115 Days

115 days.  That’s how long my summer was.  115 days of not really having to wake up too early.  115 days of home and travel goodness alike.  Of course I’m not subtracting summer school from those 115 days because that wasn’t really like work anyway.  115 glorious days of living simply, soaking in the sun and spending time with some really wonderful people.   Upon reflection, it was exactly what it was supposed to be—a chance for me to appreciate where I come from in preparation for moving to Egypt.  It. Was. The. Best.

Thanks to some of the best friends a girl could ask for, I was able to {pretty much} complete everything on my Colorado bucket list.  I got to see and do some uniquely Colorado things that I love or have never done.  I left with a renewed love for my city and state, which reminds me that no matter how long I am abroad, Denver will always be home.  Some highlights include rafting the Arkansas River beneath the Royal Gorge, standing at the top of Mount Evans, riding my bike like an Egyptian through Palisade, City Park Jazz with my favorites and catching a kickball, naturally. 

After summer school, Maren and I jetted off to Thailand.  Although maybe “jetted” isn’t quite the verb I should use because it takes a long time to get to Thailand.  We stretched our legs in Seoul for a day and then spent July touring Wats (Thai word for Buddhist temples), swimming with fish and Dana and feeding elephants.  I spent most of my time at Seed, a migrant resource center for Shan people (an ethnic group from Shan State, Burma) ran by Partner’s Relief and Development and Shan Youth Power.  I was teaching beginning English to some of the hardest working students I have ever had.  After working or going to school all day or night, they would come to Seed for three hours everyday to learn English.  What good is English in Thailand?  Besides the prospect of having the ability to speak to farangs (foreigners) hence getting a better job, most students were attending classes at Seed because they previously never had an opportunity to receive an education.  Some students fled Shan State or other parts of Burma in fear of being forced to become child soldiers, others left simply because there is no work and no school.  Similar to the plight that many undocumented workers coming from Mexico to the US face, Shan migrant workers are second-class citizens in Thailand.  They work low-paying, labor-intensive jobs and are frequently discriminated against simply because they are Shan.  Add in the fact that they are coming from a warzone that has been occupied by the Burmese military for the last 25 years which has displaced 2 million people and forced 150,000 kids to become child soldiers, not to mention Thailand does not recognize them as refugees, I was so grateful to get to know some of these warm and humble people.  I spent my mornings and nights teaching English that they could use with the next farang they see, hopefully at the vegetable stand they worked at in the market.  I was also learning a fair bit of Shan that I was able to practice with one of my Project Worthmore families once I returned home.  My students at Seed, most around the age of 20, are diligent and motivated.  They made me laugh, they taught me Shan and they welcomed me into their culture with open arms.  My most favorite day in Thailand was my last day at Seed.  After our morning class, one of my students, Kham Mon, took me to lunch and then shopping.  On the way back to Seed, she stopped at a market I had never been to.  I wasn’t quite sure why we were stopping, mostly because her English was only what I had taught her in the past two weeks—simple pleasantries and shopping vocabulary.  We walked through the produce section of the market, stopping in front of one where she greeted those working.  She looked at me smiling and asked if I wanted to go shopping.  I laughed as I realized that this is the vegetable stand where she works.  She slipped on an apron and stepped behind the table and asked, “How may I help you?”  I have never been prouder than that moment when I realized how much she had learned in just two short weeks.

After a few quick, but wonderful weeks back in Denver, I left for my new home, Egypt.  I had come to terms with the fact that summer was over, but upon starting new staff orientation in a country that is currently in a state of emergency (translation: 7 o’clock curfew), I was surprised to find out that my summer had been magically extended.  The school year would be delayed two weeks because many students travel very far each day to get to school and wouldn’t be able to with the current curfew in place.  And the Egyptian Ministry of Education said so.  Some might be stressed out that their new country may be a bit unstable, but I saw it as an opportunity to see another part of the country while picking up my Open Water scuba certification.  Luckily, there was already an Open Water class planned with our sister campus, AIS West. (I work at the main campus, but prefer to call it the East campus.)  So then I spent 6 glorious days in the Southern Sinai in a wonderful little beach town, Dahab.  I made my first good friends (albeit they work and live very far from where I work and live in Cairo) and learned how to breathe under water.  While the course was EXTREMELY difficult (who wants to purposely fill their mask with water 10 meters under the sea and then get the water out while still under water), in the end, it was totally worth it.  

So now, as I sit mentally preparing myself for the actual first day with students tomorrow, I can’t help but already miss my sweet summer.  But I am certainly ready for a routine.