The GROW School drop off

Today was a school day for the GROW kids. We rousted ourselves bright and early so we could have the fun of dropping them off at school. We arrived at GROW by 6:50 and climbed aboard the bus with the kids. We listened to and sang along with upbeat, uplifting Christian music while we made the rounds.

The GROW kids get dropped at four destinations: The littlest kids, of course, hopped off (amongst much waving and fanfare) at the elementary school, a few middle-school kids were dropped off next, exiting to high-fives, and then a larger group of high schoolers hopped off the bus at the third stop and impressed us with their joyful waves as they stepped off the bus. They were as fun to send off as the little ones.

Interestingly, there were two teenage girls who were still on the bus. We drove quite a way out of town to a beautiful, large trade school where they attend. As it turns out, in Thailand, if students don’t want to attend university, they can choose to enter a three-year program while they are in high school that teaches a trade, so that they can go straight to getting a good job when they have completed the course. In this case, the two teenagers were learning all about marketing. So interesting!

Because we weren’t due to see the kids again until late afternoon, we spent a few hours checking out a couple of local sites. The one in the photo is called The White Temple. It’s not an active Buddhist temple so much as an architectural phenomenon. (It reminded several of us of a massive, intricate wedding cake.) It is filled with symbols of the various religions integrated with cultural icons. Visualize the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles juxtaposed next to various Buddhas. It made us happy that we set our sights on Jesus!

-Lisa McGuinness