It was a life changing experience.
It is hard for us all to relate to others quickly how amazing this experience was for us all. There are so many points and stories we would all like to share without skimming over the details.
This past July I joined a team of 19 other adults, college and high school students in a amazing humanitarian trip to a rural providence of Thailand to connect and build bonds with the locals and the community. This group had an array of tasks and goals to complete in our two week mission.
We all assisted the community through local construction projects at a red zone school that did not have government funding or assistance. We taught young students from this school a variety of english lessons and it was incredible to see the smiles and their eyes light up when they learned so quickly! We offered the community health and wellness lessons, vocational lessons on how to sew and bake items for their community and families. The goods created by the community members were a great segway into the lessons centered around business and marketing consulting.
This was my area as the business committee mentor. I was so grateful to join the team and assist in this area! I’m a nerd and get very excited when I can help others and talk business and marketing. Serving as the business committee mentor was a massive blessing and incredible experience. We got the chance to work with these local community members as well as students at the local technical college! Because we wanted to push for the most sustainable projects we focused on teaching receptive technical college students and we pushed the locals involved in vocational lessons to really test their new skills. We pushed them by taking the products the vocational committee taught them to sew and bake, to the actual market to sell. We forced these local ladies out of their comfort zones and got them lined up with a market booth, packaging supplies for baked goods not traditional to rural markets. We helped them price their items based on the market and their overhead following our lessons.
They had great success! As we left them ALONE to sell in the market without the “Americans” supporting them they had to really step up and out of their traditionally shy Thai comfort zone. I hope that they got over the fear and they can really move forward to make money and better support their families and community in the future.
Coming back to America and our traditional lives was hard after such a wild two weeks where our team learned and experienced so much. There was so much rain, laughter, smiles, lessons and challenges. So much to learn from a experience like this. So many relationships built and connections made with local kids and the families. Most of the time we had struggles to clearly communicate everything we wanted to, but we were able to work together and build amazing experiences with each other.
A massive thank you to my patient clients, supporting friends, family and sponsors! I could not have done it without you! Please reach out to Youthlinc if you would like to join a team near you on their next trip. I highly recommend it!
