Kap Khun Ka, Thailand!

As we approach the end of our time in Thailand, I begin to reflect on my time in southeast Asia. It’s about 92 degrees right now, with an obscene amount of humidity, and pouring rain… Bangkok truly is a meteorological mystery! I think back to our first day in Bangkok, which now feels like weeks ago. What happened just yesterday, feels like something I have filed into the back of my brain already, probably because I am trying to process so much and enjoy each moment but also be excited for the next. While Malaysia, for the first two weeks and Map Ammarit (a small town in southeast Thailand) just last week, have both been incredible experiences, I've felt a special connection to Bangkok. This could be for many reasons: I’m a sucker for big cities, my mom grew up here, the work we are doing feels so close to my heart, and I have learned so much here… about faith, myself, others, relationships, and dealing with the “hard stuff”.

I know my past blog posts have been few and far between as well as mainly about traveling or adjusting to culture etc. and not so much what we have been doing or seeing. (Apologies for that run-on sentence!) It’s been a bit harder than I thought for me to process everything while we’ve still been in it (something I talked about in my last post) especially this week. I’m not going to go into too much detail, because I think these stories and conversations are things better understood through a face to face conversation. But I’ve spent hours pouring over my journal with a million thoughts and recounting every experience from this week, so now I will try to share some with you all.

photo credit: Allison Tamte aka my travel bud :)

This week we were working primarily with one ministry called Night Light. Night Light is an organization that, “began to address the lack of opportunity for women trapped in Bangkok’s sex trade by providing them with viable alternative means for supporting themselves” Night Light provides women with alternative employment through jobs such as jewelry making, t-shirt printing, working in their coffee shop, or even working for Night Light itself. In addition to Night Light, another opportunity came up the night we arrived in Bangkok with an organization called Life Raft International. Life Raft International is an organization based in Bangkok that works with detained refugees facing unimaginable circumstances and struggles. They provide multiple different “paths to freedom” through providing food and shelter, education, as well as prison visits.

When we were told we had the opportunity to learn about the refugee and immigration situation here in Thailand, I jumped at the opportunity. I spent much of my time in France studying the refugee crisis there, and in Europe as a whole. Immigration is a huge question in the states right now. Needless to say, I craved to learn more. A group of 5 of us went to work with Life Raft while the others went to Night Light. None of us really quite knew what we would be doing, except for the 15 second elevator pitch quickly given as, “Going to the IDC (Immigration Detention Center) to speak with Pakistani refugees” Immediately we all had multiple questions. What exactly is this Immigration Detention Center? Why were the refugees here? Why were they in a “detention center”? We didn’t really know much about this refugee or immigration “problem” here in Thailand. So we all went with an open mind ready to absorb information.

I don’t think any of us could have prepared ourselves for what we saw in the IDC. I won’t go into too much detail as I don’t think that the stories can be properly shared through words on a screen, and also out of respect of the men and women we met there. I would however love to talk to you further at any point so feel free text me, email me, pony-express me… whatever works :) But there are some things that I think are incredibly important to share to get across the gravity of the situation According to Life Raft, “There are approximately 8,000 refugees in Bangkok, with the largest group being Christians from Pakistan” In Thailand however, the government doesn’t recognize refugees and therefore considers itself “refugee free” In other words, they do not have refugee status. This means that while we consider Pakistanis fleeing persecution to be refugees, Thailand instead considers them detainees or essentially, prisoners. Therefore, the detention center looked nothing short of what I imagined a prison to be. We were blessed with the ability to listen to the personal stories of individuals. With each heartbreaking story of separated families and longing for home, there was an overwhelming amount of faith in God. I questioned how these men and women could believe in God after all they had been through. I couldn’t quite understand how people that had suffered so much and continue to suffer, could love Jesus so so deeply. I left the IDC feeling a crazy mix of emotions - sad, angry, confused, encouraged, loved, heartbroken, but also with the biggest question, “Now what?” We can’t solve this problem… that’s next to impossible. We can’t break the refugees out of the detention center. We can’t take their place. We can’t stop the religious persecution back home. So what are we supposed to do?

After heavily journaling about this day and the bajillions of thoughts that came with it, I landed on the (possible) answer of, “Maybe we can just be” Thinking about our position at Life Raft, we were simply a visitor: just a body and someone to talk with. Sometimes it’s so much better to be with than to work for. Sometimes all you can do is be a witness and listen to stories so that you can better understand the struggles and pass that onto others.

As I head back to the states and begin to settle into a routine of school, work, friends, studying, tests… I want to make sure that I don’t forget about these stories and these men and women. It’s easy to be aware in the moment, have a drive to share the stories, and want to do everything you can to “fix it” But once you’re settled back into your daily life, it becomes so easy to let that fall by the wayside. I’ve been doing some thinking on keeping myself accountable. It’s nice to have a group of people that went through those experiences with you; they are people you can always go back to for conversations and perspectives. Sharing stories with others, like my family and friends and YOU, increases the number of people aware. Writing it down and putting those stories in ink for me to read and re-read keeps them in my mind.

Maddy and Noah at the floating markets

Megan, Cam, and Bridget at the floating markets

Thailand has taken a piece of my heart… as do most places I visit. To my group: Bridget, Cameryn, Gracie, Allison, Maddy, Odile, Hannah, Megan, Brook, Sarah, Noah, Kyle, Jocelyn, and Fabian… I could not be more grateful to have experienced this with you all. Your kindness, generosity, faithfulness, love, and amazing humor made this time even more wonderful than I could ever have imagined. I am so thankful… or as we say in Thai “Kap khun ka”