Our First Weeks in Bangkok!
Hello friends and family! Sawatdee Krub!
We have finally arrived in Bangkok! On September 17th, our red-eye flight landed at 5:30am at Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK), and we blearily made our way off the plane and through the terminal. After making our way through security, customs and immigration, and grabbing our bags, we walked through the one-way doors leading out of the terminal to start our year of life in Bangkok. We were greeted right away by the IJM Bangkok HR team, who had graciously agreed to pick us up, and had brought us some Thai tea to boot! An early glimpse of Thai friendliness and hospitality for sure. As we drove from the airport to our temporary lodgings, we also got to see and hear about Bangkok, a huge, sprawling city whose metropolitan area houses 25% of the population of Thailand.
This past month has been filled with new (and sometimes quite unexpected) experiences as we get to know our new temporary hometown. Even things we thought would be relatively simple- going to eat at a Thai restaurant- can become unexpectedly complex. Our first time going to a real Thai restaurant turned out to be slightly more complicated than we thought- the entire menu was in thai (ok, not too bad, we have google translate), all the servers spoke only thai (a little bit more of a problem, but still not insurmountable), but the nail in the coffin for us that night was that we couldn’t make any connections between the food on the menu and the “thai” food we had had eaten on the US or read about. There were about a hundred different options for various combinations of soups, noodles, curries, and various meats, a great introduction for the both of us into the amazingly complex, rich, and historically vast Thai culture.
Finally being able to engage directly with the IJM office here, meet the team, and dive into the work has been both fulfilling and overwhelming. The IJM Thailand team is mainly focused on fighting and preventing forced labor and labor trafficking. The most vulnerable population of workers are migrants, who come from the less politically stable surrounding countries, mainly Myanmar and Cambodia. Based on available estimates, there are 4.1MM migrant workers in Thailand, and based on IJM’s investigations, they believe that roughly 750,000 (17%) of these workers are experiencing violence and exploitation due to their status as migrants. IJM Thailand’s goal is to protect the entire migrant worker population, not just by investigating cases and rescuing individuals, but by working alongside the government and other NGOs to create system-wide change. The hope is that migrant workers can more easily and safely rely on the government because the crime of trafficking is deterred through successful implementation of the law.
The stories that we have heard from the casework team have been heavy- workers being kept in captivity, given little food and water, being forced to work up to 16 hours every day, and being threatened with violence if they do not comply. It is extremely difficult for IJM to find and rescue these workers, and even more difficult to prosecute and hold the perpetrators accountable. In a sense, this is exactly what we expected to encounter here, but it still comes as a shock being so close to the survivors, hearing the team talk about their casework, and looking at the monumental task of making sustainable change.
The entire office is extremely dedicated to their goal, but it can feel like the challenges are new each day. The creativity, hopefulness, and dedication of the Thailand team has made a huge impression on Alyssa and I. They are aware of how difficult the task ahead of them is, and are working on strategies which can span up to 10 years of work to get to their goal. They are extremely thoughtful in the way they plan, always thinking about the goal and how to get there, making sure they can maximize their impact, and ensuring they can measure and monitor programs to allow for course adjustment when needed.
God has been teaching us both the value of patience as we learn more about how we fit in. It can feel very difficult and painful to come into this workplace with so little experience in the NGO world. For both of us, it feels like our early days in our careers, where we made mistakes daily, and had to rely on the support of others for the majority of our work. We both have made some progress, but there is a TON to learn about how IJMs work happens.
Both Alyssa and I both want to deeply connect with Bangkok. Even though we are here for a short time, we want to be more than consumers or tourists, and to give something back. To this end, we have been endeavoring to learn as much as we can about the city and the people we get to surround ourselves with during our time here. We started working out of the IJM office, getting to know our co-workers, getting involved in our church, Evangelical Church of Bangkok (we have already joined a life group!), and we have recently started taking Thai lessons so that we can engage more in our neighborhood and with our friends at work.
Living in Bangkok is certainly an adventure- Buying our groceries at 7/11, experiencing the sudden, torrential rainstorms that feel like a switch flips on a faucet, wading ankle deep through flooded streets on our way back from getting coffee, eating unquestionably delicious food from street vendors, often not knowing what we are eating! We are both so grateful to be here, and God has been so good in His provision for us. We are thankful for all our partners in support and prayer in the US, and we hope you will continue to pray for us.
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Pray for safety in their investigations and rescue missions, for success in prosecuting perpetrators, and for wisdom and inspiration in their advocacy efforts.
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Pray for patience and peace in learning how to best help the team, for wisdom in navigating new cultures, both Thai and and non-profit work
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Alyssa and I are already feeling the struggle that the language barrier puts on being able to form deep relationships. It is difficult to share and get to know Thai people, which can be very isolating. Pray that we can learn ways to connect with people despite the language barrier
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Pray that God would open our ears to learn and understand.
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Pray that we would have a deeper connection to God through our time serving
