Take A Walk With Me: A Typical Day In My Bangkok Life

Though every day is different (both in intentional planning and our openness to whatever may come our way), here is the schedule for one of my days this week and some pictures to help you walk through it with me! Thank you for walking with me in prayer every day…. now you can have some idea of what it looks like J

Thursday, November 17

5:15 Wake up and seize the day! (because of the current flooding, we get up 30 minutes earlier than usual to get to Mass)

5:35 Leave for Mass (we walk, catch a ride in the back of a truck called a 'rot song taew', and then ride a bus to get there)

6:30 Mass in Thai (thank goodness for my Magnificat)

7:00 Breakfast (from a street vendor or from one of the 9 billion 7-11’s on our way)

7:30-9:30 Thai Language School (community members finished with language school visit the Immigration Detention Center)

10:30-12:30 Visit daycare for babies and toddlers of our slum

1:00 Lunch at the House

2:00 Rest/Laundry/Study

3:00 Open the house up and pray a community rosary in Thai (a handful of children often join us- awesome!)

3:30-6:00 Play with children at the house and cook dinner (others in the community go out 2x2 to visit neighbors and a day center for children with disabilities—we rotate who stays in and who goes out each day, and which neighbors and organizations we visit)

6:00 Pray evening prayer with the community

6:30 Dinner

7:30 Hour of Adoration

9:00 Night Prayer

9:30 Relax/Read/Write Letters etc

10:30 Bed!!!

It's usually not this light when I wake up, but here's my part of the room anyway :) Fan, mosquito net, and decorations are all equally necessary. I share a room  with Thuy (44, from Vietnam) and Eva (24, Argentina). Erika (24, Wisconsin) and Marie (24, France) share the other bedroom. 

The bathroom. Flush by pouring a bucket of water down the squat toilet and don't you dare flush that toilet paper! The shower is the bathroom itself- try to get clean using a hose and/or a bucket, then squeegee the floor dry so the next girl doesn't slip! 

Crossing a rickety bridge we walk across every day on the way to Mass and school. 

The houses on the other side of the bridge. Some of the friends we visit live here.

And here.

Holy Redeemer- the Thai/English Parish. We also celebrate Mass with a Hispanic and a French parish through the course of each week. 

Train tracks we walk along on the way back home from school.  More friends live here.

Marie and I found some of them on our walk back and stopped to play!

Noi, the girl in front, spit the largest child loogey on record on me the first time we met. Now we're best friends.

A beautiful woman who lives along the tracks. The door to her one-room shack is always open and she's forever frying fish, and we always stop to say hello. She is deaf and cannot speak so we don't know her name, but she likes to show us her pictures and loves to have her picture taken with us.

Continuing our walk home. Motorcycles constantly pass through these narrow pathways between houses-- how more people have not lost toes in our neighborhood I really don't know! 

Some land that's become a dump. 

Woo! We've arrived at Munity Daycare-- time to help feed, bathe, and give love to the little ones :)

One of the 'playgrounds' on our walk home. Surrounded by homes, it doubles as a laundry drying rack.

Eva with some neighborhood friends we found on the playground. Free hugs are a daily perk.

Almost home! Stopping to greet some neighbors. 

A regular visitor to our house, MoMai jumps into my arms to welcome me home :)

Erika and Eva unlock the door. The bikes stored out front are the neighbors', but we've been approved to get two of our own this week!!

Biw, a beautiful little boy and regular visitor, helps Eva set the 'table' for lunch. Here in Thailand, it's all criss-cross applesauce on the floor all the time. 

Laundry time. 

The laundry area doubles as a wonderful toothbrushing and sponge-bathing location when one of your sisters of community is taking too long in the one community bathroom!

Afternoon playtime with Ploy :)

Hugs with Ploy and Kahn in front of our Thai Mary and Jesus mural in our multipurpose playroom/dining room/meeting room.

Typical.

Smiles! 

I told you Noi and I reconciled after our spit encounter :) Don't let Bem's tongue fool you!  

Our kitchen (minus the stove and food cupboard, which are upstairs during flood precaution time), complete with water filtration system.

See! Erika and Marie cooking dinner on our 2-burner stove in the upstairs hallway. Though we have no oven, we recently received a donated toaster oven that will let us bake! 

Eva, Erika, Thuy, and Marie enjoy some delicious dinner, accompanied by the ever-present rice cooker.

Our chapel with our sweet Thaibernacle.