Our Peace Corps Thailand Experience

Our experience as Peace Corps Volunteers from January, 2006, to April 1, 2008, was an incredible life journey. It was more than just a journey to a foreign land because it took us to places deep within ourselves. It altered our perceptions of relationships, customs (both foreign and domestic), religion, and the "American Way of Life". It taught us that a "simple" life is not necessarily a "poor" life and made us rearrange priorities in our lives. It taught us that poverty is not necessarily a lack of money, but a lack of happiness ... and in that respect, many countries that we perceive as being poor are, in fact, very rich.

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer, however, is not easy! You have to give up so many of your "comforts", but you will return as a much stronger and complete person. We strongly urge Americans to either join or support the Peace Corps. What you give to others will be returned a hundred times over in ways that you cannot imagine.

Since this blog was first published, we have taken the liberty to occasionally add reflection at the end of some of the posts. When we first published the blog, we were still adjusting to "culture shock". We found that during our first year we kept questioning the customs and practices of this foreign land. By the time we entered the second year, we were finally assimilating into the culture and began questioning our own culture. We soon discovered that many cultures have much to offer to us and that "Americanizing" another country is not necessarily in their own best interest. Ultimately, we discovered that our mission in Peace Corps was not to change the people we served, but to enable them to lead a better life while at the same time showing them that Americans are kind and sharing people that respect cultural differences.

We Arrived in Thailand

This has been a goal of ours ever since graduating from college. The process took two years to complete (applications, interviews, and health screenings). We were notified in November, 2005, of our acceptance and told that we would serve in the Southeast Asia area. Later, we found out that the country would be Thailand. Carol retired from her job as Career Development Coordinator with Moreno Valley Unified School District, Bob opted not to teach another semester of anatomy/physiology at Riverside Community College. We arrived in Bangkok on January 13, 2006, with 52 other volunteers in Thailand Group 118 after an 18-hour flight from San Francisco. Thirty Peace Corps Volunteers from Group 117 awaited our arrival and cheered and greeted us. Our heads were spinning from all that had happened in the last two months. Are we crazy or just living out our dream?

Culture Shock!

The first week in Thailand, we stayed at a local hotel in Uthai Thani where we received our first Thai language lessons as well as lessons on Thai culture and customs. We also received instructions on how to bathe as well as how to improve our aim while using a squat toilet. This is one of the ajaans (teachers) demonstrating the proper way to use the toilet. The daily language courses were intense and, at times, very frustrating since our "senior citizen" minds had most of the windows shut (or at least the blinds closed) to the learning of a new language. The trainings in culture, customs, and language lasted all day and we were exhausted at the end of the day. In retrospect, "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times." We kept pinching ourselves and asking, "Is this a dream, or we really on the other side of the world living our dream?"