sleep and a good post-traveling stretch.
For dinner, we went to the Cru building near our house. There we had orientation with Fai. She taught us the do's and do nots of the Thai culture along with some Thai phrases that we can use to speak to the students that we meet at the clinics that we host. She gave us the in-country schedule for the rest of the trip, and let me tell ya, there are some fun things coming ahead that you don't want to miss hearing about! Fai also had two girls come perform a dance routine they had put together to the song Come Thou Fount. It was so special to see them dressed in Thai apparel and to hear that hymn sung in the Thai language.
We all shared a meal together and ate Pad Thai, another kind of curry soup, salad, chicken wings, and white rice. During dinner, the two dancers gave everyone on the team a necklace of flowers, which was so sweet. The hospitality and genuineness of the Thai culture has already become so evident to me, and I haven't even been in the country for 24 hours yet!! I got a chance to talk to the two dancers, they told me about their life and when they came to know the Lord. It's so encouraging to already see Jesus work through language and culture barriers. We serve a big and good God, and I was reminded of that today after talking with those two awesome Thai women.
Tonight re-lit the spark of excitement for me and many others on the team for what the rest of this trip holds. I'm so ready to build relationships with the people here, share my Jesus with them, and just be immersed in the Thai culture. Today was a great day, but the best is still yet to come.
I know the day is just beginning for you guys in the states, but I'm just now heading to bed. Pray that this jet-lag doesn't keep me up too long
God bless! Signing off for the team from Chiang Mai,
Jessie Wachtman
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