Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend was American Thanksgiving, and the first time I cried since coming to back to Thailand ( I guess it's good to get that out of the way....). I, obviously, was feeling homesick thinking of all my family being together without me. I was sad for them too, and felt a little bad, because it seems like I am usually the one missing and I wonder if my family, especially my niece and nephews, think that I don't care about them. But my family never gives me a hard time about it, so for that I'm thankful.

This weekend I was also feeling thankful for the privileges that I grew up with that are so easy to take for granted, like education, a supportive family, the opportunity to work and support myself without worrying too much about it, and for the most part being pretty safe and comfortable most of my life. Being back in Thailand has reminded me how these are not basic rights that everyone has, most people in the world have really hard lives. I hesitate to share these examples because I don't want to exploit their stories, but I decided that it's important to give you a glimpse into the lives of people I'm meeting here:

First, I met a man today in church whose wife went to Australia for a whole year to pick fruit to earn money for the family. He's home raising the 3 boys.

I also met a pastor who has been dating his fiance for 9 years because he cannot afford the dowry that should be given to her family before they are able to marry.

I've become friends with a woman who visits the apartment complex where I live. She has a 3 month old baby and is always asking me child raising advice (my 2 years helping care for triplets is coming in handy...). The other day she told me that her husband was sexually abusing her 10 year old daughter from her previous relationship, so she sent her daughter away to a boarding school, but didn't know what to do about her husband. She wants to leave him, but is not sure how she will be able to take care of her baby because she had no money of her own.

Another woman I know is raising her 8 year old son by herself as her husband lives in Japan, where he can make enough money to support his family. The paperwork that allows him to work there legally has expired, so he plans to stay there indefinitely. His wife at one time lived in Japan with her husband, but her paperwork also expired, so she cannot go back. At this point, this family doesn't know when they will be able to be together again.

Meeting these people and hearing these stories has left me feeling hopeless with the lack of options that often come from the lack of resources and opportunities. It humbles me because essentially I've never been left without options or ways to be safe and have my needs met, even if it simply meant moving back home and letting my family help me out for a while. I'm sure some of these people would be grateful for these opportunities. As I live and work in Thailand right now, I'm not making a lot of money. But Thai people always say that I'm rich. I used to get frustrated at that, but now I realize that they are right because I have options. I'm choosing to work here in Thailand, but I could also choose to return to the US and make more money. I am rich, because I have the choice to give up my opportunity to make more money. The families that I meet here don't have that choice.