Over my week without walls in Thailand I learned and experienced things people living the life in Dubai, would never come across. The one thing that had me at awe the most was the Thai people’s way of living. I knew I was going to a country where there would be poverty, But Thailand was something else. On the side of the roads were people begging for money to survive that had no feet, toes and that were blind. Little children went to school, being educated very poorly and didn’t even have the supplies to build a kitchen to make their food. Families lived in ‘huts’ some not even forming a full structure of a house, but only with three walls and no furniture. Animals are starving, and stray dogs are everywhere in sight and are in very bad shape. Villagers are selling anything they can, just to get the money they need to feed themselves and their family.
I learnt about Thailand’s culture and their sacred way of living. Thailand really kept you thinking about how fortunate we are to be living in such a wealthy world. Living in Dubai makes us feel like it’s what the rest of the world is like, but really it isn’t. Outside of Dubai’s emirates hills, hummers, beaches, Burj Al Arab and Dubai mall, is a completely different world. Although our problems in our society may seem big, there are much bigger ones we should be worrying about.
Outside of all the hiking, elephant riding, bamboo rafting, snake shows, Thai restaurants and kayaking we weren’t just there to have fun, but to help others that were in need of it more than us. The community service is the part of the trip that made me feel like I had made a difference in the world. It made me happy to know that I had changed some kids’ lives.
We went to two villages, where we gave the little kids candy and played with them making their faces light up with joy. We then hiked to another village where we did our community service by helping lay cement for the schools new kitchen which each student from DAA on the Thailand trip helped pay for. I was glad to see that we had been the highlight of some of these children’s year. It was an eye opener to many of us that we were very fortunate and take some things for granted without knowing it. Thailand was a trip to remember not only for the students that went on it, but for the children in Thailand that in some way, we made a difference.
Katrina Mercer
